Those that hold to the tradition of using a real tree enjoy the smell and feel of a natural product that comes from a renewable resource. Buying one can also help support small family farms, so it has many positives. On the downside, a Christmas tree is a living thing that requires some extra care to be sure it doesn’t dry out and pose a fire hazard. Here are some tips from the National Christmas Tree Association on keeping your Christmas tree fresh and green as long as possible.
- When you get the tree home place it in water as soon as possible.

Thanksgiving is one of the high holidays of the US, involving traditions of being with family, eating a bountiful meal of traditional foods, and hopefully taking time to give thanks for what we have been given. You know the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving involving Pilgrims, Native Americans, feasting and all that, but history is always good to review occasionally, as you often learn something new.

I’m still studying a book called Smoky Mountain English, which is a dictionary of mountain dialect. I was blessed to be around my grandparents quite a bit growing up and heard a lot of phrases and word pronunciations that aren’t used much today. But some of it is still hanging around and I find myself using it without thinking about it, which my granddaughters find puzzling. So what follows is my latest list of words in the book that I personally have heard used sometime in my lifetime. I’m sure you will find many familiar as well if you’re from around here.

Wildlife feed on a variety of food sources: woody plants, weeds, herbs, grasses aquatic plants, and cultivated plants. How each plant is used by wildlife is useful information for hunters, farmers, or anyone interested in wildlife and their habitat.

Folks who would like a taste of some wild food ought to get out and hunt persimmons this time of year. They are abundant in our area and easy to find in fencerows and woodland edges.
There are many varieties of persimmon trees in tropical areas of the world, but only two in the United States. The one growing in our area is called "common persimmon" (Diospyros Virginiana), or "possum tree" by some.

With a nod to the season of Halloween, I would like to share a tale about something that has creeped people out for centuries. A superstition that came across with settlers from Europe and established itself here in the eastern U.S. It involves death and a bug.

Back in the early and mid-1800s the industrial age and a growing population created a demand for raw materials to make products, especially from wood and metals such as iron and lead. Our area had metal ore deposits to produce pig iron in locally owned furnaces fueled by charcoal and coke. Pig iron needed to be shipped to big cities like Chattanooga where it was refined and made into metal products such as tools and farm implements.

Boxelder bugs can make a nuisance of themselves by gathering around the house in large numbers. They usually do this in the autumn in preparation to move into protected areas to over-winter. While they do not cause physical damage to the house, they may stain walls and curtains with brown fecal matter.

Many species of trees have “mast years,” when their seed/fruit production is extraordinarily high. Mast refers to tree seeds that are a food source for wildlife. It comes from the old English word “maest”, referring to tree nuts that have accumulated on the forest floor.
Hard mast includes all of the nut trees, including oak (nine local species), hickory (four local species), walnut, beech, chinquapin and hazelnut. Soft mast includes the fleshy fruits like dogwood, sassafras, blackgum, blueberry, blackberry and cherry.

It’s nice to think that plants produce fruit for our pleasure and that of other creatures. They do want us to eat them but have an ulterior motive of getting their seeds dispersed to other areas.