Dead trees...

I've noticed a lot of dead trees this year. Just this last May, after the leaves came out in the spring, I was shocked by the sheer number of dead trees.

Pretty much everywhere. I swear you can't walk two blocks without passing dead trees.

So. Interestingly enough. A local news station did a report on all the dead trees. A certified arborist explained the consecutive droughts of 2015 and 2016 weakened many trees and left them vulnerable to disease and catastrophic damage from gypsy moth caterpillars in 2017.

So there really is an unusual number of dead trees. Not just something I hadn't noticed before.

This time they mean it!

Jane and Paul's farm is a local institution.

Many of us have enjoyed their produce for more years than I can remember. And they pretty much always had the very best corn.

Six years ago they missed a step. I don't know the whole story but I know there were some promising negotiations going on to acquire the property with community funds. That didn't work out. But they came back the following year!

But ...now, this year...

1 September. They're done. Forever.

Much Sadness
They plan to continue farming. But they're closing the farm stand. The second year in a row it just hasn't been worth keeping open. Last year hundreds hundreds of bushels of apples remained unpicked.

And Paul told me this year they hadn't had a single busy day. Not a single one. And at least half the blueberry crop rotted on the ground.

31 August. My very last ear of Jane and Paul's corn.