Site Discussions

Thank you for your words, I was confused by this article and others on using a maul instead of an ax.

My entire life I have only ever seen axes used for splitting wood. My family and friends, in Europe, have used axes to split wood for centuries. The one time I used a maul I failed miserably at it, probably because I was used to using an ax.

The technique behind splitting wood with any tool is what’s important. You start on a wood block, not on the ground, then you pull the ax down to create as much velocity as possible. If you hit the piece of wood close to the edge, or on a strategic split/crack, the wood will fly apart violently in opposite directions, no problems. If the ax gets stuck, you lift it with the block of wood and drop it on the ax butt against the block, it MUST split.

Thanks all, I’ll stick to what works.

Oh, wow.  I can’t stop chuckling about the story behind the Latin name!

I had several skunks that visited in the summer/fall of 2014, but had no skunks this year. We had a terribly cold winter with too much snow. Do you think they all died?

Great story.

I am very curious about these. I have them everywhere around my house. Can eat them just the way they are?

Yes, in a way it’s gross though a fact of life those of us that spend much time in the out of doors learn to accept and live with. Nice article!

Very interesting article. Memories of squirrel pies. Loved the ending about the peace offering for the yellow jacket!

Botfly larva in cattle are common. I’m not a squirrel hunter so this is new to me.

Yep—count me among the folks who find this wicked gross.  :)

So sad. I miss them too. I would sit on the open porch at night and turn on the light to draw the insects in under the roof. The bats would swoop all around me enjoying the smorgasbord. I would feel a tiny breeze as they flew by me.

Great article, Jon. A most enjoyable read!

I miss the bats. I’ve left the porch light on until I go to bed to draw the insects just in case there’s a bat in the area. I haven’t seen one in two years. I hope they make a strong comeback.

Yup, you nailed that one. I have timber property and speak with loggers/foresters several times a year.  But here is a wrinkle on the skills issue. Its not so much the technology, but the problem is that children are not brought up on farm equipment like they used to be. My son was on a tractor at 3, controlling the bucket for me. He’s been driving them since he could reach the pedals. He knows how to stay out of trouble with a tractor on uneven ground. Many of today’s kids don’t, and so they are dangerous in a large piece of equipment. They get the controls, the electronics, the fancy displays and helpful sensors, but they don’t have a sense of “balance” in large farm equipment. You can’t teach that in a classroom or a government funded jobs program. It’s learned slowly, progressively, moving from small to larger machines. All it takes is one tip-over to destroy a year’s profit and a very expensive machine.

Yes, the complaint is that good machine operators cannot be found, but the problem is not the technology.

Cattails are almost like Blow Fish. One bite can be fine or it can be poisonous. Thanks for such an informative article!

Thanks for giving some history for the Treehouse Guys, and thanks especially for explaining the origin of the names B’fer and Ka-V.

Great article!

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.