Site Discussions

I must mention “The Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv, 2006. The idea of “nature-deficit disorder”- and its obvious cure - is steadily gaining credibility among professionals of all stripes.  One of my daughters said she and her siblings “were raised like little wolves.” I don’t know if that referred more to venison in their diet or playing outdoors until their boots were filled with snow. They grew into admirable adults with strong environmental ethics.

Thanks for a fun read that made me smile. I needed that. No longer do I feel alone.

I love it. You are so right. Thank you.

I think this is the crux of the matter:

(Dave wrote) “In the same way that most chainsaw accidents happen when you lose your fear of it, not when you first pick up the saw, many of the elements in the story – from the bad shooting to the not bringing a good compass – happen after you’ve had enough success to think you’re too good for any of this.”

Yes, yes, and yes.

One of the most alarming moments I had in my life was when living in metro Connecticut and working as an office temp in a mega insurance company. In snowy weather, I bundled up in my parka and boots, trudged out to the car (which wore 4 snow tires), dug it out, warmed it up, slipped and slewed 20 backroad miles to work, and parked in an underground garage, then hiked into the building protected. Woo-hoo! Luxury! My boss, meanwhile, walked directly from her home into her garage, hit the automatic opener for her garage door and backed out (on 4 “all season” tires), had a slippy, slushy ride to work on the highway, parked in the same underground garage, and entered the building in her sidewalk flats, whining about the weather and dissing me for arriving a few minutes late. The gulf between our realities was so profound I couldn’t speak. Now, 30+ years later, I live on a dirt road in backcountry Vermont, and this gulf between realities is even wider.

Wholly agree with the author’s sentiment. The ‘news’ is big business, and some will use fear to sell it. As consumers, we should challenge the self-proclaimed experts. Alternately, one might find entertainment in watching the reporter get swept off the sea wall just after they instruct their audience to ‘shelter in place’.

Hear, hear—to listen to the TV weather people, just opening your door is to risk instantly flash freezing into a solid mass. As someone once said, “There’s no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.” We frequently see kids come out of their houses in the worst winter weather wearing T-shirts and shorts to scurry to the school bus. What were their parents thinking—are they capable of thinking?

As usual, another great editorial.  Thanks for urging folk to get their kids outside more, even when it’s cold.

Nice images of your own family outings.

Childless, adoptive grandfather of two,
Hubey

While I agree that we shouldn’t avoid the cold (I’m starting to feel stir crazy myself), by warning parents of babies and other individuals not to go out into the deep cold, we’re avoiding mishaps that could have been avoided if people knew how to properly dress for the cold. The family from Yellowstone probably had accumulated the correct gloves, boots, underclothes, etc. to wear in the cold because they have winters like that every year. This is unusual for us along the eastern seaboard as we often have milder winters than the Midwest. How often do we see boys standing out waiting for the bus in the cold with nothing more than jeans and a long sleeved shirt or t-shirt?

Can I get an “Amen” Brother Mance? It is the consensus trance! I bare my teeth too. Bucking cold temps sweating while shoveling paths to chicken coop and woodshed and sugar house, hauling firewood to burn fossilized sunshine of homegrown backyard cord wood all feel like tiny acts of defiance.

Sometimes in January, a grim existential conversation raises its ugly head - we love living here but what’s our exit strategy? What’s the end game when we reach our seventies and eighties? Florida would break my will to live. Better to drop dead in a snowbank and stare at the moon and smile?

I first saw this disease in the late 1950’s when it suddenly decimated old growth pure Beech stands near our remote Adirondack cabin. They were mostly all gone in few years. A very few resistant ones survive which gives me hope. I have noted that as one moves northeast into the Canadian Maritime provinces, the effects become increasingly severe, with few if any mature survivors, but many little ones. A tremendous loss to the forest. I have seen many Black Bears in their branch “nests” eating nuts in the tops of big Beeches.

Bob: The problem with tax maps is that they may or may not be based on physical surveys—they’re just a cobbled-together hodgepodge of historical info, some good and some bad. And the problem with GPS is that it’s just raw geometry.  A real surveyor would do your title research, and the title research of your neighbors, and square the deeds. They’d look for evidence in the field to corroborate what they found. Some use advanced GPS as a tool in their work, but many still use transits and run a closed traverse loop around the property. A handheld GPS, which may be what the gas company used, might be off by 20 or 30 feet on a corner, which is obviously not very accurate. So to answer your question: Some surveyors started using GPS around 20 years ago, but the tool being used to measure the bounds—be it GPS or a chain—is only one part of the process.

If you’re worried about it coming down on your house, Teresa, call an arborist and see if they can cable the tree. They may be able to tie it together to keep it from splitting.

I am worried, concerned and stressed. There is a really big tree at the back of my property. There is a crack and it seems with the extreme cold this crack seems to be becoming bigger. I am not sure what to be thinking but I am scared it may die and fall. It is a tree that stands straight up. Any advice or suggestions?

I am fascinated by needle ice.

Thanks for helping me understand how it is formed.

I recently was presented with a proposal from a gas company on my land in Pennsylvania. I have been paying taxes for 57.21 acres for 20 plus years and now the company states the area is 55 acre as using gps measurements. The land has hilly and flat areas. When was the aerial view type measurement started or has this always been the case?

Whoa! That is interesting about the green layer under the bark. I love aspens.

Very interesting and informative. Thank you so much.

Toni- You can help her!  Put some food out for her, seeds as you have been, as well as other things. They eat pretty much everything, and when the ground is this frozen, there is no where they can find food on their own. And just as important, put something out for her to sleep in.  A cat carrier with some bedding, or something similar.  If you have a barn or shed or garage she could access, that would be the perfect place.  When the weather warms again, she will be on her way, and you will have done a most kind and generous thing by helping such a beautiful and unique creature.  : )

I can’t think of anything you might do, Marketa. I have known some amazingly resilient wild animals, though, so you might be surprised at how long she makes it. A few winters back I watched a three-legged doe floundering in December snow. I imagined her grizzly fate, and considered shooting her. I didn’t, and the next spring, I saw the same three-legged doe, who not only survived the winter but gave birth to a fawn to boot.