January 28, 1982 - Man, Nature Cope with ColdSECOND SECTION The *tl f f o th Ti Meg
Man,, Nature Cope with Cold
Often you'll hear me speak of indicators
such as weather, time of year and the like.
I've just finished a bowlful of hearty quaker
oats, you know the round box with the
slightly over neat gentleman all dressed up
in his puritan outfit? Well, that's the
indicator that tells me it's cold outside. It
might take a bit longer to make in the
morning, but then that's one of the
advantages of a good wood stove. While
you're out feeding the animals and
chickens your oats can be slowly cooking on
the stove.
Cold and snow mean so many different
things to different people. To the person
with a long steep driveway, snow means
shoveling or expensive plowing. To the
carpenter who works outside, it means
slippery and potentially dangerous
working conditions. The cold can mean
frozen pipes, added costs and
inconvenience. And it seems like with so
many other things in this not - so-just- world,
the person on the lower end of the economic
ladder seems to get hurt the most. But
then, who said that the world is a just place.
Right now as I look over the blanket of
white that spreads out before me I see
debris from nutshells on top of the snow. A
squirrel has found a hickory tree whose
nuts, for some reason, have not yet let go
and are still clinging to the end of the
branches much like they were during the
summer. Why did this tree and a few others
hold on to their tightly bound parcel of food
until now? Why didn't the squirrels take
them off earlier? Or were they saving them
for just such a snow - covered day as this?
Speaking of hardships, surely the
squirrel has his. The ground is frozen and
covered with snow, sealing up his hidden
cache of food. Perhaps this is how new trees
get planted in the wild. A squirrel digs a
shallow hole, puts in a nut, covers it over
and hopes to return to it later. In the
meantime, something happens to the
squirrel and the nut stays below the soil
waiting for spring's warmth.to set it free.
Winter's cold will freeze and crack it so that
ft @Uu
when spring comes the seed can push up
and sprout.
Real Perils to Come
Yet it has a long way to go and its real
perils are still to come. A mouse could find
it in its meanderings below the forest floor
or disease could enter the shell, once
cracked, or a rabbit might nip the new
tender shoot just when it starts. Even a
forest insect or caterpillar might find the
new seedling ideal to its taste and devour it.
These are just a few of the mishaps that lie
before this infant tree. Lightning and the
accompanying forest fire, flood and, of
course, man -- the list could go on and on.
Yet some elude these pitfalls and we find
our natural world enhanced by a
handsome, rugged hickory tree. Once
developed it is seldom likely to go down with
the wind for its carrot -like root holds it
firmer in the ground than any tree I know. I
can vouch for this, for when we built our
house the bulldozer had to remove hickory
trees where our basement was to go. How it
had to work to loosen them from the grip of
the earth!
There are many kinds of- hickories and
the various nuts are all sought after by both
man and beast for eating. Shaggy bark
hickory seems to have the best eating nut,
I'm told. Not having the devices the
squirrel has, getting into the nut sometimes
can be a problem.
Friends just told me they found the best
way to crack a hickory nut open. They use a
pair of vice grip pliers and set them so they
just crack the nut. I'm sure it's a lot better
than my old way. When I used to hit them
with a hammer, I'd usually wind up with a
JANUARY 28,1982
NATURE'S INDICATOR: The curled rhododendron leaves are indicators
of low temperatures. Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
mess of shell and meat that no one could
use.
Nuts Were a Bargain
If you have ever read any old time
history, you remember that hickory nuts
were high on the menu for goodies. For
unlike today, the Colonial people had few
luxuries and the few they did have usually
came from the wild. Just recently in our
local paper mention was made of olden
times when a bag of hickory nuts was
bought for 10 cents. Perhaps the secret was
that in those days they had time to "pick
out" the meat and we in our go-go society
seldom slow down to do such time -
consuming tasks.
I know throwing a switch on the oil burner
is much easier than the laborious job of
cutting wood. Yet something must be said
for that labor. It surely makes you
appreciate the value of heat and you find
yourself becoming less and less wasteful
when you're directly involved with the
making of the heat.
Attain perhaps that is one of the problems
of today. We no longer are associated
closely with things. We buy our milk, our
eggs, our fuel, and realize very little as to
who produces them and the problems
involved.
I guess one of the general rules of the
world would be the further you drift from
the original the less respect and
understanding you have for the product. I
doubt if we'll ever change the way the world
spins, but it does give us food for thought.
PAULSTOUTENBURGH