It’s not much of a winter.

I heat my entire house with wood, can’t help it. It’s not for everyone, but heating with wood is for me, and I’m of the opinion that once one heats with wood, there is no going back to oil or gas. The heat has a source. The cat and dog lie in front of the stove, life-giving flames visible through the glass.

Im lucky to have this cool salt box with room for six or seven carefully stacked cords under the roof. I bring the wood home in July when it’s still green and recently split. As it seasons, we can smell the white oak terpenes drifting through and around the house. There is something really organic about it. It’s hard work, too, stacking wood. Actually, EVERYTHING about heating with wood is hard, except for the fact that my gas bill is about $45/month all year long.

My son and I brought these cages home yesterday knowing that what was left was insufficient to last through the rest of the winter. We got something accomplished yesterday at least. The dog Peetee wasn’t much help as much as she wanted to be involved, dodging tossed pieces with each and every throw.

The blueberry field in the background got re-mulched, weeded and fed last month during an unfortunate warm spell. Europe had its warmest January EVER in the history of temperature record keeping, and last week, Antarctica recorded a depressing 65f, the highest temperature EVER RECORDED.

tRUMP says global warming is a hoax- asshole! Lots of republicons have spewed this lie for a few decades (insufficient data they say), but tRUMP has had the absolute worst effect on our planet’s chances of turning this thing around. Say goodbye to your favorite species- nice knowing ya!

It’s so depressing to read these items- all across the environmental spectrum mankind is destroying our planet’s long term prospects.

American demand for AVOCADOS is causing the deforestation of the overwintering habitat for our threatened monarch butterflies. The Mexican cartels last week murdered two Mexican environmentalists who have been trying to save the monarch forests. Bodies dumped into wells.

​We go to the store to buy food and toss a couplea avocados in the cart and sponsor the extinction of the most amazing insect. Who is going to stop this madness? DON’T BUY MEXICAN AVOCADOS!

When we were picking up the wood, I noticed these bagworms up in a sugar maple tree. They usually have their dangling bags in arborvitae. The scales are from a nearby arborvitae. For some reason, these bugs took the arborvitae foliage to the sugar maple and set up camp there. Why??? I sliced open this bag to show my kid what’s inside, and when I did, I noticed for the first time how damn ingenious the construction of the sleeping bag is. Inside the scaly rough tough impenetrable outer bag is a soft silken inner layer that made me imagine being comfortable in if I were that bug. How many millions of years did it take for that technique to evolve? How many people appreciate the sophistication of the insect world? Most people come to see me to find out which chemical kills them, and as I am in my FIFTH DECADE in this business, I find it harder and harder to help people kill insects. I’m just disgusted by that entire approach to stewardship of our environment.

Overwintering bagworm female disturbed by me yesterday so I could show my son the sophisticated pupating technique this insect evolved over millions of years.

The birch trees out front look awesome at night with their ten watt LED light bulbs shining up through the canopy. Not many trees can boast better looking night time than daytime appearances. Himalayan birch trees- our signature tree.