Site Discussions

Well said!

We don’t have porcupines this far south; down here, our sympathies for poor dumb creatures go to the ‘possum. I think there’s something in most people’s psyche that makes them root for tough little under-dogs of any species. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed your article so much.

To me nothing in the world of weather can compare to a pre-holiday snowfall, as captured so well here by Dave.  Thanks for whitening my day!

All people who have the property and ability to pay for and operate a wood stove or OWB (requires money and labor no matter what your circumstance), in compliance with the local and state regulations, have a moral and patriotic obligation to do so.

My OWB prevents us from burning about 1,100 gals of No. 2 fuel oil a year. This is enough oil to send a loaded tractor trailer from coast to coast and back again. The oil I save can be used by someone who doesn’t have the same circumstances. The hardwood I burn is a local resource and supplied by local labor and hard working people to whom I pay a good wage. No Arab shieq or South American dictator is required!!

America must get a lot smarter and use our ingenuity to break the back of terrorist nations and move ourselves to energy independence(much) sooner than later.

Until hydrogen fuel cells are perfected, there are few options.  Wood stoves and OWBs for winter heating are a great option.  Wood burning may not be the best solution if you want to count particulate matter but it works, its a plentiful local resource and it’s safe when done responsibly.

No more wars over foreign oil.  Think energy independence and self-reliance.

Hermaphrodites happen - even in humans. What isn’t natural is “transgender.” It is not a chance of nature to have some doctors mutilating a human body to subvert nature’s choice.

The crux of the whole outdoor woodstove issue centers on emissions. Tier 2 ( White Tag ) standards go a long long way to addressing this problem. You can see a you-tube of a Garn installed in Minnesota without need for a chimney. The exhaust is as clear as a balanced flue fossil fuel heater.

As for not breathing vehicle exhaust and suchlike try a trip up the CN tower on a humid summer day and see the smog blanketing Toronto. A month ago I was high up on the Pennines and watched a blue haze drift west to east over the hills from Lancashire and south Yorkshire filling the Holme valley. Wood burning is not an issue there but industry and transportation is. I own an outdoor wood stove and am dissatisfied with it but realize, and see,  very efficient models are in use and plan to up-grade. Probably a gasification type.

For those in a suitable location wind turbines can power water heaters and the nice thing is that as high winds increase heat loss they also contribute to heat supply!

A good object lesson for people who get worked up over sexual ambiguity in humans.

Gender-bending occurs throughout the animal and plant kingdoms. (Plants, especially, have some interesting arrangements!) Mother Nature is nothing if not creative!

The warmth of gas lights, the smell of pot roast, the barrel stove wafting through the night air and really good friends. To look forward to it only once a year is hardly often enough.  Thanks Dave. Hiya.

A couple years ago, my partner was riding her horse on our land when she came in contact with what appear to be thin kite string.  On further investigation I found our entire southern boundary (3000+ ft) had this string on or near it, (it appeared deer had pulled the string in several directions).  There was also flagging and cut saplings and brush near the pins.  The neighbors to the south, that I spoke with, did not hire a surveyor.  A local surveyor told that use of the string is common practice as is leaving it behind.  The horse really does not like walking into things it can not see, let alone bright fluttering flagging that was not there the last time he came through.

Alan Baker
Shaftsbury, VT
Nov 23, 2009

Foundation near logging road doesn’t sound like optimal bear den site, Carol, but you never know. It could have been. Check out this video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8320000/8320414.stm

Thank you for this article. Having lost several feeders this year to hungry bears, we’ve been wondering how/when they operate so we can manage our bird feeding appropriately. The information provided answers our questions.

The key concept here seems to be: “one would hope that common courtesy and common sense would rule the day.”

Indeed. As a landowner of gateway property to other people’s hunting grounds, and who is surrounded by large parcels getting subdivided progressively each year, I can attest that courtesy is the bottom line.

Toward people who announce their presence and intention, our response is generous and open. But we are immediately hostile toward anyone who simply shows up and tromps around. If they started hacking up our vegetation as well, we would either call the cops, let loose the dogs, or challenge the invader directly, toting a shotgun.

If a surveyor is rude enough to trespass without communicating, he/she deserves whatever the landowner chooses to dish out.  Most of us have phone answering machines, mailboxes, front doors that will hold taped or thumbtacked messages, and driveways that can accommodate parked cars with signs on them. We have no way of knowing that intruders have a professional and legal right to intrude until they inform us.

There are enough creeps and poachers around that one can’t automatically assume it’s just a surveyor or forester doing their job. A professional who is licensed to perform a land-crossing service should know, as part of that training, how to professionally interact with the public.

Would it be possible for the author to quote the appropriate section of a state’s (Vermont’s for example) legal code that allows the surveyor the “legal and professional right to trespass”?

I always enjoy reading your magazine and online stories, and I found the article about bears fattening up for the winter very informative.  I found the delay of embryo development amazing. However, remembering back to my Wildlife Ecology class, I learned that bears do not actually hibernate, they enter into a state of torpor.  We learned that only smaller animals are capable of true hibernation.  As an example, frogs burrow down into the mud for winter and actually do hibernate, their bodies produce a natural “antifreeze” that keeps their bodies from freezing solid and therefore preventing cellular damage. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than myself could write an article on the differences between hibernation and torpor. 

Thanks, Dave.

My significant other and I have hiked the old logging roads and woodlands of Antrim NH, and over to Windsor via woods roads, and bushwhacking..overland; we have seen many claw scratched trees…but have not found a makings of a den yet. I had recalled finding a den in a bush pile in the woodlands I had cleared that was covered with snow, but had steam coming out the top, and what looked like a dug out spot on the side…needless to say I was never brave enough to look inside. My question to you is would a bear make its winter home in a old foundation covered with old logs next to a logging road, that is traversed by man?...Any Comments welcome.

Carol

If good manners and common sense are to triumph, it seems to me that they should start with the surveyor. What he considers “just brush”, may have far greater value in the eyes of the landowner. This summer, the power company probably thought that they were doing me a favor by spraying the “brush” at one corner of my yard which was under their line. Now, I have no elderberry bushes. Similarly, an over-zealous highway worker got completely off the right-of-way at the same corner of my yard and mowed off the walnut sapling that I was going to transplant. The walnut will probably resprout; the elderberries are gone forever.

Some pathogenic organism are acting non pathogenic. How it is possible…?

I think Rock has is right. The hunt adds its own unique flavor, but the “getting away” part is probably universal, and is just as he describes.

Have yet to open a hunting camp, but think the experience is rather universal, and perhaps does not require hunting.  Have opened canoe camp, vacation camp, ski camp (cross country) and just plain get back to the woods camp.  Hunt camp has some other aspects - tends to be men only, so may be a time to bond with more than woods and wildlife.  But I’m sitting here thinking what might the essentials of the “right” experience be:  distance from ‘civilization’, real change in scenery, no interruptions (phone calls, newspaper, TV, neighbors, etc.), a self directed flexible schedule subject to being disregarded at a moments notice ... all things that speak of being driven by whim instead of responsibility.  Any thoughts?

What a wonderfully written detail of the Friday before opening day! Dave, you have an incredible talent.