Beautiful birches: How to differentiate 5 birch types in Poconos | PoconoRecord.com

Beautiful birches: How to differentiate 5 birch types in Poconos | PoconoRecord.comAre you forever getting your birches mixed up? This article may help. We have a lot of what you may call "White Birch" in our nearby woods. In spite of being very white in color, these trees are actually "Gray Birch." The true White Birch grows to the North, generally, though I"ve seen a few specimens here and there in cold pockets of this forest.

Wood Burning Tips for a Happy Hearth

That warm flickering flame is a comfort, something that ignites the ancient DNA in all of us, descended from the early people who, bedecked in animal skins, gathered around the warmth of the hearth. Click on the headline to read a review about a real-life experience with a wood-burning stove.

Wood Burning Tips for a Happy Hearth - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Black Bear's Killing of Pennsylvania Woman Raises Questions - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Black Bear's Killing of Pennsylvania Woman Raises Questions - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Amy’s Journal » Blog Archive » Questions about Acorn Squashes

Amy’s Journal » Blog Archive » Questions about Acorn SquashesFinally, the great Acorn Squash mystery is solved, thanks to this bright-eyed California blogger and her one-eyed dog.

Ryobi Four-Ton Electric Log Splitter Review - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Ryobi Four-Ton Electric Log Splitter Review - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

How to Grow Dill, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content

How to Grow Dill, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content

Mosquito Repellents Stress Me Out-Why That's a Good Thing - Associated Content

Mosquito Repellents Stress Me Out-Why That's a Good Thing - Associated Content

Healthy Cookware#slide_1

Healthy Cookware#slide_1This article is a departure for me. While I'm a passable cuisine artiste, I've messed up many of our pots and pans by misuse and ignorance. Here's the definitive article from the Martha Stewart web site.

Martha Stewart and Julia Childs are two of the world's greatest women, IMHO.

Gardening 101: How to get a soil test

Pittsburgh Gardening Scene Examiner 101: How to get a soil testI have to say I need to do this. I think of it every year and then don't. It's like needing a map when you're lost--you hate to use one. I have to think of myself as a master gardener completely without help from science. No matter that, without science, I would probably starve or freeze to death. Anyway, here's the deal for getting a soil test--how much it costs, etc..

"Julie and Julia" : New Film Ignites Interest in Julia Child Biography - Associated Content

"Julie and Julia" : New Film Ignites Interest in Julia Child Biography - Associated Content

Financial Incentives for Installing a Windmill on Your Farm - Associated Content

Financial Incentives for Installing a Windmill on Your Farm - Associated ContentHere's an appealing and expensive idea...interesiting all the same.

How to Fry Zucchini and Serving Suggestions - Associated Content#comments

How to Fry Zucchini and Serving Suggestions - Associated Content#comments

Some City Folk Are Mad as Wet Hens When Chickens Come Home to Roost - WSJ.com

Some City Folk Are Mad as Wet Hens When Chickens Come Home to Roost - WSJ.comAre you thinking of raising chickens? Lots of people are. Here's a story from the Wall Street Journal which is worth reading--for fun and business...

Garden Bears Inspection

Animated Garden Ornaments Create Excitement

Pennsylvania Monsoons Stimulate Deer Population

I don’t know what it is about this season, but the deer are eating plants that they normally aren’t much interested in. We’ve had plenty of rain and there’s plenty of new growth. I’m thinking of calling our joint the Emerald Isle Ranch—something like that. Leaves and grasses are prolific and the streams are swollen. Yet, the deer are eating things like Astilbe—only the flowers, however. They’re also munching on the Holly leaves, something the deer will readily do in winter but this is the first time I’d seen it in summer. The oddest thing of all is that they’re eating the tiger lilies and the coreopsis, usually nipping the tenderest parts, the buds.

I’m not angry at the deer and like them very much, enough to be willing to share our plants with them. I do have some pretty excellent deer repellant, made of an organic compound, but I’ve been hesitant to spray it because it hasn’t stopped raining. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re having a regular monsoon season.

But it’s nice to see the little fawns in spring, even though they are plant predators. The deer are one of the happiest things about Pennsylvania, second only to the variety of plant life. There is an article I wrote for Associated Content which may be of interest. Take a look at it by clicking on the headline of this article. Or pop it into your URL line.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/978654/ten_deer_resistant_plants_for_deer_pg2.html?cat=32

Easy DIY Project to Protect Young Trees from the String Trimmer - Associated Content

Easy DIY Project to Protect Young Trees from the String Trimmer - Associated ContentThis is an article I wrote for another site about a totally cheap, easy, and effective DIY project to protect young trees from the string trimmer and the lawn mower. Once in a while something I invent actually works....

Swing Set

 

Early Summer Scene

 

I'd gone to a Cezanne and Beyond Exhibit in the big city--the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as a matter of fact. Naturally, you will see the Matisse/Cezanne/Kweigand influences...

Old Mill Pond

 

Appropos of nothing, I took a picture of this old wheat mill which operates by means of a water wheel. I missed this years opening but I've been to it before. It's a tremendous maze of wood, iron, and water wheels. The water makes use of early technology to take in the corn, grind it, move it alone, refine it further, bring it upstairs, drop it downstairs, back up again where it moves along a trough and is put into burlap bags. Our ancestors were almost as smart as we are, I've discovered.

The mill is beautiful, ingenious, and was capable of being operated with only one man.