To Walk a Duck (repost)

By chance, I happened upon this post from my PrincetonNatureNotes.org blog, in which my younger daughter and I took one of our pet ducks for a walk in Herrontown Woods exactly ten years ago, on January 24, 2013. That would prove to be a momentous year, for the Friends of Herrontown Woods would come into being that summer. When ducks are young, they will follow you anywhere, and can walk great distances. This is one of a whole raft of posts I wrote about the ducks we had in our backyard.

January 24, 2013:
Ducks made a surprise entry into our lives this past fall (2012), when our younger daughter began asking to get ducklings. We made what seemed like compelling arguments against. Winters are cold, ducks are messy, and then there's the question of longterm care. To all these concerns she offered answers gleaned from the internet. She broke down our resistance with her persistence, passion, and finally a sophisticated powerpoint presentation that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Youtube's surprisingly rich offering of poultry videos may also have inspired the request to take one of the ducks, which had grown quickly after emerging from the box they arrived in from California, on a nature walk.

This fleet-footed "runner duck" had no problem keeping up with us, and appreciated the occasional puddle we encountered in Herrontown Woods. I didn't even try to teach it the subtleties of winter-time tree identification. It seemed content just to explore on its own.

Happiness is a duck in the lap and a cell phone in the hand.

Despite having scaled the Princeton Ridge and scurried under and over countless fallen trees, the runner duck led the way back past the Veblen farmstead towards our car. Molly, as this runner duck is called, can be described as liking to take long walks in the woods, frolic in the backyard minipond when it's not frozen, and is considering a career in egg laying. Hopefully we didn't violate any leash laws.

Advocating for Safe Bike and Pedestrian Access Up Snowden Lane

The Friends of Herrontown Woods has for many years been advocating for better bicycle and pedestrian access to Herrontown Woods and Smoyer Park. This past week, the last stretch up from town along Snowden Lane got a little safer.

A strip of asphalt was laid down for bikes and pedestrians in front of the Windy Top development at the top of the hill. Though in the original plans finalized years ago, the walkway was only added after the last of seven houses was finally built. 

The portion at the very top of the hill is especially welcomed, since a pedestrian was hit and badly injured there some years back, perhaps due to the limited sight lines at the crest. 

The walkway deadends at either end, however, at the edge of the Windy Top property. Extension to the entrances to Herrontown Woods and Smoyer Park will likely be the town's responsibility. 

And extension of the walkway down to Van Dyke will likely need to wait until the housing development being built on the larger corner property there is completed. 

Even when that happens, there will still be what we call "the gauntlet" that extends from Van Dyke down across the bridge to Overbrook Drive. Building a walkway along that stretch is critical for anyone in the Littlebrook neighborhood wanting to access Smoyer Park and Herrontown Woods in anything other than a car. 

Long ago, Snowden Lane was a charming country road with a little stone-arch bridge over the stream. With all the houses going in, the charm of the narrow road with steep ditches on either side is giving way to a need for safe access to the preserved public recreational lands at the top of the hill.   

One remnant of that distant rural era that we'd like to see preserved and repurposed is the old stone bridge over the stream. FOHW has alerted the town to the existence of the bridge, and is advocating for finding a way to utilize it for bike and pedestrian access up Snowden Lane. 

The Many Stories a Barden Can Tell

There are many curious sights in the Barden at Herrontown Woods, and each has a story behind it. This figure was carved two years ago by our chainsaw virtuoso, Victorino, as a bit of whimsy after a morning of tree work in the Barden. Is it sad because it has lost its bark?

The gazebo in the background has a long but fun story behind it. 

This dugout has two stories behind it. One is the story of how it was carved by Princeton High School students. The other is the story that inspired the carving: the Odyssey. 

I'm sure the kids who made these mudpies can tell you all about them, and how delicious they were.

This tree is very quietly telling its story every day at the Barden.

This tree, a dead ash cut down by Victorino, has a story to tell if we take the time to study its markings. The story will be not only about the tree but about the woods or abandoned field in which it sprouted.

I bet its rings will take us back to a time when Herrontown Woods was mostly farm fields. And what sort of insect made that blue-stained channel?

This version of a leaf corral, with a central cylinder for food scraps, tells the story of organic matter's journey back to the soil from which it came. 

Venture up the red trail from the Barden to the little red barn, and the stories really start to get interesting. So impressive that this skeleton is defiant even long after passing. Now that's spirit!

On the next wall over, Teddy Roosevelt has the same pose. Maybe the skeleton is Teddy's!

And it's great to see a skeleton maintaining its flexibility, despite the attritions of age.

Herrontown Woods doesn't have any skeletons in the closet. Just in the barn.

Princeton Council Approves Funding to Remove Asbestos at Veblen House

November 14 was a great day for Veblen House. At the town council meeting that night, council members unanimously approved funding for removal of asbestos in the house. The funding comes from a reserve put in place when Mercer County transferred ownership of Herrontown Woods to Princeton Municipality. 

An article in Town Topics provides more details, and also reports on other ways the town has been assisting the Friends of Herrontown Woods (FOHW), including some assistance in removing dangerous trees and treating invasive species. 

FOHW leases the Veblen House and Cottage from the town, and our volunteers also maintain trails on 220 acres of public land in Herrontown Woods and Autumn Hill Reservation. Though FOHW is primarily responsible for raising funds to repair and repurpose the buildings, we are grateful for the town's key assistance. 

The Return of Portapotty

Much to our individual and collective relief, the portapotty is back. Gray has been replaced by green and brown, and our fear of being liable for a $750 replacement fee has been replaced by a better understanding that mistakes can happen. 

The mystery of the disappearing portapotty, first noticed missing the day before Thanksgiving, continued through the weekend. Were we now living in a world where not even portapotties are safe from theft? 

There had been some detective work. We inspected the spot where it had last been seen. The nearby leaves were undisturbed, suggesting a clean removal. Turned out that the portapotty had not been stolen after all. Rather, one of the company's drivers had mistakenly hauled it away. 

If it had in fact been stolen, we might then have thought twice about getting another one. That in turn would get us thinking more about investing in a composting toilet, which comes up now and then as an alternative. Reportedly, there's one at Rosedale Park. Time for some field research.

The Case of the Disappearing Portapotty

Portapotty 15750, where are you?

Yes, our portapotty at Herrontown Woods has gone missing. Is portapotty theft a thing? Apparently yes, according to United Site Services, from whom we rent. Turns out that, as renters, we may have to bear responsibility for the replacement cost of the humble structure, plus delivery fee for a new one. 

Rumor has it that the half-marathon that's been going on in our part of town also had a portapotty disappear. We strain to understand the logic. Is there a black market in portapotties? Is it really that hard to find relief these days? Did someone fall in love with portapotty #15750 and decide to elope? Without regular servicing, that romance is not going to last.

Hopefully this mystery will be solved soon. The apparent theft has a potential silver lining, however. After meeting with a police officer on-site to file a report, I was about to head home when I saw a hiker emerging from one of the trails. I went over and started a conversation, thinking he might have been there earlier in the week and noticed something. He hadn't, but having first visited the preserve 25 years ago, he gave a testimonial about how neglected the preserve had been before we formed the Friends of Herrontown Woods in 2013. Then he said that he has worked at a number of historic houses, and is currently a docent and researcher at the Frelinghuysen-Morris House in Massachusetts. 

My jaw dropped a bit, because the Whiton-Stuarts--the wealthy family that first owned what we now call Veblen House--lived for some time in Morristown, and had had a parcel of property near the Frelinghuysen Arboretum there. The Veblen House is a prefab that was originally moved by the Whiton-Stuarts to Princeton from Morristown. He also said that the Frelinghuysen family had a Princeton connection. We exchanged contact info, and will talk more. It would be quite the irony if a missing portapotty led me to someone who can help solve the riddle of the Veblen House's origins and why it was moved to Princeton.

Thanksgiving Weekend Nature Walk at Herrontown Woods

Update: A big blob of predicted rain has been sitting atop the planned timeslot for a nature walk this Thanksgiving weekend, finally causing us to delay the walk by a week. It is now planned for Dec. 4, 1-3pm.

Note: The consistency of the weather prediction, which showed the blob sitting in exactly the same Sunday time slot for five days straight, and which ultimately proved accurate, surely represents a triumph for meteorology.  

Astute readers will note a distinct resemblance between the blob of rain that swallowed our nature walk and the drawing of a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant in The Little Prince. 

A nature walk is planned for this Thanksgiving weekend, on Sunday, Nov. 27, from 1-3pm. If the weather looks iffy, check the events page of the HerrontownWoods.org website for an update. 

We'll meet at the Herrontown Woods parking lot at 600 Snowden Lane, across Snowden from the Smoyer Park entrance. Sturdy shoes are a good idea. Maps at this link.

The photo is of a pokeweed that came late to the fall color party.

Leaves Take Flight at the OK Leaf Corral

On a spirited Sunday morning with an invigorating chill in the air, volunteers staged a leaf roundup at Veblen House. 

Here's board member Keena, showing proper stance and form as she raked leaves onto a tarp. She's a natural, even though she grew up in the Arizona desert, where there were no leaves to rake.

Joanne didn't have childhood memories of raking leaves either, but warmed to the task as the task warmed her.

Elsewhere on the Veblen House grounds, Scott mowed leaves back into the lawn.

By chance, Richard, a neighbor who is doing a major cleaning out of his house, had just donated some tarps that worked beautifully. We hauled the leaves off to an "OK Leaf Corral," where they will quickly settle and slowly return to the soil. A leaf corral may look limited in how many leaves it can take, but the leaves quickly settle, making room for more just a day or two later. 

Though some may think of it as a task to avoid, raking leaves brings back joyful memories for me. It was a family affair. We'd rake oak leaves into a big pile at the bottom end of the yard, and then I'd run down the hill and leap into the pile. Sometimes we'd make small piles and burn them, turning the leaves into glowing skeletons. The acorns would make a big POP when we tossed them into the flames. Today the smoke is considered pollution, but back then, the scent of burning leaves was part of the romance of the season. 

The leaves we raked this fall at Herrontown Woods were wet, which makes them heavier to carry on the tarps, but helps speed decomposition after they are piled in a leaf corral. Our volunteer workdays are every Sunday, starting around 10:30am. 

Delightful Writeup on Herrontown Woods in the Nassau Weekly

On October 9th, we had a particularly serendipitous Sunday at Herrontown Woods. It was our monthly May's Cafe at the Barden, mixing coffee, baked treats, socializing, and some volunteer work, followed by a nature walk. A new attendee was Juju Lane, a senior at Princeton University and senior editor at the Nassau Weekly.

She talked to many of us, watched as we collected seed from the many kinds of native plants in the Barden, then went along on the walk, taking careful notes. 

Later in the month, she wrote up her experience, capturing the spirit of the Friends of Herrontown Woods in a wonderful piece published in the Nassau Weekly. 

Here, one of our volunteers, Carolyn, is collecting seed from a rose mallow hibiscus. May's Cafe takes place right in the garden, so in a way we are socializing with the native plants while socializing with people.

Juju's piece is entitled, "Cure Plant Blindness and Find Community: Meet the Princeton Locals Revitalizing Herrontown Woods."

Bringing Dead Trees Safely Down

When a tree falls across a trail, we're often able to clear it with our electric chainsaws. But sometimes there's a need for someone with skills well beyond ours.

That's when we give a call to our chainsaw virtuoso and angel in our midst, Victorino. The ash was our most common tree before being killed by the wave of Emerald ash borers that has swept through Princeton in recent years. Though many, deeper in the forest, can be left standing to serve as habitat and carbon sequestration, some closer in need to be cut down before they grow brittle. In a crowded woodland, they need to fall in just the right direction, so as not to catch on, or damage, a neighboring tree.

Victorino came most recently in early October, when there's a lot of color in the woods. A tree that fell on its own some years back was bearing a promising crop of Chicken of the Woods. We weren't sure enough, though, to harvest it.

Another tree trunk seemed to be showing off its brilliant fall color, but in fact was a snag, up which a poison ivy vine had grown and branched out, forming what I call a "poison ivy tree." Birds feast on the berries, but we stayed away from that one.

As he carefully felled one dead ash, then another, a tree would sometimes resist falling. At that point, Victorino would cut wedges out of nearby dead wood,   

and hammer them into the cut to encourage the tree in its falling.

This one fell beautifully along the edge of a trail. Victorino learned his trade in Guatemala, where they would build a house out of the trees growing nearby. Oftentimes, he'll add an artistic touch, like this curved cut to bend with the trail.

After a couple hours of hard work, he takes a moment to rest and reflect. As Tom Lehrer, the mathematician and political satirist would say, "What good are laurels if you can't rest on them?"

It was a great relief to have those trees safely down. Thank you, Victorino!