Shed Hunting

I make at least one formal foray yearly into Lancaster's County Park for shed hunting reasons. While I've yet to find an antler there- I've learned from the experience.

What can you do with an antler? I suppose you might make buttons, a chandelier, or a very small rake...

It's interesting the way antlers are shed- after a skin membrane grows-across the interior base, eliminating the blood supply that had fed the velvet.

There's more to this than a knack for foraging...

Snow Geese at Middlecreek

My friend Janet called last Sunday morning to ask if I'd like to view the snow geese on their migration stop at Middlecreek Wildlife Management Area. In the spirit of, "Yes Man", I went along.

Our guess at the lake's goose population was approximately correct, (55,000 snow geese estimated 2/22/'12 per the Pennsylvania Game Commission's web site), plus a number of longer-necked tundra swans, (which kept to themselves).

Janet noticed one of the geese was banded with a wide yellow collar. Another appeared to have a broken wing, (yet lifted with the rest when the flock decided to move).

Later we went back to Janet's place and roasted a chicken.

Marietta

After closing the executive hotel where I'd lived for several years, I rented an apartment in a c. 1880 flour mill in the village of Rowenna, (rural Marietta, PA).

I liked the idea of learning about a part of the county that I had yet to experience, (having relocated from Nebraska in 2004, while in my late 20s). I understand I'm on property once owned by Hans Graf, (a Swiss immigrant and Lancaster County BMOC who hung-out with Hans Herr). The Graf family cemetery famously sits in the backyard.

I often hike a trail into town that parallels the Susquehanna River. It's a few miles of easy hiking with a pleasant view. I travel light, (sometimes I've speculated whether I could get one of the riverfront taverns to give me a cheeseburger for my wristwatch).

I've heard about the local, (pre-Detroit) iron production, and noticed the remnants of furnaces. A step-up from coal mining, it made a few individuals very wealthy in a very short time.

(The attached photo depicts the often-creative Marietta quickie mart billboard.)