Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

 It is an early winter in the North Country of New Hampshire. Today is a relatively warm (34 degrees) day, and the ground is covered with a few inches of snow . There is limited sun , but overall, it is a "blue bird" day up here. The road I walk is plowed , but a layer of snow is maintained to please the snowmobile crowd . The first part of the walk is a steep climb , so metal cleats and walking sticks are almost a necessity for a guy approaching 82 years of age. I discard sunglasses for the walk since limited sunlight into the eyes is a good thing for positive brain chemistry and therefore, better sleep patterns . Coyote tracks in the snow are everywhere, revealing the increase in their numbers, although they are rarely seen up here - b eing mostly nocturnal and wanting no part of humans. There is an open hunting season, year round for them in New Hampshire, and no bag limit.  I walk year round for pleasure and recreation , but also for weight management and cardiovas...

 At age 81, one of the chores I can still do is tree removal, but I leave the bigger trees to the pros . The guy I rely on is Brad Montague, head honcho of Brad's Tree Service . Brad and his crew have removed roughly 40 trees from our lot in Errol, New Hampshire over a period of 25 years, and the above video is from their recent last visit . As always, the 3-man crew worked fast and effectively . I was mesmerized when that first tree went into the shredder. That machine literally "ate" the entire tree in seconds. Loggers up north will tell you they "work in the woods" . Montague will stress that he is not a logger (in the strict sense) - he usually doesn't work in the deep woods - but he knows his craft and does it well. I will also add that his cleanup is flawless .

 I have spent a lot of time in the very-northern tip of New Hampshire over the past 50 years , and it has been common to see trees changing color starting in mid-August , just about the time blueberries are ripening all over the landscape. But this year, I have been picking blueberries for a week now , and it is only mid-July . And now this! Photo by Linda Lane Yes, that is Fall-like color in that tree by the river that borders my property. A fluke? Maybe, but I will be checking other hardwood trees for similar changes. My acqaintences know that Autumn is my favorite season - warm days, cool nights, little rain, very few bugs. But mid-July might be pushing things a bit . 

If you drive in northern New England, you have seen the signs .  "BRAKE FOR MOOSE. IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE." Moose/car collision a few miles from author's home As first a visitor to northern New Hampshire and Maine in the 1950s - and a permanent resident for the past 25 years - I have had numerous encounters with moose . Simply slowing down when you see a moose on the road may not be enough to avoid a collision.  When you spot a moose on the roadway, they are often motionless. But a driver can not assume they will remain that way. My experience has been that they often bolt directly into your path to get back into the woods.  Expect that to happen . Slow down to a crawl and proceed as though the huge animal is bent on its own destruction . Come to a complete stop, if necessary . Never assume they will remain in "statue mode".  It is now mid-April, and the moose are on the move . A collision with one often means the animal crashes through the windshield and ...

 The 1,200-mile trip back to the Great North Woods after three months on the beach in South Carolina was uneventful except for the smoke-filled skies in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley - caused by raging forest fires. But our main worry involved the t wo feet of snow expected in the north country of New Hampshire the day before our arrival back home . We had no idea what to expect when we approached our house. Here's what we found! Photo by Gayle Lord Two of our friends, Brad Montague and Tammy Crawford , were there and had waded through the deep, heavy snow to shovel out our front entrance, and shortly thereafter, two other friends, Josh and Gayle Lord , had attempted to plow the driveway, but the thick snowpack was too much for the plow truck, and it became mired in the snowbank. Not to worry. Nothing gets in the way of the folks in the North Woods . Butch Lane (no relation) from JML Trucking came to the rescue with his huge front-end loader - pulled out the plow truck and q...

  Living in the North Woods offers many opportunities for pleasant outdoor recreation, but sometimes things can get a bit testy. This was one such occurrence. Moose in our driveway, Northern NH My wife, Linda, and I were out for a walk along interstate highway route 26, and I should mention here that route 26 can not be compared with route 495 in Massachusetts, but it is a 2-lane highway. We were not far from our house when we heard the most God-awful bellowing and crashing in the trees beside the highway. We both knew what it was, and I immediately looked for a way out of the impending disaster. I was carrying my Colt .45 ACP pistol but that would be a last resort - and might not stop the animal right away anyway. Then she appeared, and she was pissed. It was a cow moose and the ears were back, and the hackles along the neck and back were up - and she was coming for us. I can only think after the fact that she had a calf nearby and felt we were a threat. I kept facing her as we ba...

  It is the morning of December 4, 2023 in The Great North Woods of New Hampshire – it is snowing hard – there is a foot-and-a-half of white stuff on the ground – and the power just went out. Time to get to work. The Jotul   wood stove in the basement had already been spewing heat before the power outage. The heat comes up the stairs to the first and second floors, but that won’t be enough. Out comes the small, portable propane heater that runs off one-pound bottles of gas. It is light – easy to use – and warms the kitchen perfectly. No word from Eversource as to when power will return, so the outdoor wood pile beckons. But first comes some shoveling of the front stairs, the snow-bound car, the bulkhead and a partial (more on the in a minute) path to the woodpile. At close-to-eighty years old and six weeks after major surgery, this isn’t easy. Thus a “partial” path to the cut-and-split wood has to suffice. Than it was wading through hip-deep snow and returning to the b...

 This morning marks the fourth day in the search for missing hiker, Emily Sotelo, and it is likely that this has now become a search-and-recovery mission. Seemingly unprepared to withstand the rigors presented by frigid temperatrures and high winds in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire the day she went missing (Sunday, November 20, 2022), it is doubtful the 19-year-old lady could have survived. If she was indeed hiking in the area indicated by her mom, there is a high probability that her renains may never be found. Flash back to the summer of 2013 when 66-year-old, Geraldine Largay of Brentwood, Tennessee , was reported missing while hiking the Appalachian Trail south of Rangeley Maine. Geraldine Largay A massive search including roughly 130 prople over a 10-day period, turned up nothing. It wasn't until more than two years later that a forester found her remains approximately 3,000 yards from the trail. No foul play was suspected. Why was Geraldine not found sooner? My wife, Linda, ...

 How the Hell did this happen? Two days after 19-year-old Emily Sotelo was supposedly dropped off in Franconia Notch (NH) at roughly 5:00 AM ET, Sunday, November 20, 2022 by her mother, to hike several mountains alone, the search continues for the young lady. Photo by Linda Lane The information from news agencies indicated that Emily started hiking the trails while it was still dark. She was supposedly wearing only sneakers, a coat and workout pants. I can persona;ly attest that the weather in the area was very cold with high wind speeds, and gaining elevation on the trails would only add to the horrendous conditions. Ms. Sotelo was reportedly a seasoned hiker, but had little or no experience hiking in winter. At the peaks, temperatures on that Sunday dropped to zero degrees with a wind chill of minus-30 degrees. It is beyond my comprehension to imagine a hiker-of-experience tackling that kind of travel - in extreme weather - with only basic clothes and few (or no) supplies. I have...