Old, New and Old

Last week my wife and I were camping in the woods of North Central Wisconsin.  While there we met up with some family were fortunate to hike part of a unique wooded area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The UP hike was suggested by my brother Joe.  Most all of the forests in the upper Midwest were clear cut in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  As reported by the Wisconsin College of Agriculture and Life Sciences "most big trees had been cut down by the 1930's." We are now, in many areas, a hundred or more years distant of the logging that clear-cut much of the upper Midwest.  However, work by the hand of man, and the hand of nature old-growth forest habitat is starting to once again reappear. 

If one thing is clear about old-growth forests it is the many varied thoughts on what actually constitutes an old-growth forest.  Doing some searches I was surprised to find little consensus on the meaning of old-growth forest.  That is probably due to variability.  What is known, is that an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest is different from that in the Midwest, and even within the Midwest an Ash forest may be mature at about 40 years, but a Sugar Maple forest would still be rather young.  Some traits of an old-growth forest seem consistent.  After a decade of study of about 50 forest areas, a University of Wisconsin group determined two main elements to old-growth forests: "the size and distribution of gaps in the forest canopy and coarse woody debris-sizable logs-on the forest floor."    Gaps in the canopy are caused when a tree falls creating an opening in the overall canopy,a nd the large wood debris that would lay on the forest floor.  This provides for the addition of more light into the forest floor that enhances growth of young vegetation and lower growing plants.

As the Amazon burns those of us in the developed world wonder about the loss of the old-growth forest.  Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris cannot be built back to what it originally was due to France, and Europe, lacking the large timbers for roof framing.  But, the importance of old-growth forests is more than the size and breadth of the the trees.  Importance also lies in its biodiversity in a world seemingly bent on mono-culture.   But benefits go well beyond the diversity of flora and fauna.  Such downed logs allow the fungi and mosses to grow and multiply.  Forest cover also assists in breaking down some  air pollutants, it provides quality to soils, through the decay of the debris layer, which also works to improve water infiltration and filtration.

In some respects, nature can be very resilient, but I suspect there are limits.  Perhaps like a person, nature can be pushed too far and there is likely a point of no return.  The University of Wisconsin is working on recreating an old growth forest in part of the Flambeau River State Forest.  The UW had loggers cut trees only to let them then reside of the forest floor. I suppose it was difficult for a logger, and most anybody, to see good trees being laid on the forest floor.  The UP, the site we visited is seemingly on its way to a more natural recreation of an old-growth forest with little human intervention.

The land we walked in the UP had been part of the Ottawa National Forest, but, showing the oddities of government, the US Forest Service, upon request in 2009 by a private land owner, traded for this parcel and some other land and in exchange the Forest Service received land from that owner that had just been logged.  The Northwoods Alliance, of which my brother Joe is a director, was unsuccessful in fighting the swap, but their perseverance paid off in that the new owner has provided the opportunity for the Alliance to to purchase that property.  As my brother says, being tenacious opened up opportunities.  It is hard to believe the Forest Service would allow such land to move out of the public trust into private hands.  The Northwoods Alliance now faces the hard part-- obtain the necessary funds for the project and then turn it into a community forest.

Hikers to WIldcat Falls on a cloudy, cool summer day in the UP

This parcel, however, is more than a forest in transition to old-growth, it also contains a water fall, known as Wildcat Falls, and rock formations which one geologist said appear to be pre-cambrian rock, which in some situations may be covered with some glaciated sediment rock.   The waterfall sits among a jumble of large rocks seemingly randomly strewn about by the hand of God or the forces of nature.  While the falls sits on Scott and Howe Creek, it appears almost out of nowhere, as above the falls is not only a small stream, but the water to the falls is also fed by groundwater channeled among the layers of bedrock and the soft soil layer that moves to the touch created through the years by the detritus of the forest.

Forests, however, are having a hard time regenerating due to the prevalence of certain animals, particularly deer.  There is also invasive species of earthworms and now jumping worms, to name but two.  When the ecosystem is upset the circle of regeneration is significantly affected.  My brother and his wife own a some large acreage on a lake in Northern Wisconsin, and few birch trees grow due to deer eating the young saplings.  With so many deer landowners are turning to exclosures to keep the deer out, but such fencing is expensive.  Few pines even find the ability to regenerate.  That makes success stories like the area around Wildcat Falls all the more important.

The waterfall and rock formations within the larger context of a developing old-growth forest certainly adds to the diversity and richness of the landscape. Hidden gems in a broader local and regional landscape covered with trees and lakes. Yes, the signs of an emerging or now young old-growth forest are present--the hummocks of downed trees home to wildlife and wildflowers, the hanging trees that fell in a storm no longer to reach their height, but instead rotting to provide another chapter in the life of the forest. Old-growth forests are coming back into existence after 100 or more years after clear cutting.  This shows resilience of nature in a time when the landscape was pushed to the limits.

For more on the Northwoods Alliance Wildcat Falls project, readers can see this website.

Sources:
 https://grow.cals.wisc.edu/deprecated/environment/the-new-old-forest

 http://www.partnersinforestry.com/Documents/Wildcat%20Falls%20Community%20Forest%20Concept%2004-2018.pdf

 Photos by author on Wildcat Falls hike, August 22, 2019

Farm Girl

In the lexicon of our culture there are distinctions between farm girl and city girl.  Sometimes each term can be a source of pride or it can be derisive.  When one thinks of differences between urban and rural, the movie "Footloose" can provide some stereotypical reference.  For part of her life my wife grew up on a small hobby farm where chickens and cows were raised.    She participated in the varied farm chores: feeding animals, cleaning stalls or cages, gathering eggs, and of course in the slaughtering of the chickens.  The cows, I believe were slaughtered elsewhere.

Damage to sun gold tomatoes caused by Hornworm

She has carried this farm girl mentality over to suburban life.  Of course she is a great cook and seamstress, quilter, but those may not be traits solely related to farm personnel.  Related to baking all pies she makes are home made including the crust.  All her cakes are also homemade.  She cans and puts up varied preserves, mainly tomatoes. I don't even have to get into her sewing and quilting capabilities.   Let me explore a few areas where her farm girl mentality assists with household chores in the suburbs of Madison, WI this summer.

More damage

She is not against mowing the yard, or at least part of it.  One time this year I was at a meeting and the power drive on the mower broke and she mowed the whole lower yard with a power drive that did not work.  It is much harder to push a power drive mower in this instance than one that is not a power drive mower.  Not only that, but she watched a You-tube video to get the power drive repaired.  Without the video it would have been hard to figure out how to access the screws and parts that needed to come off for it to be repaired.  Unfortunately when I got home and started to mow the rest of the yard, the belt broke.  I completed mowing and then called a proprietor  to find the belt and asked them to hold it for me and I would be there in about 20 minutes. While I was gone she had most of the necessary assemblage apart ready for me and the new belt. The video she found came in handy to take apart the system to replace the belt.

Hormworm

But where she most shines is with rodents. Rodents make many women and some men squeamish.  For example, we are trapping mice and she has no problem taking them out of the traps and dropping them into small plastic bags.  She grabs the mouse with the bag on her hand uses the other hand to release the mechanism, and pulls the mouse away and turns the bag inside out so to speak to complete  the quick movement and tie shut the bag  She uses bags in which the newspaper is delivered.  She takes it upon herself to set and monitor the traps.  As I write this she is complaining of critters that eat the peanut butter and bird seed mix off and set off the trap, meaning she has to reset it once again.  The critters have developed an art form of doing so.  Of course, she is not often pleased by the mice, such as the gnawing of our shutter by the bedroom window which I wrote about here. That is why we are now trapping them. Critters can cause chaos.

Farm girl's index finger to show length of hormworm,
true farm girl did not get squeezy at being next to it

But, there are more pests than rodents.  Together we harvest the garden, although I do most all of the tilling and planting.  We also harvest the Japanese beetles which take over and destroy roses, ruin raspberries, and other plants.  She thinks it gross when I pick off a Japanese beetle and squish it between my fingers to end its invasive life.  I have done that very little this year, since someone told me that such beetles are attracted to the wretched scent of a dead beetle.  I am not sure if that is true, but anything to help reduce the number or impact of the Japanese beetles to the flora of our yard I am willing to try.

Size of sun gold tomato

Last week Sunday we were up harvesting tomatoes, squash and cucumbers from the garden when I noticed the sun gold tomatoes I planted were clipped off at the top.  The main Roma tomatoes were not affected.  We, chalked it up to possibly deer liking the sun gold plants more than the Roma plants.  The next morning we are again up in the garden and looking at a number of the fruits of the sun gold tomatoes which had been significantly devoured.  Quite different from the plant top being eaten.   So we started to look to see what caused the damage.  First noticed were large droppings on the leaves of the plants, and significantly more damage to the tomato plant.

They were not easy to remove, like held in place by a suction

It did not take long for me to notice a giant caterpillar, While she stayed in the garden I went to the house and did an internet search to find out the type of caterpillar.  It was a Hornworm caterpillar. The thing was huge, particularly compared to the butterfly caterpillar we noticed last week.   I started walking up the garden and told her she should pull it off  as I found out it is destructive to tomatoes.   She said "eww", as in yuck, and shivered, moving her arms as they dangled. We had our culprit--this large caterpillar was engorging itself and doing a great job of destroying our sun gold plant and its sweet fruit, but she found it too yucky to pick off.  I was surprised at the reaction of my farm girl.  I went up and pulled it off and two more she had located.  Although I did use gloves, which if I don't add she will get on my back for having omitted.  I guess I have found that my farm girl has limits.

My Farm Girl

So, the yuck limit of my farm girl, in terms of fauna, is a hornworm.  She even plucks spiders, but will not crush them as I am known to do.  I suspect if she had gloves she would have plucked them off the tomato plant, but yet this is the first time I recall seeing such a reaction from her.   Although,  I had to remove the rabbit that got stuck up in the dryer after coming in through the dryer vent.  I have yet to see limits on my farm girl when it comes to my favorite past time which is eating the food she cooks, bakes, or makes.  I may have had to suggest that she do the the first raspberry pie this year, but she has made at least two more since, including one when we celebrated her birthday.  (A raspberry pie is too important to leave to my abilities.)  All of course, with homemade crusts.  She is not Ariel, but perhaps more like Rusty, in the 1984 movie "Footloose."  Yes, I appreciate and love my farm girl.  After all, but for her what would have I written about in this week and last, and many times in the past? 

Noises Outside

It was the middle of the night and I was in a nice sound sleep.  My sleep, however, was disturbed as I was awakened by the noise of a window being opened at three in the morning.  My first thought was, we have the air conditioner on, why is she ("she" being the wife), opening a window?!   In a groggy state I asked her what she is doing, and she said she heard an animal scratching at the outside, and asked if I had heard it.  No, I said, I did not hear it.   At the same time I was thinking, but I heard you opening the window.   I have heard similar proclamations from her before this incident, but I don't recall her opening a window at three in the morning.  When she opened the window, she said, the sound stopped.

To aid additional air movement, we use a fan in the room, and I wondered how she heard a scratching noise over the noise of the fan.  I then said something about not worrying about it and get back to bed.  My wife turns off the fan and tells me to listen.  A little while later I hear some slight scratching.  Perhaps it is a squirrel trying to find a place to bury some food I say, like in our newly covered front gutter.   I turn over and try to get back to sleep.  My wife then says, "I wonder how long it will take for it to cut into the house?"  If she worries like that about a small animal you can imagine how much she worries about our two sons.  I had some fun with this comment, to which she responded "It will not be funny when they are nibbling on your toes."  Her comment on a rodent entering the house may be more a derision of current building materials where vinyl siding, styro-foam insulation, fiberglass insulation (between studs), a plastic vapor barrier, and drywall create the cross section of modern home construction, over a rodent's ability to cut its way in to a house.  I responded for her to  go back to sleep and we can look at in the morning.  At least this was not a wild goose chase as other attempts to find the creature.

This is not the first time I have been awakened by her hearing noises, which she rightfully believes I think are more imagined than real.  One time, perhaps years ago, I went outside and took a flash light to see if I could see an animal on the roof by our bedroom.  To keep out rodents from behind the siding, many years ago I placed some spray foam in the vertical trim piece (and then drilled in a drainage hole) to avoid mice getting up the trim piece, as we had seen occur.  I am not sure any home is fully rodent proof.   The night earlier this week I wondered if a squirrel was on the roof and trying to dig up our newly installed gutter protection. 

When our house was re-roofed about fifteen years ago, due to hail damage, I had a no clog system provided by the roofer put on the back gutters, but its high profile dissuaded me from having it placed on the front gutters.  So, four or five times a year I made the journey up onto the roof to clean out the front gutters.  It is amazing how fast debris finds its way into the gutters.  My wife did not like me getting on the roof to clean the gutters, so most often I would do it when my wife was away.  Now that we are retired I had to put up with her barrage of getting a gutter protection system installed. Well, this year, after prodding, and more prodding, and even more prodding, I took the plunge and the leaf filter system was installed last week.

My wife has not only heard noises upstairs but also in or near the chimney, and even in the family room wall shared with the garage.  I had a tendency to shrug it off, but she was always quick to obtain verification from one or both of our sons.  Both of our sons indicated they had heard the noise by the chimney.  She did this to prove to me that she is not crazy.  I think it was this past spring when I too heard noise by the chimney and I went outside the following day to check the caulk of the fireplace vent, and the vertical siding trim pieces.  I could see a wasp nest built where some of the caulk had come out by the fireplace vent, so I cleaned that and re-caulked.  I put a nice big thick bead of caulk to assure proper sealant around the vent.

Back to the main story.  With the outside noise that night earlier this week my wife said my snoring was preferable to  hearing the animal scratching outside.  Can I take some solace knowing that my wife finds some comfort when I snore?  Probably not, but for least least in that one instance. She usually knocks me and I then stop.   I am not sure how many times she opened the window that night, but she told me the following morning that the noise had been bothersome to her since 10:30 pm.  The following morning I went for my walk and when I got back she said she said she saw a small pile of plastic by the outside house wall along the drip edge and to find the source she took four of the six screws off the shutter and pulled it away from the house where she noticed where most likely a  mouse had chewed into part of the plastic support on the backside of the decorative plastic shutter.  I scolded her for getting on the roof, and she told me that she was able to reach all screws while still in the bedroom.  I crawled out of the window onto the porch roof, doing what she does not like me to do, took the other two screws off and cleaned the back of the shutter of old wasp nests and other debris and washed the vinyl siding.  We then put a mouse trap right below the window to attempt to avoid a mouse, or whatever small animal, from getting behind the shutter. I have realized that sounds made by such a rodent must be amplified in the night. Kinda of like how much more you can hear car traffic in the early morning, as the background noise is much less.

 A day later during a light rain we were sitting on the front porch reading, and we heard something that sounded like it was crawling above our heads on the aluminum material that makes up the ceiling of the porch.  It would be quite a journey to investigate this area.  I would need to crawl though the garage access panel and then travel to the opposite end of the house along and between varied joists.  I chose not undertake the journey. In 29 years of owning the house, I have looked up above the garage ceiling, but have never attempted to get up above the ceiling, much less walk above it.

Perhaps some day I will change my mind and see what I can find in the space above the porch.  Although, I may have to do it when my wife is gone.  In that space, will I find the hole of a rodent digging into our bedroom? Will the hole be but a short distance from the rodent being capable of  nibbling on my toes?  Just asking these questions may force my wife to get me up into that precarious space.

Photos by author, Aug 2-19.  In a contrast to a discussion about rodents, I chose photos of flowers and more pleasing wildlife for this post.

"You have My Sympathy"

Many would call the events going on in our world today rather bizarre.  I could provide a discourse on varied economic, natural, political, social and cultural to animate the thesis. yet, in my mind one occurrence this week proves the point in spectacular fashion.   My wife and I arrived in Door County for a three night camping trip to Door County this past Monday.  (Of course, we had typical Hovel family camping weather with thunderstorms on Monday "and again on Wednesday mid afternoon into evening and end of daylight.  All of you desiring rain can thank us, and to the majority who feel the intense storms are getting out of hand can take up a contribution for us to not go camping.  A nice two week stretch of weather  broke with our going camping this Monday.   We did have nice weather in Door County on Tuesday, after it cleared in mid-morning, and of course on Thursday when we left the Peninsula State Park Campground.)  But back to our topsy turvey world.  One statement can well do to prove this point of a bizarre upside down world.

Second story and light tower of Pottawatomie Light House

The main reason for our camping trip to Door County was to visit acquaintances from McFarland who are docents for this week at the Pottawatomie Light House on Rock Island.  Rock Island is about 975 acres in size and is a state park.  Many years ago, before it was purchased by an industrialist (who had the first patent on a million watt transformer) it contained some small fishing areas.  With its rocky limestone based soil, it was not good for general agriculture.  After a while the fishermen migrated to Washington Island which had better harbors. To get to the island one has to take a ferry from the mainland tip of Door County, near Gills Rock, to Washington Island, and then either bike or drive several miles to the opposite corner that is northeast corner of Washington Island to take a passenger only ferry to Rock Island.  Well, we happened to find out that my youngest sister and her husband were also in Door County at the same time.  They too wanted to see Rock Island and we together made the uphill trudge of about 30 minutes to the Pottawatomie Light House on the northwest corner of Rock Island.

Looking  NNW from light house

The light house docents this week is by a couple we know from McFarland.   Restored and operated by the Friends of Rock Island, the Friends group takes applications for docents to man the light house and provide tours during the summer from 10 am to 4 pm each day.  The docents live in the light house during the week.  In the summer kitchen of the light house the first docent provided introductory and background remarks.  The second docent provided a tour of the light house.  The docents were surprised to see us and during the tour when the second docent found out that my youngest sister and her husband were with us he said to her "You have my sympathy.

Me, my wife, my youngest sister and her husband at door from
summer kitchen to dining room of the light house

Those readers how know the docents can figure out which docent was the second.  He may well be one of the few who can out-talk my sister.  This more than any other discourse proves the bizarre state of the world in which we live.  In my mind, and I am sure in many others, the statement should be made to me and not her.  Between the two of us,  I am more quiet and reserved and she is, well,  high-spirited.  To provide one example of her high spirited nature, when she and her husband attended a circus performance at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, a one year old seated in front of her turned around to watch her reactions and not the performance. That is, a one year old was more amused by my youngest sister than by the circus.  Although this too may show the state of our world.  And, of course, knowing the second docent it is all in fun.  He liked to provide small trivia, as William Howard Taft getting stuck in his bathtub.  Although, I noted to the docent that William Howard Taft also served us Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.  He was appointed to this position in 1921 several years after his term as president.  The light house is restored to 1912, and William Howard Taft was president at that time, and so his picture hangs in the light house.  Hence the docent story on William Howard Taft. 

With the Docents

It was a beautiful day to tour part of Rock Island.  It is a several mile hike around the island, and perhaps at some point it would be nice to do.  Here is, at least to me an interesting geographic fact, (although my wife asked why it is important):  Rock Island is actually further east than the west boundary of Florida.  To my wife this would be trivial, but to me it is interesting.  At least the docent did not say to my wife, about me, "you have my sympathy."  

Butterflies

I think it is safe to say that many people will find most insects to be, well a turn off.  Many do not like spiders, and then there is is the state insect which bothers everyone to no end--the mosquito.  Come to think of it, I suspect the joke for most states is that the mosquito is the state insect.  Or of course, the Japanese Beetle.  Yet, most all appreciate some members of  the insect family, like the dragon fly.  Then there is the butterfly.  

Echinacea in our back flowerbed

The butterfly is at once both graceful and peripatetic.  They travel thousands of miles, and have been hard  hit by climate change in Mexico, and by loss of habitat in the United States.  Our agriculture has become such a mono-culture, and heavily mechanized that the habitat for butterflies, bees and other pollinators is being quickly pushed aside.  People are now encouraged to plant pollinators.  In my home garden for its almost 29 years it has been planted with a number of pollinator plants, and we judiciously use herbicides and pesticides (generally organic on flowers and ornamentals)  to avoid contamination to the pollinators.  Of the varied pollinators, I think we could most all agree that the butterfly is perhaps the neatest.  I don't think one needs to take my word for it, the evidence is in our cultural holdings.  For example, for about a month Olbrich Gardens in Madison now has its butterfly exhibit in its large glass enclosed Boltz Conservatory. 

Insect on a decorative thistle

Caterpillar on bottom of milkweed at Rotary Gardens

My wife and I visited Olbrich on Monday, but not for the butterfly exhibit, but to see the gardens since the last time we were there we got rained out.  The parking lot was packed and as I tried to find a spot I realized it must be for the butterfly exhibit.  There were not that many ini the gardens themselves.  They have real butterflies in Boltz, brought up as a chrysalis from South America to hatch in the conservatory.  They also have other exhibits for children on butterflies in another part of the building.  Olbrich is, however, outdone by the Milwaukee Public Museum which has a year around butterfly exhibit.  It is a fascinating to hear the story of a chrysalis to a butterfly at the MPM.  We do not see such exhibits for yellow jackets, or other bees, much less spiders.  Although my last visit to the MPM, last fall, they had information on pollinators.

Butterfly on rose decimated by Japanese Beetle

This past week while at Olbrich and a next day trip to Rotary Gardens in Janesville, we saw many butterflies around the varied flowers.  We also had pointed out to us a caterpillar on the bottom side of a leaf in the Rotary Gardens Alpine area that will turn to a chrysalis that will become a monarch butterfly.  The caterpillar is from the egg of a monarch.  Such is the circle of life.  

Dragon Fly art work at Rotary Gardens

What is difficult I found is trying to get photos of the monarch.  In my yard most every time I tried to get a photo, it would fly away.  I would get within eight feet, it would fly away.  So while I see some grace in the butterfly, he way it moves in the air, the patience it has when it eats (when I am at a distance), and then not the least it being a sign of the resurrection of Christ--a different type of grace, if you will.  

It took patience to get this photo of a monarch on a zinnia in our Rosebed

I also found that butterflies can be a metaphor for people.  Last week I was looking at flowers in my south flower bed and I noticed two butterflies.  One sitting patiently on a flower (interestingly, I was able to get close, but did not have a camera), and the other flying around, landing, and then getting up to fly around again, to land, again, but only to get up and fly around again. A pattern consistently repeated.  It struck me that this is a metaphor for me and my wife.  I am sure the reader knows which of us sits patiently and which one moves around.