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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Recently I went away to the North Shore of Massachusetts. I heard a familiar sound I haven’t heard in about 10 years; The sound of raindrops in the forest on a sunny day. Obviously no rain, but instead falling leaf particles from munching caterpillars busyContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I was burning a large brush-pile over the weekend & witnessed something bizarre. As I was raking the un-burned brush towards the interior where the flames were, I noticed a garter snake. Instead of slithering away from me into the surrounding high weeds, heContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Installed a Canopy Bird Feeder on my own property near the driveway. For CFA, we put these up for members high up in a tree and attached to a far outstretching branch to make it harder for bears & squirrels to steal seed from.Continue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? The Apple Tree Grafting season is fast approaching its end. We might get an extra 2 weeks into May with the extended winter back in April. Had the chance to prune one apple tree earlier this winter & then return to it last week &Continue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Found some photos from last year during this time. We grafted a member’s apple trees on almost the same day in May of 2017. Note the difference in “green” & the flowering apple tree from last year & the lack of much of anythingContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I was lucky enough to visit a member’s bradford pear tree a few days ago that was grafted with an ‘Asian Pear’ scionwood or cutting. These pears seem to grow faster than anything else so far. We had to put in a stake toContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Spring? “Is it coming you ask?” The trees seem anxious to begin. A little rise in temperatures over the weekend surged bud break. My pears and a few apples began bursting. Red maples are popping over many parts of the Catskills. I picked myContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? The Apple Tree Pruning season is over for us at CFA, but don’t forget about next year. There were a few trees this year that we saw quite a bit of uprooting or branch-failure due to heavy snow and wet conditions. Underneath all thatContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I’m glad the snow is receding & this time it’s not because of the more obvious reasons like plowing, shoveling, salting, etc. Snow blindness or medically speaking photokeratitis is a temporary loss of vision due to overexposure to the sun’s rays. I’ve never been oneContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Just yesterday I was cutting a dead leader out of a large sugar maple tree hanging over someone’s house & out came 8 flying squirrels, one after the other. They scurried up the leader & then flew literally 30 plus yards to a neighboringContinue Reading