De Moss on de Roof

A rolling stone gathers no moss … what about the north side of a roof under a cover of trees. I'd say Lin's roof has gathered its share of moss and maybe a little extra. It was driving her crazy and she was looking for ways to get rid of it.

Moss (or anything else) growing on your roof is probably not a good thing. Moss does not require standing water, just a bit of moisture. Asphalt shingles don't completely "shed" water . Due to surface tension, a certain amount remains. Normally the minimal amount that remains will evaporate rather quickly, but because this roof is shaded and under cover of trees, it provided a good, healthy environment for moss to grow … especially on the north side. Once moss had started to grow the amount of moisture retained increases. Moss does require nutrients, of course, but most roofs develop a film of organic material that helps to feed the moss. Tree debris on the roof helps this process as well. The moss can work its way under shingles and eventually cause problems like leaks, for instance. No, thank you. Call in the moss patrol. She needed Moss-Busters … bad!

Lin's friend, Terry, came to the rescue. We watched him haul the ladder into place, connect up the power washer and clamber up the ladder like he knew what he was doing. After watching him for the awhile, we busied ourselves with small indoor chores (and a game of cribbage). We went outside occasionally to check his slow, but steady progress. Seeing him perched tenuously on the roof peak only made us nervous. We played another game of cribbage to calm our nerves.

A full day's effort and the roof still wasn't done. It took another full day to complete the de-mossing procedure, but it looks great and very moss-less.

While checking out websites for getting rid of green roof moss, I found one website that sells green roof moss, so you can attach it to your roof. The website touts “Mosses can add uniquely appealing colors and textures to green roof projects”. Lin could have made her fortune! Who knew?

Pollen...Ah-choo!

I looked out the window the other night and I had to look twice. It looked as though it was snowing. I put on the porch light and sure enough, a fine shower of “something” was coming down at a steady pace and accumulating on the ground … except it wasn't white, it was yellow. It was a pollen blizzard.  

In my sister's thickly wooded lot, in late May and early June each year, for a few weeks, the local pine trees shower everyone and everything with their pollen. It's a male thing … by the way. Pine cones are male and female. The males produce all the mess. The pollen produced by male cones is carried to female cones by the wind. This male sexual overture obviously works pretty well as pine fossil records have been documented from the Carboniferous period, about 300 million years ago. Like many wind pollinated species, these male pines produce large quantities of pollen in hopes that they'll be successful in meeting up with girl pines and making babies. I personally think these guys go a bit overboard considering the layer of pollen on the car, deck, windows and the yellow haze in the air.

I read that this pollen is actually not responsible for as many allergies as people think, but judging from my red eyes, runny nose and frequent mind-jarring sneezes, I'm thinking pine pollen might be more responsible than pine-lovers would like to admit.

Pine pollen powder has been used extensively in traditional cultures throughout Asia for centuries. It's revered as one of the top anti-aging herbs available. People go out and pay good money for it. Hmmm … perhaps they'd like some for free in my sister's backyard. Bring a broom and a shovel.

I wrote this blog a week or so ago and didn't post it and the pollen in the air has subsided. In its place, tiny, tiny pine pollen seeds by the thousands. Pine needles and sap will come next. There is no respite.

A Chipmunk in the Woodpile

 

I was sitting at Lin's kitchen bar, my usual place to set up my computer and hang out when I'm staying with her. It's near a bay window and I get to daydream, I mean “muse”, while I'm trying to find some inspiration for writing. The windows are all open now and I could hear a distinct chirping sound outside. I looked out, but I couldn't identify the source of the chirp.

The sound continued. I looked more closely. Still nothing. More chirping ... maybe it was clicking ... or was it chattering? not a bird … a squirrel, maybe? Then I spotted some movement in the woodpile. A chipmunk, well camouflaged, sat nestled in the midst of the chopped wood. I tiptoed out the back door and let the door close ever so quietly while I wielded my camera around the corner. Snap! Snap! Snap! I got him, the little rascal.

Actually, I wasn't sure if it was a chipmunk or a ground squirrel. I had to look up the difference on the internet; they're often confused because they look so much alike. First of all, there are 25 species of chipmunks in the world and 24 of them live in North America. This is definitely an Eastern chipmunk. They do favor wood piles, for one thing. This guy's coloring is very distinctive ... five well-defined dark stripes down his back.

A little trivia about this particular species. It has two fewer teeth than other chipmunks and four toes each on the front legs, but five on the hind legs. I don't feel so confused about describing his chipmunk sound now. I read that they have several bird-like or chattering calls; one is a trill at the rate of 130 vibrations per minute and another is a lower-pitched, clicking sound. Like other chipmunks, he transports food in his cheek pouches. He also uses those cheek pouches to transport dirt out of his burrow.

Chipmunks are solitary critters except at mating time. They live in burrows and we think that though this guy hangs out near the woodpile, he actually lives near Lin's front step in a nest under a low clapboard which happens to be bulging out at the moment.

I've seen him twice more since that first chance viewing the other day. His chatter gives him away. This morning he was sitting on the stone retaining wall just outside my window. Remember Chip and Dale, the Disney chipmunks? I couldn't help think of them when I saw this little guy chattering away and then scurrying under the cover of the shrubs when he heard my footfall.