Heavy rains, humidity, and the dilemma of whether to open the windows

The heavy rains of the past few days have really invigorated the forest. Everything is now looking a lot greener than it did even at the end of last week. That's a good thing.

Of course, keeping the inside of the cabin cool during these warmer days is made difficult by all the additional humidity that all the rain and increased transpiration rates imply. The other day, I opened up the windows to let the inside of the cabin cool off, only to wake up in the morning with ~90% humidity inside, and everything quite damp. Close the windows then, and turn on the dehumidifier. By the time the humidity returned to a far more comfortable 60%, the temperature had risen back to where it was before I opened the windows.

Therefore, like every summer, it's a choice between cool and damp or warm and drier. Yes, it's nice to be cool, but not at the cost of having damp, mildew and mold set in. Having grown up in a humid climate, I know all to well what damp can do to mold growth, and what mold growth can do to furniture, coverings, clothes, walls, carpeting, etc.

Still, when the cabin is all closed up, thanks to the shading of the trees all around, the internal temperature doesn't rise that much during the day, so even when the outside temperature rises from 65F to 80F during the course of the day, the inside of the cabin might only rise a couple or three degrees.

Having an air conditioner would be nice, but it is also unnecessary so long as the trees continue to shade the cabin during the summer.

Fireflies out

Last night, I saw one winking firefly on the sumac. Summer is here.

Cleared massive fallen tree branch

Yesterday, there were bands of storms working their way across Michigan (and much of the Midwest). Yesterday, too, there was an Elderwise event: "Walk in the Woods," led by professor emeritus, Chuck Olson. Luckily, they didn't get rained out, but there was apparently a near miss:

The thunder shower that came through about 12:20-12:40 was over by the time we started. While we had a brief shower, later, most of the wet stuff was dripping of the trees. When we walked around the lake, I was surprised at the amount of windfall I saw, and especially by the very recent tree that dropped across the path just befoer we got to the side path to the board walk. We got around it (actually over it) and finished our walk without any real difficulty.

I went out there this morning and took care of the MASSIVE fallen branch.

BEFORE, there was a massive branch across the path, making it rather difficult to walk that route:


AFTER, apart from some debris and dug-up earth, the pathway is now clear:


I'm gonna miss this kind of work, even though I probably sweat several pints in the process. It's good, honest, physical labor, and it feels great.