A Backyard Oddity

I had planned to blog about my needle keepers today, but I have something else interesting to  blog about.  My husband came in from outside and said, "You have to see this.  It looks like the tree is growing a brain. "  So yes, I had to go see it.

He had pulled some type of gall off of one of our cedar trees.  It did look almost like a brain with its folds and creases.  We know that it really is not a brain, but our imaginations were working overtime.  Just recently in the news we had been reading about the theory that many complex systems develop some type of self-awareness. 

I have been searching on the internet trying to find trying to find a gall that matches the look of this particular gall.  I haven't found one exactly like it.  It could be an insect gall, but I am thinking it is an immature form of a fungus called Cedar Apple Rust.  It requires both an apple tree and a cedar tree to host this particular fungus.  Guess what?  We have both an apple tree and a cedar tree.  So the odds are pretty good that this particular gall is that type of fungus.  What I have read on the subject so far is that once the spores are released, the horns dry up and the gall falls off.  I have not been able to find a photo of one after it has dried up so far.

Apparently this fungus starts as a brown gall.  After a couple of years it grows protrusions that look like horns.  Then it turns a slimy bright orange and releases spores that attack apple trees.  The gall is not that harmful to the cedar tree, but it is damaging to the apple tree. 

Now that I am thoroughly horrified at the thought of a slimy orange something hanging from our trees I will be out looking for the galls in force.  I don't want to lose my apple tree or take this fungus up to the trees in the mountains.  However, it does need both hosts for this particular fungus to take effect, so hopefully it will not be so much of a problem up there. 

Literature on Cedar Apple Rust suggests one method of treatment is to remove the galls from the cedar tree while they are in an immature state.  That could prove to be problematic in this case.  The tree has grown quite tall.  I am guessing somewhere around thirty feet ( 9.1 meters).  They can grow up to sixty-six feet (20.12 meters) tall.    There are also fungicides that can be used.  I am not sure that fungicides will be all that helpful.  The apple trees can be affected up to a couple of miles from the cedar tree.  I guess I need to call an extension agent and get some more information.

Road Trip September 2017

Boat on Stonehouse Lake.

Last blog post I was blogging about two small state parks the my husband and I went to while we were out and about at the cabin earlier this month.  I did not have room to post pictures on the last post, so I wanted to add them here.

We first stopped at Stonehouse Lake State Park.  It is a small, but nice park.   The park has a 41 acre (169,521 square meters) lake.  It has a children's play area, bathrooms, grills, picnic tables, benches, parking area and a boat ramp.  This lake is part of the reservoir system.  You are allowed to use boats with electric motors or use oars, but gas powered motors are prohibited.

Photo taken on top of the levee.  Water gauge is in the distance.

Stonehouse Lake

You can fish here, but you need a license from the state in order to fish.  It seems from something I was reading on the internet that you have to have a special permit to fish at night.  They have Large Mouth Bass and Sunfish here.  At one time, they stocked catfish, but are no longer stocking them.  There were some rules posted regarding the size fish you were allowed to take.  My husband and I found the rules a little confusing.  Could you only take fish smaller than a certain size?  If you caught one larger than the restricted size were you supposed to throw it back or could you keep it?  I guess if I were planning on fishing I would explore the rules a little further.

Water fowl at Thrashers Lake Park

As I blogged last time, each park had a large levee built between the lake and the valley below.  On the levee there was a 12 foot high (3.65 meters) water gauge.  This gauge was positioned quite high up on the levee.  There was a sign next to it asking people not to touch the gauge because it the water reached that height that it was time to sound an emergency.  I would hate to think the lake quickly filling to that height or that such a large volume of water could suddenly tumble into the valley below.   It is hard to see in the photo, but the water level gauge is the pole that appears to be in front of the vehicles in the parking lot below.

Valley below the levee.

Thrashers Lake State Park was very much the same, but the lake was a little smaller at 36 acres (145,687 square meters).   Gasoline boats are not permitted on this lake either.  At this lake we walked out onto the boat ramp and were greeted by a duck that was hopeful that we were bringing snacks for it.  This lone duck was different from the other water fowl that were gathered at the edge of the lake.  They were fairly far from us so it was hard to tell whether they were ducks or geese.  I think that they might have been migratory birds.

At this lake there was a sign saying that the county allowed some bateaux to be moored here.  The sign advised you to stay away from the craft.  A bateau (plural bateaux) (sometimes spelled with a double t)is a flat bottomed, shallow draft boat that is pushed with long poles.  Depending upon the style, it may also has a steering rudder at the stern.  They were used extensively for river travel during the colonial period (roughly, 1607 - 1776).  Some bateaux were smaller and used for travel, but others were larger and used to move goods such as furs or tobacco. 

Submerged bateaux.

The bateaux stored at the lake were of the smaller variety.  At the moment, they were pretty much submerged by rainwater.  It was easy to think that they might have been just abandoned as wrecked vessels, by I expect that with a little bailing out that they would once again be ready for action.

Thrashers Lake

Virginia has its own special type of bateau.  It was invented by Anthony Rucker (the elder) in 1775.  The first mention of its use was in an account book of Thomas Jefferson.  He was present for the first launching of the craft.  (Source:  Wikipedia).  Although bateau had been used for quite some time, this design was significantly different from the others and eventually the heirs of Anthony Rucker received a patent for the design.

There is an annual event in Virginia called the James River Batteaux festival.  It starts in Lynchburg and ends in Powhatan, a distance of 120 river miles.  I expect these craft moored at the park were used at that festival.  For the festival, some people will dress in colonial style dress or a river driver's outfit which is knee length pants, a loose white shirt, and a straw hat.  You can find pictures of the festival by going to Google images and entering James River Batteau Festival.

Anyway, that is my blog post for this week.  I will be back to blogging about my latest craft project in the next blog post.

Cabin Trip September 2017

My husband and I have been up to the cabin for a week.  As usual, it seems we managed to be running up there in the rain.  Before we had been on the road forth-five minutes, the rain started coming in.  Sometimes it rained steadily, but most of the time it was just a fine mist.  We really needed the rain.  Things had been dry up here.  That is not unusual for this time of year.

It was rainy and cool most of the time we were at the cabin.  Temperatures were in the mostly highs in the mid to upper 60s Fahrenheit
( approximately 18 - 19 C.)  with lows around  the mid-50s F. (12 -13 C.)  It was definitely weather for a jacket.  A couple of nights we had lows in the upper 40s (approximately 8 - 9 C.).  We did not start up the wood stove while we were there, but on two nights we did turn on the oil filled radiator heaters.  That kept us comfortable snuggled up under warm blankets.  It was not windy until the last couple of days we were up there.  Generally, we were fairly fogged in with a drizzly mist.  On Thursday, the cold front pushed through and it did get windy.  That blew away the clouds and gave us a couple of sunny days.

As always, there is work to be done at the cabin.  Sticks needed to be picked up.  The grass needed mowing.  This may be the last time we have to mow grass this year; or perhaps once more.  It depends on whether it warms up again up there.  After mowing, we could see that leaves were starting to drop.  Everything is still green up there, but the leaves on the locust trees are turning golden.  There are faint tinges of red on some of the sugar maples.  It won't be long before autumn is under way and the leaves are falling.  I expect we will be raking leaves from the yard on our next trip up.

This trip up my husband was working on the floor in the attic.  It is a work in progress.  The old under-layment was crumbling.  We had concerns that someone walking up there might eventually go through the ceiling.  We replaced the particle board with plywood.  A bonus of replacing that sub-floor was that he was able to vacuum up all the dead mice and mouse droppings that were in between the joists.  If you have a cabin, you will know that mice are a problem.  Sixty years of mice running through the ceiling are a big problem.  My husband is an absolute hero for taking on the task of cleaning all that up.  Aside from droppings, it was also a mouse graveyard.  Saturated insulation was replaced.  The cabin smells a lot better now.

I spent some porch sitting time working on handmade Christmas presents.  In my last blog post I showed a couple of the wool felt needle keepers I was making.  I was still working on the pear shaped ones.  Unfortunately, I forgot to pack the small box that held the "seeds" so I was not able to work on anything but the back sections of each pear.  I also worked on the back section of some of the apple shaped needle keepers.

Our neighbor had a big cook out on Saturday.  They brought up a big barbecue smoker and proceeded to cook.  They cooked ten pork butts and about twenty pounds of chicken.  They also had ribs, clams,  oysters, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens.  I made a Mississippi Cornbread Salad, and my husband made some fresh bread cooked on the grill.   There were other salads and side dishes as well.  Many people came despite the uncertain weather.  Some stayed in the houses, and some camped out in tents.  It was a great party.  Most people came for Saturday and left on Sunday morning.  There was so much food left over that those of us who stayed over had a feast again on Sunday night. Young and older, we all had a good time.  Even the dogs enjoyed the party.

Note:  people shown in photos gave permission for their pictures to appear on my blog.

Along with the cookout, they decided to make some apple butter.   Some apples that received a lot of sun were ready for picking.  Apples trees with more shade have two or three weeks before they are ready to pick.  I expect that many of the apples in our yard will be on the ground when we come up next trip.  However, there should still be plenty on the tree for picking.  I plan on making some apple desserts when I go up next time.  Hmmmm......apple sauce, fried apples, apple butter, apple bread, apple cake, apple pie.  My mouth is watering just thinking about the good foods to come.


We did make a trip down the mountain to take trash to the dump.  While we were on the road we decided to check out a couple of state parks in the area.  It used to be that we spent every minute that we were up at the cabin working on repairs.  The last few trips up we have taken more time to explore some of the places nearby.  This time we stopped by two state parks.  They were nice parks with lakes.  At Stonehouse park you could take a motor boat out on the lake.  At the other park, Thrasher park, no motors were allowed, only non-motorized equipment was allowed.  You could fish at the parks provided you had a fishing license.

Thrasher park had a lot of ducks.  I believe that most of these were migrating ducks.  There was one lone duck that was not with the rest.  It was obvious that she was a different type of duck from the rest.  She came over in hopes of finding some treats from us.  The rest of the ducks showed no interest in us at all.  

Each park had a levee built many feet back from the front of the lake.  I don't think I have a picture of it but there was a twelve foot tall (approximately 3.66 meters) flood gauge about eight to ten feet (2.4 to 3.4 meters) up on the side of the levee.  There was a sign next to the flood gauge saying not to touch or move the gauge because if the water reached that gauge, it was time to declare an emergency.  If the levee were to break, it would send a huge amount of water washing down into the valley below.   That is a very scary thought that the water in that lake had the potential to raise that high.  Even scarier because there is a hurricane possibly heading toward that area right now, and it could potentially come near that area and dump lots of rain.

I have run out of space for posting photos, so I will post some photos from the parks on my next blog post.