Site Discussions

Beech leaves are a very potent hazard to waxed XC skis; they lurk in groomed tracks and fasten themselves to grip wax, often resulting in falls or at least bad language…

Hi I’m Mat,
I am extremely interested in finding something else to do with my time, other than playing video games. I found inspiration through your article. I have also been trying to follow my father’s footsteps after he passed in 2005. He made Windsor chairs. We have a full dining room set and I would like to do what he did. Your article has provided me insight to what I want to do with my life and where I will be one day other than stuck in the business world doing Accounting and Finance. Do not misunderstand me, I like accounting, but I can settle with not doing it as well.

One factor of rural life and low income is a lack of cop cars available to respond to requests for help, or investigations into suspicious characters.

Thank you for this great posting. I have always admired the Beech trees and how they hold their dried leaves all winter. To me it represents a natural symbol of warmer days to come. Now I know some the science behind it.

I suspect that it has something to do with the niche opportunity. If you compare successions of energy transfer between different species of birds and they’re prey, you can possibly find that the number of Goshawks is only as big as the total amount of energy can only support a small number. Keep in mind the Accipiters share a similar area and all relatively share the same prey choices. It would be interesting to see if the three populations thrive under different conditions though…

Well done Ross! Very enjoyable. I see RLP is also a kindred spirit for you. I have quite the collection of his “stuff.” I actually prefer the raw journals. Good to see you still enjoying what the north country has to offer.

The krummholz is such a visually fascinating part of the alpine landscape. Magical for children; interesting scientifically for adults. Thanks for the tidbit about horizontal growth due to killing of the apical buds.

Let’s not start throwing negatives at folks whose experience with the land is plenty sufficient for them to judge the actions of would-be troublemakers.  Forget this thoroughly false stuff about quotas for policemen, prosecutors & judges - the same bad actors already give them enough to do.  And the only reason to be afraid of a “cop car” is if you’ve done something to cause that fear.  A brighter perspective on life is what sustains us all.

David,

You hit very closely to an issue that Vermont does not like to talk about, the poverty that is more common then we care to admit or address. I have always said you’ll never see a rusty trailer on the cover of VT Life. The second point is that as we lose the ties to the land, the true working landscape, opportunities to address these cultural shifts become more challenging. We see lots of lost souls in in the Kingdom. The drug problem is very real and very evident in some of our local communities. The police are not being alarmists these are real and sadly deep seated social problems. Despair, poverty and lack of good jobs tied to our cultural history are not the sole issue, but it is certainly a component of these terrible circumstances. The working landscape needs to be better understood and appreciated as to what it can and previously provided for a community’s foundation. We have lost that connection to often in our looking at the aesthetics of the forest and farmland without appreciating the need to maintain a viable economic base to the working landscape

This is by far the best article that I have ever read about the maple syrup industry.

Love your blog, but disappointed that it included the heroin issue.
I understand mentioning the rolling stone posting.
We can open the morning paper or turn on the tv to read about the disturbing news. I read Northern Woodlands for just the opposite.

We had morning doves,  two, that use one of our hanging planter for there nest. In short they had a baby dove which died two days later, should I remove the dead baby? And will the doves try again? And use the planter again? The weather in Chicago has been very, very cold with strong winds and sometime 0 degrees We are very sad of the lost, of the morning doves.

Your analogy is brilliant. Heroin is an invasive species along with the dealers who spread it. The drug patrons are the birds that feed upon the availability of the food more readily available. How do you solve it? Do you deal with the supply or the demand? The fight will always be there.

I am fascinated by hands, my own and others. Anaxagoras had said that Man is the wisest of all animals because he has hands. An animal that has hands much more human-like than the raccoon’s is the possum. It is nowhere near as smart as the raccoon, but still there may be some sense to Anaxagoras’ thinking. We human learn best when our hands are engaged. By making things we learn about our material culture in greater depth and with greater enthusiasm than can be found in the laziness of books.

I suspect that the raccoon will learn how to open the latch sooner rather than later. And once that knowledge gets passed on, rangers will have to lock up the garbage with combination locks.

I write about hands in my blog, wisdom of the hands.

Hi Pete,

Your question is a good one, but it’s very hard to explain in writing. My advice would be to take a walk out there with someone who understands this sort of thing and get their professional opinion. Or, selfishly speaking, buy our book More Than a Woodlot—it’ll explain everything you need to know.

Short answer is that veneer trees don’t have major defects. Blemishes, knots, branch stubs all degrade the value of a log.

And how did he know they were “up to no good”? Gotta be careful that FEAR doesn’t take over rationality. Lotta fear mongers out there. And remember these cops got to have numbers to support their jobs. Along with the Prosecutors and Judges, too.
Which is more scary, the kids, or the cop car?

I’m a sugarmaker and I have to say that this is probably one of the best articles I’ve ever read on the span of a season relative to syrup color and taste.  It also helps explain a lot about how this season started in with darker syrup and is staying that way.  No Fancy here this year.  I noticed reddening of the branches a week and a half ago - the trees are responding to the longer days, despite the cold.

I have a120ac. wood lot that was last cut in 1968. Would like to go in & take out firewood trees. What configuration should I look for vs. a log/veneer etc. tree?? Does a multi limb and crooked tree always label it in a pulp or firewood category??
Pete in Camden, ME

I wonder why a bird like the Goshawk that is such a powerful predator, is so low in population? Why don’t they out compete the sharpies and Coops and increase in numbers?

You forgot to mention that Black Bears love skunk cabbage. I once saw five big blacks all together in a skunk cabbage patch around the end of April.