Tag Archives: Nature

Me Warren…you Jane

Adventure, Fun, Nature, WV, ,

I returned a bit to my primal-ancestral ways this weekend.  Besides the urge I had to dance ’round a fire with a spear, I had an opportunity to swing among the trees.  In Fayetteville, WV, there is a fairly new canopy tour among the trees in some of the most beautiful forest I have seen in a long time.

09_28_2009 004

09_28_2009 010

(yup…raining)

Anyone in this area knows that it rained cats and dogs this Saturday.  The tour company cancels for neither man, no beast…only lightning.  I guess the Post Office still has one up on canopy tours.  Anyhow, we arrived in the pouring rain and prepared for our tour.  My preparation involved hitting the restroom one last time and slamming down some health food…a Snickers bar.

09_28_2009 006

09_28_2009 001

The tour is 2-3 hours in length and there are no tree-side rest areas along the way.  I suppose, since it was raining so hard, we probably did have some options but no one wanted to really go there when it came to going there.

09_28_2009 009

09_28_2009 014

So, we tied into our male-sterilizers…I mean harnesses and started the course.  It was breathtaking.  We whisked, platform to platform between what appeared to be ancient trees.  At first, we started at near ground level.  As we progressed slowly down the mountain, we quickly ended up in the tops of enormous hemlock and magnolia trees.  At the highest point, we were 85 feet off the ground in a tree…not the top of the tree, mind you.  It was far taller than that.

09_28_2009 016

09_28_2009 020 09_28_2009 024

Hemlock trees are being decimated by a beetle that destroys entire forests.  A portion of our tour fees goes to treating the trees to prevent their destruction.  After standing high up in the tree, I am pleased they are dedicated to preserving such beauty.  We could see all around.  There were “fields” or rhododendron and mountain laurel.  There were wild, rushing streams and rock formations formed long ago.  It was incredible and a bit spiritual for me.  It just felt like how life is supposed to be.  I mean, the ziplining was a blast, but I think I may have enjoyed just looking out through the forest and seeing nature.  The only noise was the sound of raining falling through the leaves (and down my back) and the rush of the streams.

WarrenZipline

(I am flying by…the photographer’s timing was good!)

So, as I mentioned, it sort of rained some….I think Noah once said that too.  Anyhow, my pictures aren’t great, but I don’t think they could begin to do this trip justice anyhow.  The Rivermen do a fantastic job and I can’t recommend them enough.  If you have an urge to get outdoors, to have a thrill, or just do something different, try ziplining in WV!

Falling

Nature, Thoughts,

Just as Summer felt like it got started in the last few weeks, here it is falling into Fall already.  We’re winding up the garden and lots of things are starting to just get that look.  I sort of hate that look.  I am a Spring and Summer creature.  I don’t really have the time of day for Fall or Winter.  I get the Winter blues and cabin fever and the croup and the grumps and the uglies in the Winter.

09_1_2009 017

I am not exactly sure what it is that signals Fall to me.  As I walked around the garden and yard this weekend, a few things just sort of struck me as Fall, but there is more to it than wooly worms (holy cow!  he’s all black…that means a bad Winter!), and corn husks.

09_1_2009 002

And why exactly does a grasshopper feel like Fall to me?  I suppose that is from the movie “A Bug’s Life” where the grasshoppers come in the Fall to steal the bounty of the ants.  Well, this grasshopper was huge.  I sort of had a tingle in the non-existent hairs on the back of my neck thinking he might be able to take me too.

09_1_2009 009

Anyhow, I suppose Fall is here and I will have to return to knitting and eating lots of soup to get me through the Winter.  Does it feel like Fall where you are?  What sorts of things make it feel as though Fall has fallen for you?

My Lucky Cricket

Nature, Technology,

I woke up this morning and the crickets were absolutely marvelous. There must have been a couple dozen of them, all chirping their own way. Their sounds were different and sort of surrounded me as I stepped outside.

Audio

(click to hear my crickets)

One of my favorite Disney movies is Mulan. I’ll leave you to find the details if you haven’t seen it. Anyhow, Mulan’s grandmother gives her a lucky cricket. The poor cricket goes through all sorts of things with Mulan and her “guardian dragon”. When things are at their worst, they all have a time of confession at which point the cricket admits he’s not really lucky. But really, they had gotten lucky over and over as the story progressed.

I was a bit of a pre-caffeine philosopher this morning, but it occurred to me, as I listened to the crickets, just how lucky I am. I have a great family, good health, incredible good looks, a good job, nice house, etc. I couldn’t really ask for more. I suppose I must be surrounded by lucky crickets…

My Shiitakes are fruiting!

Food, Nature,

I have always said that I never met a mushroom I didn’t like.  I guess I don’t like the ones that could kill me, but aside from that, I really dig mushrooms.  In some ways, I suppose I feel a certain kinship with mushrooms.  I am usually in the dark and they keep feeding me bull…well, you get the idea.

A friend of mine is a mushroom enthusiast and helped me inoculate several white oak logs with shiitake spores last summer.  Shiitakes have apparently only been grown outside of East Asia since 1982 so I am not too far behind the curve…I was at least alive in 1982!  Anyhow, the mushroom spores came mixed in a damp sawdust filled container.  We used a 1/2 inch spade bit to drill inch and a half deep holes all over the log and packed the spores into the holes.  I melted beeswax and covered the inoculated holes to seal in the mushroomy goodness.  I pitched the logs out behind my shed and waited.  Just this weekend, they started fruiting!

We used white oak logs because their bark apparently is best at remaining tight on the logs for a longer time than other tree varieties.  Over the past year, as the log decayed, the spores began to run through the log and finally fruit as they have taken hold.  The logs I inoculated are 4-8 inches in diameter and 2-4 feet long.  I expect that they will fruit for 2-10 years depending on how things go.  We’ve had such a wet spring and summer that I suppose they will fruit a lot this summer!  We’ll eat a bunch fresh but I will probably dry some for use over the winter.  For this kind of payoff, I can handle being in the dark a little!

Anyone else grow mushrooms?

Washboarding

Bees, Nature, ,


Bees are funny critters.  They seem so primitive in one way…in fact they are primitive having originated 35 million years ago.  But in another sense, they are incredibly advanced.  They communicate the location of food to each other through the “waggle dance”.  They live in community (uncommon for insects) and they know how to do laundry.

Well, they don’t really do laundry because bees are naked.  But if they wore clothes, they would know how to wash.  See, bees do this funny thing called washboarding.  In the bee world, washboarding is the term for when bees congregate on the outside of the hive in good numbers and appear to scrub the hive with their feet and tongues.  It’s sort of difficult to describe so make sure you see the video.


(if that video doesn’t work on your machine, please try this one)

Bees that exhibit washboarding are apparently happy bees.  The first time I saw it, I was sure that the bees were getting ready to swarm or attack my kids and wife, or maybe eat holes in the o-zone layer.  It turns out that washboarding bees are pretty docile, in fact.  I get mesmerized by watching their simple rhythmic behavior.  It seems that all of the bees work in unison.

So, if you ever see bees washboarding, consider that this 35 million year old species is doing laundry now and may be ready to take over the planet in another 35 million years!  They do appear to be benevolent so we may be ok though!

p.s.  I am heading to the beach for a week starting tomorrow.  This is how I feel:

See, you can tell by my exuberant “thumbs up” and my snazzy shirt!

I am tired…but I have raspberries

Garden, Nature,

I am tired.  I get plenty of sleep most days but my tired is a little more than that I think.  I am tired of running.  I am not one to usually chase after stuff so that’s not really it either.  I don’t know what it’s all about (aside from maybe I am crazy), but I am tired.

So, for awhile, I am going to take pictures of simple things that make me not-tired.  Kim over at Achorn Farm is who made me realize that simple stuff is the best stuff.  I’d love to hear if you have stuff that makes you not tired…

Anyhow, we have raspberries now!  They are really starting to give the berries and Abigail loves to pick them and feed them all to me.  Fortunately, I can eat raspberries all day long!

So, here is a simple thing that makes me un-tired…

Dandelion Wine

Food, Nature, Tinkering, ,

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was making homemade hooch but I didn’t say what type I was making.  It’s sort of a funny thing…Emily hates dandelions with a passion.  I don’t understand her issues with them but she goes around the yard picking the heads off of them all the time.  Occasionally she’ll dig the roots, but mostly she just wants the flowers out of sight.  Always one to see an opportunity, I asked her to save the dandelion heads she picked for a project I had in mind!

Wine can be made from all sorts of things including various flowers.  Most people have heard of dandelion wine, but wine can also be made from clover, roses, pansies, coltsfoot, and golden rod among others.  Anyhow, the real key to dandelion wine, is to use the flower petals and not anything green.  I picked a ton of dandelion heads and cut the petals off of them until I had 2 pints of dandelion petals.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you consider the sticky factor, you’ll understand the effort that went in to this project.  My fingers were very yellow and sticky and I left yellow fingerprints all over the place!

Anyhow, I kept remembering how tasty the last batch of dandelion wine was many years ago so I pressed on through the allergies and rainbow of colors on my fingers.  I wrapped the petals in cheesecloth so they would be manageable and started my brew!

In a big open pitcher, I added the petals, 6 pints of water, 3 Campden tablets, 3 lbs of white sugar (as an approximation…remember 2 cups a pound, the whole world round…2 cups of about anything weighs a pound),  1/3 oz of citric acid (taste some of that straight up sometime!), and yeast nutrients.  I let this mixture sit for 2 days in the container loosely covered to keep dust out.  After 2 days, I added champagne yeast and let it sit another day.  Finally, as it started to bubble, I moved everything but the pouch of petals to a fermentation vessel.  The bubbler on top allows the carbon dioxide to escape.  Of course, carbon dioxide is a by product of the yeast converting the sugar to alcohol.

Funny story time…I know someone who was creative and decided to forego the typical bubblers used for fermentation.  Really, the whole point is to allow a bit of CO2 to build up and then force its way out without allowing other contaminants back in.  Some folks take care of that issue by stretching a balloon across the mouth of the fermentation jar.  Well, being extra creative, this person stretched a balloon-like male birth control item over the jar lid.  Of course, this method would work just fine to allow the CO2 to escape.  I am not sure how I would feel about the CO2 building up and…uh…inflating the “balloon” though.  Anyhow, without thinking about it, this winemaker bought the variety with spermicide too.  Some folks say that too much drinking may lead to pregnancy, but I think this may be a solution!

Anyhow, now I have to wait a few months until all of the sugar is converted to alcohol or the alcohol content rises enough to kill the yeast.  Either way, the bubbling will stop and the wine will be ready to settle/age/bottle.  I’ll post more on that when the time comes.


(Here is a windows media version if the above doesn’t work)

In the meantime, I will certainly enjoy watching the bubbles rise through the murky yellow concoction.  It bubbles and fizzes like crazy, very similar to a bottle of pop when first opened!

Stuff that makes me smile

Nature, Thoughts,

You know, sometimes I just get home from work and I get a big smile on my face.  There are so many cool things going on during spring that I just can’t help myself.  Here are a few things that made me smile yesterday when I got home from work.


This color yellow…

This color purple…


And this color purple…

The smell of black locust blooms…the bees were enjoying as well of course.  Gosh, the smell is heavenly.  I wish I could share the scent in the air with you.  When I release my own perfume line, it will be called “Warren” of course, but will be the smell of black locust blooms!


We feed birds all sorts of seeds and suet cakes. This one female rose breasted grossbeak has learned to open the suet cage and help herself. She’s no dummy for sure. I smiled (out loud) when I saw her going to town with no impediment!


And finally, although this didn’t happen yesterday, Jim Carey almost always makes me smile!

Anyhow, what makes you smile?

Our litter bug

Family, Nature,


Abigail’s class had an assignment to make a litterbug in preparation for Earth Day.  The litterbug was to be constructed from recyclable items found around the house.  Lucky for us, all our recycling was sitting in a huge pile in the kitchen rather than being taken out by the road.  Abigail decided to make a fly so she gathered pieces and laid it out so we could plan.

I did the spray painting but she did the hand-painting and hot gluing.  Initially, we had planned to give the fly rigid legs so he could stand, but we couldn’t find anything good in our junk pile.  Instead, we decided to make him flyable.  We had just emptied out some old cough syrup so the empty bottle made a perfect handle.  So we constructed her litterbug and she flew it to school.  It occurs to me know though…I wonder if her litterbug will ever be recycled now?  I suppose if he makes it home, he will find his way to the recycle bin during one of our seasonal “hoe outs” where we run the kids out and then throw away everything in their rooms (shhhh…don’t tell).

The other cool thing the school did was to take Abigail’s class (and others?) to the movie theater to see Earth, the new Disney movie.  Abigail gave it 2 thumbs up so I figure we’ll all see it soon.

All this got me to thinking about how we might celebrate Earth Day.  I am not one to go hold hands and dance around a tree.  Still, I see the day as a neat time to consider what we might do to lessen our impact on things.  We have already changed to using all CFLs rather than incandescent lightbulbs.  We recycle or compost much of our waste and I stopped using gas powered lawn equipment.  I don’t mean to try to sound like Captain Earth or something, but I wonder what other things we ought to be doing to lessen our impact and live more sustainable.  

What sorts of things do you do to live more sustainably?

Maple sugar time!

Food, History, Nature, ,


We were in PA this weekend at my childhood home to visit my parents and celebrate my grandpa’s 95th birthday.  We got into all sorts of things with cousins and aunts and uncles, but one of my favorite things we did was help my dad make maple syrup.  Sometime a long time ago, when my brother and I were kids, we decided to make homemade maple syrup.  We lived in the woods and had ample maple trees all around and Dad had made syrup as a kid with his dad so we were set to start tapping our trees.

Sap begins to really flow in the late winter when the days are above freezing but the nights are still cold.  We usually tap trees in early to mid February and pull the taps when the trees begin to bloom (about now this year in PA).  Of course, sap will flow after that but one risks taking too much from the trees I suppose.  Maybe we just got too tired to go on at that point.  Anyhow,  to tap our trees, we would blunt the end of 1/2 inch pvc pipe, drill a hole slightly upward 1.5 or so inches into the tree and pound the tap (aka the pipe) into the hole in the tree.  It sounds pretty ugly I guess, pounding a pipe into a tree, but I promise it isn’t that bad or hard on the tree.

Sap will begin to drip from the pipe almost instantly.  Now when my brother and I were collecting the sap, we had 25 gallon barrels strapped to the side of the tree to collect it.  Well, maybe they weren’t that big but I truly believe some were 5 gallon pails.  I guess it makes sense when one has child labor to do the work.  My brother and I finally unionized.  It got pretty ugly there for awhile…you may have heard of the maple wars of 1983…yeah, that was us.  But we won and now my dad uses 1 gallon milk jugs that he ties to the trees.

We used to save the sap (it was always cool there…like a giant refrigerator) until the weekends.  Every Saturday, we would build an enormous and very hot fire and start the sap cooking.  Dad had a 55 gallon drum that we set on its side.  The lengthwise edge was cut off so we had a large trough in which to boil the sap.  I don’t remember how much we had in a typical week but we always had the barrel very nearly full and we added more as the sap cooked down.  If I recall correctly, 50-60 gallons of sap will cook down into about 1 gallon of syrup.  Wood cooked syrup has a definite maple, but somewhat smokey taste that is pretty awesome.  We saved it in mason jars and it typically lasted all year.

My Dad still taps a few trees each year though, now that the child labor is gone, they are closer to the house and far fewer in number.  He also cooks his sap in a turkey frier over a propane flame.  They used to heat the house with wood too…my brother and I chopped a powerful lot of wood growing up…funny how that changed too.  Anyhow, propane fired syrup has a much more mellow taste and the maple flavor is very pleasant (and wholly unlike the artificial stuff you buy in the stores).


It was such a thrill to once again go maple sugaring and this time, to take the kids along with me.  We tasted the sap, we ate some syrup, and we loved walking in the woods.