Monarchs are out fluttering along the backroads. I sometimes accidently “crash” into them as I motor along the backroads.

Happy to report that almost every night we have two baby raccoons and a mother, feeding on our compost pile. (Raccoons love watermelon, corn and blueberries, to name a few of their favorite foods.) Could Rudy be the father? Or is Rudy, (the rehabilitated, orphaned baby raccoon from a few years ago) a mother? I will never know. Tomato season is about to begin

Last Saturday the White Lake Fire Company had a wet down of their new brush truck. What a great new addition to the White Lake Fire Company arsenal! I am so proud of these guys, who do a fantastic job (as does the Kenoza Lake Fire Company!) The Kauneonga Lake Fire Company had a delicious, drive-through chicken barbeque last week. Delicious! Wood burned, Cornell Extension barbecue sauce, Robert Franklin's chickens, Matt Burns sweet corn. The White Sulphur Springs Fire company will have a chicken barbeque in August, I need to check on the exact date.

Check out Gina's yard sale next week, August 8th & 9th on Old Taylor Road, near Breys' Four Corners, at the former Bertha Bernhardt residence. Chris Slater is also participating in the yard sale.

In case you may not know this, there are apple trees that drop their apples on the early side and others, on the late side. There is an apple tree at the very end of Perry Road, just next to Route 17B, that is an “early dropping Apple tree”.

There is an apple tree next to the Woodstock Oasis in Bethel, a Northern Spy apple tree. That is a late dropping apple tree. Anyway, the Perry Road apple tree has already started to drop apples. I have also seen other apple trees that have apples dropping. I think it is due to the hot summer we are having.

Normally the Perry Road apple tree drops apples in August. However, they are already dropping in July. Beware of apple trees with apples along the road as most likely there will be some deer underneath the tree.

Some springs and late summer we get what folks call “tent caterpillars”. Some years we have them, other years not. We have recently started to have them. I contacted my go to nature guy, Carl Lindsley who tells me that they are the Fall Web Worm. They normally do not cause damage to the trees, they normally feed on late in the summer leaves, but with the hot summer we are having, they are out a few weeks early.

Nine years ago, on July 30, 2011, Dr. Deer, James Kroll, gave a lecture at Cochecton Mills on food plots. Cochecton Millls can meet all of your Food Plot needs. The Nearings are some of my favorite guys to do business with.

The Kenoza Lake United Methodist Church will reopen on Sunday, August 9th.

Full Moon, Sunday, August 2nd, Sturgeon Moon. The Farmers' Almanac says: August's full Moon was traditionally called the Sturgeon Moon because the giant sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain were most readily caught during this part of summer. Other names for this Full Moon include “Full Green Corn Moon,” signaling that the corn was nearly ready for harvest, “Moon When All Things Ripen,” and “Blueberry Moon.”