balmy

 Temperatures near 70 over the weekend. It has been quite some time since we have had any significant rain. Fire warnings have been posted due to the low humidity and the dry conditions.

One of the important signs of spring for the true believers, in this case the Kahle/Mason clan, is the Masters golf championship which finished up yesterday. It take place at the same time every year, early in the month of April, and I have been following it all my life. I remember so many afternoons, watching the action from Augusta National, from my couch, looking outside, and seeing snow piled up as far as the eye could see. There wasn't much difference here on the other side of the creek between snow cover in April and January. While we still can have snow in April, just ask my son-in-law Andy, snow covered Aprils seemingly are a thing of the past. We haven't had snow on the ground for a month.

I spoke with Nathan Hewitt the other day. He taps the trees on our place as part of his maple sugaring operation. I asked him how he did this year. He said that they yielded about a third less than normal. He said they didn't have the proper mix of warm days and cold nights. It was either warm days and nights, or cold days and nights. I understand from botanists within the state that most shrubs and trees are stressed these days, and it is because there just isn't as much snow as there used to be. In the short term, it's wonderful to have such balmy conditions this time of year, but in the long term it's very troubling.