Think I can find it? Thursday, Aug 4 2011 

Yellow Mountain acairfearann 09:04

c.1883, Sarah L. Jones

“a very …. old… dilapidated house, well to the west/sic. should be east/ as the road turns …. to the north, indicates the former residence of Eli Merrill,Sr. and his uncle, Joseph Merrill, 2d…. Within the memory of Mr. Eli J. Merrill, who now owns this old farm, there stood, about twelve rods east of the house, a monument, set there at the early survey of the town to mark the geographical center of New Hartford. The monument consisted of stones laid up, with a stake in the center. It was the orginal intention to locate the meeting house near this point, but upon examination, the ground was thought to be too low and wet, so the stake was pitched on higher ground to the north, near the present Town Hill church.”

Somewhere up there, I have a dubious sketch map as well so I know about where it might be….in a very soggy tangled thicket I believe….

 

Plant a Sugar Maple Tuesday, Aug 2 2011 

Landscapes acairfearann 11:45

I write this looking across a July hayfield at the old hedgerows.  We had a good winter, after a year of drought, but last year’s damage is apparent.  Many of the maples are already the olive green of late summer and many show crown die-back. 

The sugar maples planted two centuries ago are dying, by the thousand.  As New England as the stone walls they line, these giants were planted along the roads and walls as multi-purpose trees.  They produced shade, but they also produced maple syrup.  Planting them along the road made accessing the buckets very easy and in southern New England where every inch of land was cleared for agricultural use, devoting an entire hillside to a sugar bush made no economic sense.  The space by the walls and roads, however, was there for the taking.   But unlike the northern sugar bushes these lines were not interplanted with young trees on a fifty year cycle.  Maple syrup was never a major commercial product, and the roadside trees produced more than enough for local consumption. 

Thousands of sugar maples were planted between 1760-1830. These even aged (in general a line was planted all of a piece) stands are stressed by the combination of development, pollution, road paving and widening, and the stress of not being in a forest situation (paradoxically the forest competition means the sugar maple, a forest tree par excellence, is generally better balanced root to crown and so more tolerant of extreme weather fluctuations such as drought when it is in the woods.  Many of the hedgerow maples are quite literally to big for their own good).

We will see the death of these giants, but we could give new giants to our children’s children.  Plant a sugar maple. (if in northeast N. America that is!)

 

Kennedy and Nero Monday, Aug 1 2011 

Historic Photos acairfearann 13:07

Kennedy Creevey and Nero

Kennedy and Nero (a Great Dane) watching feed corn being processed as silage at the dairy barn, summer 1910

 

Waste lands Sunday, Jul 31 2011 

Landscapes acairfearann 12:30

Waste: from the latin ‘vastus’; meaning barren, abandoned, uncultivated

Technically, road sides are waste lands in the sense that they are abandoned by man; though, paradoxically, no other piece of land is passed by more people.  And yet, in late July there are few things more casually joyous than what can happen to them.  Consider the symphony of orange ditch lilies, white Queen Anne’s lace, smoke-blue chicory, dusky-rose Joe- Pye weed, gold grass underlaid by green, and the trees silver in the wind against the blue sky.   The hand of man lies carelessly and heavily on the roadside, yet beauty is there in the wastelands.

 

Seasonal waterfalls Thursday, Jul 28 2011 

Yellow Mountain acairfearann 19:12

We went up the mountain today to walk the property lines, always a worthy endeavour.  In addition to bear, coyote, deer and turkey sign, and a little orange newt that absolutely refused to move; we came across a rather interesting seasonal waterfall.  Located in the southeast corner, the stream drains a small bowl; we only happened across it because the actual property line (when not lost) is just below the four foot tall rock face that it goes down across.  Once you have seen it, it is obvious due to the lack of forest debris and the profusion of moss.  The recent thunderstorm also made the stream’s path clear.  But so easy to miss if one walks ten feet to either side.  What one doesn’t know!

 

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