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digesting a mulberry branch
Wednesday, July 10 2024
location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, NY
This afternoon I drove over to the Brewster Street house to perform a landlording chore. A large branch from a large white mulberry tree on the back fenceline had partially broken off and fallen across the fence into the yard of a neighbor on Levan Street having a back boundary on our side fence. The branch hadn't destroyed anything but it had put a huge mass of leafy branches in that neighbor's yard. I climbed over the fence and used my crappy GreenWorks (worst brand ever!) battery-powered chainsaw to cut the limb off within the Brewster Street property's yard. (This required some difficult reaches and climbing atop various things to reach what needed to be cut.) Then I cut all the branches into units I could easily throw over the fence into Brewster Street's yard. It had been a formidable pile of vegetation when I started, but after about an hour of digesting it with a chainsaw, it was a small enough mass in the back of the Brewster Street yard that I might not need to dispose of it. I'd been working in the shade, but with temperatures up in the 90s, I completely drenched my shirt with sweat.
Back home in Hurley, I took the dogs for a walk, and to my surprise (given the heat) they both came. I went directly to the swamp along the east side of the Farm Road so Neville could wallow in his secondary wallowing spot (since his primary wallowing spot at the bottom of the Chamomile Headwaters Trail is still dry). Neville and Charlotte then waded out further into a part of the swamp that is almost never dry as a herd of frogs leapt chaotically out of their way. Neville ended up getting such a good wallow that he accompanied me over to the abandoned go-cart track and them homeward atop the highlands west of the Farm Road.
For dinner, I made spaghetti with a pan of fried chonks consisting of tempeh, onions, mushrooms, and garlic.
There are no chanterelles, but this fungus was growing near the Farm Road swamp. Google image search says it is Clavulinopsis aurantiocinnabarina.
Click to enlarge.
Charlotte and Neville at the secondary wallowing spot in the swamp just east of the Farm Road.
Click to enlarge.
Charlotte and Neville venture into deeper water, with a riot of frogs leaping out of their way.
Click to enlarge.
Having emerged from the swamp onto the Farm Road after a good wallow, Neville is ready to hike.
Click to enlarge.
Bare bluestone bedrock near the abandoned go-cart track.
Click to enlarge.
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