Well it was above 30 degrees for five days straight here and I didn't use the air conditioning once!
All it cost was a couple hundred bucks of insulation, a new staple gun and a few days of lying on my back with goggles and gloves on listening to Bill Bryson audiobooks and swearing in the Nasty Attic and wow, holy yikes what a difference that's made.
Pre-insulation you couldn't be upstairs after 2pm, it'd hit 40 degrees.
@ifixcoinops 🥥 I love this home cooling tip of yours, Dan.
I can say from experience that it really works here in southwestern #Oregon -- until a string of days that are triple-digit Fahrenheit (above 38 degrees centigrade). Then the outside air doesn't cool down enough to do much good.
Sound of sad trombone. 🥥
When the sun's out strong, I usually look for shade, and when there's solid dark shade for too long I venture out into the sun, but dapple? I can sit in a good dapple all day long.
M5.6 #earthquake about 110 km west of Eureka, #California at 11:44 PDT Sunday. Reports of shaking in Eureka but there is no #tsunami threat.
This region is a frequent earthquake producer as it is on the southern boundary of the Gorda Plate (sometimes referred to as the southern portion of the Juan de Fuca Plate) where it meets the Pacific Plate. This was not located on the subduction zone.
Pennsylvania and Kentucky have primaries for offices from ward commissioner and school board to governor (KY.) Philadelphia, PA and Jacksonville, FL have elections for mayor.
If you haven’t voted early and these elections are yours, please vote. It affects everyone. #Vote
Usually I go out New Year's morning to a wetland and start my year bird list out right, but this year, between work and getting back to running, it'll be a slower start. My #birdsof2023 list starts with a quick park walk this morning:
I should know by now, that whenever I'm on the fence about fitting a walk into my day, I should always take the walk. I was feeling lazy and almost skipped this one, which would have been a shame. Three of my favorite migrant songbirds that I hadn't seen yet this spring, including one, the evening grosbeak, that I'll never take for granted, given how they've declined over the past ten years.
I've spent a fair amount of time on the coast this spring, but almost none of it birding. Mostly work, farm upkeep and this weekend, hiding from the heat. In addition to these four, I think I saw my first Pileated Woodpecker of the year, but I'm not sure enough to add it to the list.
Two new additions from the coast range today, including one I assumed I had already listed. Side note prompted by goldfinches: I hate bird common names with "lesser" almost as much as "least". Back in my biologist days I used to work with so-called Least Auklets, which aren't the least anything. They're the best. Not as important as changing the ones named after colonist dudes, but still.
#ClimateChange is terrible for low-lying swampland, especially under a governor doing his best Generalissimo Franco impressions. But the climate keeps warming the now-balmy #PacificNorthwest!
We have tourism, great food... no, superb food, lots of coffee, plenty of locals, no sales tax, low property values compared with our neighbors to the north and south and a real-life human governor! 😁
Spring is turning into summer here in Corvallis, Oregon, and that means nighthawks in the sky, a changing cast of wildflowers and the last few OSU science talks of the year. Plus volunteer opportunities to help clean up trails and a very cool documentary on sound at the Darkside:
If you're in #Oregon and can shift heavy appliance use to nighttime, by all means join PGE's Time Of Day program. They charge a WHOPPING amount in the peak hours, but the other hours are thus far so cheap they have saved me about $11/month off the bill for many months since I got on the program. I think my second month might have been $1 in savings and I had one that was like $38. It adds up. Save some $, help the utility and give it a shot if you can! #PGE
It's nice watching #softball on TV. Played at the pace #baseball was once played at, batters get time to recover after being hit and pitchers get sufficient time between pitches to help avoid repetitive motion injuries that cut short careers. No fans leave or complain games are too long. They had a 40-minute top of the 5th in the #Oregon - #Arkansas game and not one person stomped their feet in disgust it wasn't completed in 10.
Malheur county in eastern Oregon badly needs jobs and investment. Two Nevada gold mining companies have been working for years to build Oregon's first chemical process mine south of Vale, promising over 200 high paying jobs. But between cyanide contamination, rock dust and water use, environmentalists have a long list of concerns.
Met a friend about 5 minutes walk from my front door today. We get a lot of garter snakes, but this is the first big noodle I've seen here since I moved in. Hard to tell from the photo, but it's about 3 and a half feet long. I played crossing guard and watched for traffic while it crossed the street. What a beauty.
I love plants. I love trees. But for about two weeks a year, one particular tree, our beautiful native black cottonwood, tries its absolute best to murder me. Even before I saw it start to fall, like allergenic snow, I felt the effects in my nose. #Oregon#AllergySeason
Made it up to the viewpoint on Larch Mountain for this first time this year. The ascent was just over 4000 feet if elevation over 7 miles and 3 hours. While the snow cooperated, the clouds unfortunately did not. I saw the tip of Mount Hood poking out of the clouds and could barely make out St Helens in the distance. The rest were hiding. The snow has mostly melted with some snow fields above 3500 feet.
Even when living directly in the middle of an Old Growth Doug Fir forest (yea!) in #Oregon, this allergy year has been one of the best ever.
Until yesterday, when the Cottonwoods started spewing their cotton balls of seed/pollen. Looks like light snow falling. My ass has been kicked for 48 hours now. Mild runny nose and watery eyes but mainly extreme fatigue. Tried some yard work, legs felt like they were dragging around 20# weights. Grrrrr
Hiked up Elk Mountain this morning to do a loop hike, returning on the Elk Creek trail. The Elk Mountain trail climbs straight up the mountain, ascending 2000 feet of elevation in the first 1.5 miles. The summit was in a cloud so no views at the top. Still enjoyed it. Was passed by a trail runner who I saw yesterday in the gorge.