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Hounded by Hats

10/23/2024

The time of year had come when bouts of maniacal laughter were heard from the Applegate estate.

The Applegate critters ran in fear when the bag of Halloween costumes emerged from its hiding place.

However, many did an about-face once the bag of treats was opened.

Of course, Clem was his super professional poser self.

He patiently kept his getups on for many minutes at a time.

This happened while I tried in vain to get all three canines costumed and sitting calmly.

It didn't (and never) happened.

This year I was able to find an extra-large spider dog costume that could fit my huge hounds.

Clem proudly displayed the "scary" outerwear. He didn't even seem to mind.

I surmised that the costume fit more like a dog jacket than something that only goes over the head.

However, it was strange to me that the costume has eight stuffed legs.

Then you add Clem's four and we could be going for more of a caterpillar vibe.

Sadie was also forced to wear the arachnid getup.

Clem

She wasn't pleased. I thought she was the saddest spider I had ever seen.

Sadie

Clem posing while Sadie eats a small pumpkin.

Gus

I draped the costume over Gus while he was resting on his chair. I didn't attempt to secure it, because I'm not sure it would have fit around his hefty chest. He was not impressed either.

Sadie

Gus

Gus additionally dressed up as the cowardly lion.

His lowered head showed that he wasn't thrilled with the lion's mane.

He kept approaching me and burying his face in my jacket.

It almost made me feel bad, but not bad enough to try out a couple more hats.

Sadie managed to sit pretty with a pink sombrero on.

She was distracted by the miniature pumpkins that I added as props.

She distracted herself from the humiliation by chewing on the orange orbs.

While she was chomping on one, I was able to get a shot of the furry alien hat. It was a little hard to photograph this costume.

The eyes didn't really stand out. It was difficult trying to get a good exposure on a dark dog and a bright green fur piece.

Sadie and Clem also donned some devil's horns.

That was when Clem became bored with the whole ordeal.

Sadie

Otis

Clem

I then turned my attention to a new victim, Otis. I only had seconds to snap a photo before he ran off stomping and jumping. He did a little better with the llama hat because he was eating treat at the time.

Otis

I confess I did have to check the hat's tag to see if it was supposed to be a llama or an alpaca. It was weird that llama Otis had four ears and a whole other face.

Milo

I didn't try to outfit Milo with any adornments. He's still pretty spooked by getting touched. In fact, while he was being subdued for a vet checkup, he may have dislocated a vet tech's finger. Although, I must admit that he would make an awesome Santa goat around Christmastime.

I'll have to decide if I wish to chance bodily harm or not. That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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Brrrr…illance

10/19/2024

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Hillside along Old State Road

Autumn colors arrived. However, so did colder weather. The region will see its best autumn colors beginning today according to the In the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Oct. 17 fall foliage report.

The DCNR graphic listed Venango County as at peak color.

Autumn colors reflected on the surface of the pond.

“Consistently cold nights and cool days have spurred a very colorful change in Penn’s Woods. Bright color can be found from the southern Poconos though the middle and southern Appalachians. The Allegheny Plateau is gorgeous from northwestern Pennsylvania to the southwestern reaches of the Commonwealth,” said the report.

“Leaves are falling, but there is still plenty of color to enjoy in the northwestern woodlands of Pennsylvania,” reported the district manager in Cornplanter State Forest.

In the Oct. 10 report the manager said that at stormfront earlier this month brought some leaves down.

The manager said the front also ushered in cooler night temperatures, which has encouraged the development of fall colors in northwestern Pennsylvania.

I agreed with the assessment that the region was at peak color. On my drive home, colorful maple trees and others lined Bredinsburg, East State, Tippery and Old State roads. Of course, a rain cleared pond meant that colorful reflections of autumn were easily captured daily.

Otis

Milo

I observed that a lot of leaves had already fallen. There were quite a few bare trees. However, the oaks along the Allegheny River in Franklin had only started to get a touch of gold added to their greenness.
Of course, the goats Milo and Otis didn’t mind the fact that there were multitudes of leaves on the ground. They quicky commenced cleanup from the leaves that had already fallen in the yard.

Chrysanthemums

Sadly, the leaves would soon be the only things of color. As colder temperatures meant the end of the growing season. Frost and freeze warnings for the region were posted over the past week. The Old Farmer’s Almanac said Franklins median first frost date Oct. 17 on its website. However, the post noted that frost dates are only an estimate based on historical climate data and are not set in stone.

A search of National Weather Service data listed a mean of Oct. 5 for Franklin reaching 32 degrees in the fall. Last year, Franklin reached 32 degrees on Oct. 23. In 2021, it was Nov. 4 before Franklin saw its temperature drop to 32 degrees.

Garden.org had a cool frost dates chart on its website.

“Your risk of frost really begins around October 5, and by October 25 you're almost certain to have received at least one frost event,” the post said about the region.

Trees along Sawtown Road.

National Weather Service data for Franklin showed that the coldest temperature so far this month, 33 degrees, was recorded early in the morning on Oct. 17. A check of the data from a Clarion County weather station reported that on Oct. 11 the temperature fell to 32 degrees.

Camp Coffman Road is visible through an electric company right-of-way.

Nonetheless, the Applegate canine crew enjoyed the cooler temperatures. Sadie, the Newfoundland, decided that it was still warm enough to swim. There were still attempts at frog hunting despite the lack of frogs due to the chilly air.

Sadie

While the cold had decreased the insect activity a little, one such pest seemed to be increasing their numbers.

Meadowhawk dragonfly

Clem looking for frogs.

The dogs had ticks.

The goats had ticks.

Even I had ticks on me. So, it was definitely a good time to check for ticks before heading indoors.

Meanwhile, various passing cold fronts delivered some rain to the region in September and October.

September 2024 finished up with 5.25 inches of rain which was higher than the average of 3.94 inches.

The two highest days for September precipitation were Sept. 7 with 1.7 inches and Sept. 25 with 1.33 inches.

The highest daily rainfall total so far for October was Oct. 13 with .85 inches of rain.

The U.S. drought monitor released on Oct. 17 continued to list most of Venango County as abnormally dry.

The additional moisture from September brought forth some interesting fungi to the woodlands.

Gem-studded puffball mushroom

Gem-studded puffballs with their white coloring stood out against the forest floor. Several internet posts and my field guides listed it as an edible mushroom. Since I don’t eat mushrooms, I’ll take their word for it. I hunt for photo subjects and not snacks.

Bear's head tooth fungus

I discovered some bear’s head tooth fungus while mushroom hunting. The fungus was listed as a choice edible in my field guides.

Bear's head tooth fungus

“Hericium americanum, … is an edible mushroom in the tooth fungus group. It was described as new to science in 1984 by Canadian mycologist James Herbert Ginns,” said a post on Wikipedia.

“The fungus is commonly found on decaying trees in the Northern United States and Canada. It grows exceptionally well in the environment of temperate deciduous forests,” the post continued.

I found at least two patches of the shaggy looking fungus.

Asian beauty fungus

I thought I had found the mushroom on several other timbered treetops. After some research I discovered that this was not the case.

A post on www.fungusfactfriday.com that was published by Thomas Roehl on Feb. 22, set me straight. It turned out that the fungus was not even from North America which is why I couldn’t find it in my guidebooks.

“R. copelandii is a distinctive fungus that produces a mat of whitish teeth along the surface of recently dead broadleaf trees, usually oaks. The mushroom recently arrived on the continent from Asia, which gives the mushroom its common name, ‘Asian Beauty.’ The Japanese names for the mushroom are “Sagari haritaki” and “hanging needle mushroom.” R. copelandii is currently spreading in eastern North America and is quickly becoming one of the most common mushrooms within its range” Roehl wrote.

“Given its prevalence and Asian origin, R. copelandii is likely an invasive species. For something to be considered invasive it must meet two criteria: 1) it is not native to a region and 2) it causes harm. R. copelandii is definitely not native to North America. However, nobody has ascertained whether the species is causing harm somehow. Since it is now one of the most common mushrooms within its North American range, it seems likely that R. copelandii is outcompeting native species,” Roehl cautioned in the post.

Acorns

While the added precipitation was a boon to area mushrooms, the downpours created a walking hazard in some parts of the forest. As the rain brought down the leaves, it also felled many, many acorns. The nuts were turned into flying projectiles propelled by gravity and wind. I felt as though I would need to take my hard hat home with me to safely traverse the woodlands.

Acorns were down everywhere. At points, it was like walking on marbles.

While acorns littered the ground, there also seemed to be an abundance of apples as well.

Additionally, just about every apple tree in my area had fruit on the trees and covering the ground underneath.

Neighborhood does

This wealth of food sources had area wildlife on the move preparing for winter.

Many different critters were active including a bear that the trail camera captured in late September.

The neighborhood deer herd was often seen out in full force grazing.

Chipmunk

Bull elk grazing near Benezette.

In the woods, chipmunks could be heard chipping everywhere.

At every alert, a flurry of canine paws headed off in the direction of the sound.

As with frog hunting, those hunting attempts were not successful.

However, during our annual trip to Benezette in early October, we only saw a couple of elk.

One was a big bull who attracted a crowd as he grazed along the roadside.

He was there for quite some time.

When I got a closer look at a photo I had taken, I figured out the reason why.

Above him was an apple tree with full branches of fruit.

Back at home, the birds were busy as well.

My last hummingbird sighting was in late September.

I transitioned the hummingbird camera over to a regular bird feeder.

For several days not one bird appeared.

Then one chickadee showed up. He was featured in several videos. While 20 seconds isn’t a very long time, it only took about five seconds for the chickadee to grab a seed and fly away. Within a week I had another visitor, a male cardinal.

He seemed very content to fill time with videos of him cracking open sunflower seeds.

Gus on frog patrol

Clem and Gus

Cold and colorful could have been used to describe the region over the past few weeks.

Forecasts show a warmup. As the temperatures climbed, the leaves came down. My fur-coated friends sure enjoyed the cooler temperatures. However, I'm pretty sure that the higher temps won't necessarily slow them down too much. As for me, I’m not sure if I will need a winter jacket or no jacket at all. Nonetheless, I will make sure, jacket or not, that I check for ticks after being outside. That’s just the nature of things ‘round here.

Below is a slideshow with about a month's worth of photos due to the fact that I am a procrastination pro. That's my true nature.

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"The Nature of Things" features the writings and photographs of Anna Applegate, who is a lifelong resident of Pinegrove Township, Venango County. She is a graduate of Cranberry High School and Clarion University. After a 15-year career in the local news industry, she made a change and now works at a steel finishing plant in Sandycreek Township. She is a avid lover of animals and nature, and a gifted photographer.

Very happy to be able to share Anna's great "The Nature of Things" blog.

Check out Anna's other artwork here!

Hounded by Hats

Brrrr…illance

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