No Buffy or Harley

We have just come back from one week of holidays to find that two of our three cats have vanished. We live 130 metres away from the nearest neighbour among forests and we let our cats out during the day. Our neighbour took care of our cats but on the last day two did not come home. The Fisher Cat, a large member of the weasel family is known to be a very aggressive predator of cats and there is ample evidence of fishers in these woods. We fear that both have been lost to the fisher or possibly the coyote that also roams these woods.

Aerial Photograph

August 13, 2002

Bought an aerial photograph (#9964566) of the property from the National Air Photo Library at 615 Booth Street, Ottawa. It dates back to the mid 1940's and shows all the farms that were in this area then. Virtually all the farms are now gone. This property was itself a farm and where our house now stands is very close an old barn yard and buildings. All the buildings here have disappeared due to a fire in the late 60’s. I counted rings of a live ash tree that I cut near the barns on the aerial photograph and there were burn scars in the rings dating to the spring of 1968 as I could best discern. The burn scares were only on that side of the tree facing the largest barn thus I suspect that the tree was scorched on that side only and obviously did not perish. The first ring of the tree, or when it was germinated, I estimated to be in 1958.

Joined the Ontario Woodlot Association

My membership with the OWA was accepted today.

More on "Poison" Parsnip

Around the house area and in spots around the property there is a high density verging on monoculture of Wild Parsnip [Pastinaca Sativa]. As a youth I remember this as poison parsnip which was abundant in the fallow fields around our houses in the suburbs of Montreal where I lived in the 60’s. If you touched the leaves it could leave you with a very itchy rash. After much Internet research, I found that the juice of the plant is only irritating to the skin when exposed to UV (Sun) light. Indeed if I cut the weed in the evening just before dark and get the sap on my skin I would not contract a rash. The worst time is early in the morning on a sunny day. What makes this reaction difficult to diagnose is that the rash will occur about 4 days after contact, so you would have to remember what you did differently. Also the sap potency would only last a few minutes and become benign when it dries up even on the disturbed leaf. This is unlike poison ivy that lasts much longer.

Fisher Finding

Today I was walking the rear of the property and on the other side of the swampy river bed with my daughter's dog Max. There is a small earthen dam or dike to the north where one can walk across to the other side. At one point I could hear a bizarre grunting sound. At first I thought it was a duck quacking in the pond, then maybe it was a frog croaking and then I thought it sounded more like a squirrel chattering. In fact it was a combination of all three and it did not come from the marsh but from up high in a solitary tree. There I saw a fisher [Martes pennanti] who was probably scared up the tree by the dog and not able to escape.

It clung to the tree from behind and stuck its head out in a fork in the tree. It is really a cute teddy-bear like animal. There was a muskrat [Ondatra zibethica] swimming in a large open water course nearby and I suspect the fisher was stalking it when rudely interrupted.

Old Foundations

Cut trails to a site in the bush about 200 metres from our new house where there is a hole in the ground that looks like it might have been a cellar of an old building. There are very old and woody lilac [Syringa oblata] bushes to the east of it, planted next to and up wind of the prevailing winds to their house possibly by pioneers for the spring fragrance. The hole has been used as a dump. Found a 1950 licence plant among the rubble.

Heard Howls

Heard howls again last night. The moon was out.

First migration of Geese

August 21, 2001

Saw the first Canada Geese [Branta canadensis] flying south this year, a sign of things to come. Awful early.

Moving In

Today we moved in to our new but very unfinished house. It meets the minimum requirements of the building code.

Frog emergence Day !

The frogs have come out, in droves. The local roads are strewn with suicidal frogs, hopping everywhere, hundreds on the roads and all over the dooryard.

Ground Wasps

Came across what is called in local parlance, ground wasps in the earth in front of our house. They look like the yellow jacket wasp [Vespula spp.] which has a terrible sting and are quite aggressive.

Mammalian Encounters

On this day I have encountered more than my usual number of mammals. We are currently building our house, on the property, which at the moment is only an unfinished shell with openings for windows and doors. On this day we - I and two tinsmiths who were putting in the duct work - were working at the house.

Upon arrival at the house today, saw a large porcupine [Erethizon dorsatum] high up in the elm tree at the rear of the building.

A raccoon [Procyon lotor] was lodged in the rafters and remained there all morning while we were working and glaring down at us supervising. It was gone when we returned from dinner. Both of these animals are favoured prey to the fisher [Martes pennanti], which is known to exist in these parts. I wonder if both were perched high up to get away from one.

During lunch break I took a little stroll in the bush along a swale (Shallow ditch) that crosses our property line and into our neighbour's on the north side. While standing there motionless next to the snake rail fence just enjoying the cool but sunny day, I could hear frantic rustling approaching from the north. Next thing a snowshoe hare [Lepus americanus] came bounding through the bush along the boundary line and right past me. In immediate pursuit, was a large coyote [canis latrans]. As soon as the coyote was next to me he or she could smell my tracks and immediately spun around and took off back to where it came from. The coyote came within two metres (~6 ft.) and was so large that I mistook it for a wolf. After checking the field marks it was definitely a coyote with its yellow eyes and characteristic coat. It has "gray or reddish gray, with rusty legs, feet and ears"*.

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Page 73, Field Guide to The Mammals, Burt and Grossenheider, 1964(2nd. Printing,) The Peterson Field Guild Series, Houghton Mifflin Company Boston,

Book on Woodlot Management

Devoured a book on woodlot management, a birthday gift from Carroll, which started this blogger thinking about the idea of managing our newly purchased property as a woodlot and all it entails.

The book entitled Woodlot Management by Bruno Wiskel is about most aspects of operating a small woodlot operation that is more on a personal level. The book is in total 134 pages long including glossary and everything. It does not go too indepth into all the varieties and options of the management practice but provides numerous accounts of personal experience, practice and ideas. It is certainly an excellent introduction that will give the reader a feeling of what it is like to be a woodlot owner along with the family oriented activities etc.

Above all it is based on experience of a practising woodlot manager. The author lives and operates in Alberta Canada.

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Woodlot Management, 1995, Bruno Wiskel and Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Vancouver and Redmond WA. ISBN 1-55105-067-6.

Staking out

Carroll and I spent the entire afternoon at the property. With the new weedwacker I made a trail through the tall wild parsnips to our preferred house site. We staked out the periphery of where our house would be located, and set up a screened tent fly to provide some reprieve from the horse flies and deer flies which are voracious around here. At this point we started building our house. This is or will be covered in another blog.

The woods were very difficult to pass through if you did not stick to the paths. This is largely due to the damage caused by the 1998 Ice storm that beset this entire area. Consequently many tree tops were broken and branches were hanging down low make passage very difficult.

Closing Day

Today we took ownership of the property after meeting with the lawyers and settling the accounts.

Manitoba Maple

From the aerial photos found an area of trees that had pronounced light green foliage. This turned out to be a patch of very concentrated Manitoba Maple Trees [Acer negundo L.], also called Box Elder. After inspection from the ground found remains of buildings like cement floors and pieces of hardware lying around. etc. which explains the existence of the manitoba maples. They tend to take root next to buildings.

Fly over

Took the afternoon off from work and with a friend who has a pilots licence rented a small plane, flew over the property for some aerial views and photos.

Signed the Papers

Carroll and I signed the papers for the transfer of the property today.

Wild Parsnip

Visited the property out near Kars today and came across areas of high concentrations of wild Parsnip [Pastinaca sativa]. I remember this weed well as a youth when we called it poison parsnip since it would cause a skin rash if the sap touched your skin.

Found land for sale

Found an interesting piece of land for sale located south of Roger Stevens Rd. near Kars. The description states that there is 11 acres of conservation land and about 10 cleared all told.