Good morning everyone!
It is a gorgeous though rainy morning here in the Catskills with warmer temperatures (66°F this morning!) and rainy. Our new weather instrument, the rain gauge, has not accused any levels of significant precipitation however during the last hour (from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m.). We call this type of accumulation a “trace”. We are very excited to use it for the first time though since we got it in August!
Winston and I think it is wet, though. I do NOT like to get wet, so when I feel the water starting to hit me, I freeze. (Weirdly enough, I like baths better than Winston does – I’m a very good boy when it comes to staying in the bathtub. Winston, at half my size, is a bigger challenge!)
Today we inspected the property for our resident monarchs and milkweed. We’ve been doing a lot of research on monarch butterflies because we are interested in bringing these to school, but we want to do it in the most ecologically correct manner. We are going to collect the butterflies today as their only milkweed is running out of leaves, and we are interested in saving other milkweeds that are in our field by transplanting them, so they don’t get mowed over. The idea is to eventually create a butterfly garden, but we’ll let Winston talk about that on Saturday.
We think that seeing the monarchs develop into their chrysalis and then butterflies will help young children appreciate and preserve nature, so in our mind we are “helping” in one way (and of course releasing the butterflies). We are however leaving the caterpillars the longest time possible in nature and only collecting them at the very end of their cycle. Stay tuned for Saturday’s post to read how we are going about this project and what you can do to help!
Hurricane Dorian is now a Category 5 hurricane and it has made landfall three times in the Bahamas. Just a side note on hurricanes – there have been 35 Category 5 hurricanes in recorded history (since 1924). Four of them have formed since 2017. Dorian is now tied for the second strongest winds at 185 mph, behind Hurricane Allen. It has the strongest winds that have made landfall in the Bahamas and is tied for the strongest winds to make landfall, ever (tied with none other but Labor Day hurricane, of 1935!).
It is still moving very slowly, which is more reason to believe that it will continue to have strong winds and dump lots of water on its path.
Meanwhile, our rain is not hurricane related, but caused by a warm front that moved across the US and met with a cold front coming from Canada. We can expect today to be rainy, and then for the temperatures to drop as another cold front is coming down from Canada.
It will be interesting to see how a high-pressure system to the East of Dorian and a cold front to the NW will affect its trajectory.
Enjoy your Labor Day everyone!
Love,
Mack
These beefsteak tomatoes are doing very well. Our chamomiles flowers are pretty showy too, although they tucked their petals in for the night in this picture.
Make sure you, your humans, and your plants stay hydrated! It sure is dry out there! I can feel my paws starting to shrivel and crack under the Sun. More humidity is probably coming in tonight ahead of the cold front, but it’s not enough to substitute a proper hydration. Drink lots of water, folks!
Today we went raspberry hunting and we found plenty that were ready to be eaten! Our blogging human took her time gobbling these tasty snacks, but then showed some considerable self-restraint and foraged some for non-blogging human’s breakfast (that’s saying a lot because it is her favorite berry!). He did make the nature trails, after all, so he deserves some morning treats.
Well, it may be raining, but my humans have a lot of work to do! Word is that another bedroom will get floored and painted soon!
Mack
Winston
The Earth Tribune 