Site Discussions

Perfect. I have one in the camp and your description fits perfectly right down to the poetry.

Our stove will get so hot that small pieces of kindling debris that fall on top of the stove will spontaneously ignite.

Great story - and one that many of us can appreciate…but as a Sauna guy, (I’ve been designing and building them here in the US since 1989), I have to say that comparing an over-heated camp loft to a ‘dry sauna’ is an unfortunate if completely innocent slight to the culture of true Sauna - and yet another ‘media’ example of well intended journalists misrepresenting a revered and well preserved tradition…

PS: You are invited to join us for Sauna here in Duxbury-phone ahead and we’ll make a plan!

My 6 month old kitten has caught two of what I thought were mice, but they had short tails and I couldn’t see ears or eyes. She is an indoor/outdoor cat so I’m not sure where she is getting them from. I couldn’t see its teeth but I did hear a high pitched squeal before she killed it.

Would anyone know what it might be? I tried to look it up and the only thing that came up was a northern short tail shrew. I know I have mice in the house but could there be shrews, too?

We have two properties, one in upstate New York: Maples, Beeches, Sumac, Cherry, etc., no oaks.  one in Paterson, NJ: massive 80 year old oaks that were clearly part of the original 1939 landscape design and a lot of wild cherry and maple saplings the previous owner let grow up on the perimeter of this corner lot as a screen. 

The wind’s been blowing hard for three days: cherry, maple saplings and male oaks just about naked. Female oaks still in full dress, albeit brown dress.  Upstate house all leaves down except the beeches. These beeches are not saplings.  We read somewhere that some trees want to advertise nut and seed bounty to birds and seed hoarders in winter.  Therefore the sumac produces brilliant red cones.  It’s not a preferred food, but it is high in fat and a good winter food source for birds.

Acorns are high in tannin and squirrels bury them not only in caching frenzy but because putting them in the wet ground leaches out some of the tannin, otherwise only the top part of the nut is palatable to them when the acorns first drop—which is why you see so many partially eaten acorns. 

Squirrels have territories so even though they don’t have exact mental maps of where they stashed each of their acorns, they have a perfect idea of where they ought to be able to find some later.  But of course many are never recovered and so the mother tree’s progeny are distributed and planted by the squirrels to sprout in Spring. 

My theory based on the observation of our Paterson oaks is that the male oaks did their duty in Spring and can shut down and let go to sleep once they’ve produced enough sugar for bud break next Spring.  The females hanging onto the leaves is telling the squirrels they will find acorns down below, just as our beech trees are telling the birds where the beechnuts are and the sumac is telling the birds, you may not like the taste but in the dead of winter my red cones tell you where you can still fill your belly. 

Though they don’t have brains, plants do have seed dispersal strategies and the seed and nut eaters and hoarders play an important part. Certain trees dress themselves to advertise. I have also read that regardless of the weather, oak trees will produce bumper crops of acorns every second year. This appears to hold true for the Paterson oaks.  This year was phenomenal in number and size and quality.  Last year, not so much. 

We are required to keep our sidewalks clear in Paterson.  We don’t want the liability of passerby or the mail person slipping on leaves, acorns or snow.  So it’s not just anal idiots who are the only ones that would like the leaves to drop conveniently all at once and don’t appreciate nature in it’s unbridled state. 

We enjoy our great oaks even if we have to wait on the ladies, otherwise we’d cut these giants down like others on the street have done to theirs.  But there are far too many saplings too close together for all to flourish on this city lot so we’ve been removing them systematically for a year now.  Upstate we let the process flow as old tree dies, new ones shelter beneath.  We keep the leaves off the drive and the main yard, but let all the rest do their thing. 

When it snows on the driveway and there are leaves beneath and you have freeze and thaw cycles, it’s slippery, dangerous mess for humans—who also evolved on this planet and have a place on it just like the birds and squirrels and chipmunks who sort their own living places to their liking in their own way and whose behavior frequently seems kind of crazy to humans.

I have followed the same approach, but focused on a different species—armalaria mellea, also known as the honey fungus.  They are abundant and delicious and easy to spot.

Nice wordplay on Steve Miller Band’s classic rock song “The Joker” chorus reference to “Midnight Toker”... whatever that meant back in the 1970’s?  Fun how dated cultural references target those who “get it”- To my 20-something kids, Steve Miller Band might just as well be the Glen Miller Orchestra.

Nice article and very good advice. I have been on a lot of forays with a mycologist that has a doctorate and he always stresses the “old and bold” on most every foray. It is so much easier (and fun) to learn from someone that has serviceable knowledge as they will point out the little things that can be taken for granted and shouldn’t be.

Clever, well-written.  As the old joke line goes, “It only hurts when I laugh.”

This is so funny. My former husband used to get our wood stove so hot it glowed. I was usually a nervous wreck certain he would burn our home down. I had such a sinus infection all winter because of the dry air.

I had three skunks under my storage shed and shop since July. They were raiding my cats dish on my front porch. I got to going out in the evening and setting when they came out and talking to them. They finally got so I could pet on them. They are still wild but somewhat tame. I don’t see them as much since it has started into winter.

Thank you Mr. Snyder for a most concise and informative article. My home town is known as the ‘City of Oaks’ and will typically produce very high quantities of acorns. Last year was an exceptionally high yield. This year, almost none. The stark contrast is quite remarkable.

Another point of interest, gleaned from these comments, is that while some areas of the country are very low yields this season other areas are most abundant.

Ax or Maul?? Well I use both. Ax for the smaller stuff, maul for the bigger stuff. We have a type of tree that grows here like weeds. I have been told that it is called Manitoba Maple. It is very tough to split. The grain twists and is very fibrous, stringy. I have to use the maul, and usually have to pound it through with a sledge hammer. You’ve had a work out after you have split a few of those. In closing I say what ever works for you. Work smarter not harder.
Tim

I have logged in this tri-state area for 33 years. I have seen plenty of coyotes, but I have seen the Coy-wolf animal for most of my career, too.

I’m impressed with the book written by James Mavor and Byron Dix: “Manitou.” It gives very convincing evidence that some stone structures in New England were technically very sophisticated, ritualized, astronomically accurate, features which have been studied and attributed to pre-contact inhabitants.

We too were inundated with acorns last season… Almost three acres of what seemed to be ball-bearings covering our yard to the extent that one put themselves at risk approaching the hillsides. 

We had an outdoor wedding in October and I blew all of the acorns to the edge of our woods offering up a virtual smorgasbord for the deer. 

The larger oaks are giving up their leaves earlier than usual this year and my husband has been out with the blower and leaf collector daily for over a week…lots of leaves for compost, but not one acorn!  Thanks for your explanation but I will continue to tell grandchildren that the seeds are for our plethora of squirrels to get them through the winter.

I saw hundreds of worms with yellow heads and tails weaving all over the show, with lots in one woven nest, they are not very big, about 2cm and fairly thin. I am wondering what they become.

I subscribe AND receive from NEFF to which my parents gave land in Middleton. Friend Pike Messenger sent me article on witches broom. Love your magazine!

After reading your article and the comments afterwards, I can only say we’ve had a wet and cold spring, a so-so summer and so far a warmer fall than usual.  After years of having acorns bombard our house it has been absolutely quiet this year.  Went out to rake leaves -  not one acorn (last year you couldn’t even walk in the yard for all the acorns).  So, I will be watching our weather extremely closely this winter.

I found a pale yellow large caterpillar with a dark brown head in my yard. Waxy looking….what is he????

Please let us know where we can obtain moth eggs. Do we go to an Ag university near us? Can we get moths that are also native to our area from you? You mention a person you got them from, but no contact information.