New England's Narrow Road

No Eggs For You!

Summer in New England means fresh country eggs and it seems that many folks raise their own chickens. (Click here to see pics of their baby chicks!) My neighbors have some (that I ‘babysit’ when they go away) and the little store downtown has it’s own “Farm Fresh Eggs” section. The farm on the outskirts of town also sells them.
But this year they have been scarce. I haven’t bought one single dozen from my neighbors (the kids do the selling for fun money)…and even the little store has frequently had empty shelves. Usually people are giving their eggs away because of the abundance, but not this summer.
I blame it on all the rain and cold weather in June and July, but don’t really know the reason. I’ve heard that chickens need lots of sunshine to produce eggs, and I guess numerous rainy days could be the culprit.
Now Fall is approaching and the hopes of having fresh eggs is diminishing.
What’s the difference you ask? Well, just don’t start eating fresh eggs because you will be hooked and store bought will never appeal to you again.

By the way, raising chickens isn’t easy – it draws all kinds of unwanted critters such as foxes and bears, to the yard. It seems they love the taste of chicken. My neighbor has an electric fence up around his entire pen. He had to do this after a bear tore the coop apart and ate a bunch of the chickens.

Living With Black Bears

Photo credit: werner22brigitte @ Pixabay — Black Bear, photo credit: werner22brigitte @ Pixabay

I live in a small New Hampshire town and my house is surrounded my lots of woods. The area trails and back roads make great places to walk and observe wildlife, but to tell you the truth I am a bit afraid of encountering a black bear.

I know that they will most likely be more afraid of me, but my concern is that I will startle one or see a cub whose mother will think I mean it harm.

The first time I had seen a black bear in the wild was in my yard 4 years ago. I had left the bird feeders out too far into Spring, and we looked out to see a mother and two small (adorable) cubs skirting the woods of the yard. We thought it was pretty cool to see bears, but my son started crying (he’s very afraid of bears) and at the time I didn’t realize it was my bird seed they were after.

Not long after that I was sitting in a chair by the window at about 10pm and had the back light on when I caught a glimpse of movement and saw a large black bear amble past me and up onto the porch. When I got to the back door I realized that there were 2 of them and I made noise to chase them off. One took off into the woods and the other climbed a nearby pine tree.

Not long after, maybe the next morning, I woke up to bent shepherds hooks and broken feeders. I had grown up in Massachusetts and never saw a bear near my house and I was new to living this far out in the wilderness in the north.

It was time to read up on the bears and wildlife in my area. Although it was cool to say I’d seen a bear in my yard, I realized that it was not unusual for my neighbors to have seen bears. Stories of snatched feeders and destroyed chicken coops made me realize that they were numerous …and hungry!

So I learned. I have discovered that feeding the birds in winter- throughout the snowy season – is fine. The bears are hibernating mostly and won’t be a bother. I’ve read that feeding birds in summer is okay too if the feeders are taken in at night, but I found that they will come in mid-day as well to steal thistle seed from the goldfinches…so no daytime feeders either. I’ve even had one swipe my hummingbird feeder!

Birds are totally capable of finding food for themselves in non-winter months, and bears are wild animals that are best left in the wild. Having food around – such as birdseed -invites them to the yard and they cannot get used to having us humans feed them (that is how they see it), or they will come to depend on it.

A local man wrote a column in our town paper about this subject. He said that adult bears who come to depend on eating from humans won’t teach it’s cubs to hunt for their usual wild food and the bears will die. He said that a “fed bear is a dead bear”. So keep that in mind. I sure will.

Dimond Hill Farm

On the outskirts of Concord, NH is a big yellow farm that sits on top of a hill – Dimond Hill, named after the original owner, Ezekiel Dimond. He sold the land to Joseph Abbott in 1827, but the farm retains the original owners name. The farm has been in the Abbott family for 6 generations and you can read about it here.

I lived near there last year and it’s where I bought a lot of my fresh veggies and even bought a frozen peach pie. They sell what most farms sell – local homemade goodies & in-season vegetables, and also buckets of ice cream, but what I loved most was the view! So one day I brought my camera along and took this photo.

I tend to think that these northerners take for granted this beauty since most of them have always lived here, but it might not be true.

Hiking Pitcher Mountain

A short hike up Pitcher Mountain gives plenty of awesome views.

My son and I have a tradition of going to Pitcher Mountain to pick blueberries each August. The mountain is in Stoddard, New Hampshire and the hike to the top is quick, but the views from the 2163 foot summit are gorgeous!

This is the first time I’ve seen these new wind towers. Sorry my photo isn’t that good, but we counted 8 of them on the hillside in Lempster. I’ve heard that they are loud, disrupt the flight patterns of birds, and other negative info. Wind Towers are also being put up near another favorite spot of min – Gregg Lake in Antrim. I’ll have to become informed, but after reading about it, I don’t see how it will save me any money and I wouldn’t like these things popping up all over this beautiful state to ruin the views!

The top of the mountain is full of blueberry bushes. If we split up and pick, then combine our efforts, we can gather a nice crop of berries to eat, cook with and freeze. All that is required is a donation at the bottom of the hill in the parking area.

According to this site, New Hampshire has 17 active standing fire towers and others that are not used. If you want to know how to visit them click here.

Fire tower at the top of Pitcher Mountain in New Hampshire. — Pitcher Mountain Fire Tower

Every year I say I’ll go back again and get more berries and then the time goes by and blueberry season has ended. But the mountain is still there, and we can always go for a hike and get some new photos.