Stream hunting with Mom

Home for the holidays. Nothing says "Christmas" quite like surveying storm damage along the banks of the Connecticut River with family. 

Moss grows on a wooden bridge

Connecticut and New England in general have seen a lot of action this year. In June there was a large tornado outbreak, which is unusual for this relatively forested part of the country. In Sturbridge (a town for its living history museum where people live and work as they did in the 1800s), we saw a large old tree split vertically through its trunk down to the ground (the Town Tree Warden has more info).

My favorite gift was a camouflaged hunter's cap to keep me warm. Is it working? Can you spot me in this picture? (Connecticut River south of Hartford in background) 

Then in late August there was Hurricane Irene, again unusual for a Hurricane to come this far north. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power in Connecticut, alone, for several days. 

Small bridge washed off supports during floods

Then a freak early snowstorm in October caused widespread tree damage. Nearly everywhere we've gone, we've seen large branches broken from the tops of trees. It has been hard to clean everything up, especially when there's debates about who should pay for the damage. When the runoff came up, hundreds of ready-to-harvest Halloween pumpkins floated out of neighboring fields and into my mom's back yard. 

Damaged fences from fallen trees.