Palmetto Bug Stomp

Not Palmetto bugs, I know, but lovely insects collected from our forest floor nonetheless. I'm taking an Entomology class this fall after much contemplation - not about the schedule or the work load (I've had this professor before and I'm prepared for the demands of field work and report writing). I'm more concerned about my somewhat natural dread of handling insects. Eeew!
This club-antennaed spider, above, is fascinating to look at, especially knowing that I haven't had to touch it once. The pit-traps set about our forest floor in hopes of catching Spotted Salamanders have proven useful for collecting a host of interesting insects instead, like this one. While I don't know the genus/species, I think it's a warrior of some kind evidenced by its lack of one leg.

This one is a carrion beetle - Nicrophorus species- which group and encircle a dead creature on the ground, digging underneath it to eventually bury it. Eggs are laid in the flesh of the dead and larvae soon emerge, so I understand. Pretty sure I don't want to witness that, but the adults are quite strikingly beautiful.

In spite of not loving insects, I have a hard time inflicting pain and death upon them and have thus been less than enthusiastic or successful at serious collecting. The kill-jar technique seems to leave the insects sweaty and the scratching heard as they paw at zip-lock bags creeps me out. Also, it's easy enough to get good photos of crawlers like those above, but fliers are going to be a problem. The reality is, there's this class that requires collecting, identifying, and storing of insects. Somewhere I read about using vials so I looked online and found these, ordered them, and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

And the Entomology professor sustained an injury to his eardrum while diving and has canceled class for today - a brief reprieve during which I can bolster my confidence and numb my fears of insects so I don't go stomping them to oblivion for the next few months!

Palmetto Bug Stomp is a tune from the Reckless Reel.

The Birches

White Birch limbs and branches are dropping as the trees grow weary from warm weather. The white color of the bark helps reflect heat much the way light-colored clothing helps us humans manage temperatures while the lenticels, small dark horizontal slits, act to ventilate the inner tree. But there's only so much temperature control possible in a tree, and the White Birches are beginning to show the stress by dropping branches and dying from decay.

White Birch has historically been used for birch bark canoes made by Native Americans, but the white man has depicted the waterproof craft inside out. The tawny inner bark is the part that has a waxy coating that keeps water from seeping through - the loose outer white bark has no such quality and is more easily water-logged which is an important consideration if anyone decides to build such a canoe.

Greener Pastures

Earlier in the summer I participated in a landscape ecology retreat at Medomak Camps - "Reading the Landscape" led by Antioch College's Tom Wessels who has also authored several books including "Reading the Forested Landscape", "The Granite Landscape", and "The Myth of Progress" which are informational and interesting reads for anyone interested in historical evolution of natural landscapes. As I walked through our woods checking pit traps for Spotted Salamanders, I took time to look around and note physical elements that help interpret changes to our own back yard.

This old stump, one of several on this knoll now covered with a thick copse of Red Maple, decayed from the outside, leaving the inner heartwood standing in the middle which indicates it was probably a coniferous tree and very likely a White Pine since there are so many standing on the property today. Unlike pine, hemlock bark has a lot of tannin which makes it rot resistant so it's inside rots first to leave a hollow tube-like structure.

The forest floor is gently lumpy, if that makes any visual sense in your mind, and there are numerous narrow-width stone walls constructed of large rocks. These two features, combined, possibly indicate pasture usage many years ago. As tracts of land were cleared to host sheep and later cattle, large rocks were hauled to the perimeter and built into stone walls to keep the animals in their enclosure or out of nearby crop-fields. Stone walls around crop fields would be built wider and often, as the field got plowed year after year, the smaller rocks that popped up as the result of freeze-thaw cycles would be gathered and tossed on top of or into the middle of the wide perimeter fence. Our stone walls are single course with no small "crop" stones. Natural forests develop characteristic pillows and cradles where trees topple in the wind or fall from decay to leave mounds of organic matter and depressions where stumps pull out of the soil. Pastured woodlands even out over time as the soil is continually tamped by hooves much like the forest around our house.

It's hard to imagine green pastures where the mature mixed forest covers a thick brown mat of leaf litter and woody debris that along with gentle slopes and loose soil provide hospitable habitat for Spotted Salamanders. Though the salamanders use our forested pools to breed in the spring, none have found their way into the pit traps this summer but I keep checking, every morning, to see what insects or other creatures have dropped by to visit - and I look up and around every now and then to enjoy the natural history that surrounds us and our little house in the woods.

Greener Pastures is a tune from the "Reckless Reel" book of tunes by Larry Unger.

Seasons

August has merrily rolled itself along until I realize it's past the half-way mark toward September and another school year. As a gentle reminder, I found this maple leaf lying in the middle of our dirt road a week or so ago - letting me know it's time to finish up summer projects and make room on my desk for serious work that lies ahead. I'm sure it's no coincidence nature's warning colors are the same as those chosen by man.

A Healthy Kind Lunch

I love food - I love eating it for the taste and texture, and for the nourishment - I love cooking it and serving it for the endless flavor and color combinations. I like dressing the table and making a big deal of food. While in Colorado, I watched "Our Daily Bread" and read the beginning of Erin's cookbook about the Kind diet... inspiration to eat healthy and at the same time be kind to animals and to the planet.
Then I got on the plane and ate a micro-waved cheeseburger and iceberg lettuce salad... and got home and snacked on Cheese-Its and ate hamburger... and had the grandkids over and made them french fries (in olive oil, but still...). Today I had a better start - yoghurt, granola, and fruit for breakfast - this lovely salad and homemade pesto pasta for lunch - lots of water. Much healthier and I think I can feel peace and kindness working its way through my soul :)

Summer-time, summer-time, sum-sum-summer-time...

Official start of my summer vacation ... a trip to Colorado was the perfect segue from spring semester classes and finals to a couple months of open schedule and few responsibilities. Here's a photo of me and Bryan stopping for a break along the river in Wild Basin.

Got the lawn mowed and my desk cleaned off in time for a nice visit from Jen, Avery, and Paige. Here are the kids watching the Wood Frog tadpoles - we're still waiting for them to morph into little frogs.

My SUMMER PLAN is to sketch and take photos, and write about some things. This is a good start!

Celery

I've heard that if we all start unplugging our cell phone chargers and other similarly low-electrical use devices we could, as a group, make a difference in the world's eco-future. I'm all for energy conservation and reducing my carbon footprint wherever it makes sense, and I like to think I model some strategies that others can use. As far as saving the world by keeping cell phone chargers unplugged, I think it's like trying to gain weight by eating celery.
I used a Kill-A-Watt meter on a bunch of devices and small appliances one weekend - including the cell phone charger, my Sonicare toothbrush charger, and a recharging flashlight charger. None of these things registered any electrical use. I plugged the cell phone charger AND the Sonicare charger into a power strip and put that into the Kill-A-Watt meter and left it on for over 2 hours... still no registered use.
I know that these things use electricity - I mean, they have to be plugged in to operate. But the amount of electricity is so small, changing my behavior in relation to them doesn't seem to be worth the effort. It would be like trying to gain weight by eating celery... lots and lots of celery. I could eat celery every day for weeks and not gain an appreciable amount of weight.
I guess what I'm thinking is, there are bigger fish to fry in the ecological future of the world and trying to get people on board with taking their chargers out of the sockets doesn't seem like it's going to make much of a difference. Some things that can make a pretty big difference with a minimal investment include:
Leave a vehicle parked for a day or two each week by coordinating trips
Hang laundry on a clothesline or use an indoor clothes rack instead of using the dryer
Turn off the coffee maker after it's done brewing and use an insulated carafe
We have a long ways to go in our house to really be more efficient and get our carbon footprint smaller. To be honest, I don't leave the cell phone charger and other things plugged in simply because I don't like all the clutter, not because of the less than zero amount of electricity they use.

Vernal Pool Survey

Ice Cream Fridae

I spent the best part of the day on Friday hanging out with Jen, Avery, & Paige. We had talked about going to the beach or doing something special but decided to stay inside (good beach day for ducks, not people). It was a good decision. We read books, played games, and watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (yes, I sang along). I brought Miss Paige a doll stroller that she instantly fell in love with, and Avery & I read a book about Babe Ruth- and both learned a lot about this baseball legend. After lunch, we declared it an ice-cream-party day (I brought lots of fixins) and each assembled the sundae of our choice. It was a wonderful day. If I were a really good gramma I would have taken photos instead of borrowing this one from agape-cafe.net, instead I spent all my time soaking in smiles, words, Avery-isms, and Paige-xpressions. I'll try to do better on the photos next time!

The Newest Addition...

Meet one of the newest additions to the Green gardens - one of 70 or so Latham raspberry plants donated by my mom & dad. We spent a good part of a recent weekend pulling rocks and stumps, tilling the soil to reveal more rocks and roots to pull, and tilling again with the little Mantis to find yet more rocks and roots. The result is a nice plot for a berry garden.
My dad had postponed tilling the path between his raspberries until we got over there to pull up the new shoots (thank you dad). Saturday morning we dug enough to fill a large bucket, and spent the afternoon setting them into the soil (pulling, yes, more rocks and roots). We'll be adding posts and wire supports next.
Thankfully, we are receiving a good amount of rain that is soaking into the soil. It looks like all the plants have recovered from the shock of moving... just a few wilty leaves on a few plants. So, we have two double rows of plants which will have posts and wire supports set soon. And there is still room in the new garden - we'll try transplanting a few wild blackberries, wild blueberries, and wild strawberries, attempting to cultivate them somewhat. These will quite likely never produce giant fruit like the nursery grown varieties, but they will hopefully produce some very delicious berries that have a wilder sweetness.

Japanese Beetles

'Tis the season for Japanese beetles. I'd been planning on picking up a fresh bag and new bait for the trap, but haven't made the trip to the store yet. Earlier in the week I picked some irises, lilies, and yarrow from the garden for a table bouquet, after carefully checking for beetles and finding none. This morning, as I walked by the garden, I realized they were here. I'm not sure if I could smell the beetles, or if it was the sweet smell of the irises, but my senses were alerted. It didn't take more than a glance to see the invaders. I'd even made some pepper water last night, thinking I'd probably need it soon- good timing! I sprayed the flowers, and started picking off the infested blooms until I realized there were SO MANY. What to do?

I came inside, poured another cup of coffee, and got online. I read nothing about red pepper water (my own concoction that I've used with success in the vegetable garden) but I did find out that soap water can be an effective deterrent. I also found out that the traps are controversial. They do trap the beetles, but the pheromones actually attract beetles to the area so you might get more than just the resident beetles. I also read that the beetles are pretty much around all the time at different stages of their life cycle.

The adults come out early to mid-June around here and have particular preferences of flowers and plants. Females will leave the blooms and make their way down to the soil where they lay their eggs before returning to the blossoms and leaves where they munch away, skeletonizing the leaves, leaving only the veins. They repeat this through the summer and sometimes lay as many as 60 eggs or so. When the eggs hatch, they go through several instars (cycles), including a little white grub worm stage. These become more evident late summer and you can dig up small patches of sod to see if they're there. They stay in the soil all year, sometimes taking two years to complete their full life cycle depending on the climate conditions.

So, my garden has been soaped because I decided against getting the traps set up. There is a bacteria that is effective, but it is costly and takes 3-5 years to completely manage the Japanese beetle population- you never really get rid of them, only manage them. Their northern range runs through central Maine, so right now they aren't as bad as they are in other areas. A close inspection of my mom's irises this morning revealed none and she's just 5 miles from us. Diligent attention to the garden might keep them under some level of control this year, we hope.

In other news, we put in over 70 raspberry plants in the new berry garden! It's nice to have some time to spend around the yard this summer.

Bridgton Community Contradance

Saturday night we had the opportunity to call at the Bridgton Community Contradance. It was our first time down that way, mainly because we thought it would be a really long drive. Turns out not to be that far away, relatively speaking... just over an hour. This dance is new - but the organization and energy poured into it can be seen and felt as soon as you walk in. A lot of super nice touches like stringing mini-lights around the hall, tables with tablecloths and fresh flowers and candles, free popcorn and refreshments, and a low admission price all work together to make this THE place to be if you're anywhere around the Bridgton area on 5th Saturdays. Tunes by Perpetual e-Motion keep the dancers on the floor until the very end of the evening. We felt fortunate to have been invited to call, and look forward to going back again- to call or to dance!

Sweet Smell of Early Summer...

The lilacs are in full bloom right now... too overpowering for me in closed spaces, but wonderfully sweet in the great outdoors. I love smelling them as I walk up to the house. I know Richard loves them, so I do too. My grandmother had a big stand of lilacs on the lawn she shared with her neighbor who happened to be my friend Robin's grandmother. That's how Robin and I met years and years ago, hanging out under the lilacs. One of my favorite color combinations is deep green and purple... coincidence or connection?

Workin' the Soil

It has been wonderful having a few days of rest and relaxation, and the time, space, and energy for "special projects". With the spring semester officially completed, and the May term class starting on Monday, we managed to use the five day interim effectively... rototilled and prepped the garden plot (and expanded it from last year), picnic on the beach, cleared off my desk, baked some bread (thank you Kathie), put up a couple of clotheslines and got ALL our laundry dried in the sunshine... and managed a couple of short afternoon naps and some walks through the woods.
The garden is looking really beautiful. We have just one more corner to plant with beans, and the peas and sunflowers on the north side of the plot. We built up a raised bed for the carrots to encourage them lengthwise, and hilled up the rows a bit for the other seeds so the walking trough is a little lower and more packed (hoping to deter weeds, I know it's a losing battle, but we'll see if this helps). The greenhouse starts got started late (thanks to a rigorous study schedule that distracted me from remembering to get out there), so we'll probably purchase a few starts from the local greenhouse... I'm hoping my late seedlings might produce a later crop if the season is long enough (and mild enough toward the end). I'm happy to have worked my summer schedule out so I can be home and tend to these things... add to that a couple of short term courses and an independent study, and this looks to be a super summer!

Caught in the Act...

Today was so nice and warm, we decided to make some sandwiches and head to Popham for a stroll along the beach... of course, it's always colder at the coast than inland and even though we brought sweatshirts, we decided to forego the walk until we'd at least eaten our supper. As we sat on the bench between the old fort and Spinneys, we noticed activity in the harbor... lots of activity. Seals, seals, and more seals were chasing, diving, slapping the water as they flipped around in what appeared to be either a lot of play or some courtship behavior. Judging from the many pairs forming, we think the latter. Amazing to witness it at all, but in such numbers! I don't know much about seals, but it looked like they all chose this harbor on this afternoon to choose a mate (one or more, I'm not sure).

Happy Birthday Mom

If you see my mom today, wish her a Happy Birthday :)

Another chapter...

Goldthread
This semester officially ended today as I took my final final :) A nice long weekend before starting the next class... we have quite a list of things to keep us busy! We started by having a "date night"... dinner at the Chuck Wagon and a movie- the new Star Trek film - which we both LOVED... highly recommend it. Richard got a jump on the chores list by getting a load of manure for the garden, and tilling it all in. He enlarged the plot so we can get a bit more growing space. He also installed two nice pulley clothes lines which we have already put into use... very nice!

Happy Mother's Day

There's nothing like being a mom... it's one role that has no boundaries. There are a lot of things I'd try to be better at if I had the chance, but as I look at my now grown children, I'm not sure I'd really change anything. We're lucky- we've managed to maintain pretty close relationships through the years and be part of each other's lives even when the distance prevents regular face-to-face contact.
Watching my daughter join the ranks in motherhood has been a joy beyond measure and adds a wonderful dimension of understanding to our relationship. While my past parenting blunders will likely NOT be repeated by her, I feel like she maybe understands some of the incredible pressures and emotional choices that get made 'in the moment'.
My mom has been my baseline guide for how to be a good mother... we don't always agree 100%, and I don't always do what might be the 'right' thing, but there's still that lifelong influence underlying that has been developed through generations of women before us. My mother-in-law's ways or mothering are very similar to those I grew up with and I think that has helped us establish a good relationship.
So, for all the moms, alter-moms, young moms, old moms... happy mother's day.

Barefoot... or not

I woke up thinking about my carbon/ecological footprint- different models have different criteria and measure things a little diffeently. Regardless of which web site or calculation method we use, the results are similar... we all use a lot of natural resources to maintain our American lifestyle. This could be a long post, but I'm gonna keep it short, sweet, and simple.
Carbon shoes cost a lot of money... reducing your carbon footprint, even a little bit, will reduce strain on your budget. Buy less. Buy local. Turn off the lights. Walk around the block. Sit down and have a conversation with someone. Think about what kind of shoes you want to wear, and then put them on.

Flutter By

I got to attend a workshop and training session for the Maine Butterfly Survey today, held at Colby College. By the end of the day, we were each given a net and collection packet... now to figure out how to perfect my swing... maybe A can give me some pointers based on t-ball :)