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Take time to savor the flavors of nature

Nature is one of my favorite things to eat. I fully realize that that sounds a little bit like I want to sit on the sidewalk and eat mud pies with a side of grass and worms, but I don’t. We sometimes forget that all of our food comes from the earth. Even the creepy weirdly colored foods that ...

Baffled by birds? ACNC to the rescue!

I am a self-proclaimed “nature person”. I grew up wandering around the woods, going on hikes, and camping. I’ve always loved exploring the natural world. I love flipping over logs to look for insects and salamanders, sneaking along trying not to scare away the snakes, frogs, and deer ...

Finding friends in wood piles

Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of a 2015 article. I pulled in the driveway and the sky seemed to switch personalities from slight irritation to a bucket of anger upturned. The rain came in curtains and torrents, the wind chaotic. I watched through my sunroof as the tops of the yard ...

Emerald Ash Borer damage more than just ash trees

Where are your blind spots? In a car, these are the spots that you cannot see when turning or backing up. Fancy cameras and screens are being used to help drivers see their blind spots. But no camera can cure a mental blind spot, and the effects of that are everywhere. We often don’t see the ...

Birding for fun and a better world

There are people who fanatically like birds and the challenge of identifying them. These people are called birders. Birders are distinctly different from bird watchers, but that’s for a different article. Birders are a close-knit tribe of enthusiastic, binocular-toting, individuals who ...

Our opinion: No slowing home-heating costs

With the exception of those hardy families who stubbornly hold out as long as possible before turning on the heat for the season, many of us have probably flipped the switch by now. Nights in the lower 40s will do that. If recent reports are accurate, keeping that heat on is going to be more expensive this year. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency’s Winter Fuels Outlook, an increase in average heating prices is forecast this winter for all parts of the country, and all heating fuels. Compared with last winter, EIA forecasts U.S. households will spend 54% more for ...