I have been remiss in not posting something about the newest residence in Plummer’s Hollow, which was completed a little less than a year ago. But my procrastination has paid off, and now you can read the whole story, and look at the photos, in my mom’s latest Pennsylvania Game News column, The Green House.
As you’ll see, we had the house built over at the old McHugh place to minimize its footprint. “Green” features include passive solar design, a geothermal heating and cooling system, and insulation made from blue jeans. We are delighted to have Troy and Paula Scott as neighbors, caretakers, and — as noted in the previous post — fellow naturalists.
Starting late last summer, some of the hunters on the property have been using game cams to better track deer and other wildlife. Game cams are motion-triggered, sturdy, outdoor cameras increasingly popular among outdoors enthusiasts, and sometimes scientists, too. Troy and Paula Scott, Jeff Scott, and Troy Scott Jr. have all been involved in this project, but Paula has been the most persistent. A few days ago, her efforts were rewarded in a big way when a game cam she positioned near a bobcat scat and baited with venison caught a full-grown bobcat in the act at 7:36 AM, 1/21/10.
Another hunter had already seen a bobcat from his tree stand during deer season in December, and we’d seen other sign of it, as mentioned, so this wasn’t a huge surprise, just really nice to document. Another game cam capture from January 18 was a little more surprising because it showed that at least one gray fox is still resident on the mountain. After a rabies epidemic swept through two summers ago, we had our doubts.
We don’t permit any predator hunting or trapping on the property, so the game cams offer a neat way for the hunters to pursue this kind of quarry without harming it — and help document wildlife populations in the process. We’re grateful to Paula and the others for taking the initiative. It also seemed as if they were especially persistent in their deer hunting this year in part because they had a pretty good idea from the cameras of how many bucks and does were present — important knowledge on a year when deer numbers were down generally.
One game cam snapped some cute photos of a black bear cub back on September 15. Here’s the best of them:
My sledding video from last winter was such a success, I thought I’d try it again this year. The conditions were pretty icy and scary last winter, so I stopped at the half-way point, not wanting to risk the video camera any farther. (I hold it in my right hand as I ride — this isn’t a helmet cam.) But this winter, given all the wonderful cold weather and regular snow, sledding conditions have been exceptional, and with the January thaw imminent, yesterday afternoon I went ahead and shot this video of a sled ride clear to the bottom, a mile-and-a-half-long run. It isn’t quite non-stop, as you’ll see: there are two places, slight uphills on the way down, where I had to get out and walk for a few yards. The first is the half-way spot where I stopped in last winter’s video.
Since I was on hard-packed snow rather than ice this time, the ride was relatively quiet. It’s the quiet that I love about sledding, as much as the speed, so I decided to dispense with rousing music in the soundtrack and go for straight realism. (Actually, a little less realism might’ve been nice, but unfortunately my camera doesn’t have image stabilization. I also apologize for all the sniffing — but that too is the sound of winter, isn’t it?)
Blogged at much greater length at my personal site, Via Negativa.
Snow on October 15! At first it was fun. Rolling balls for the snowman, I had to keep stopping to pull out black walnut leaf ribs — enough to make three dozen Eves, at least. Sure, give him a blaze-orange cap. Maybe he’ll come to life and wreak some minor havoc.
Snow fell throughout the afternoon and evening, fell faster than it could melt onto a ground that was still unfrozen. (Hell, we’d just gotten our first frost the day before!) By Friday morning, the power was out and the phone was dead. There were three to four inches of heavy, wet snow in the vicinity of the houses, and five inches at the top of the field. Sitting outside to drink my coffee around 8:00, it sounded as bad as any icestorm we’ve ever had, with loud cracks and crashes every few seconds. The trees seemed to be taking “fall” a bit too literally.
The bigger-leaved trees took it the worst: oaks, maples, tulip poplars, black locusts, and cucumber magnolias all suffered extensive pruning and occasional bole-snap. The damage was localized, presumably corresponding to wherever snow fell the hardest and stuck the longest. This was a very elevation-dependent snowfall throughout the region.
Numerous limbs and broken treetops, and around a dozen toppled mature trees, came down across the Plummer’s Hollow Boulevard. It took our new neighbors and caretakers, Troy and Paula Scott, two days to clear them all. Damage petered out along with the snow about a quarter mile from the bottom.
We’ve had October snows before, but none so heavy or so early. Of course it was beautiful — but some kinds of beauty we could definitely do without.
Plenty more damaging storms have hit Plummer’s Hollow, but it’s been a while since the oaks have taken this hard a beating. Icestorms rarely affect them. Although of course that’s in part because icestorms generally don’t occur until after the leaves are all down… knock on wood.
Here’s a video that combines some footage I shot in July with some from last Sunday. Our new caretaker Troy Scott can be heard in both parts, joined by his son Andy in the second part. It was Troy who spotted the snake each time, though I’ve seen it in previous years; it seems to be regular summer visitor. When Dad and I replaced the guest house bathroom 10 years ago, we found lots of snakes: milk snakes, a few garter snakes, and one big black snake in the ceiling — possibly this very individual.
