My rain gage got it's first test the other day. We got a nice 1 7/10" of rain in there. The water line is just barely visible under the bottom holder bracket.

And yes BillyBob in Kansas, your rain gage is metric because it measures in tenths of an inch. So take that! You commie pinkos in California!

As a side note: We got a light frost last night. It got down to 31F/-1C at some point last night. Not a hard enough frost to kill the bell pepper plants outright, but it did singe and tip the leaves a bit this morning.

A fine bunch of nice fat carrots! Growing decent carrots has been a bane in my "farming" career. Always spindly with tiny roots. Not this time!

My name is Bluewing and I have done this! (finally)

While I'm fairly certain the lake I live next to will prevent freezing, to it's best ability for a while yet, you never can tell. But it's only a matter of another week or so before the firt killing frost around here.

Fortunately, my "farm" is pretty much done for the year anyway. Just some late bell peppers I need to cover and maybe the carrots. The tomatoes and chillies have been done for a week or so now. The deer ate the beets and the string beans have been pillaged now too.

It's now time to to go grouse hunting and put a few birds in the freezer for the long winter. I might even head south to add a couple of pheasants to the list. I know my dog would be extra happy to make a trip or two to see if them roosters can run. So we will see how my recently repaired knee holds up.

****Gratuitous photo of one of the Monarchs resting in my yard this past week

Edit to add: The local morning temperature as recorded by my tiny little "not really a weather station" was 33F/1C. So not quite a true frost. The temp currently stands at 50F/13C with an 80% chance of rain this afternoon and evening.

After hemming and hawing for that last couple of months after my trusty old glass rain gage shattered in a very heavy thunderstorm, I finally got a new one ordered and installed to replace it. As befitting an old fart Grandpa that wears bifocals, it's got Ezy read numbers. (and for those in LA, yes it measures inches).

In a bit of deja vu, we are again expecting another round of severe weather with heavy rain and possible 70mph/110kmh winds or tornados late this afternoon and night time.

I'm printing some change gears to check the fitment of the gear train on a banjo. I have been fighting with this particular brand of PETG trying to get a clean and accurate print since last week.

Notice on the 2 20T gears the poor bores and under extruded 5 layer top surface. They were printed with a hardened .40mm nozzle on a Bambu A1 Mini. They do NOT fit the spindles on the banjo at all.

Now look at the larger 80T gear. Clean teeth and bore with proper flow rate on the top surface. (Yes the infill is showing a bit due to the mere 3 top and bottom layers I printed it with to save on filament). This gear fits as it should right off the plate.

Same exact filament, same printer, same exact slicer setting. Just a hardened .60mm nozzle swapped for the hardened .40mm nozzle. And dried to 14%Rh for days and I printed directly for the dryer.

Soooo much time and filament wasted calibrating and recalibrating for that .40mm nozzle and it still failed. All I needed was the .60mm nozzle. But, still a new and interesting phenomenon to learn from for me.

I put put dots on all my mice this morning. They all slide they are running on air bearings!

Shaking the mouse in KDE has never been easier!

It's 67F and 90% humidity outside. I love that it's not 70F, but I can do without the humidity. My old bones are very unhappy about it. Old arthritis is really making his presence known today.

About all I have to do today is to wash and slice up the 2 bell peppers I picked this morning and vacuum pack them for the winter. Which is probably for the best. Since I have a very strict "No Working on Sundays" rule.

With the meteorological fall a mere two weeks away, I thought I would share a maple leaf from one of the ones growing in my yard as a reminder the cold winds and long dark nights are nearing for those of us in the northern hemisphere.

Here in the far northern reaches of Minnesota, the next month's forecast holds early September frosts for us. Though they are long range forecasting a warmer winter this year. A bit easier than the many days of -0F we had last year I hope. My old bones can feel the season's change coming.

My dogs can already smell the fall days afield in pursuit of a ruffed grouse or two. And maybe a sharptail or two also if my repaired knee is up to that.

We had a fun storm last night. An estimated 60mph/100kph straight line winds and heavy rain. It was amazing just how much you notice a wind storm like that even in the middle of the forest. The rain was nearly horizontal coming through the yard. Even though it rained like a cow pissin' on a flat rock, I have no idea of what the rainfall was. Because you don’t get much rain in the guage when it’s nearly horizontal.

Anyway, the power was also out from about 6:30ish pm to 4am this morning. But the boys from our electric co-op (all 6 of them) must have busted their balls all night to get things running again.

And now there is a heat advisory for today and tomorrow. Highs in the mid 80s and the wet bulb is at 80. The AC is going to get a real workout today.

Believe it or not, there is a mile long island a half mile away, and it cannot be seen due to forest fire smoke. The Air Quality index is currently at 1650. It is considered unsafe for anyone to be outdoors now. And I can even smell the smoke inside the house now. There are no birbs flying around the yard and not even insects are in the air.

Usually, we can blame forest fire smoke on Canada, I do live quite close to the border. But this year, it's our own forests that are on fire. I'm about 150 miles west of the fires and the smoke caught up with us yesterday and has just gotten worse and will remain so until the fires are put out I think.

Kind of makes me glad I'm waiting on knee surgery next week and can't walk well enough to be out and about wandering the forest.

The yellow and white clover, along with the odd wild daisy, are blooming in my yard! So no mowing for another week or two.

I can sit in Grandma's Hootch and drink tea while looking at pretty flowers and the lake. It reminds me of a little mountain valley.

All the while knowing that in 10 or twelve weeks it will all be covered in snow again.

The beet crop is growing nicely. But we remain vigilant against the deer. Despite their best efforts, the string beans are holding their front. And have been reported as growing back. I have 7 nice peppers and some tiny tomatoes are appearing.

There has been ongoing discussions about investing in a paintball gun to repel the bandits. Scouting, has reported that 2 fawns have been sighted and added to the gang. But no firm consensus been reached or decision made by upper management. We may need to wait for the inevitable assault on the flowers. By then I fear it will be too late.

Report from the Northern front July 1 2026