Site Discussions

I bought 5 acres of land and want to clear cut one acre and select cut the other 4 acres. I’m trying to find a mill or someone to do the cutting and haul trees away free for the lumber only. I live in southern Maine. Any suggestions?

We have a bird house that something has made a mud nest inside with only a small passage to get in or out unless it can sweeze in under the bird house eves.  Any ideas what this is?

Thank you for your efforts. I went in search of “Where have all the cecropia moths gone?” because there were so many when I was a kid. And when my mom was a little girl in the Ozark mountains, she caught one and brought it inside their screened porch. It was a female. In the morning she woke up to a dream-like morning of thousands of male cecropias, with their wings spread out against the screens, blocking the light. 

We planted a butterfly garden with great success, also we have 5 caterpillars eating our parsley. :)

Wood frogs should be added to the list of beneficial garden insectivores.  The wood frog that has inhabited my cucumber and melon patch this past summer has been at least as effective as the toad I have had in previous summers in controlling garden pests.

This summer I encountered two garter snakes in my garden as I moved some black plastic and boards used to prevent weeds from growing.  As the snakes slithered away, the larger one stopped briefly to swallow two earthworms that were under the plastic.  It was the first time in my life that I witnessed a snake swallowing prey.

I find myself in a very similar leaden boat as young Mr. Mance.  At 73, I have had an opportunity to absorb a bit more lead from the years and years of biting lead split shot and the eating of many pounds of lead shot venison and other game.  Also at 73, I am at the age where systems are showing wear and tear and breaking down.  One has to wonder how many of these may have been compromised by the intake of lead particulate over the years, if any.  It does cause one to pause and ponder.

Ran across this article and enjoyed your perspective.  Was delighted to see a comment by Andy Crosier - who was in one of my all-time favorite Field & Stream articles you penned about Ed’s hunting cap in Vermont and the last gathering you all had.  Kudos!

Hi Brett,

I am very happy to come across your post (no pun intended).

Down one side of our property we have hedges that have gotten out of control. They are about 20 feet high and at least 12 feet wide. This hedge marks the property line with our neighbours. I loathe the hedges and have been wondering if it would be possible to trim the branches down to the trunk from the ground up about 10 feet. Then I would install fence walls for a barrier/privacy with the neighbour. Meanwhile the remaining 10 feet of hedge at the top would continue to live. Do you know if this would work ok? How would it appear?

Thanks,
Shawn

A Giant Swallow Tail butterfly hatched this morning. My puppy saw it and barked and growled his head off. It was fanning it’s beautiful wings, and then left. But I have a full nursery of them in the Basil plant. It’s growing directly next to parsley but the cocoons are in the basil.  One caterpillar is totally green, I thought it would be black and yellow! It’s awesome. I hope I see them all hatch and fly away.

Mary

I live in Dutchess County, NY. Last night at 2:46 am (I looked at the clock because I heard the ping of a text coming in ), I heard 2 doves calling and answering each other. One was a softer coo, answered by a stronger coo, back and forth for quite a while. I couldn’t see the birds, it being so dark outside, but it came from way back in the garden where the vegetation is pretty wild. The sound had a feeling of longing to it, some sadness too but peaceful at the same time. I guess the cooing in the middle of the night is not so unusual since other people have experienced it as well.

This July we had the pleasure of watching a happy couple of mourning doves raise their family. My son & I thought that the doves were fighting at first but they were just building their nest. They took turns sitting on the eggs for about 2 weeks until they hatched. Both fledgings successfully hatched without any problems. We really enjoyed watching the parents take turns caring for them. The male dove got “used” to me checking on his little ones every so often & actually coo’d at me while he watched over from the neighbors roof. At night I would check to make sure mama dove was safe with her babies & she didn’t seem to be bothered by me either. The fledgings grew so fast & before long they were taking “test flights” around the neighborhood. They always came back in the evenings & stayed with dad until it was time to learn how to hunt for food in the morning. They continued to come back to the nest for over 2 weeks. Mama & daddy sat together on rooftops keeping an eye on their children while they were there.  It’s now the end of August & I don’t see mom or babies anymore but daddy’s still hanging around enjoying our feeder. I imagine he will fly south for the winter soon too.  I truly miss watching these beautiful birds everyday & hope they come back next spring!

An old timer told me a similar way only he would capture several bees in a jar, by baiting it with a little honey.  Then close it up and put flour in it, then roll it around to cover the bee.  Let one bee loose and you can see the white bee fly off.  Follow it as far as you can then let another one loose.  If you keep doing this they will lead you to their home.

Thanks Jim. The whole process of making absolutely sure I was harvesting the right plant gave way to so many lessons. In the end, I got a really delicious meal and learned a lot of different ways one can use the cattail plant. Glad you enjoyed.

A very nice and informative article! The not eating anything poisonous is always a good reason for doing proper research. Thank you for Outside Story ‘Nature’s Supermarket.’

Hi Mark, great article! I am really set on starting my own black walnut plantation and your article was one of the few that provided some valuable insight! I have a five acre property and if it’s not too personal, did you ever calculate roughly how much money the trees will yield per acre, or per tree at harvest time? Could you possibly share this information with me? I would be very grateful. Also, how large are your trees now (in terms of height before the first branches, and circumference) have you estimated how much larger your trees will be when they are 30 years old? Because I read that they are first ready for harvest around then. If you don’t have this information in your head or written down, don’t worry at all about answering that question. And finally, how many trees will be good, veneer quality wood compared to how many you first planted? Thank you so much!

I just photographed a Snowberry Clearwing at my front porch.

I was picking green beans in my garden a couple days before this article appeared in the Burlington Free Press on August 17, 2015 when I heard the buzz of a bee.  I watched the bee move from flower to flower (at least 6) never returning to any of the earlier flowers.  I wondered how the bee did that.  Did it remember?  I thought “no” but then the bee remembers how to tell other bees where the food was found.  Was it a pheromone?  Probably a short duration pheromone if it were or else no other bee would visit the flower.  This article provided another possibility: perhaps the bee temporarily removes the electric charge from the flower and the bee won’t visit a flower that isn’t charged.  This could be tested using something like the mock flowers mentioned in this article.

My friend saw one recently while mowing a field abutting a large wooded area.  It stopped, stared at her, then disappeared swiftly into the woods.  Appeared to have a limp and hurt back foot or leg. She was sure it was not a bobcat, lynx, fox or anything other than a large catamount.

I also have frogs and tadpoles in a small shallow pond. Did Victoria in Northern MN ever get a solution? Would a deicer help? I read sweeping snow off and letting sun reach the plants and algae helps. I will start with that. My pond will freeze solid top to bottom, can the tads and frogs take this and survive?