October 20 — Greetings faithful readers! Now is the time of the year when one must watch out for wet leaves, that can be very slippery when walking and driving. Also, the mini rut for deer will start any day now. I have heard of several recent cases of near misses or actual car accidents with deer. Be alert! The bucks are chasing the does now and all caution is thrown to the wind when the bucks are pumped full of testosterone and the does are playing hard to get. 

This year was a very poor apple year at the Otto Pucky Huddle Road apple orchard. We didn’t have a killer frost this past spring. Some place the blame on the lack of honeybees that are necessary for apple tree pollination. Ray and I had four of our eight chestnut trees produce chestnuts. The Dunstan chestnut tree that is 90 percent American, 10 percent Chinese. By the way, you can buy some of these trees at Cochecton Mills. The deer love the chestnuts!

There is a Northern Spy apple tree next to the Woodstock Oasis parking lot (by the Bethel Post Office.) Every single year that apple tree is full of apples and sure thing, this year, it is full of apples! Northern Spy trees are about the last apple tree in our region to have apples and are great for your food plots.

I have had a chubby raccoon feeding most nights near our bird feeder. I am 99.9 percent certain that it is Rudy. Rudy was born in 2017 and as such, five years old. The raccoon looks just like Rudy, he doesn’t run away when I call out his name, so let’s say, this chubby raccoon is Rudy. I am so happy. We now have grackles at our bird feeder. Grackles look like black birds or crows, but they have an iridescent neck. I checked and the Common grackle does migrate, so it makes sense that I have seen the first grackle since spring. It seems as though the woodchucks and chipmunks are already hibernating (both are true hibernators). 

I have certain plants that I detest. Thistles and Japanese Knotweed are on the top of my list. I don’t like milkweed, even though I love monarch butterflies. (Go figure, but farmers don’t like milkweed in their hayfields. Horses and cows don’t like to eat hay with milkweed in them. Thus, the reason why I don’t like milkweed.) 

Yesterday I was in the Town of Bethel hall, in my Tax Collection office, and spied another plant that I don’t like. I asked Ruth Duncan what it was, and she said it was a pokeweed. Indeed, I googled pokeweed and that is what it was. Pokeweed looks like a large elderberry and can take over your garden. The roots grow very deep. If you see pokeweed berries, cut off the berries! Trust me.

Seventeen days until in-person Election Day. Early, in person voting starts on Saturday, October 29 at the Sullivan County Board of Elections. It is not too late to request an absentee ballot if you qualify for one. If you need an absentee ballot, the easiest thing to do is to go online to find the application. https://www.elections.ny.gov/NYSBOE/download/voting/AbsenteeBallot-English.pdf You mail the completed form to the Board of Elections, Post Office Box 5012, Monticello, NY 12702. 

Speaking of Election Day, I find Election Day to be such a special day on the calendar. Many people are off from work. There are lots of special fundraisers. The Kenoza Lake United Methodist Women will have their annual soup, chili and Krispy Kreme doughnut sale. The Jeffersonville Presbyterian church will have an election day event so will the Smallwood-Mongaup Valley Fire Company Women’s Auxiliary (Krispy Kreme doughnut sale), and the Town of Cochecton Chicken barbeque event. 

TRUNK OR TREAT: Town of Bethel, Saturday, October 22 and on Saturday, October 29, Fosterdale United Methodist Church from 3 to 5 p.m. As you may have heard, there are pills out there that look like candy and the “candy” is really fentanyl. Halloween 2022 is not like when I went trick or treating, literally just walking around the Brown Farms, family block. 

The Yankees are on the ropes. Chapman is a disgrace. Altuve and Dusty Baker are amazing. Even though I love the Mets, I am cheering for the Yankees.

Save the date, November 17, 7 p.m., Sorealla’s Kauneonga Lake, there will be an event on the new NYS gun laws.