Site Discussions

Under bright moonlight I observed what I thought to be a nearly all white skunk. Just a little black on its back near the tail.  How common is this coloration?

Lichens are fascinating.  I like to take close-up photos of them, these miniature landscapes. 

I hope that more study is devoted to them.  Their ecosystem roles are so important in our environment but as far as I know, little understood.

Brings back warm memories of sap season.  I was just a kid, and one of my earliest memories was falling full-length in the sled track outside the sugar shack.  We kids were usually outside playing but I was brought in to dry off.  I was probably about 4 years old. Sugaring off season definitely gets in the blood; I am a forester.

Probably not, Christina. The worms are an issue in a forest setting primarily because they’re destroying the duff layer on the forest floor; in a yard, that layer doesn’t exist. If the trees are in decline there are a whole host of things that might be causing it, but most are human-related.  Lack of mulch, too much mulch, soil compaction, salt from roads, impervious surfaces just to name a few. The worms could be contributing, but I don’t think they’re the primary drivers of the decline.

I sit tired from climbing over and ducking under sap lines as I traverse the hillside. The previous days have been amazingly beautiful due to iced and snow covered trees beneath an amazing blue sky. My face feels the touch of wind and cold. The trees are tapped. Syrup jugs arrived yesterday. I delivered some this morning to a neighbor who was fortunate to catch the early run. Tomorrow promises a sap flow and a first boil in our sugar house for 2016. The miracle of sap to syrup shall once again cast its spell! My body feels older, but my spirit embraces joyful anticipation.

Tapped on February 2nd. Earliest ever. Gushered for a couple of days and then shut down.  It started up again a couple days ago. These 60 degree temperature swings in 24 hours are confusing me; I can’t imagine what it is doing to the trees.

I live in town and have four very large hardwood trees in my yard (3 maple and one oak) that have been dropping an unusual number of dead limbs.  I know that I have earthworms in my soil.  Could it be that the worms are crossing my trees to die?

Thanks for the article.  My family’s pet pollywog’s stagnated metamorphosis mystery solved.

A friend’s grandfather was a “knee staker” in a leather factory. What did he do?

This really helped me to clarify the difference so that I could talk about it with my 2nd grade students. We are reading “Tell Me, Tree”, by Gail Gibbons in our curriculum anthology. They had questions about the sapwood and heartwood. When I Googled this, your article came up. Thanks so much for this information.

I am wondering what I have eating sunflower seed outside by my bird feeders. Long 4 or 5 inches dark gray no apparent ears or tail. I have some burrowed under choke cherry trees and under a bird bath. Are they shrews?

My skunk lives under the shed but seems to emerge pretty often as he (she?) sets off my outside motion sensor light in the middle of the night w/ his wanderings. Plus I can track his rounds through his prints in the snow. Maybe he didn’t eat enough this fall?

Hi Michael. Thank you for writing this article. I am grateful to know this, and reading about how the tree is in a wild conversion process in the fall and winter, what effect does tapping maple trees have on their preparation for the summer and overall health of the tree? My guess is that it could even be good for the tree to let off some of the sugary antifreeze to get ready for warmth.

We have heated with a Timberline since the middle 1970’s.  Timberline is like a Fisher, but with a baffle plate.  Our Timberline is the largest model (560 pounds).  We heat a Lindal chalet (high ceilings).  We did a major roof insulation project 5 years ago, and we have a heat pump for back up.

Advantages of the old Timberline:
Any size wood will fit into the double doors.
It will heat the house no matter what the temperature or wind.

Creates very little creosote because we burn it with the vents wide open as much as possible.
The 5 gallon water pot on top of the stove acts as a humidifier.

I looked at the new high efficient stoves:  they are not built very heavy duty compared to the old Timberline.

How do you put waterbars in the corduroy road? Do you dig waterbars first, then lay the logs?

I have a mucky part keeping me from accessing a stream and the other side. Need a “path” of sorts, plus a bridge. But, I am wondering about the “Waterbar” bit.

Thanks!

There has been a small population of mountain lions present in New England since the 1940s at the least. Some of the older evidence, including an excellent booklet put out by a bobcat hunter in Massachusetts that occasionally would run into them, has been lost or forgotten. Tracks were confirmed several times in the past that are not listed anymore. With the documented population of mountain lions increasing JUST over the border in Canada, if they are not here now, they will soon be. The standard explanation is “escaped pet”, but the evidence thus far shows that’s not the case.

The procedure discussed is faulty in two ways.  A cord of wood is defined as 4’x4’x8.’  When you cut it to firewood length it will shrink significantly because the cutting “straightens” out the pieces.  The second error is that the original measure was used for pulp wood which was not split. 

The Woodburners Encyclobedia claims a 25% reduction in size when 4’ wood is cut “to length” because of closer stacking and sawdust loss. It also says that maximum amount of wood is obtained when smaller pieces are fitted in between larger ones in the pile.  They claim the volume of a cord varies between 60 and 100 cubic feet depending on the shape of pieces and how they are stacked.

I note that my wood piles settle over time.  I do not know if it is a result of shrinking from moisture loss or just settling in with time as the pieces of wood get to know each other. 

Years ago I read a Forest Service Report that stated that splitting firewood some times fluffed up the pile and sometimes caused it to shrink. 

We all know that branch wood does not tally up the way trunk wood does.  Also, it seems that trees with thick, rough bark do not stack as tightly. 

Ted Cady

Here we have as many as 170 or more per square mile. I have seen 15 at a time in my yard lately. It’s insane. They eat most of our plants every year if I am not on the ball with repellant. I’m going to hunt them next fall finally.

Saw one in 1975 in Brookline.  It was right outside (5’ away) my kitchen picture window—tawny color, long tail out behind, and much bigger than a bobcat.  I went outside and followed it for 500 yds. before it melted into the understory.  I was able to get a very good look at it for a decent period of time.

Nice article.  Friends of mine who hunt insist they have seen mountain lions.  I think this article goes a long way to explain these sightings…or non sightings.  Nice job.