OT Things to ponder

[Canoerebel]

Water moccasin and cottonmouth are the same thing. And they're "both" venomous.

[Canoerebel]

Edited just for the fun of editing.

[geofflambert]

Marlon Perkins was a person who should be respected, but cottonmouths and water moccasins are one and the same animal, in the same way that pumas, mountain lions and cougars are the same. There are water snakes that are not dangerous in any way in this area, but they are not water moccasins. I prefer the term cottonmouth because the contrast between the very white interior of their mouths and the very dark and seeming black of their external bodies is remarkable. On one occasion I and some others killed a couple of cottonmouths who were trying to reach a body of water. We threw rocks at them and crushed their skulls. But I would say they were a couple of the meanest scariest things I've ever seen.

Makee is correct, King snakes are afraid of nothing and take cottonmouths, rattlesnakes and copperheads, never harming a human in any way.

[MakeeLearn]

Using a scrub plane and a jack plane I can flatten a rough cut board. The plow plane is my favorite. And the world of "scratching" reveals how those beautiful designs were put in wood before machines.

[geofflambert]

Might you also be a metalsmith? Make me a gladius of Damascus steel.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Might you also be a metalsmith? Make me a gladius of Damascus steel.

I make my own scratch blade shapes with files, that's the extent of my metalsmithing.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Staghorn Sumac is my latest obsession.

Still trying to find the plant-tree morphine of North America.

As boy scouts we were taught to make Sumac tea. Now, we didn't drink tea of any sort before, so it wasn't performing as an ersatz version of real tea. If you asked us why we would make Sumac tea, we could do nothing other than shrug.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Staghorn Sumac is my latest obsession.

Still trying to find the plant-tree morphine of North America.

As boy scouts we were taught to make Sumac tea. Now, we didn't drink tea of any sort before, so it wasn't performing as an ersatz version of real tea. If you asked us why we would make Sumac tea, we could do nothing other than shrug.

When the first explorers from Europe under Sieur de Champlain tried to over-winter on a New Brunswick bay, they soon started to waste away from lack of proper nutrition. I have forgotten what plant was used, but the native people saved them from scurvy by showing them how to make tea from local plants to get vitamin C. Perhaps Sumac was involved.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I just got some praying mantis egg cases (the Chinese kind) delivered. I know they are going to try and eat my Monarch butterflies and caterpillars, but it's nature like it's supposed to be. Let the games begin!

I've had those almost every year since I was a small kid. My father started buying them around 1970. I have to incubate them indoors around here, but they do fine once they are out. In the fall as I find them in the yard, I bring them into the greenhouse. Last November I found a juvenile outside the greenhouse and took him in. The adults were dying off at that point, but I figured he'd live out his last days in a little more comfortable place. The other day when watering I saw him and he's still a juvenile. He's chowing down OK. We have a type of beetle around here call box elder bugs and they winter over in the cracks around the screens in the windows. I collect them and feed the mantises in the greenhouse.

I had 4 egg cases I found in the yard and the greenhouse when the adults died off.

I also have been keeping orchard mason bees the last few years. I've been successful in getting them to rebreed the last couple of years. They had started hatching out by this time last year, but this winter has been a lot colder.

Bill

[Zorch]

This is the most peculiar AE thread ever. It defies classification. [&:]

[MakeeLearn]

No doubt Water moccasin and cottonmouth are known as the same. However I believe something archaic has been lost. Too many regional examples of the term being applied to separated snakes. And why "Water shoe" for any snake?


For example as "You can't have your cake and eat it too" has replaced the original "You can't eat you cake and have it too". The first is the common expression yet it is a less TRUE representation of the second.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Staghorn Sumac is my latest obsession.

Still trying to find the plant-tree morphine of North America.

As boy scouts we were taught to make Sumac tea. Now, we didn't drink tea of any sort before, so it wasn't performing as an ersatz version of real tea. If you asked us why we would make Sumac tea, we could do nothing other than shrug.

"Sumac tea" from the leafs or berries?

It makes, in my opinion, the MOST refreshing drink. The red berries have a Sweet/Tart flavor. It use to be called "Indian Lemonade". Porcher writes at length about in his book. He even asks why is this plant not cultivated as in Sicily? It has culinary, medicinal and commercial uses.

Porcher is the man credited with keeping the Confederacy afloat to attempt its fight. His book was distributed to soldiers in the field. If any one wants it I have a pdf copy

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Staghorn Sumac is my latest obsession.

Still trying to find the plant-tree morphine of North America.

As boy scouts we were taught to make Sumac tea. Now, we didn't drink tea of any sort before, so it wasn't performing as an ersatz version of real tea. If you asked us why we would make Sumac tea, we could do nothing other than shrug.

"Sumac tea" from the leafs or berries?

It makes, in my opinion, the MOST refreshing drink. The red berries have a Sweet/Tart flavor. It use to be called "Indian Lemonade". Porcher writes at length about in his book. He even asks why is this plant not cultivated as in Sicily? It has culinary, medicinal and commercial uses.

Porcher is the man credited with keeping the Confederacy afloat to attempt its fight. His book was distributed to soldiers in the field. If any one wants it I have a pdf copy

Just don't mistake poison Sumac for the beneficial kind! [:'(]

[Canoerebel]

Interestingly, poison ivy and sumac are now in the same genus: Rhus.

That wasn't always in the case. When I was in forestry school (early '80s), the taxonomic name for poison ivy was Toxicodendron radicans (a wonderfully descriptive name). It later changed to Rhus radicans.

The various sumacs include Rhus glabra (shining sumac), Rhus copalina (winged sumac) and Rhus typhina (staghorn sumac). The three of them are easy to distinguish due to obvious characteristic features.

Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix, formerly known as Rhus vernix) is no longer in the same genus as the other sumacs. But the sumacs, the poison sumac, and the poison ivy are all in the same family (Anacardiacea), so they are fairly closely related (as closely as oak is to chestnut is to American beech).

[geofflambert]

.

[MakeeLearn]

A common name for Poison sumac was also False Sumac, as the leafs and leaf pattern was similar to staghorn sumac. Although other characteristics are very different. Staghorn sumac has a nutty smell and makes me think of brownies cooking.

Poison ivy and kudzu are the state birds for several southern states. Although kudzu is beneficial as a tuber food source and its liver healing properties. The Brits are know to be fond of poison ivy for use as a fence row.

[MakeeLearn]

Tattoos "of" reptiles....

[MakeeLearn]

Goggle Car will not come down my street since the.... never mind.... Here is the main road, it's where I vote at.

[Lecivius]

Is that cable your internet connection?? [&:][X(]

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

Is that cable your internet connection?? [&:][X(]

....and drying laundry.