So many big nature-related events happened this week, it will be hard to fit them all in. Most of you suffered through the two-day, one-night super freeze and way below zero windchill factor that would freeze any exposed skin in a matter of minutes. We had -27 here at Eight Acre Wood that morning and the birds at the feeder were sitting on their feet to keep them warm. [We had] 75 Evening Grosbeaks that morning, and the single White-Throated Sparrow was the first at the feeders, he even ate with the grosbeaks all around him.

My daughter, Erin, called me on Saturday, [Feb. 4] at quarter to three from the front porch [of her condo] in Myrtle Beach to say they just shot down the weather balloon. Photos coming via the internet. Well, I couldn’t have gotten that any sooner on the national news. They had been watching it for quite a while behind the building and then over the ocean where four jets had been all around it. Then one shot it down with a rocket. Now when she walks the beach, she will be looking for balloon parts, not shark’s teeth.

The freight train wreck in eastern Ohio has cleared a big section around that wreck because of all the possible chemicals that could cause serious injury if they burn and explode into the surrounding area. Being so close to the borders of Pennsylvania and New York, people there have also been evacuated. So far, the officials have kept everything under control, but the potential is still there until these chemicals are all under control.

There was a rumble in western New York near Buffalo, a 3.7 earthquake, which will shake the Earth, but normally does little damage. Many people thought their furnace in the cellar was rumbling only to find out it was a small earthquake. Bigger earthquakes did occur early this morning in Turkey and Syria, the first 7.8 on the Richter scale, and a short time later 7.6 on the Richter scale, which did widespread damage to several cities and villages. As of tonight [Feb. 6,] over 3,800 people are dead, and thousands of people injured as buildings collapsed around and on them. Several countries have pledged aid and assistance to these countries in their time of need.

White-Throated Sparrow. Photo by Gary Lee.

Growing up in the Lee family meant many outdoor activities and much time spent out in [the] big two-acre garden where mom and dad grew all our vegetables that we ate fresh, and canned then froze when the freezer came for the winter. Dad even rented an acre out back just for potatoes, which brother Bob and I would dig a row a night after school and football practice. During the summer, we picked peas and green, yellow and lima beans by the bushel then got them ready for canning or freezing. We had a strawberry patch, raspberry patch, and asparagus patch…all which had to be tended to and picked. We had all kinds of squash, pumpkins…and dad even grew musk melons and one-year watermelons.

There was a row of carrots, beets, and turnips, many of these we kept most of the winter in a cold cellar along with the potatoes, which we sprouted twice a winter. We had several patches of corn that came on at different times, a row of peppers…and I don’t know how many rows of tomatoes. Mom put all these in canning jars and then freezer boxes, and we ate these all winter. She would visit the meat market for meat, when we hadn’t been fishing or hunting some wild game. Bob and I worked part-time at the local dairy farm milking cows, haying, getting the corn in the silo, taking care of several hundred chickens, a few hundred pigs, and picking potatoes which they planted and mechanically-dug in a many-acres field.

The farmer paid us in raw milk that had cream on top, eggs, a chicken or two, and some bacon when they did the pigs. Two growing boys can drink a lot of milk. When we weren’t in the garden or working at the farm, we were off fishing a nearby stream or hunting in the woods, which were just out back. During the summer when school was out, we went camping many times during the summer and it had to be where there were lake trout as Dad was a lake trout fisherman and he could catch them if they were there. We camped in all the campsites on Lake George, Paradox, Schroon and Raquette Lakes.

I remember my sister, Wendy, being born June 6, 1954 and we took her camping at Heartstone Campsite on Lake George the first week of July. One camping trip, we did some stream fishing and stayed in the Wilmington Notch Campsite on the Ausable River right under Whiteface Mountain. It was July and there were blackflies and punkies enough to carry you away, but the rainbow and brown trout were biting on almost every cast. The river was just a short walk down behind the campsite. A big pool just below some ledge rocks. Brother Bob walked along the narrow ledge further up the pool and he was catching fish. I started up the ledge, clinging to the rocks and nearly went in backwards into the swirling river. I went back down where it was safer, and there was a big trout jumping after flies right beside where I sat.

I found an old black kat fly in my box and tied it on. I jigged it across the surface and that fourteen-inch brown grabbed it. Brother Bob got down off the ledge and netted the fish. [It was] my first on a fly, and I was hooked. We went back up to the campsite with my prize and Mother said they had sprayed for the blackflies and she had to cover everything to keep it from getting sprayed. I looked out into the roadway and there were several chipping sparrows flopping around unable to fly, some were dead. They had died from the DDT they were spraying for the flies. [I] learned two lessons that day, I could catch a trout on flies and DDT kills birds…no one told them to cover their food. I have a Christmas cactus that’s going to be a Valentine cactus this year.

I still didn’t get back out skiing…maybe the ankle can take it late this week, but that’s another story. See ya.

Photo at top: Valentine cactus. Photo by Gary Lee.