So today, Al came along with me on two of my easement monitoring visits, one at Franklin Pierce University and the other at Mountain Brook Reservoir in Jaffrey. I appreciate having his help with compass work and following the tough boundary lines. We went to places on both easements that I have never been confident enough to find. Thanks, Al.
We also found a new to me edible mushroom, inky caps. I ate them already--not too much taste but fine. We also found a good amount of oyster mushrooms, which were half frozen. I don't know how well they will hold up, but we will give them a try. Herb Gramm, the owner of the Mountain Brook Reservoir property was happy to take some back to his wife.
We dropped Herb back at his house and headed back to the reservoir to finish walking the boundaries. The northern section of the easement is full of invasive plants of all sorts--discouraging array of bittersweet, multiflora rose (ouch!), buckthorn in hopeless abundance, and barberry. In one spot, we found multiflora rose and buckthorn in a scrambled mass, intertwined together.
But our discouragement disappeared at the sight of the most abundant patch of cranberries I have ever seen. It was an amazing spot--out of the water and so thick with berries that I could lie down on the ground and pick in one spot for quite a while.
So, mushrooms and cranberries: a pretty productive day. And on top of it all, when I got home after picking up my son, Geoffrey, we were delighted to find the red squirrel that has been terrorizing our kitchen cabinets had been caught in the havahart trap. I sent Geoff with the squirrel down to Otter Brook to let it go where it wouldn't be close enough to come back to our house. Happy Day! No more chewed crackers and packages. Thank goodness, and my son, Poul, for setting the trap.
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