Bolt Hole Report, evening edition

Nothing much to report from the Bolt Hole today. There was a freeze overnight with the temperature dropping to the high 20s. The truck was coated in frost and the little pond had a skim of ice on it at 6:30 AM. The sun came on strong, however, and by late afternoon the temperature was around 70. The weather quacks are making noise about it being even warmer tomorrow afternoon with a chance of some T-storms forming as a result. Tonight it's supposed to get down into the upper 40s and I'm debating whether to light a fire or not to warm the house.

All this warm weather has brought out the lady bugs from their nooks and crannies. There must have been a hundred on the south facing window this afternoon. That they got inside is not a surprise. This old place is hardly air tight. Why they don't go back out the same way is a mystery. Okay, they don't have a terribly large brain, but still.... I opened the screen door for a bit and shooed them out but what I really need is a couple of 10-year olds with a step ladder, a file card and a jar.

I spent the day cleaning up some slash and lopping out some bush honeysuckle--the invasive species kind that offers wildlife no comfort at all. It doesn't even smell like the vine honeysuckle. It does form a near impenetrable barrier when it grows large and close together. And the damn stuff does grow! It's all over the place. Small ones can be pulled right from the ground due to a shallow root system. Large ones have multiple stems up to 2" in diameter each and will grow back if all you do is cut them. I've heard that the best thing to do is cut them close to the ground and paint the cut ends with undiluted Round-Up (which I do not have). Otherwise, it's cut them this year, next year and maybe the year after until they give up. I'll be doing more of the same tomorrow.

I did walk the woods a little with the loppers in hand. Lots of tree tops and a few whole trees blown over during the winter. I cleaned up some of the trails to make walking easier. I find the deer and bears appreciate the effort, too. They are more likely to use a a trail I've cut or an old skidway than they are to bushwack through the hemlocks and fir trees if they aren't pressured. It's amazing the small openings they will take when they really, really want to get somewhere, however. They'll think nothing of going through a thicket that would have you and me crawling on hands and knees. Put a coyote on their tail or fire a shot at one and they'll go OVER the same thicket.