"Tom Bri" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 11:41 PM
Subject: Spring Fruits

So, my survey.

Where and in what circumstances do you live in?

What foods grow near you that you eat?

What animals?

We have left the rat race of the city behind back in mid 80's and bought a 
non-working farm. I have always wanted Border Collies,the kind that works 
sheep and figured no sense having one or two in the city (Wash.D.C.).

Along came with non-working farm,sheep and lots of it,then Border Collies 
and few years down the road LiveStockGuard dogs.

We are in south central Pennsylvania,heart of the agriculture land and we 
are very careful of  NOT dropping any seeds on the ground since whatever 
could be carried by humans,birds,moths,raccoons,fill in the rest of 
carriers,takes hold and soon we have to go out there with machetes to chop 
it down hoping the roots will go to next door neighbours.
We have wild fruit trees,apple,mulberries,sickle pears,pears,tart cherry 
where ever I look. Loads of berry bushes,wild strawberries as far as the eye 
can see plus all the wild roses,not the kind turns into bush but the true 
low lying wild roses where the petals and the fruits can make an excellent 
jam or tea. Sassafras also grows wild and wide.
As for animals,black bears,coyotes,raccoons,porcupines,bobcats,deer (too 
many),pet wolves gone wild after killing their care giver,mountain lions or 
panther as locals refer to it (all black was captured in a photo recently) 
as many others where we count opossums as pets now.
Birds: hawks,red tailed hawks,golden eagles and recently bold eagles,herons, 
darn Canadian geese (grateful to have Border Collies to chase them off),wood 
ducks galore,mallards and too many others to put on a paper. Do on earth 
makes a 4 pounds of sugar mix daily for resident hummingbirds? I do.

So,we left the rats behind but now call myself the resident zoo keeper. 
Feeding starts by day break and ends at dusk.I between,it is cleaning after 
creatures of 4 legs and weeding my flower and vegetable beds from March 
through October. There are days where I dream about carrying RoundUp in a 
double holsters but NO siree sir! we are an all natural grower here and must 
think all the wild life. Seriously,if anyone tries to do the natural 
way,start very small unlike my stupid head who jumped at having so much 
space, so little time to grow everything I can get my greedy hands on and 
asked DH for 10 acres and GOT IT....no I'm paying for it. Locals gets a 
great chuckle at this previous city slicker when they see my struggle.

I almost forgot to add my koi ponds,some tries to snatch the herons as they 
wade. They must add some nuked feed into koi feed,dogs tries to get a dip at 
the same ponds only to get their tails pulled by them.

Rain stopped,so must my tale of the wild yonder and off I go to my never 
ending chores.

Inci Willard