Site Discussions

Could someone please explain to me why hunting season in the Adirondacks is so long? It begins around Columbus Day and ends after the first week in December, around the 8th. In Vermont the season is 16 days, if I understand correctly. I’m a hiker who would love to enjoy the fabulous fall weather and colors, but hesitate to do so. Why is the season so much longer than in Vermont? I do notice Vermonters hunting here, I guess since their season is shorter. A little equal access for other outdoor enthusiasts would be very nice.

We travel several thousand acres surrounding a four man camp and for several years we have not seen a rub or hooking pole…there are bucks in the area, not plentiful but there. Is this a density problem with lack of competition? The buck/doe ratio is way off, would an earlier sex hunt over several years help this situation?

All species of wood splits different. And being green or dry matters. Twisted or knotty wood is difficult. Nice strait Oak, Hickory and other hardwoods split well. Seeing twisting or knots on the logs usually determines problems, it means the grain is not strait, stopping the slice through force. Elm is nearly impossible to split by hand.

Striking the wood with an axe with little force will usually determine the difficulty. Little force meaning not enough for the axe to stick tight in the end grain. You can be amazed how easily some 18” to 24” logs will split with 3-5 light wacks.

My husband just saw a mountain lion run across our road a few days ago. When reading the comments, I found it interesting that someone saw them on I-91 around here a couple years ago. That’s just 2 minutes from my house.

Our 30-year old, 30-foot tall dogwood began to get dead branches last year, and this past spring we found three new dogwood saplings nearby.  They flourished all year with no special care from us (we were overseas) and are now well-established. I like to think the parent tree was feeling its mortality.

Don’t let the cherry fool you. Although the trees can look impressive, Adirondack Cherry is at the bottom of the food chain as far as wood quality for some reason. And I think because of soil quality it red rots very easily. Yes you went to a beautiful place indeed.

Sounds like a great place, similar to many of the thousand plus acre hunting clubs in this area. “... not a lot of deer per square mile” is almost a requirement if you want large bodied deer, especially in relatively poor habitat where the forest understory is dominated by beech. It would take some deer exclosures to really know, but it may well be that the deer are a large part of the reason that the understory is dominated by beech—the deer would have eaten almost everything else first.

I am a hardwood sawyer. I see and have some of the most amazing figured, burled, “deformed” woods. My attention is turning to ingrown burl wood.  Small “nodules ” of pure burl.  Though most are way too small to turn, they produce some spectacular figure and grain.  It is quite obvious that it is the trees way of repair.. I am fondly personally studying these characteristics and have some other thoughts on neurological or hormonal deformities.

I really enjoyed this article and learned a lot. Good info explaining how turtles can survive the winter. Also, I do try to stop and help any turtle I see heading onto the road. We sure don’t see as many as we did growing up.

Love this programme and what you are doing for people. You guys are great!!!

Best advice is to keep the water fairly cool to prevent them from sprouting legs! Keeping the water in a cool dark place will trick them into hibernation sagely worn no danger of freezing. .. you can even place the water in an area cooler than the house that is safe from freezing.  We keep our house at 65 in the fall and winter and that is cool enough but you can keep them in an area 45 F to 65 F and that will keep them from morphing. The cooler the better.

I spend the summers in Ontario, CA about the same latitude as the above writers from <aine, VT and NH. This spring (?) a female grouse started striking my white cap as I drove near her area, once knocking it off. This continued all summer, with 8 “attacks”. It happened to others who visited me, so I’ve got witnesses.

I’ve never seen such a display in 49 years there… and the hen and the male both did it,, and would boldly follow me down the bike trail and eat the corn I’d throw them, always with fierce looks and fearless. Towards the end of the summer, I could rev up my 4 wheeler and they would come, once bringing their now-grown clutch. Weird! And now I can’t even think of hunting them.

And then there’s Interstate 91. What kind of hullaballoo occurred when that went in? Without it, our scenic state would have far fewer hikers, skiers, and tourists to appreciate it and bring their dollars to our perpetually struggling economy. It enabled some internal employment, too, both short and long term, meanwhile allowing residents to get to jobs and resources in other states more easily. But it’s an eco-unfriendly travesty to the landscape caused by government force and commercial interests, just like the skyline drive would have been and wind towers and solar farms are today. Would we be better off without it?

Interesting article. I’m currently reading “Nature Wars” by Jim Streba and he talks about how the non-migrating goose population was formed by released decoy birds.

Destroying the tips of the oldest mountains in our land is unwise. Much sensitive and rare ecosystems are lost when turbines are erected. Renewable energy is an important issue, but at what cost?

I am one the those lucky enough to have hiked the Long Trail just a few years ago.  I remember the few wind turbines in the south and wishing they weren’t there though understanding the supposed need for them.  I am also one the kucky ones that sees the forest for the trees and not for the dollar signs.  For any state to give up mother earths splendor for limited years of thoughtless gain is unfathomable.  I would encourage all Vermonters to not give away the jewels of their state with the simple stroke of the pencil.

My husband’s grandfather wanted me to graft a black apple in 1970, but he passed away before he could show me the tree. I would like to get a tree to plant. I also bought a tree years ago from Miller orchard that is green outside and a Rosie pink flesh. I have lost the name of the apple and would like to find out what it is.

A couple years ago a gentleman stopped at my family’s home in North Yarmouth, Maine when he noticed our OLD apple trees. He told me a story of his journey looking for long forgotten apple varieties and asked if he could take a few of the apples. He said he had a friend who specialized in identifying heirloom varieties and would let me know what he found out. I never heard from him.  I’m wondering if he might have been part of this group?!

When I was 12 years old and growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, my teacher asked the students in the class to choose a state to research. After studying the map, I confidently chose a state I knew very little about. I remember writing a letter to someone in Vermont requesting information about the little state. What I received when I opened the giant envelope was brochure after brochure filled with pictures of quaint villages, high peaked mountains, and fall foliage that even Minnesota could not compete. From that day on, Vermont found a place in my psyche. At 42 and a resident of New England for the past 18 years, I still hold that sincere fondness for a state I knew only in pictures as a child. Nine years ago, I traversed Vermont by foot as an LT NOBO. The pictures I saw as a child came alive for me. The wilderness was wild, calm, beautiful, and peaceful. I shutter at the thought of seeing giant windmills, dirt roads, fencing, communication towers, and electric cable lines crisscrossing the the very scene I fell in love with all those years ago. I am a huge proponent of renewable energy and vote for candidates that promote the cause, but the idea of losing something I love for an energy source that can be captured on the roofs of so many homes is not worth it. I encourage Vermonters to save the beauty that stills captures the minds of those who live elsewhere.

Or the animal under your shed is a pack rat.