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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Sometimes the maple season comes to a halt because the day-time temperatures aren’t warm enough. Sometimes, it’s because the evening temperatures are too warm; Both conditions cause the sap to stop flowing. Sometimes the season stops due to a lack of energy on theContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? My sapwood pile has noticeably shrunk with all this maple sap boiling, which makes me wonder how much wood my little evaporator eats to spit out some maple syrup. Well, so far it’s roughly 1/2 cord to 5 gallons of syrup. “Sapwood” consists ofContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Welcome to late winter. Late winter is that time of year when it seems like we get more snow; perhaps it’s the mixing of warm/cold fronts that brings in more precipitation? I’m not sure. I know it’s also late winter when the chickens beginContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Went for a walk yesterday near Dry Brook in Arkville & lo & behold I reached for a hemlock branch on the side of the road & found something disturbing. Unfortunately, it was infected by Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). I found some years agoContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Not necessarily “in the forest” but kind of. Went for a walk while my truck was getting fixed in Kingston yesterday. Always see some really interesting trees there. I saw one beautiful white oak with huge, outstretching “out-riggers” for limbs over a house. IContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Tapped a sycamore tree last week; that’s right, a sycamore. It ran about a gallon or so. Tested its sugar content & it was a whopping 0.5%; that means it takes about 171 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of sycamore syrup. HopefullyContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Just beginning to collect scionwood (apple cuttings) for CFA’s upcoming Apple Tree Grafting Program. Been down @ Schoonmaker’s Farm in Accord, Ulster County; these are some hard-working people generous enough to let me take some cuttings; they have a great farm stand too (SaunderskillContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? When temperatures are this cold, my woodpile seems to noticeably shrink each day. Temperatures have been sub-zero for a few days now in a row. Before apparently warming up, temperatures are supposed to dip to -10 or lower in the higher elevations. Makes youContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Cut down a Fraser fir for a Christmas tree a couple weeks ago at Bell’s Christmas Tree Farm in Accord, Ulster County. Some of these trees are over 10 years old. The amount of care that goes into these trees each year (for manyContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Been busy making some “Doe-essence” soap for Christmas this year. Deer fat may not “melt in your mouth” like beef or pork fat does, but is seems to make a pretty hardy soap. Just make sure to render that fat first & have someContinue Reading