Site Discussions

Hi. I emptied sap from some vintage buckets someone lent me. One bucket that had sat for awhile had transparent slightly flaky film on the surface. Is this lead? I didnt want to dump it but I dont want to poison my family either.

Great article, just what I wanted to find.

I don’t have TV so I don’t have the advantage of having seen this gal on North Woods Law, but I live in the North Woods of Maine and this is an awesome article to read about an awesome gal.  Thanks for sharing this, and Heidi Murphy, you rock!

When do you start TSI in the patch cut? In the stand leveled in 1998, Leak and Yamasaki stood with author Dobbs in “a pleasant grove of young hardwoods.” So, the grove had 20 or so years to become established, at what point do you step in and start thinning?

It is April 2nd 2020 I have just walked past several Ash (Fraxinous excelsiour) that are bursting into leaf. These are mature field boundary trees which last year did not come into leaf until early June. No other trees in the area are coming into leaf. Some of the hedge plants especially hawthorn are just beginning to show. As we are suffering widely in this area from Ash dieback I am interested if any one has an explanation for this early growth.

Thank you so much for the information on chickadee “language”. So many times I wish I had known what their chattering meant. One of the more endearing “talkers” of the bird world. They top my list of favorites!

Thank you for posting this wonderful resource!  Keep up the good work.

I’m from Vermont but enjoyed hearing frogs from my hometown. They are amazing with their different calls. I know that when our ecosystem gets messed up it will show up in frogs.. Thanks for reminding me of the sounds I miss so much.

Just made a skidding cone out of a barrel as well but did some cutting to give it a better angle to slide over roots and such.

How wonderful to see “db” featured here! I was a Sterling student from 91-93 and was incredibly fortunate to have learned many skills from Dave, and Ann too. I’ll never forget how we’d hike into camp during Winter Expedition and Dave would be sitting nonchalantly up against a freshly split stack of firewood, smoking a pipe by the fire, with legs crossed. He would have covered a lot of ground when the rest of us were slogging along with our frame packs stuffed with tarps, food, cookset, and bedding (no cookstoves or tents were allowed). Dave made it all look so easy. A class act, and just a tremendously kind and gracious individual. Thank you NW and db!

As a young boy in the 60s we looked for pearls too. I remember where there used to be a good bed of mussels. I’ve eve got a scar to prove it as my buddy threw a mussel to me and the lip of the mussel cut my finger open! No pearls were ever found. You used to find shells along the shore and in the riverbed itself. I thought it was the raccoons that were eating them.

Great article on Dave.  Was lucky enough to meet him in his environment, taste his pizza, try my hand at working a cherry bowl on his lathe, fish alongside, and see and hear about some of his canoe adventures.  He is one of the great outdoorsmen and a great example of what one man can do if he puts his mind to it along with a partner who enjoyed doing much of it with him.  Keep it going STRONG Dave!!!  Steve

Great article, thanks for all the useful information.

To @Andrew, I’ve also seen burls that have grown around insects, and the burl itself was a crumbly mess. It was in an English walnut tree, I believe, and the nsrct was some sort of large, pale-colored grub that I never even knew we had around here.

I had also thought of using resin to hold the burl together, but it basically disintegrated in my hands.

In case you’ve never heard of the process, look up a technique known as “stabilization”, which uses a vacuum to allow thoroughly dedicated material to wick water-thin epoxy into itself. Once the epoxy cures, the material can be turned, cut, drilled, chiseled, and even polished to a mirror finish. Stabilization also renders the material basically impervious to the expansion and contraction normally caused by environmental factors, like getting it wet, or too hot.

This technique has seen much use as of late for creating knife scales (handles), fountain pen barrels, and plenty of other stuff. Somr of my favorite examples are knife scales made from corn cobs, and also pine cones.

I have a box full of flower petals from my daughter’s wedding that I plan on turning into something special some day soon, most likely using a fairly-easily home-made vacuum chamber, and a brake bleeding hand pump, or my buddy’s actual vacuum pump.

Grew up in the Mohawk Valley. Visited the ADK MUSEUM a few years ago and learned about these men called hermits. I became fascinated with this history. Noah being my favorite. My sister-in-law grew up in Ti and now lives on LG. When visiting her I look for more info on “hermit history”. Thank You

When leaves start maturing they begin making additional pigments. Some of these molecules can give leaves the yellow and red colors you see in the fall.

Anyone know why a one year old female deer is suddenly not with her mother and brother?  They come through everyday, and were all here 3 days ago, but for the last 2 days the female 1 yr old deer is gone (and she’s always with them).
Did she run off with a male deer, or on her own…or did she die?  How could that happen suddenly (broken leg, coyote,etc?) It’s the not knowing that is hard.  She was our favorite, with loads of personality, unlike an average deer!

My 8 year-old daughter just discovered these all over one of our trees. We searched the internet and found this site with a great explanation! Thanks for the interesting facts. As we are currently at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was a great science lesson! Thank you!

I have a small causeway connected island off Nova Scotia and have spent much time observing and learning from the fox family who resides there. There are usually two kits (a male and a female) and it is always traumatic for me when the little boy leaves in late fall.  Fortunately the female stays another year.

What a wonderful story. I have been lucky enough to have spied a pair of pileated woodpeckers in my neighborhood. I love watching their flight pattern and of course their tropical like calls. Love these birds.

Your articles are wonderful.  We live on the edge of approximately 500 acres of conservation land.  Lots to listen to at night.  It’s an amazing conversation - sometimes between the owls -sometimes its the coyotes.
Thank you for all your articles