Infested Hemlock Trees Treated in Rugby

AmeriCorps volunteer treating hemlock

 

Close to 100 hemlock trees in Rugby were treated last Thursday with a chemical drench to help them fight off the infestation of the hemlock woolly adelgid that is now affecting hemlocks throughout Rugby.  Without treatment most of Rugby’s hemlocks will die over the next 5-7 years. 

Nearly all of the hemlocks directly along the Massengale Loop Trail have now been treated as well as other areas in and around the Rugby State Natural Area in the village center.  The effort was organized through representatives of the State Natural Areas with the assistance of about 10 AmeriCorps volunteers.   

Shortly after the treatment process started, the AmeriCorps volunteers received a call instructing them to go to New Jersey immediately to help with the efforts related to damage from Hurricane Sandy.  But after they left, a scaled down effort continued with the help of Robin Wooten from the State Natural Areas, a representative from the State Forestry Department, George Zepp and Rick Murphy. 

The representative from State Forestry showed the group evidence of the infestation on most of the trees we treated.  While treatment is not guaranteed to save the trees, it has shown to be highly effective.  However, the trees will need to be re-treated in a few years unless other approaches to controlling the bugs can be made more widely available.

There are many more trees in the Rugby area that have not been treated.  Private land owners are encouraged to go ahead and treat their trees while they are still relatively healthy.  It is not hard to apply the treatment. For example, Rick Murphy treated 25 trees at Walton Court in 2-3 hours on Friday.

 

Thanksgiving Marketplace Features New Demonstration Space 

Cover of new Rugby recipe book - hot off the old press

Six Arts Crafts Demonstrators and New Rugby Cookbook Available 

By Benita Howell

 

Please stop by the Commissary on Friday, November 23, and visit the refurbished upstairs space. Thanks to Vi Biehl, framed photographs from past workshops now decorate the walls of the space that will be used for future workshops and classes. The space will host six arts and crafts demonstrators on Friday: Linda Asberry (silverware jewelry); Sue Duncan with her bunnies (spinning and weaving); Mhairi Gehlhar (stuffed toys and dolls); Gail Hill (hooked rugs); Debra Redden (corn shuck dolls and ornaments); and Mara Trumbo (paintings). Visit with them and do some early Christmas shopping. There’s also a sale table upstairs and additional price reductions downstairs on Nancy McDonald prints and Historic Rugby tee shirts. 

A limited run of the new edition of Recipes from Rugby should be available in time for Thanksgiving Marketplace. The booklet is being produced locally, with no up-front printing costs to Historic Rugby. This version of the cookbook features recipes from all of Rugby’s historic homes (including those recently or about to be reconstructed). Peter Merrill typeset and printed the cover at the Rugby Printing Works, incorporating original cover art, “Grandma’s Baking Day,” by Donna Heffner. Their contributions make this little cookbook a special keepsake for folks who love Rugby’s resurrected print shop and Donna’s art. Thank you, Peter and Donna!

Friendly House Project Nears Completion

Lavonne Gibbs says that work is nearing completion on the renovation project at the Friendly House fellowship hall behind Christ Church.  The project includes closing in the back porch (known as Irving’s Porch) to add space for various uses. For example, the new rooms can be used as an activity room for children during various church events or additional space for church teas, community potlucks and other events. 

Photo of newly enclosed porch at Friendly House - by George Zepp

Lavonne said they appreciate the good work done by the folks from Larry Rindler Construction, including Rocky Cooper and Randy Murdock.

 

Photos of Perrigo Project

As part of the project to reconstruct historic Perrigo House, the historic cistern was uncovered recently and is being filled with gravel.  On left is Steve Logan's photo of the open cistern (with beer bottle floating in the middle). On right is Rick Murphy's photo showing the process of beginning to fill it with gravel.

 

Some cute kittens are available - check with Kares or Cafe

BIRTHDAYS

 November 25 - Marilyn Young

 

CALENDAR

Rugby is in the Eastern time zone, just barely.

Nov. 22 - Thanksgiving Dinner at Grey Gables - Seatings at 1 and 5 Eastern Time 423.628.5252

Nov. 23 – Thanksgiving Marketplace at Historic Rugby – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Browse local shops and see demonstrating artisans and craft folk. Take a tour of the historic buildings. British Cream Tea (see below)

Nov. 23 – British Cream Tea at Historic Rugby’s Newbury House. Seatings at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The formal tea features freshly baked scones, tea sandwiches, cookies and sweets served in a historic setting. $10.00 admission. Reservations required – call 888-214-3400 or 423-628-2441  

Dec. 1 - Christmas By Candlelight High Tea Dinner at Grey Gables. Five Courses, Mike Jones, entertaining. 423.628.5252

Dec. 8 – Christmas at Rugby – 4 p.m to 9 p.m. Visit beautifully decorated candle and lamp lit historic buildings. Enjoy live music and witness the magic of actors portraying early Rugby colonists. Join in with the carolers singing beside the fire while sampling Hot Wassail, the favorite holiday drink of Rugby. Browse Christmas treasures at The Shoppes of Rugby. Keep an eye out for Victorian Santa. Experience a delightful Four Course Victorian Dinner at the Harrow Road Cafe (Reservations Required)

December 31 – New Years Eve Dinner at Harrow Road Cafe

Ongoing Activities Quilters’ Group - Wednesdays and Saturdays, 2–4 p.m. Eastern, at the Friendly House behind Christ Church Rugby Yoga – [Suspended until construction work is complete on the Friendly House] was Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. Eastern, at the Friendly House. Christ Church Episcopal -- Sunday morning services, 11 a.m. Eastern, year round; all are welcomed

 

NATURE NOTES

Great Blue Herons

By Linda Konig  

Have you ever seen a Great Blue Heron at Newbury Pond?  Occasionally we have one there in early mornings.  I've also seen them on streams in Wayne Co., KY and other places in our area.  Before I moved to Rugby, I used to wonder why there was a mine in the Big South Fork named Blue Heron, but now I know we have them here year-round. 

Great Blue Herons are called Great because they're bigger than the Little Blue Herons, but I think they're also great in the sense of being marvelous (full of marvels).  Just to look at a photo of one, you'd think they would be awkward with such long legs, long necks, and long beaks.  However, the opposite is true.  Watching one at a stream or in flight, you can see that they're graceful, dignified, even regal.  Probably one reason they give this impression is that they can be so quiet and still, and their stalking walk is ever so slow and careful.

Of course, the reason they're being so quiet and slow and careful is that they're watching and waiting for some sort of prey.  They eat just about anything that's in or around water.  Once they see something they want, say a fish or a crayfish, they strike with lightning speed with those dagger-like beaks.  They usually fish alone.  They can stand patiently poised at a stream bank so long, you'd swear they were a statue. 

Could it be that they're somewhat vain about their looks?  They're fastidious about keeping their feathers clean, and they have an unusual way to do this with specialized chest feathers that grow continually and fray into a kind of downy fuzz.  The Great Blues comb the down with a fringed claw on their middle toes, pulling the down out, and use this down as a sort of washcloth to clean and preen their other feathers.  Could it be that they're not only watching for prey in the water, but also admiring their own reflections?  For a good photo of a Great Blue Heron and more information, try animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/great-blue-heron/.

Fall in Rugby in Poetry

Hadley Hury has a new poem appearing in the Fall/Winter Issue of THE JAMES DICKEY REVIEW. It's a print magazine with no online version. Here's the poem, which is set in our Rugby environs:

October Clean

The fog in the gorges and hollows at first light
is like cold remembered rivers mapped in sleep,
still dreaming, languid, silver, long and deep—
for minutes then it’s sun-shot snowy white;

so in October the seasons converge from hour to hour—
self-effacing, old, accustomed friends,
asserting, yielding, no grudges, no bitter ends;
this openhanded grace accrues a power

that eclipses January’s touch of death,
the manic flights of March, its anguished falls,
seductive April’s giddy, fecund calls,
and August’s clotted, immolating breath;

and through the sycamore and hemlock steal
at noon the wood smoke’s evanescent traces;
each eidetic oak and maple in ardor faces
the other, harmonizing, and we feel

them pulling us out of doors, wiping the mold
of any memory not vital or forgiving
and any melodrama not worth living
as something cleaner—sharper—blue and gold.

 This Week’s Editors: Rick Murphy and George Zepp