A Mast Year
Go outside and look down, and you’ll see ample evidence that this is a mast year here in Trumansburg. The maple seeds are covering the ground. Upstairs working in the barn this afternoon, I heard so many of them hit the roof above me with every gust of wind that it sounded like a hail storm.
The woods behind my house have become a bit risky with a bigger fruit, as the walnuts fall heavy, with just one second’s warning of a crash through the branches. The walnuts are so thick on the ground now that it’s getting a bit hard to walk as they roll about underneath my feet.
I predict a bumper crop of squirrels in the springtime.
[...] I’ll be taking the opportunity of the pleasant weather, mostly still free of biting insects, to keep on pulling up the inch-high forest that’s sprouted up this spring in all the garden beds. Last year’s mast production of maple seeds has resulted in a huge amount of seedlings, now putting out their first set of secondary leaves. Better to pull them now than after their roots turn woody, I suppose. [...]