Herb Harvesting and Random Nature Notes

Went to my family's house in the Catskills for a few days, and harvested coltsfoot for a cough I can't get rid of. This is my first time harvesting and using fresh herbs, so still researching... will also get in touch with an herbalist friend of mine to check in about this.

Bummed that we missed the Elder Faith's Beltane celebration on Saturday... such a beautiful day, but we really needed to get on the road. As it was, it took us over 6 hours to get out to the cabin. Totally worth it though... (always is).
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Random nature notes from today's short walk at work:

• Saw and heard my first sharp-shinned hawk of the season

• Really strong wind makes me feel small and insignificant (am I the only person who feels this way?)

• Heard a red-wing black bird calling the end of it's 'konk-la-ree' call (which would just be the 'ree' part, I suppose) over and over again on the course, despite all the wind and blowing trees

Letterboxing as a Means to Exploration

We took one of our many trips out to the Catskills this past weekend (probably the last before the baby comes), and since my mobility is more limited these days (9 weeks to go!) I went to the North American Letterboxing website to look up area boxes we could search for without too much hiking. The result is that we discovered some new places, one of which turned out to be the most beautiful walk I've ever taken on the east coast... and I'm pretty sure we never would have discovered this incredible mountain meadow if we hadn't been in search of a letterbox. When we started letterboxing this past winter, I hadn't considered this aspect of it - all the new places it would take you, or new features of places you already knew, but hadn't discovered.

If you're not at all familiar with letterboxing, it's much like geocaching, but without the GPS. See the Letterboxing website for a full description (www.letterboxing.org), but the basic idea is finding clues (usually online, and there are many, many websites devoted to letterboxing) and searching out the box(es). The boxes contain a log book of some sort, and a rubber stamp (with or without ink pad) usually hand-carved and unique to the box. Carry around your own stamp (pre-made or hand-made), ink pad and journal/log book for recording the boxes you find. That's pretty much it!

As I might have mentioned (once or twice) I love creating lists, so tallying up our box finds is always satisfying. But the real rewards are the intangibles... spending time outside with my family, and finding new places to treasure and re-visit.

Bear Tracking

My Grandmother passed away this Thursday - the day before Samhain, appropriately enough. It was a good opportunity to introduce R. to why we celebrate Samhain and what it means... even if it made for a more melancholy holiday weekend (and birthday, if you're born on Samhain).

As a result we've been traveling the past few days to spend time with my side of the family, and went to go see Dad who was up in the Catskills. They had gotten over a foot of snow last week, and a fair amount of it was (is) still around. This morning, Thelma mentioned to me that there were tracks on the side yard which she and Dad thought were bear - so of course I had to go look... even though they had been pretty fresh the day before, there is so much melting going on that there were hardly any details left to the tracks. But given the overall gist, combined with the general size and stride of the prints, there was no doubt that they were bear tracks. I took some pictures which Thelma will hopefully email along soon (didn't bring our camera with us) so I can post them - these are the first bear track photos I've gotten... we did some backtracking, but the prints disappeared (along with the snow) under some hemlocks at the front edge of the property and we could only follow them so far (and I was SO not dressed for tracking... we had only gone for the night, and left today for the Berkshires to see Aunt L. and Uncle W. today - which is where I'm writing this).

This reminds me that I was supposed to attend a tracking conference on Saturday, which I obviously missed due to family concerns. Bummer - I hope they'll have one next year... I'll have to be sure to attend a Walnut Hill program this winter; with any luck there will be one before my own tracking class down at the Y in February...

NY Photos Online

I put a small album together of photos from our most recent trip to theCatskills here on Facebook. I do believe you have to be a member of Facebook (and a 'friend' of mine) to view the photos (sorry, I'm not too keen on just posting pictures of the family randomly on the web for anyone to view...). It's easy to join, if you're interested. If you not, email me and I'll send you copies.


You can see from the photo why we love being up there so much... this is the view from the front of the cabin to the mountains and our barn down below. We went for Columbus Day weekend, and the weather was amazing!! Didn't do a whole lot (Obo went shooting with Dad and hauled some logs to be cut into firewood; Grandma, R. and I went to an Octoberfest fair outside of Margretville, and R. helped Grandma plant some groundcover), we were just happy to get away for a few days. The past few weeks have been super crazy with work and other obligations; can't wait for November when my schedule settles down a bit. On top of managing the course and my 25 or so staff during our busiest season right now, I have to submit a new $100k budget and marketing plan for next fiscal year. Yippee...

Cheers!