Site Discussions

Having contracted and beat Lyme once and working in the woods daily, I live with heightened awareness of ticks - particularly the deer tick. Precautions that I have found work well are as follows:
Treating my boots with Permethrein - every 2 weeks. Swedish studies have shown this to be very effective.
Wearing Insect Shield Jeans and shirt(s). Anecdotal studies that I have done show that the deer tick will drop off and die after more than 3 minutes on the pants. The larger “wood” ticks are not affected by the permethrein in the pants.
Lastly until the heat makes them impossible to wear I utilize BugSkinz made by Cabela’s. Essentially they are very smooth long underwear. Again my own informal studies have shown that the tick, despite the claims of the manufacturer, can still climb up the fabric.That said, the big advantage of this product is that it prevents the tick from lodging anywhere on your legs. Utilizing this battery of precautions I have yet to find a tick physically attached to my skin in the last two years.

Thank you.  On recent backpack hike, the group wondered what is the temp. range of when they will sing?  It seemed odd to me that on May 30th they were singing (1K ft in ADK).  I wondered if it was due to the cold spring, or was it still within an average breeding season?
Happy to have found your site.

So am I bad to be killing off the huge black ants that have infested my house?

In north eastern PA this tree leafs after the white birch at about the same time as the oaks. I have several that border my property. My grand daughter is the one to discover the wonderful birch beer scent of the broken twigs. As she delighted in calling my attention to this (re-introducing) fragrant tree. Somewhere in my memory I begin to recall the trees information.  I did eventually look it up so I can give her the correct low down about the tree. Thanks for your attention to detail here.

Love it, love it, love it. Only thing I would change is using white pepper for the trout…find it to be more delicate and to enhance the nuances of the fish. P.S. Would love an orange on Christmas morning. Cheers

There is nothing better than eating a meal where most if not all of the food on the table you either grew, foraged or procured (from a local farm)  It is the ultimate form of independence and gives one a total feeling of satisfaction.

Stay diligent! I’ve been trying to control the spread of garlic mustard in my yard for about 5 years. And, I think it’s all pretty much gone! (I did find a few plants that had flowered just the other day though. But, I got them just in time!!)

Each year, once the snow melts, this is the first plant I look for to pull up. In the first few years, I spent entire days pulling up hundreds of small plants. I continue to walk through my yard and check the wood line throughout the summer. Again, stay diligent! Once a plant goes to seed, the seeds can stay dormant for 10 years!

You can use this plant as medicine. You can also eat it - you can add the leaves to salad. A sushi restaurant in CT makes a wasabi-like paste with the roots!

from another luddite-Nice!  Of course you have to use all the ramps- the advice about the green is only for garden leeks!

Wonderful advice.  I love the tips regarding the trout.  I never thought to use bacon grease on stocked trout.

Comment from Diana Todd: Ah, yes, repeat yearly.  I’m dealing with a small patch, and last year I uprooted and disposed of every plant before they set seeds. But this year, there were again thousands of seedlings.  On a seedling sprout, the first two leaves are almost rectangular with smooth edges.  The next set starts to show the distinctive scalloped edge on an almost heart-shaped leaf.  The typical round leaves with scalloped edges develop after that.

Evelyn, that sounds like a house sparrow nest. These non-native invasives are vicious predators that kill native birds like bluebirds. They pecked a phoebe to death in one of my boxes. They will sometimes create dummy nests of sticks to keep other birds from using nest boxes that they themselves are not using.

You are so right.  As a teacher myself, I want the kids to feel the things they learn about.  It is the natural way to learn.

I suppose growing up on a farm, like I did, everything was tactile. I wasn’t just reading about cows, chickens, cow manure, new born calves and chicks, woods, frogs, mud, horse back riding, prickly hay bales and I could go on forever. I was touching all of it and getting an appreciation of life in the outdoors. Kids aren’t normally living that lifestyle today. Indoors is the new outdoors. Ipads, computers and the like. Not saying one is better than the other, but if I was a kid….give me the outdoors any day.

At our recycling center there are hundreds of bees feeding in the aluminum can and glass dumpsters.  It would seem possible to track some of these to their home hive.  I’ve wondered if the honey derived from all these soft drink containers was any good.

My birdhouse is filled with small dead twigs about 4” to 6” long.  Does anyone know who would have put them in?  We see swallows around the area,  these birdhouses are specific for blue birds.

Hale makes the finest wood bookcases in the country.  They are beautiful and timeless.

Can venison be infected with Lyme Disease and then be transmitted
to humans who ingest it? Can this occur with any ground-grazing
species such as grouse, rabbit, turkey, that are also eaten by people? And if not, why not?

I found an opossum in my Have-A-Hart trap this morning in which I usually catch squirrels. I never expected to see an opossum in it!  Looks like there might have been some frostbite damage to the tail. I let it go.

Dean Thompson, I would strongly disagree with the view that the herbicide is not hitting groundwater supplies.  A study recently in Catalonia, Spain put that to rest.  An important study published in 2011 found that of 140 groundwater samples taken from Catalonia, Spain, 41 % of them had glyphosate levels above the limit of detection [6]; contrary to the claim by Monsanto that the herbicide biodegrades rapidly in the environment. Moreover, the highest detected level reached 2.5 mg/L, which is above the already controversially high 0.1mg/L and 0.7mg/L drinking water limits in place in the EU and US respectively.  Catalonia is a region that does not even grow glyphosate-tolerant GM crops that have been directly linked to increased glyphosate use in the US (see [7] GM Crops Increase Pesticide Use, SiS 56). Fact is all of the varied sources of the chemical glyphosate entering the food chain has to have a cumulative impact on constant inflammation in humans as well as reduction in the amino acids and antioxidant needed to keep our bodies functioning.  That said, there is also the overall consideration of simply increasing yields whether at the grain or legume species or high yielding forest production. That may have a devastating impact I feel on viability of migratory species of birds semi dependent on gleaning fields after harvest, or in general overall forest health by reducing diversity and reducing shrubs and forbs needed for all sorts of wildlife species.  In short, when we manage strictly for humans we get some pretty wide ranging impacts. IMHO Yes, Read Carson but also went to get a B.S. in Natural Resources Management and Policy and worked in forestry.

I’m an avid hunter and have lived in New England for all of my 34 years. With that being said, I would love the opportunity to bow hunt one of these invasive animals. Any info on who I can contact with an active hog problem in N.H. would be great!