POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Vermont-Related Stuff, Mostly

I'm not going to unfold my disgust at Disney's move to trademark "SEAL Team 6." I figure I ought to leave that to Bob.

After a couple of nice days last week, including Friday and some of Saturday, with clear skies and highs reaching the low- to mid-sixties, rain settled in. The skies lowered down to where they cover the tops of some of the closer hills around here, only a few hundred feet higher than the 500 or 600 foot elevation I suppose Monkton's at. Probably peaked at about 52 degrees, today.

Driving up to Burlington to pick Aidan up from a school trip this evening in the gloaming, there were a few spots along the way where the rising waters of wetlands are threatening to cover the roads. Yesterday, I wanted to go to a mushrooming spot that I know of in a gorge, because the steepness of the slope prevented the area from being logged the last go-round, and I was searching for morels, which are often associated with decaying elms. The road sign said ROAD CLOSED on one end, but I knew that on the other it said ROAD CLOSED TO THROUGH TRAFFIC, which is Vermontese for CAUTION. I went down the hill about half a mile, the road running parallel to the gorge, and found that there was in fact a section that was entirely washed out. There's been a big pile of gravel at the other side, the bottom, for over a month now. I guess it's not an urgent matter to the road crews, still dealing with the effects of the major spring melt and subsequent rains. I had to back up a half a mile, there not being any good place to execute a 10-point turn.

I'm headed to Snake Mountain, south and a little west of here tomorrow. The reason I'm going is that there are still some live elms there. In fact, the live elms of Vermont may be the key to restoring elms in the US. You certainly know that in the first decade of the 20th century, the beetles that carried Dutch elm disease arrived in Massachusetts in a shipment of furniture from the Netherlands. They spread to destroy almost all the live elms in the US. Now, American elms are tetraploids, genetically speaking. Polyploidy often gives plants an advantage, but not in this case. It was rumored that there was such a thing as a diploid elm, and triploid crosses. The diploid elms were found here, with the greatest concentration, for whatever reason, on Snake Mountain.

Today, I walked into the woods in one of my regular stalking places, a typical Vermont forest. Which is to say, like most of the wooded land in the state, it was clear-cut twice. The first great cutting helped fuel building in the then-burgeoning cities of the Northeast. Much of the land in Vermont is pretty hardscrabble, and that opened it up for sheep grazing. There are some Vermont parklands where the trees date to after the first clear-cut, but not many. I think a lot of the second clear-cut was pulped or charcoaled, or just used as firewood.

I was getting shut out in there, and had decided to head for the car, because it had gotten so humid from the downpour that I could hardly see through my glasses, when I encountered a large mushroom. I thought, that's a hen-of-the-woods. Then I thought, it can't be, in May. I picked as much as would fit into the basket I'd brought, and researched it when I got home. It's what's known as a Black-Staining Polypore. It's young enough that I think I can use all of it (they tend to get woodier and tougher when they're older). Well, I can't find any recipes, but I figure I'll make a mushroom stock out of it, once it gets dry enough to clean. There are no Northeast polypores that are poisonous, so I figure it's worth a try.

I love it when people photograph mushrooms in situ.

Hmmm. Saw a fire newt and a dark-feathered hummingbird today, too. But I'm looking forward to this weekend, when the rain's finally supposed to end and the temps to get into the seventies. Supposed to be nice next week, too. That will give the lowlanders downstream some time to dry out.

Out walking today, I realized that you can sing the lyrics to the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coop" to the tune of Neil Young's "Welfare Mothers (Make Better Lovers)," which is odd but strangely satisfying.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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