Sam and Eli: Chess Masters (Blog 461)

Monday evening after school, I played chess with Sam and Eli for the first time. The two boys, ages seven and five, respectively, are learning the rudiments of the game. And, understandably, Sam has a better grasp so far.

No matter, Eli and I were able to defeat Sam in a classic match that surely will be talked about for years among chess aficionados. Sam seemed to take his defeat graciously, though Eli immediately wanted to high five with me, perhaps to let his older brother know that he had game in some sort of activity, too.

I eagerly await the rematch.

Eleventh Grade Stress Due Out Soon (Blog 460)

My ninth book and third Young Adult Fiction novel, Eleventh Grade Stress, is due out in a couple of weeks. I still find that hard to believe. I knew by the time I was an eleventh grader what my major goals were and they were as follows: a great wife, children, a house out in the country, rural land, a teaching career, and a writing career.

And, amazingly enough, I have been more than fortunate to gain all those things over the years. Everything all started with a great wife, Elaine, who has been my side for over 41 years of marriage. Sarah and Mark are awesome adults now, Elaine and I live out in the country on 38 acres of wooded land with a stream flowing through it, and I am nearing 2,500 magazine articles sold. At 67 years of age, I am still teaching high school English and still loving to go to school every day and work with young people.

One of the writing genres I was never interested in ever, and that includes my time as a high school student, was Young Adult Fiction. And now thanks to Secant Publishing and my editor Ron Sauder, I have a four-book series in the works for that genre. Again, I am amazed at that. I am also teaching the first two books, Ninth Grade Blues and Tenth Grade Angst, to my high school students. And from what I understand a half dozen or more teachers are using them in their classrooms.

If you should like to reserve a copy, e-mail me at bruceingramoutdoors@gmail.com.

Making Wild Grape Jelly ((Blog 459)

Yesterday after I arrived home from school, Elaine and I went to pick summer grapes on the rural Botetourt County, Virginia road where we live. Earlier, I had spotted summer grapes, the most common species of wild grape in Southwest Virginia, growing on a neighbor's land. I asked him if we could pick the grapes, and the gentleman said yes.

Today, our grandsons Sam and Eli will help us remove the grapes from the stems, then Elaine will begin the process of turning the fruit into jelly. We think summer grape jelly has a pleasant tartness, making it superior to store jelly. Sam and Eli's reward for their labor will be a jar of jelly to take home.

Dolgo Crabapples are Ripe (Blog 458)

The highlight of my dining week was Elaine fixing Dolgo Crabapple Cobbler several days ago. Folks have no idea how good crabapples can be in breads, pies, cobblers, cookies, and jelly. Our tree produced fairly well this year, but not in an epic way as it did two years ago. In 2017, the tree truly produced gallons of fruit.

I am going to pick again this weekend. This time my goal is for a pie. As is true with crabapple cobbler, crabapple pie tastes very similar to a sour cherry pie. It's even better with vanilla ice cream.

The Delights of Rome Apple Walnut Bread (Bog 457)

One of the simple joys of life is eating the many good things that my wife Elaine cooks. Our Rome apple tree didn't produce much fruit this year, but I was able to pick enough apples for Elaine to cook something.

Rome apples aren't known as a great eating out-of-hand apple, but they are superb cooked. So I asked Elaine to make a bread from them. What "made" the bread were the walnuts that she added to it.

Our next harvest will be the fruit from our Dolgo crab apple tree. We have an article on all the ways     crab apples can be prepared in the current issue of Grit magazine. In about two weeks, the first of these fruits should be ready to pick. And ready for Elaine to turn into something scrumptious.

American Barberry Found on our Johns Creek Land (Blog 456)

Monday evening neighbor John Hudson and I went on a photography foray in Botetourt and Craig counties in Virginia. We stopped first on Elaine's and my 30-acre parcel on Johns Creek in Craig County. I wanted to determine if the oaks had produced acorns with deer season approaching.

When John and I were leaving, we took photos of various plants on the way back to the vehicle. I took some shots of interesting looking plants with bristle-tipped leaves that were growing in small colonies. When I arrived back home, it occurred to me that the plant was American barberry, a native Southern Appalachian plant that is endangered.

I sent a photo of  the plant to friend James Hancock who confirmed that it was indeed an American barberry. That identification is one more reason I'm glad that Elaine and I put the land under a conservation easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundations and the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy. We have a vernal pool on the land, a spring, and the land also adjoins Johns Creek - so there is much to preserve about the land, now, including, an endangered plant. Also, in the November/December issue of Virginia Wildlife, I am supposed to have a story on conservation easements and their importance to hunters, anglers, birders, and anyone who values wildlife and wildlife habitat.

Wild Turkey Poults Spotted This Morning (Blog 455)

This is the first week of school where I live in Botetourt County, Virginia, so I have been walking earlier than usual in the morning. This morning while doing so, I spotted four mother hens and approximately 16 poults bugging for grasshoppers in a field. No doubt they were eating a wide variety of wild plants as well.

Yesterday after school, Elaine and I released our two mother hens with their eight chicks and watched them bug and search for clover. Once again I was reminded how similar the behavior of chickens and turkeys is. After all, they are both gallinaceous birds. They scratch the same way, flock and roost in similar fashions and have a shared passion for bugs, clover, and dandelions. The hens even share joint mothering duties, as was evident in the turkey flock I observed this morning, and the actions of the two mother hens in our run.

Cockerel Behavior (Blog 454)

The eight chicks that our hens Mary and Wednesday have been nurturing are all about six to seven weeks old now. As is usually the case, half are cockerels and half are pullets. The truth and reality are that we can't keep all four of the cockerels in the run but a month or so longer. Posturing and small skirmishes are daily events for the four young roosters, but before too much longer, these skirmishes will likely become more intense and more disruptive to the overall flock.

We already have two good roosters, four-year-old Don, the patriarch of the flock and one of his offspring, Friday, who will be a year old in October. We really don't need a third rooster since we only have two pens. Elaine and I  have named the biggest of the four cockerels, appropriately enough, Mr. Big. The other three will remain nameless and will be eaten by the end of August. Whether we will keep Mr. Big beyond Labor Day is the point worth pondering.

St. Gall Farm Honey (Blog 453)

Earlier this week, good friend Paul Hinlicky dropped by our house to deliver some honey. Paul and his wife Ellen operate St. Gall Farm in the Catawba Valley of Roanoke County, Virginia (https://www.stgallfarm.com/).

Elaine and I are big proponents of living like locavores and purchasing honey from a neighbor is part of that philosophy. We have long believed that one of the best ways to keep Rural America rural is by supporting local small farmers, and the meat, vegetables, eggs, fruits, and, honey they sell. So if you have farmers' markets in your area (and around here we have ones in Botetourt, Roanoke, Salem, and Catawba just to name a few) consider supporting them and the folks who have local foods and goods to sell.

By the way, those foods, like Paul and Ellen's honey, are delicious.

Timber Stand Improvement Projects (Blog 452)

I have spent parts of the past three days working on Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) on our 38 acres in Botetourt County, Virginia. There has been so much to do: freeing up young oaks, cutting down dead ashes, removing non-mast producing trees to open up the forest floor, and spraying for invasive plants.

These activities are some of the most pleasant things I do. I honestly think I could do this for several hours a day, every day for a month, and not run out of things to do. Performing TSI is one of the most pleasant aspects of land ownership. The knowledge that I am making land better for wildlife is deeply satisfying, plus I'm gaining some firewood for the winter.

Summer Berry Season (Blog 451)

Elaine and I have been picking berries for a month or so now, and we now have picked 9 1/2 gallons of wild raspberries, wineberries, and blackberries. Tomorrow our son Mark and I are going to our Gap Mills land in Monroe County, West Virginia to hopefully pick at least two quarts, so that we can reach our annual 10-gallon goal. That way we will have enough fruit for Elaine to make most of the pies, cobblers, and jam we will use in the year ahead.

Mark and I are also going to clear brush and shooting lanes around my ladder stand there. Bow season starts the last Saturday in September, and I won't go back to the land until then. I will also check out the condition of the stand and the belts that keep it in place. I hope to kill a nice doe there on opening day.

Chestnut Tree on Our Potts Mountain Land (Blog 450)

Elaine and I recently went to our Potts Mountain land on the border of Craig County, Virginia and Monroe County, West Virginia to pick raspberries. While there, I checked on the progress of two American chestnut trees that continue to grow taller.

I noticed the two trees several years ago - they are not very far apart. I have been waiting for them to die, but they have not. Of course, I am guessing that they are afflicted with the blight that has impacted our native chestnuts since the early 1900s. However, they must have some immunity to have lived this long and grown some 40-feet tall.

Anyway, they were good to see.

Locavore Living in the Summer (Blog 449)

Elaine and I have been busy enjoying the bounty of our garden and the wild berries we are gathering. Today, Elaine made three loaves of zuchinni bread, two were frozen for the winter, and we began eating the other.

So far, we have gathered three gallons of wild berries. Our goal, as always every summer, is to gather 10 gallons before July is over. Tomorrow, I will try to pick a half gallon as Elaine is planning to make wineberry jam.

We also have eight chicks between one week and two weeks old. They are doing well except they have not learned how to walk up the gangplank to the hen house when night starts to fall.

Much is going on around here.

Gobbler Seen Strutting (Blog 448)

Today, June 18 around 10:30 here in Botetourt County, Virginia, I observed a mature gobbler in strut. This particular tom is amazing to watch and listen to. He gobbled frequently all spring. I often heard him while I was walking before going to teach school.

When the season concluded, he still kept gobbling and he only stopped doing so a week or two ago. However, he is still strutting, even today near noon. I have heard birds gobbling as late as Independence Day one year, when a tom sounded off 22 times behind our house. I guess it was his own version of setting off firecrackers.

Rhode Island Red Chicks Hatching (Blog 447)

This week, the chicks from our heritage Rhode Island Red hen Mary are starting to hatch. As I write this, chick number two is almost out of its shell. Chick number one came out on Thursday. We are hopeful that the other five eggs will start to shimmy and pip soon, but who knows.

One thing we learned last September was that hatching chicks are in grave danger from the other birds. We left Mary in the hen house, and the first chick to come out of the shell was killed. We found the dead creature when we came home from being gone for the afternoon. That's why we have Mary in our basement.

How Will This Rainy Period Affect Turkey Poults? (Blog 446)

Here in Southwest Virginia, the past two days have seen rain, and the wet weather is supposed to continue for another four or five days. Right now in this region, wild turkey poults are either a few days old or are just hatching. I have to wonder how this rainy spell will affect them.

One thing in the poults' favor is that the air temperature is not abnormally cold. A few nights in the low 40s, for example, could cause widespread death from hypothermia. But most nighttime lows are supposed to be far above that. I guess we'll have to wait and see how turkey reproduction might be affected by this precipitation spell.

Tom Still Gobbling (445)

Virginia's and West Virginia's spring gobbler season has been over for several weeks. In fact, some poults, no doubt, are hatching now. Yet, there is a gobbler on our rural Botetourt County road that is still gobbling. When I am walking in the pre-dawn murk, I often hear him sound off.

If he is not gobbling, I give him a couple yelps with my mouth, and he gobbles at that. One morning, I didn't yelp until I walked past his roost area. Then I yelped at him as I was walking away. This seemed to make him even more charged up. The gobbling became so intense that I thought he was  going to pop  out onto the road and look for the "hen."

I wonder how long into June this tom will continue to gobble?

Heritage Rhode Island Red Hen Goes Broody (Blog 444)

Mary, our heritage Rhode Island red hen, "went broody" yesterday afternoon. Elaine and I were very excited because that means in three weeks or so Mary's chicks will hatch. One of the joys of raising heritage chickens is that the hens know how to sit on a nest and hatch the eggs. Mary is now three years old and this is the fourth time she has become broody.

Mary is an excellent mother and is very attentive to her chicks. So we are sure that she will be the same with this bunch. She has already been doing the harsh "chrrrr" sound when her fellow flock hens approach her nest. Chickens have this penchant of all wanting to lay their eggs in the same nest no matter how many nesting boxes are within a coop. Mary's protesting chrrrrs is her way of telling her fellow hens to stay away.

Strawberries and More Strawberries (Blog 443)

Our Surecrop strawberry plants continue to produce in great abundance. This week, Elaine made jam, a second pie, and clafouti out of our haul, which has been averaging about a quart per day. Yesterday, my wife froze a quart or so of berries, which will eventually become part of smoothies and topping for oatmeal and cereal.

We are hoping for another week of production, as it would be good to have another pie and perhaps we could make jam one more time. There's no such thing as too many garden fresh strawberries.

Below is a picture of strawberries being turned into jam.

First Strawberry Pie of the Spring (Blog 442)

To my astonishment, strawberries from our garden are already ripening, and Saturday I picked enough for Elaine to make a pie. Pies made from Black Twig apples are high on my list as are pies made from wild raspberries. But pies consisting of garden fresh strawberries also rate in the top three. I'm not sure which of these three pies would come in first.

Today, there won't be enough for a second pie, but they will go great with breakfast cereal. Later in the week, hopefully it will be time to make strawberry jam.