Home...

Hello everyone,

Wolf here again, and i apologize for it taking so long to post something here again...

But i've got an interesting topic (at least, it's interesting to me...)...

Fires in forestry...so, i just got out of my Forestry 252 class and my professor and I had an interesting discussion about using fire to control invasive species within the state (plants mainly)...

He was saying how the fires help clear out the understory of wood brush (if done in late spring/early summer), because the plants use a tremendous a amount of carbohydrates in order to "revive" themselves from the dead of winter. Using controlled burns in this window causes the plants to burn up and use MORE of their stored energy, leaving less for surviving the winter and the subsequent summers...and that, over the course of several years, or even decades, this will destroy the woody shrubs in the understory and encourage more native species to reclaim the land (like the red cockated woodpecker and long leaf pine)...

Now, using what i know on invasives, i began to theorize that, because these species come from similar, but NOT identical climates, they can handle our temps/rainfall etc....but, for the longest time, we've restricted burning of the forests in this state...making the understory, thicker, denser, and easier for bugs/diseases/viruses/invasives to spread from tree to tree...

Well, most plants/animal become used to a specific range of values (temps) and conditions (rain/weather/amount of sunlight etc.)...so mix it up! Throw a curve ball into their "sniffer" (Sorry...that's in reference to a story wolfgirl shared the other evening...you know i love you Wolfie <3  )

Make this darn invasives fight our REAL state...let 'em burn...make 'em struggle and bleed for every inch of ground they try to gain in my home state!

I wonder if i could convince some one to do a study on this? It's quite intriguing to me, as i love studying invasives, ecology...EVERYTHING (almost?)...and this solution avoids using chemical solutions being doused everywhere, limits the amount of manpower needed on the ground, and is natural...it's SUPPOSED to be happening...we just...suppress it...


ANYWAYS...

Naturalist ran over...

Blog-y stuff...

So, yeah...it seems my folks are really gonna do it this time...build a house out in MD...not from the ground up, mind you, but picking out some finishing touches and editing a few rooms...using existing plans and just modifying them to what we need...

I dunno...it's kind of exciting...they've seemed to have narrowed it down to two neighborhoods even...just 20min from dad's work...

One of 'em has AT LEAST two acres of woods around it...the other, not quite as wooded, but has a ravine in the back and would be a bit of a bigger house...and either one would be bigger than where we are now (and i don't think our home is small...)...

I dunno, it's exciting, it's scary...it's new...but...i am almost....dare i say it? Looking forward to seeing this new place and the woods that come with it...

>GASP

WOLF? Did you just say you are looking forward to the new house?? 

Yes, conscience, i might actually be getting over the loss of my first, TRUE home...the foxes in the back, the spiders in the woods...the ants in the lawn (and the mole/shrew)...and  Shelly (e. box turtle that goes through the yard every year), and the birds and bats and lizards and snakes...

Gosh, i love my home state...i mean, i know i'm not leaving...but...not having a "home" is kinda rough...

I mean..dorm life is fine and all...but it's a room... you walk out and it's a cold, drab hall, and people you may or may not like all around...and you can't lean over the rails and bother your youngest sister, or bug your dad, and you won't get to see your other sister quietly slip on your dad's dress shoes while he looks around for them not realizing she has them on...you can't take your dad's iphone and have a conversation with Siri, or listen to your mom chew out that idiot telemarketer on the phone...you wont be able to hug your mom once or twice each day...or enjoy her potato salad, steaks, tomato/mozzarella salad, or bruschetta, or garlic bread, or chili...

Home...warm, filled with the smells of good food on the stove, and sometimes a good movie...laughter and smiles...the place i could tinker with just about anything (kind of...cause my folks wouldn't trust me to tinker TOO much :P ) could step outside and sit with the foxes...or go hike by the creek...hoot with owls...

Home...the place i love...

Home...the place i'm really gonna miss...

Home...is...home...and there's no place like it...and no one like the people in your family.