Site Discussions

Great article.  This guy definitely knows the business.

I have a twenty acre farm and market myself as a choose and cut farm.  Here are a few helpful hints:

-Use branches from unsellable trees to make wreaths and sell to florists

-Sell Christmas tree stands

-Rent out your farm to photographers in the fall for Christmas card photos

-Buy a sub-compact tractor with a loader and a backhoe ( stump digging).  It will pay for itself ten times over.

-I cut the grass and fertilizer with a 175lb tow behind spreader at the same time

I’m not your average reader on trees. (Although, this article does explain why my Weeping Willow survived Oreo the cat’s near destruction).  However, in doing research for my new book I found your article here very insightful and helpful in understanding the unique “healing” properties of trees. It’s created and built in. I’ll be using this helpful information to further explain how humans are also created to heal but we need to “contain” our wounds for further growth. Thank you for your help.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved the morning calls of mourning doves. Not quite sad, but very peaceful and calm. I love how the song is fleeting as well—a handful of minutes, perhaps, and that’s it for the day. But I’ve never in all my years heard them in winter… perhaps it’s a sign of our changing climate, who knows? But I’ve heard the mourning doves these past four mornings, right in the middle of the city of Providence. A sign of spring? Have they been here all winter but only warm enough now to sing? I’m fascinated…

We’ve had ruffed grouse around our acreage for as long as I can remember.
However, this fall there were more than ever before.  I was going to pick apples from the two trees infront of the house.  I counted 13 birds that flew out of those trees.  We have often seen groups of 5 or 6.
Tonight when we came home we had 4 feeding on the bird seed my sister puts out for the chickadees and nuthatches.  A drake and 3 hens.

I’m very interested in why some of our local sweetgums grow to immense size and advanced age and not others. We have one which dates back to the 1800s and is too large to cut because there is nothing commercially available that can handle that size log. I thought they only lived seventy years or so?

I love this editorial. It so respectfully walks the middle ground. I have been pondering this issue a lot. I am pained by the fractured dialogue or is it a series of monologues? But - there are some places where there is so little room for error. I refer to the issue of climate change. If we do not move forward decisively then everyone loses. I agree that blaming cows or chainsaws misses the point but how do we come to wise and knowledgeable agreement quickly?

I am an asst. historian and have a family name that goes back to the Tannery Business. Horton Tannery, I believe, was in Sullivan Co. N.Y. My grandmother was of the Horton Family lines. Also High View had a tannery that made drum heads. Rogers Tannery and one Rogers family buried in Or. Co. Bloomingburg Rural Cemetery.
This was a delight.

Read this before setting out on a woodlands walk. I will have my hand lenses at hand and be sure to take time to look and see.

Are there other larvae besides the leatherjacket larva that eat grass roots? Several years ago, we had a similar infestation of a small white larva that killed patches of our grass. Fortunately, robins and turkeys came and restored the grass by eating the larvae.

Dear Dave, I too am teary reading your loving tribute to your new daughter!  Hooray for you and her mom, and WELCOME to her!!

Great article, teaching botany at the high school level, important information, thank you. I have a question for you:
Could the Odum tree, also called the African oak, and yoruba normally found in a coastal tropical biome, survive the winters of Nova Scotia?
Thank you for answering this. I realize it is not a conifer/gymnosperm with antifreeze.

congrats on the birth or your daughter. very heartfelt & inspiring piece.. never forget this day as it comes only once in a lifetime.  God bless

Does anyone suspect it may be the smell of propane leaking?

As you wish, bring her to me and we will press cider and poetry

Thank you for this helpful info about mourning doves. I have been surprised to find first one, then four, and today eight mourning doves hanging around our backyard feeders on Cape Cod. The morning after our first snowstorm this year, I startled one who had taken refuge in our front door alcove. A few days later, I saw four pecking on the ground under the feeders. Today (after yesterday’s blizzard) four more have appeared and they are huddling together along the top of the fence. They seem like a new winter time addition. Haven’t seen them in past winters. I enjoy their company and am happy to help them endure the winter until they can start setting up their breeding grounds.

Be sure to save this one, Dave.
Pass it around…
It will become an all-time classic!!!

This was a very interesting article. As a volunteer instructor for the NH Fish and Game.  “Lets go fishing program” I will incorporate some of the information into our curriculum.
Thank you.

We live in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and also have an orchard which attracts deer. We typically see a great number of does, and this fall also spotted our first buck. He too was a lopsided one pointer. Hunting is so prevalent here that antlered bucks are apparently rare. I just thought it was funny what a similar experience we had to yours. Great educational article on antlers, thanks for sharing!

I was surprised to see one. My dog would bark fiercely when I let her out at night into her fenced in area. She’s a toy fox terrier. I finally got a glimpse. I started throwing my scraps out for it to eat. An to my surprise there came another. He kept distance, to the other one. Lately I haven’t seen them in a couple days. I’m really concerned. I enjoy watching them an feeding them. It has been bad weather cold snow . An icy I will keep hoping for their return.

Hello,  I was very interested in getting started in a Christmas tree farm but was unsure of it because of where I live, in FL. People say that that is not a good area for them. Can you please help me out with this? Thanks.