Phoenicia Memorial Day Parade

Here are some photos taken by Hawley Botchford at the Phoenicia Memorial Day Parade. It was a lot of fun and a great slice of Americana. Thanks for sending them to us Hawley.

Questions About The WV Fish Stocking

After the fish stocking the other day, I was telling a friend what a great time we had and he asked me a lot of questions about the stocking that I couldn't answer. So I put them to Mike O'Neil. Here are his answers. I thought you might enjoy them too.

What determines the number of fish that we put into the stream?
The flyfishing stretch is about two and a half miles long, and nature has provided enough deeper pools and pocket water to support the number of fish we traditionally put in.

Are the fish equally male and female?
The trout aren't grouped equally by sex.

Is it only one kind of trout being stocked?
We always stock brown trout since they stand up to the rigors of warm water which we often have in mid to late summer.

How old are the fish?
I don't know what their ages are. I did once, but I disremember.

How cold is the water in the holding tanks?
The water in the holding tanks is generally in the low to mid-60 degree F. range.

Do they come back to spawn in the WV creek (that's assuming that nobody has them for dinner)?
We do have a small number of holdovers and I assume they follow Mother Nature's design and cohabit briefly when the time is right. In our streams, rainbows tend to spawn in the spring, and browns in the fall.

Is there any official name to the group of people who organize this effort?
The person who organizes this effort is the Troutmeister (presently me), presently assisted by a staff of zero. The official name of the enterprise is The Woodland Trout Fund.

How did the tradition start and who started it?
Upon getting a number of streamside landowners to agree to post their lands "fly fishing only" for obvious environmental reasons, the stocking was begun in 1965 by valley resident Fred Muehleck. At his death, my father took over, and at his death I took over (see 2008 stocking letter for more detail).

What year did they start?
1965

"On contemplation, I'd like to modify my statement that I have a staff of zero. Since Sally and Pete Oberbeck (my sister and brother-in-law), along with their friend Dave Pedrick have for the last several years run the T-shirt concession (T-shirts made by Dave's daughter and son-in-law down in Kentucky), they should be categorized as staff under the heading "seasonal help".


If your would like more detail about all this, I recommend that you go to the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling section of the Phoenicia Library, look up a slim book titled In Praise of Trout--and also by Paul O'Neil and Mike O'Neil, and read my story titled The Trout Fund."

- Mike O'Neil

Over The Rainbow Bridge

There is some sadness in WV tonight. "The Deedle", beloved pet of Cardi O'Conner and Mike Ottavi left the valley for good on Tuesday. She was 18 years old and lived a grand and happy life. She was known by many and loved by all. I myself was one of her good pals and I will miss her a lot. She was a beautiful girl.

As with many of our cats, she was known by many different names over her lifetime. Here are a few - Cupcake, Poundcake, Weedy, The Deedle, Foghorn, Corn Face, Marshmallow Peeps, Weiner, Miss Wiggy, The Speedster, The Pocket Rocket, Little Kitty, Medium Kitty, Butterball, Anna Nicole Smith, Baby Doll, Cashmere Kitty, Precious, Shiny Eyes, Sugar Toes and My Old Sweetheart.

Born January 6, 1990. Died May 27, 2008
May She Rest in Peace

- Photo by Mike Ottavi

Fun With Fish

Here are some photos from the Woodland Valley stream stocking yesterday. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a great time. I even think the fish were smiling.

The last photo is of Chief Fish Head, Prince of All Things Piscatorial, Mike O'Neil - aka Boreegard. Thanks Mike for keeping everyone in line and getting the fish to their proper home. Well Done!!!






















































































































































-Photos by Carol Seitz

How Green Is Our Valley

What a BEAUTIFUL day it was today!! It was what I think of as a "Hallelujah" kind of day. One of those times where I am grateful to be alive, healthy, and living in this fantastic place. Hallelujah!!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend - Drive with Care

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!! I just wanted to remind everyone to drive slowly and cautiously on Woodland Valley Road this weekend. The WV Campground is open for business and, as usual on a holiday weekend, filled to capacity. Driving in and out of the valley today I saw walkers, runners, bikers, hikers, fisherman, rollerbladers, dogs, and kids on the road. In other words, everyone is out and about. So proceed with caution and let's all have a happy, fun and safe holiday!!

WCA Potluck at Menla

In the spirit of communication and community, the Menla Mountain Retreat and Conference Center has graciously agreed to co-host a pot luck dinner gathering on their property at the end of Pantherkill Road with the members of the WCA. The date is set for Monday June 16th at 6:00pm. It will be a great opportunity for us to get to know the folks at the center better and strengthen our friendship with one another. So, we provide the potluck dinner and they will provide the desert and the wonderful surroundings. You can email me at wvview@gmail.com or phone me (my phone number is in the association dues letter you will receive in the next few days) by June 13th. if you plan to attend so we can get an idea of how many of you will be joining us. I am looking forward to seeing you all there!

PS - For those of you who are weekenders, sorry that this event is on a weeknight but the center couldn't do it on a weekend. I made it a Monday and gave everyone some advance notice so maybe folks could stay an extra day to attend. Let me know if you are coming.

Send Me Your Posts

I know that everyone gets busy during the summer but I want to remind you to support this blog by sending me things to post. With all the summer barbecues, picnics, fishing outings and other events y'all must have photos to show or stories to tell. And folks always love any history about the valley you have to share. So, if you are a reader and fan of the Woodland Valley View, please help keep it alive by sending photos and messages to me at wvview@gmail.com. I created this as a community site and I can't do it without your continued help, so send me your posts!!!

Thanks,
Your Blogmistress
Carol Seitz

Budget and School Board Election Results

Here are the results of yesterday's vote. This information was taken from the Kingston Freeman.

ONTEORA
Budget: Approved, 2,468-1,164
Vehicles proposition: Approved, 2,063-1,529
Capital reserve proposition: Approved, 2,062-1,457
Child safety zone proposition: Approved, 2,642-964
Winning candidates: Legnini (3 yrs.), Flayhan (3 yrs.), McGillicuddy (3 yrs.), Osmond (1 yr.)

Congratulations to all the winners!

Vote Today in School Board Elections

This is one more reminder to make your voice heard and vote today in the Onteora budget and school board elections. The voting takes place in the elementary schools from 2:00 - 9:00 pm. Woodland Valley residents should go to the Phoenicia school to cast their ballots. This is your chance to weigh in on this important issue.

Violets - Another Great Edible Wild Plant

Violets are another great edible plant that is growing right now. Here is some interesting information I found on the internet about them.

"There are over fifty species of violets in this part of the United States. The blue violet of our meadows and woodlands is one of the most common and can therefore be gathered. Although the violets are spring bloomers, they often produce flowers again in late summer. Interestingly, many of these buds never open but fertilize themselves internally and produce seeds. The violet, like another common species jewelweed, has a unique method of seed dispersal. As the capsule dries, it compresses the seeds which are shot out as much as four to five feet! The fresh young leaves have long been used raw in salads or cooked as greens. They are high in both vitamins A and C: a welcome addition to our ancestor's winter diet of dried and preserved foods. In fact, both the leaves and flowers have three times the amount of vitamin C as does an orange. The delightful blue flower can be used as a colorful garnish for any type of confection.

For a pretty candy, dip the flowers in boiled and cooled sugar water and allow to harden on waxed paper. The flowers also produce a tasty jelly and syrup."

I personally eat the leaves and flowers in salads. Delicious! Again, as with any wild food, never eat anything you are not absolutely sure you have identified correctly.

WCA Annual Summer Meeting

Although I will be including this information in the annual dues letter, I wanted to let everyone know that the annual WCA summer meeting will be held on Saturday July 26th, 4:00 pm at the Roxmor clubhouse. Please put this on your calendar! I look forward to seeing you all there!

School Board Voting Reminder

This is just a quick reminder to everyone, make your voices heard and vote this Tuesday 5/20 2:00 – 9:00 PM in the Onteora Budget and School Board elections. The voting will be held in all four elementary schools. Woodland Valley residents should go to the Phoenicia School to cast their votes. Results will be presented at High School after 9:00 PM.

Update on Cornell Cooperative Events

Michael Courtney from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County gave me some more details about the events they are having over the next few weeks. I updated the post that I wrote on May 12th to include the new details. Please reread the post to get the additional information if you are planning to attend.

More On How Woodland Valley Got It's Name

Here is a message from WCA member Mike 0'Neil -

"I just peeked at Dennis Havel's latest addition to the Wandering Woodland Blog. Great stuff--BUT, there's a little more to the way Woodland Valley got its name.

In the 19th century it was known as Snyder Hollow--named after Colonel H.D.H. Snyder, the fellow who founded and ran the valley tannery until it burned to the ground. Before that, the valley was known as "the valley of the muddy Bushkill", since what became known as Woodland Brook often ran muddy.

I can remember the little bit of boyhood dogerel that valley resident Paul Miller taught me some years ago. He told me that he and his valley buddies would shout it out loudly after they'd hiked from the valley into the metropolitan avenue(s) of Phoenicia circa 1918 or so. It was an invitation for the roughnecks of the town to come out and join them in a contest of fisticuffs.

"All the way from Snyder Holler,
With a dirty shirt and a stand-up collar!!!"

In fact, the name Woodland Valley was attached to our favorite place as a sort of P.R. gimmick to please the influx of potential tourists. Here's T. Morris Longstreth's reaction to the name from his 1918 compendium THE CATSKILLS:

“Woodland Valley was once and better named Snyder’s Hollow. Some lily-livered namester with more sentimentality than sense did ill to deprive the late Snyder of his due. If he first settled in it, he was a discerning man and deserves the credit. If an impersonal name had to be found for the smiling curves and beckoning aisles of the valley, the first ass that brayed might have better taken Hee Haw Hollow to christen it with than the school-girlish and indistinguishable title of Woodland, where every other valley is woodland too. This valley is a wander-way of sheer delight. You can loaf along it in the sunshine and watch the trout...” – T. Morris Longstreth, The Catskills"

From your ever faithful Roxmor reporter: BOREEGARD aka Mike O'Neil

Blogmistress Note: Thanks to Dennis Havel for making the joke that opened the discussion in the first place and thanks to Boreegard for giving us some interesting valley history.

Fun Facts about Patherkill Mountain

Here is another installment of the The Pantherkill Report from WCA member Dennis Havel.

"Things I have learned from Google:

Early Dutch settlers named many of the places in the Hudson Valley. The word "kill", as in Pantherkill, Catskill, Fishkill, is a Dutch word meaning "waterway" or "stream" and doesn't mean we have it in for felines and fish.

The elevation of Panther Mountain at it's peak is 3,720 feet above sea level or, 1,134 meters. Many maps publish elevations in meters. In comparison, the Kingston-Ulster Airport at the Rhinebeck Bridge on the Hudson is 149 feet above sea level The hamlet of Phoenicia is 840 feet above mean sea level. The peak of Panther is 2880 feet (a tad over 1/2 mile high) above mainstreet in Phoenicia.

Are there panthers on Panther Mountain? The folks at Cornell University inform me that no panthers have been sighted in the Northeastern U.S. since the late 1800's. However, there have been a few alleged sightings in Woodstock recently. A local "river adventure" outfitter claims to have spotted one some years ago, if you want to take the word of a guy who rents out old inner tubes to people from New Jersey for as living. :)

How did Woodland Valley get it's name? From all the trees made of wood, growing out of land, in the valley. Duh!"

Cornell Cooperative - Upcoming Events

I just received this list of upcoming events from Michael Courtney at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County. This is a great way to get involved with your community.

Saturday, May 31, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm
Stream Monitoring Workshop: (Raindate on following day), at Simpson’s Mini Park in Phoenicia (at the intersection of Main St. and Route 214).
Cost: $10 per person. Go to the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County website for the registration form.
Participants will learn to test water chemistry and identify samples of macro-invertebrates, or “bugs” that live in the stream bed.
Open to adults, and children, at least 11 years of age and 11-14 year olds must be accompanied by a parent or adult.

Saturday, June 7, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Streamside Tree Planting and Stewards Meeting: Kupec Property; 33 Lasher Rd, Big Indian. Help plant trees to restore streamside habitat as part of the Department of Environmental Conservation Trees for Tribs Program. Following the planting, we will have a volunteer meeting to discuss and plan future Stream Stewards projects. RSVP to Michael Courtney, 340-3990, mcc55@cornell.edu


For more info contact:
Michael Courtney
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County
845-340-3990
mcc55@cornell.edu

Edible Wild Food - Garlic Mustard

A lot of my favorite wild foods grow in Springtime. I often have a fresh picked, wild salad from my backyard at dinner time. One of my favorite wild greens is garlic mustard. I love it's slightly bitter, garlicy flavor and it's great served with dandelion greens, violets, and fiddleheads. Delicious! Now is a good time to pick garlic mustard, it is in flower and easier to recognize. It gets more bitter as the season progresses, and will be gone by June. As always, don't pick and eat anything unless you are sure you have identified it correctly.

Here is some more information on garlic mustard:

Garlic mustard is a cool season biennial herb with stalked, triangular to heart-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves that give off an odor of garlic when crushed. First-year plants appear as a rosette of green leaves close to the ground. Rosettes remain green through the winter and develop into mature flowering plants the following spring. Flowering plants of garlic mustard reach from 2 to 3-½ feet in height and produce buttonlike clusters of small white flowers, each with four petals in the shape of a cross.

Garlic mustard is very invasive and poses a severe threat to native plants and animals in forest communities in much of the eastern and midwestern U.S. Many native widlflowers that complete their life cycles in the springtime (e.g., spring beauty, wild ginger, bloodroot, Dutchman's breeches, hepatica, toothworts, and trilliums) occur in the same habitat as garlic mustard. Once introduced to an area, garlic mustard outcompetes native plants by aggressively monopolizing light, moisture, nutrients, soil and space. Wildlife species that depend on these early plants for their foliage, pollen, nectar, fruits, seeds and roots, are deprived of these essential food sources when garlic mustard replaces them.

I found the information above at the National Park Service website. Check it out if you want to read more about garlic mustard.

National Park Service - Garlic Mustard

No Bats in the Belfrey

This was sent to me by WCA Member Dennis Havel, our Pantherkill Road Coorespondent:

The Pantherkill Report

BATS DYING IN NEW YORK

Recent reports from New York wildlife officials have indicated a massive die-off of bats in New York due to a fungus known as "white-nose syndrome". Bat counts in hibernation caves reveal a 90% decline in bat population since last year.

A resident on Pantherkill Road here in Woodland Valley recently told me of his encounter with bats on his property who were behaving strangely; flying erratically around him and falling to the ground at four o'clock on a sunny afternoon! Odd behavior for night-feeding bats normally only active at night.

Last night, I experimented in my yard by shining a bright halogen light into the night sky which always draws hordes of insects followed by dozens of hungry bats. The insects came as usual but not one bat was seen.

Among other things, bats are essential for controlling mosquitoes as well as moths and other flying insects. If the white-nose syndrome has hit the bats here in the Valley, we may be in for a mosquito infested Summer.

The DEC has requested that residents report any unusual behavior by bats.

For more information, CLICK HERE
Or read this article in the NY Times. Bats Perish, No One Knows Why.

Dennis Havel
Pantherkill Road

Kiosk

Now that it is warmer and you don't have to fight the snow to get to it, check out the kiosk by the Woodland Valley Bridge. It is a wonderful source of information on the creek restoration project.

Ode To the Tag Sale

Since it is yard sale time again, I thought I would publish this little gem by Mike O'Neil aka Boreegard:

Resurrection

Slowly, from the winter basement,
Chockablock full of tarnished and aging
Treasures that were once given or bought,
Even loved, they
Are collected and stacked for tomorrow’s

Tag sale.

What price to tag on the child’s outgrown toy?
The joy it first brought —how do you weigh that?
And the dusty books from 80 years ago,
That hold such poetry and magic—
Do I hear two cents
the pound?


- Boreegard
On the eve of the Trinity Lutheran Church
Tag Sale
Vernon, CT

Amen

Searching the Blog

Since the size of this blog keeps growing I want to make everyone aware of how to find things that I have published in the past. Besides looking through the archives or going through the "labels" section on right hand side of this site, there is a handy search feature. If you look at the upper left hand corner of the opening page you will see a small "B" in white on an orange background. Next to that "B" is an open field with the words "search blog" to the right of it. All you have to do to find something is to type in some keywords and hit the "search blog" button. It works quite well and is very handy in finding news and information that is no longer on the front page. Try it out!