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October 18, 2001 - Of foliage, friendship and frostThe Suffolk Times .October 18, 2 Of foliage, friendship and frost FOR DAYS WE HAD BEEN Watching the weather channel with its special reports on fall foliage. By the week- end we figured Vermont's color would be at its peak. We took the ferry and felt a little guilty about adding to the traffic through what is probably the most scenic part FOCUS of our island, but the alternative of ON driving through NATURE that madhouse of traffic to the by Paul west gave us no Stoutenburgh other choice. Fifteen min- utes out of -New London we started to see changes taking place in the foliage. Not a great amount but here and there were samples of what was still to come. As we drove along I spotted our first turkey vulture. We'd see more of these all the way up, not in any great numbers, but single birds looking for some carrion to feed on. We on the East End seldom see these skillful aerialists as they move from one thermal to another. Evidently vultures don't like to fly over water and so it's only rarely that we see them gracing our airways here on the North Fork. Turkey vultures, like most vultures, live on the remains of dead animals, which brings me to an interesting point. rotten in our woods and thought perhaps it was jusl a chicken that a fox had snatched for later. But no, on closer examination of our wood lot, we found a dead six -point buck. Evidently it had been hit by a car and dragged itself up into our woods, where it died. It's this kind of misfortune that enables Photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh Everyone Is enjoying the fall harvest season with all the farm - stands busy along our roadways. Look closely and you will see an unusual hitchhiker in one of the fall harvest baskets. the vultures to pick up their next meal by scent and sight. We had great weather and as we rode along the highways through Connecticut and Massachusetts, we entered the rolling country of Vermont. By now the foliage was a true kaleidoscope of reds, yellow, browns and greens. We noticed one of the main colors came from the clumps of sumac that were almost always in sight along the roadway. Sumac invades areas that have been disturbed and great masses of scarlet and yellow announced its presence. ekb 1 114vv, 111VLLLLWKL u v i Wa -u ­- heads of the sumac are ripening now and will later be used as survival food by wildlife. Our friends in Vermont live in a beautiful old farmhouse with its down -to- earth, homey atmosphere. The wavy windowpanes gave away its age, as did the wide floorboards that told of days when the pines rew two feet or more in diameter It was a time when . sawmills were busy cut- ting boards using water power and the world moved at a slower pace. g; As we entered the t kitchen we saw newly made crabapple jelly s awaiting its place og. the a shelves. For supper we enjoyed ham along with t fresh sprouts and squash from the garden. Outside t in the barn were four varieties of beans drying s on racks. Later they would be sorted and jarred for winter. Piles of recently harvested Hubbard squash were waiting to be used at the next church supper. A fe even found their way into our car. I'm looking for- ward to Barbara's deli- cious pie using these squash instead of pumpkin. We were told that they'd just ut 90 packages f their lima eans in the reezer. Their garden was something else. We walked through it and every vegetable had its place and, to top it off, I could hardly find a weed. Our friends used to make maple syrup just from the trees around their 17 -acre homestead. Some of the land is wetlands, some woodland and some beautiful, rich farmland. They also used to do up honey from their bees. The house has its root cellar where I saw newly dug potatoes and bushels of apples that will keep into the win- ter. All,these activities told me that our friends must keep pretty busy throuehout the vear with their large Art had a 170 -pound pumpkin on his front porch that came from his garden. hat a place like that demands. Art told me he still has to dig his weet potatoes, but is leaving them i s long as possible to take advantage of every bit of growth. Remember, heir growing season up north is quite a bit shorter than ours. It was ruly gratifying to see how a man an V working together, could create uch a wonderful, productive and healthy environment. I forgot to mention when I was telling about his P that he had a 170 -pound pumpkin on the front porch that came from his garden. Did I forget to tell you this Cutchogue native, Art Tuthill, broth - r of Pret Tuthill, is older than I, which makes me feel like I don't do thing around my place compared to him. Art was born in Cutchogue, went to school here, then went away to college. During World War II he taught pilots, eventually ending up i Vermont, where he taught engineer- ing at the college. Yet each summer Art and Mary return to the North Fork for a couple of weeks to spend time at the family beach house. It is one of those rare places that over- looks the bay. It has a long driveway through the woods that gives the impression the place has been there forever. We traveled the back roads, mostly because we weren't in any hurry to get there or to get home. After we spent the night and had breakfast with the Tuthills, we left Vermont and headed n across to New York State to the west. Here we spent a night at Lake George. The back roads seemed a lot like ours, with roadside d stands and their pumpkins, mums, etc. It was here we saw the first signs of frost. The leaves of the cattails had already turned brown; they must be very tender. Every once in a while we'd see a road kill and then as we passed over it, we got the familiar smell of skunk. As a kid I remember we used to have skunks here on the North Fork, but today there are none. It seemed back in the '30s and '40s n that every barn had a skunk or two under it. Their loss is attributed to pesticides, particularly those used on our potato fields. The potato bug was killed and then eaten by the skunks. I remember, and have probably already told you, that one of my schoolmates trapped skunks and was often told, "You must have had a good day," for the skunk odor traveled to school with him. Once the smell was so bad he was asked to go home and change his clothes. We no longer have skunks here on the North Fork; like the groundhog and the chipmunk, the skunk couldn't compete with man's so- called vroeress.