Site Discussions
We live on a farm and had morning doves around for years. They seemed to have disappeared. We haven’t had any for 2 going on 3 years. We really miss their gentle cooing. Any thoughts on why they aren’t around.
From "The Secret Life of the Mourning Dove" »
This morning a juvenile raccoon visited my patio and checked out my Main Coon cat. They were close to being the same size and Max the cat wanted in now! Once in he growled and was tense. The raccoon went to the back yard and smoothly and effortlessly climbed 20 feet up a 100 foot fir tree.
Later a group of scolding crows caused me to see the raccoon half way up the tree where he was casually crossing on branches to a second, then a third tree.
From "Raccoons: It's All In The Hands" »
Out here along the Front range in Colorado EAB has become a huge problem - all because a firewood company thought it would be a good idea to bring a grapple load of ash from Missouri to Boulder County. Too bad, because green ash is a popular tree here and does well in this semiarid climate.
From "Emerald Ash Borers" »
This is my first time having mating doves, watching them build their nest, and now sitting on their 2 eggs. At first we were sad when moma bird left the first egg, but after reading your posts, now I understand she wasn’t going to incubate until the second egg came along.I have learned so much from everyone els’s posts, thank you all for sharing your stories. We’ve given her seeds and water, and she looks happy. She even let me sit out on the porch with her for a few minutes. They are so beautiful !
From "The Secret Life of the Mourning Dove" »
There are soil-injected and tree-trunk injected products. Rather than getting into the specifics of chemicals here I think it best to refer you to some expert literature such as this piece by extension professors from four states: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/documents/Multistate_EAB_Insecticide_Fact_Sheet.pdf
From "Emerald Ash Borers" »
In the article, it is stated that: “EAB can be checked by injecting insecticides into the soil every other year.” What type of insecticide is used? We have several beautiful old ash on our property we would love to be able to save. Thank you.
From "Emerald Ash Borers" »
Thanks for this article, Susan Shea, and for the ensuing discussion. I’m looking forward to reading updates on The Tick Project!
From "A Plague of Ticks: Scientists Search for Solutions" »
There is also some intangible “genetic memory” that compels us to seek certain places that speak to us - intangible qualities to the landscape which are hard to define. Places that seem somehow familiar even the first time we visit. What is that place-based energy? Feng shui or some distant tribal memory or affinity?
From "Roots" »
Glad you found a purpose for box elder…Some years ago, I spent part of a summer working for the state cutting them off of flood levees along the Susquehanna. I never knew the heartwood could be so intriguing. Also, great comments about secondary wood uses…couldn’t agree more. I’ll look into the stroller-forwarder combo. Wood is Wonderful.
From "Use It or Lose It" »
The reference to the pile of stones brings to mind a talk I heard last spring on the subject of ceremonial stone structures. A wikipedia reference talks about the subject here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceremonial_stone_landscape
From "Roots" »
Connecticut has been addling mute swan eggs for a number of years now. I live on the Mystic River and the swan population has decreased from nearly a hundred birds to one or two pair now. The river still shows the deprecation of vegetation from the past, but more mallards and black ducks are back in the river now. Canada geese are now more of a problem than the swan.
From "Mute Swans" »
For the past 16 years, I have eagerly looked forward to the return of the wood thrush to my suburban DC yard. He filled my days with his haunting and magical song. He has not returned this year. I am lonely and heartbroken.
From "The Disappearing Wood Thrush" »
Just ordered some Night Velvet Shiitake spawn to make use of Red Maple. This was because of a lecture on changing NE forests. Really for diversity. Would never cut my sugar maples. Also want to eradicate Norway Maple. Actually thought oyster mushrooms were more aggressive?
From "Red versus Sugar" »
Hi Susan,
I came across this video showing a group of otters rolling in the dirt under a tree. It was taken in Singapore. How would you explain their group behaviour? https://www.facebook.com/iJeffTan/videos/10156243303738607/
From "The Odor Side of Otters" »
I tried the check valve spouts a few years ago and didn’t find them to be noticeably effective. I have no reason not to trust in the official research on them, but I also haven’t heard many endorsements from other sugarmakers as of yet.
The one season I used them, I noticed that they often became contaminated with a tiny piece of woodchip from the taphole. The woodchip, or what I would describe more as a particle given that it was really small, would lodge in against the check valve ball and cause the ball to stick in place. Sap still was able to get out around the ball (thankfully), but it was also able to get back in the hole. Tapholes were drilled with a new bit and with appropriate care to make a clean hole.
When I pulled spouts at the end of the season, I found that sap in the droplines would often flow out the spout when it was hanging down after just being pulled. That made me look closer to see what was going on, and that’s when I noticed the tiny wood particles wedged against the balls.
100% clean tapholes would solve this issue, but that is hard to do given that it only takes a fragment of a woodchip to foul it up.
I have a few lines of 3/16 and like how they run, though I will probably continue to lower the tap count on the lines. I started with 25 taps, then down to 20, and still the taps lower on the line do not run as well as the upper most. Tim Wilmot recently described in an article that 5 tap runs out performed 15 tap lines, and that agrees with what I’ve seen visually. Mine tie into my existing system of pumped vacuum where most of the taps are on 5/16.
Haven’t had an issue yet with 3/16 lines getting plugged or gummed up.
Overall 2018 was a good year in terms of final production in our woods. It was a long one, though, and took a lot of days of short runs to get there. Thawed out around noon and frozen up by 8pm were how most days seemed to go.
Enjoy reading your dispatches, Dave, and the comments from others as well. Thanks.
From "Dispatch from the Sugarwoods, 2018 - Part 5" »
Dave—
We’ve been using a mixture of 3/16 and 5/16 in recent years and decided to convert everything to 3/16th this year with new drops all around.
I made a little gauge setup that I can use to check the vacuum at each tap hole (unplugging the stubby and plugging in the gauge) and often found vacuum greater than 20 lbs. So that part is amazing, though I also found neighboring lines, identical-seeming in every respect, with no vacuum. My guess is that I hammered too hard and split some holes.
We haven’t been rinsing lines at the end of the season, and my thought was that using check valves to minimize back wash would be cheaper than rinsing. I haven’t had any gumming up issues in the 3/16 so far, though only half of the laterals are more than a season old at this point.
Interested to hear what other people are experiencing with gumming up.
Chuck
From "Crow Communication is Cawfully Complicated" »