A Sermon Delivered at Faith Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, BC, June 12, 1988
(prepared for www.covenantfellowshipgreensboro.org)
Our text today is the book of Amos. Now I must say that Amos is not a pleasant book. It is not a book totally without hope, but it is primarily a book of terror, a book of judgment. God is depicted in this book as a lion who devours. But most lions we have seen are safely behind bars, in cages in zoos! We have no need to fear them. So maybe depicting God as Lion doesn’t work for us today. I would say then that God in this book is like a nuclear bomb.
In my short pilgrimage as a Christian I have had the opportunity to see the book of Amos used by many groups from many perspectives as a hammer with which to bang others over the head. It’s an easy book in a sense to claim as being on “our side.” For Amos is about justice, and everyone seems to have an opinion about what is fair for themselves and others. Both right-wing Christians and left-wing Christians love to denounce the other persuasion with this book. “Amos is on our side and he is speaking against you,” we might think. But you see, there is no way to feel the power, to tremble at the horror, or to hear the message of terrible judgment of Jehovah God, apart from placing oneself under the message, or picturing oneself as the intended audience. Amos must be read and heard not merely out of historical interest, nor out of a desire to study in some detached way how God has dealt with his people, and certainly not as if Amos were written to “them” out there and not to us.
It must be stressed that Amos is written to God’s covenant people, His chosen ones, the people of Israel. Who are the covenant people today? Well, for the Christian, they are the people of Jesus Christ, Messiah Jesus, the people gathered from every tribe and nation, the ekklesia, the church. When Amos was written God’s people were prosperous, materialistic, militarily successful, and callously indifferent to the needs of the poor and weak. Does this sound familiar? Are we, as God’s people, totally immune from the self deception that the people of Israel were so prone to? You may say, “but we have the Holy Spirit, and Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth?” Yes, this is true. But did not the churches at Smyrna, Laodicea, and Ephesus have the Holy Spirit? Jesus himself warned them of possible, if not likely, judgment to come. And others whom we see today are clearly apostate – yet they claim the presence of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it is the case, the Holy Spirit can be present among a people without the people necessarily agreeing to walk in that Spirit. God has promised to maintain His church in a continuous thread until the end of time. Indeed we see this promise at the end of the book of Amos. But no specific national church, no denomination, or no local assembly can be guaranteed willy nilly of God’s abiding presence. The removal of His holy presence, the discontinuation of His blessing, indeed His judgment – is this not what we most fear?
So let us approach this book with the spirit that God wants to speak to us through it. If we hear accounts of the sins and short-comings of the people of Israel, let us not say in our hearts “I know people like that.” Rather, let us say, “how might I be like that.” How might my local assembly, my denomination, my circle of Christian friends, the church in my city, be like that. If this can be our approach, then down the road, through the years, and even in a small way today, as we need and hear this great book, then there is hope that our God can speak to us through it.
For it is our God, the covenant God, Jehovah, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who speaks to us so clearly here in Amos. Yes, he speaks through Amos, this common shepherd from Tekoa in Judah whom He has called to preach to the Northern Kingdom. The word of Amos is Jehovah’s word, which Amos preaches. Indeed, this is a book where God seems to almost overpower the person of the prophet. Amos writing is replete with “This is what Jehovah says, this is what the sovereign Jehovah says, declares Jehovah.” Who is this Jehovah? Just listen:
Amos 4:13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
Amos 5:8-9 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name; who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
Amos 9:5-6 The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt; who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—the Lord is his name.
The God of Amos is the great God who has made us, who has made the land and the sea in their beauty and fury, who has visited the earth in judgment, and who has revealed his thoughts to man. Yes he has revealed Himself; He has drawn near. He has made a covenant with a people to be their God. Listen as God’s sovereign love of election resounds in Amos’ words:
Amos 2:9-11 “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord.
Amos 3:1-2 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
“You only have I chosen.” Isn’t that intimate, isn’t that unimaginable? Yes, but, it is a fearful thing to be God’s chosen people. The love which God has for His chosen sometimes must use wrath to achieve its ends. This great Creator God has loved His chosen ones so much that he has sent warning after warning – judgment after judgment – to prod them toward repentance. He woos in His gentleness, He woos in His judgment. He disciplines His children because He loves them. Speaking to His stubborn and obstinate people, He says:
Amos 4:6-11 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
What is it that has brought about such warnings. What has so provoked this sovereign LORD that the fear of His wrath is about to be poured out upon His people? Just what are the sins of Israel?
I would like to read several key passages in Amos which answer this question. Remember as we listen, that while we should not close our minds to how our society matches these descriptions. In our hearts, let us think: how may I be like that, in heart or in deed.
Amos 2:6-8 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
Amos 3:9-10 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.” “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
4:1,4-5 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy….“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God.
Amos 5:12 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.
Amos 6:1-6 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! Pass over to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory, O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence? “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
Amos 8:4-6 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
This that we have heard is a portrait, a painting of the decay of the moral/spiritual/societal life of God’s chosen people. We have seen improper worship of God, and we have seen abuse and neglect of the human needs of the weak and disenfranchised. These two go together hand in glove. There cannot be true obedience to the first half of the Ten Commandments while there is disobedience to the second half. Notice as you read from this book that God’s concern about worship isn’t primarily that it isn’t being done in Jerusalem; nor is it even primarily that worship is being profaned beyond all measure by idols and temple prostitutes. These things alone are enough to bring the strictest condemnation from God. But the emphasis in Amos is different. What profanes the worship of the Israelites in this book is their indifference to, their injustice toward, even their oppression of their fellow Israelites.
We read in Amos 2:8f that certain people lie down with temple prostitutes on garments taken in pledge. That is, part of the bedding used when a person went in and lay with a temple prostituted had been collateral repossessed from a poor man by his creditor. There is a specific commandment against this in Exodus 22:6
“If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge return it to him by sunset because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in. When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.”
It was the disobedience to this commandment which here in Amos profaned the worship even more than the prostitution itself. The same idea is found in the next half of Amos 2:8, “In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.” The emphasis here isn’t on the drinking of wine, but on the fact that the wine, being one of the only valuable assets or possessions of a poor man, had been unjustly taken in a court case. These sins were so commonplace, so normal, that people probably never stopped to think about them. But God notices these things, and they are exceedingly important to Him. There is an unbreakable link between acceptable worship of Jehovah, and the merciful and loving and just treatment of others. This is clearly brought out in two of the book’s three short sections of commandments
Amos 5:12-15 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Why does God not accept their worship? Because of injustice.
We can see what had happened here. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had settled into disobedience by having its own special place of worship. This rebellion had been accompanied by a corresponding rejection of God’s law. But this rejection had been, say, selective. That is, there were still sacrifices, still celebration of feasts, and many religious activities which at least in name and partly in implementation resembled what was in the Law. Yet crystal-clear teaching in the Law concerning the poor, needy, widows, aliens, etc., had been systematically ignored. What exists as “religion” is just a big self-deception. And these people actually longed for the day of Jehovah. These people sought vindication from God. What had happened to their consciences? These people lived life day to day just like we do. The sun shone and normal patterns continued. Evil is often invisible when viewed from the inside.
But God could see it as could His prophets, and this is what His response was going to be:
Amos 2:13-16 “Behold, I will press you down in your place, as a cart full of sheaves presses down. 14 Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life; he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life; and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” declares the Lord.
Amos 3:11-15 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.” Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed. “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, “that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the Lord.
Amos 4:2-3 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,” declares the Lord.
Amos 5:18-20 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
Amos 6:8-10 The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.” And if ten men remain in one house, they shall die. And when one's relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Silence! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
Amos 9:8 8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord. There is something here which is even more frightening to me. It is something which clearly could, and does, happen our own day. That has nothing necessarily to do with bombs or wars or famines:
Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
The Word of God can be aflame in a peoples’ heart even when there are no Bibles, no churches as such, when only fragments of His word spread orally among those who cherish and obey it, and whom God has blessed with the witnesses of His spirit. On the other hand, the word of God can be absent even when there are stacks of open Bibles in every home. For we do not hear the Word of God or see the truth of God unless God opens our eyes and ears. Have there ever been times of dryness in your life when Scripture seemed closed to your heart? Wasn’t it frustrating, even frightening? When conscious or unconscious neglect of and injustice against the needy exists in the life of a people, then their worship is profaned, and God may bring judgment by removing both his presence and His Word. What Amos shows is that God can remove both His presence and His Word, while the people carry on as if He were there. It’s all emptiness and delusion. That is how serious this business of justice is, that God would remove His presence, and even bring great physical judgment for the lack of it.
So what can be said by way of specific application? First, that as we look at the book of Amos and then look at our Norht American culture, we are shocked at the similarities. We conclude that, realistically, we have as a people no right whatsoever, no basis, for presuming upon God’s grace or expecting his favor. We stand in the pathway of judgment. So we must speak prophetically, and I might add, bipartsanly, to this evil time, and call it to repentance.
But we have seen that we cannot, we must not stop there. This book speaks to us, even us here today on June 12, 1988, here on the building on 79th Ave. in Vancouver BC. It challenges us in our particular pattern of thoughts, and, I believe, calls us to continue a rigorous collective self-examination. Is it possible in any way that we have hardened our hearts (and indifference and neglect is a symptom of this hardening) toward particular classes of needy and poor. Have I? Have you? Is it possible that this hardening taints our worship in God’s sight? We cannot read Amos honestly without asking ourselves these questions. Is it possible that because we have championed one area of injustice in our society, that we have limited our vision, or possibly grown self-satisfied, or even smug.
I struggle with this smugness, this conservative self-righteousness. I have been rebuked for it. Can we allow God’s name, can we allow evangelical Christianity, to be discredited because we are afraid to admit that theologically liberal, professing Christians may in fact be right in some of their social concerns? Let us not develop a party mentality, and let us not allow others to pigeonhole us, because we have taken upon ourselves only part of the injustice problem in our culture. And finally, let us examine clearly the way we live, the way we give, and whom we may ignore. Possibly we even contribute to injustice actively in ways we don’t even realize. This is serious business. Let us realize it and know that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is also the Lion, the nuclear bomb, of Israel, and of the Church.
Amen
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Colossians Overview
(prepared for www.covenantfellowshipgreensboro.org)
This morning we will begin our study of Colossians by stepping back and getting a bird’s eye view.
But, rather than just throwing out to you a bunch of introductory information, I am going to work slowly through the first two verses, which in themselves offer to us clues about the letter as a whole.
But I do wish to say this: what we call now the “book” of Colossians was in fact a letter written by someone to someone for a reason, just was when you sit down and write a letter. I was a letter written in the middle of real life, life full of real people, real issues, and real places.
In order for us to understand and derive help and wisdom from this letter we must first understand what it meant when it was written, that is, what the writer meant to convey, and what it was about the recipients that inspired him to write what he wrote.
Only when we discover what it meant can we understand what it means.
We believe that the Bible is the very written word of God, and indeed, that this letter itself is God’s word.
But this letter is also fully human, that is, it is the product of a human mind and heart in the midst of real human life.
We believe that Jesus is fully God and fully human at the same time. It is much the same with the Word of God. It is, at the same time, both God breathed and human produced. And it has been preserved by the Spirit of God over the centuries for us today.
So let us now jump into verse one of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, and see what we can learn about this letter.
Well, verse one starts out simply with a name- Paul.
Not “Dear friends of Colossae,” just Paul.
In fact, this was the standard way of beginning a letter in the ancient near eastern world—by naming the sender, then the recipient, then giving the greeting itself.
If it were a Covenant Fellowship newsletter, it would start:
Joel
To friends of Covenant Fellowship
Greetings in Christ on a cloudy Sunday morning.
Ok, so this is a letter from Paul. Paul of course is the Greek name of the very Hebrew man Saul of Tarsus.
I say “Greek” name because Greek—or forms of it—was the predominant language in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. It was common for Hebrew people to adopt Greek names that sounded sort of like their Hebrew names—and so Hebrew Saul took on the Greek name Paul.
So Paul here introduces himself to his recipients.
Of course, because we are familiar with our Bibles, we know that he is writing this letter to a young church in the city of Colossae which was located in that land which is now present day Turkey.
But Paul was not known to the congregation personally. Look over at chapter two verse one…
“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face.”
In fact, the church in Colossae had been founded not by Paul but by a man from Colossae name Epaphrus—look down to verse seven of chapter one…
“just as you learned it [the gospel] from Epaphrus our beloved fellow servant”
It seems likely hat Epaphrus himself had been converted in Ephesus during Paul’s long stay there—and from there had gone forth to establish the church in Colossae and perhaps in other cities as well. Then he had come up from Colossae to see and speak to Paul about the Colossian church, and perhaps to seek counsel about some problems there.
We know that he is with Paul when Paul writes the letter because Paul sends greetings from him back to the church in 4:12…
“Epaphrus, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you many stand mature and fully assured in Christ.”
Now, while you’re in chapter 4, turn back to verse 3. Paul in that paragraph is asking for prater for the gospel—and notice what he says
“—on account of which I am in prison”
So, Paul, who is writing this letter, is in prison on account of the gospel.
But if he’s in prison how is he going to get the letter to the Colossians?
Well, in fact, he is sending the letter back to Colossae by way of another fellow servant—turn over to verses 7-9 of chapter 4.
“Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.”
So, Paul is sending his representative Tychichus to the Colossians to deliver the letter, and to give a report. He is also sending Onesimus, himself a Colossian, a dear brother and runaway slave of another brother Philemon, also from Colossae, who we know will also be getting a letter—our book of Philemon.
Notice that Epaphrus is not going back with the others. It is generally believed that Epaphrus had indeed been imprisoned with Paul.
But where is it that Paul and Epaphrus are in prison? There is vigorous debate amongst scholars about this.
You may remember that as the book of Acts ends, Paul is in prison in Rome. Many believe Colossians was written from Rome.
Before Paul was sent to Rome he was in prison for two years in Caecarea on the Mediterranean coast near Palestine. Some believe Colossians was written from Caecarea.
Before that, Paul had spent a few years in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. He which is not terribly far from Colossae. While there he got into some trouble. Many believe that he was likely imprisoned there, and that Colossians was written from there.
Though it is a close call, this is the view I take.
But why write the letter at all?
It seems likely that Epaphrus had come to Paul from Colossae with a general report about the church there in Colossae. This report would have included, I think, talking to and seeking wisdom from Paul about some people who were destabilizing or threatening the young church there in Colossae.
We don’t know for sure whether these were folks inside the church or outside the church, though based on Paul’s approach it seems more likely that it was an outside group.
These folks were looking down on the Colossian Christians. It seems they were making the Colossian Christians think that they were not yet complete, that they were not yet mature, that there were various things they still needed to do to become full.
Notice for example chapter 2 verse 16…
“Let no one pass judgment on you…in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or sabbath…”
Look at verse 18…
“Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions…”
So Paul is going to set to work in the letter combating this teaching. And, positively, he is going to call this young church to maturity, not by pointing it to something it doesn’t have, but by calling it to lay hold more completely of what it already does have—which is Jesus Christ who Himself is the fullness of wisdom and knowledge.
And so we see in chapter 2 verse 6—the central theme or focus of the book…
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
We see this concern about maturity as the focus of Paul’s own ministry—chapter one verse 28:
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
We see this as the focus of Epaphrus’ prayers in chapter 4 verse 12:
“Epaphrus, who is one of you, a servant of Jesus Christ, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in the will of God.”
The Colossian Christians don’t need anything but a stronger connection to what they already have—Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God, in whom the fullness of God dwells, Jesus who has reconciled them to God by the blood of His cross.
My brethren at Covenant Fellowship—the same is true of us.
Now, before I move on to the second word of the letter, let me call your attention to one interesting point—look at the very last verse of the letter—verse 18 of chapter 4.
“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.”
Most of the letter was not actually written in Paul’s handwriting. Whether he dictated it word for word, or whether he spelled out the major themes and someone else filled in the fine print, we don’t know.
But just so the Colossians will know that the letter is indeed from him, he signs his name at the end in his own handwriting.
Ok, back to verse one.
“Paul, an apostle.”
Immediately we see Paul setting forth his credentials. This letter really isn’t just a personal letter, and indeed by naming himself as an apostle this way he makes it somewhat more formal and serious.
The word “apostle” is used three different ways in the New Testament.
First, “apostle” is used in a very general non-technical sense of a messenger or emissary—someone who is sent out by someone else.
Second, “apostle” is used in a semi-technical sense of a Christian with a specific commission—so in this sense Barnabas was commissioned and sent out by the church in Antioch along with Paul to proclaim the gospel to the peoples of Asia, and thus Barnabas was referred to as an apostle.
Third, “apostle” is used in a technical sense to refer to the twelve plus Paul.
Indeed, Paul was not simply just one of this select group, but he was uniquely set apart and sent out as an “apostle to the Gentiles.”
And so it was with the full authority of being an apostle in that highest sense, along with his reputation of being the apostle to the Gentiles, that Paul addresses this Gentile church that he had not founded and which had not met him face to face.
He goes on to say that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus.
This means both that he was “sent by” Christ Jesus and that he “belonged to” Christ Jesus. We are reminded of Paul’s dramatic conversion, when the risen Jesus appeared to and commissioned him.
In Colossians the norm is to see Jesus’ name and title written as “Christ Jesus” rather than “Jesus Christ.”
And just so we’ll all know, “Christ” is our English way of writing and saying the Greek christos, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “anointed” or “anointed one.”
So “Christ Jesus” is like saying “Messiah Jesus” or Jesus, who is the anointed one of God.
And so, even though this was a Gentile church, which means a church made up mostly of Gentile believers in Jesus (as opposed to Jewish believers) they were still believers in a Jesus who had been preached to them as the fulfillment of the Jewish hope and expectation.
However, it is possible that “Christ” here in Colossians may be as much a name as a title.
Paul then says that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
Paul is always anxious to remind the people that he didn’t ordain himself to office of apostle. He knows has no right or basis in himself to be an apostle—after all, he persecuted the church. He is what he is by God’s sovereign grace and choice. He was set on destroying the church when by the will of God the risen Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and called him to Himself, and commissioned him to be a light to the Gentiles.
And so as Paul goes on in the letter to authoritatively deal with issues and problems in the Colossian church, he does so as one called by the will of God to proclaim Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.
Paul goes on to say in verse one that the letter comes also from Timothy, our brother.
Interestingly, there is no mention of Timothy in the rest of the letter. It doesn’t appear to be the case that Timothy even knew the Colossian church.
However, of all the people associated with Paul’s ministry no one had more honor and greatness of reputation than Timothy. Indeed, Timothy was Paul’s #1 right hand man.
Timothy had been converted when Paul and Barnabas had spent time in his home town of Lystra on their first journey into Asia Minor. On this his second missionary journey, when Paul went back to strengthen the churches, he was very impressed by Timothy and decided to take him along. Timothy had had a devout Jewish grandmother Lois and Jewish mother Eunice. He was exposed to and acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures but his father was a Greek, and Timothy had not been circumcised as a Jew.
But Paul had him circumcised, and took him along. Timothy was a crucial member of the rest of that journey. And over time Timothy built quite a reputation as a godly, caring, wise believer.
Some believe that Timothy may have actually penned the letter being sent to the Colossian church.
Perhaps when Epaphrus came from Colossae with his report he talked to Paul and Timothy, who discussed the situation amongst themselves, and decided how to address it. Perhaps Paul dictated the letter and Timothy wrote it out, or perhaps after talking it over with Paul Timothy simply wrote it and Paul signed off on it.
At any rate, adding Timothy’s name would have given the added impression that what was in the letter was not just from Paul himself.
Paul goes on to mention the recipients…
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae…
In this phrase first of all, we notice that he is writing to “the saints.”
The Greek noun can be translated as “saint,” as “holy one,” as “sanctified one.” To be “holy,” or to be a “saint,” is to be set apart for God. All the Colossian believers in Jesus Christ have been set apart by God as His very own. They have a special status with relation to God. This is true of all Christians. All Christians are saints. Every Christian has been set apart for a special restored relationship with God and for a special purpose in his world.
These Colossian believers are also called “faithful brothers.”
Here Paul is affirming their steadfast commitment. He is going to be calling them to even greater faithfulness and steadfastness—but he’ll only be pushing them farther in the same direction that they are already going.
These Colossian believers are saints and faithful brothers in Christ.
We are going to learn a lot about this phrase “in Christ” as we go through Colossians. It is Paul’s shorthand way of talking about our connection to, and life in, the risen Jesus.
And these Colossians, the believers in Jesus that Paul has never met—these saints and faithful brothers, well, they are brothers because they, like Paul, are in Christ. See, if your life is “in Christ” and my life is “in Christ” then we are brothers, even if we have never met—so this letter from Paul goes forth to brothers.
Where are these particular brothers?
They are in Colossae. They are, positionally before God, in Christ, in geographically, in this physical world in Colossae – both at the same time. Colossae was a town, once quite significant and prosperous, along the Lycus River, a tributary of the Meander, in Asia Minor. If you have a map in your Bible this would be a good time to look at it. What we call “Asia Minor” the Greeks used to call simply “Asia.” Later it began to be called Asia Minor. It is the Asian part of present day Turkey. A great deal of south central and western Asia Minor was evangelized by Paul in his various missionary journeys.
This area of the world had a very long and complicated history, having known rule and occupation by the Hittites, by Phrygia, by Lydia, by Persia, by Alexander the Great, and by the Selucids. During the Selucid period about the 3rd century BC. many Jews were brought into Asia Minor from Babylon. They were given a great deal of honor and freedom by Romans. There were some 11,000 Jews in Laodicea.
So there were synagogues in most of the good size cities in Asia Minor.
As you went from place to place, from city to city, there was a strange amalgam of Greek and Roman gods—and various mystery religions—and combinations thereof—and local town deities. It was a crazy mixed up time religiously speaking.
Paul, along with Barnabus or Timothy, evangelized these kinds of towns and cities east and south of Colossae on first and second missionary journeys.
On his third missionary journey he spent a long time in Ephesus which was just up from the coast on the west of Colossae.
While Paul ministered there in Ephesus, the area of “Asia” as it was called was significantly evangelized—people would come up to Ephesus, hear Paul preach, receive Christ, stay a while, and go back to their towns. This is probably what happened with Epaphrus, himself from Colossae.
The second verse goes on…
Grace to you and peace from God our father.
Here Paul brings together a Greek word, given Christian meaning of course—charis—grace, which means God’s unmerited favor, and the Hebrew idea of “shalom” translated into Greek—a word which means more than a peaceful easy feeling but “wholeness, restoration to god and community, rest and blessing”
And these are the two great gifts God brings to us in Jesus Christ – grace, His unmerited favor, and peace, His wholehearted embrace.
And, notice, finally, that these gifts are wished for these Gentile Christians from God who is now our Father – Father of both Jew and Greek through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We will continue next time…
Amen
Joel Gillespie @ 2002
This morning we will begin our study of Colossians by stepping back and getting a bird’s eye view.
But, rather than just throwing out to you a bunch of introductory information, I am going to work slowly through the first two verses, which in themselves offer to us clues about the letter as a whole.
But I do wish to say this: what we call now the “book” of Colossians was in fact a letter written by someone to someone for a reason, just was when you sit down and write a letter. I was a letter written in the middle of real life, life full of real people, real issues, and real places.
In order for us to understand and derive help and wisdom from this letter we must first understand what it meant when it was written, that is, what the writer meant to convey, and what it was about the recipients that inspired him to write what he wrote.
Only when we discover what it meant can we understand what it means.
We believe that the Bible is the very written word of God, and indeed, that this letter itself is God’s word.
But this letter is also fully human, that is, it is the product of a human mind and heart in the midst of real human life.
We believe that Jesus is fully God and fully human at the same time. It is much the same with the Word of God. It is, at the same time, both God breathed and human produced. And it has been preserved by the Spirit of God over the centuries for us today.
So let us now jump into verse one of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, and see what we can learn about this letter.
Well, verse one starts out simply with a name- Paul.
Not “Dear friends of Colossae,” just Paul.
In fact, this was the standard way of beginning a letter in the ancient near eastern world—by naming the sender, then the recipient, then giving the greeting itself.
If it were a Covenant Fellowship newsletter, it would start:
Joel
To friends of Covenant Fellowship
Greetings in Christ on a cloudy Sunday morning.
Ok, so this is a letter from Paul. Paul of course is the Greek name of the very Hebrew man Saul of Tarsus.
I say “Greek” name because Greek—or forms of it—was the predominant language in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. It was common for Hebrew people to adopt Greek names that sounded sort of like their Hebrew names—and so Hebrew Saul took on the Greek name Paul.
So Paul here introduces himself to his recipients.
Of course, because we are familiar with our Bibles, we know that he is writing this letter to a young church in the city of Colossae which was located in that land which is now present day Turkey.
But Paul was not known to the congregation personally. Look over at chapter two verse one…
“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face.”
In fact, the church in Colossae had been founded not by Paul but by a man from Colossae name Epaphrus—look down to verse seven of chapter one…
“just as you learned it [the gospel] from Epaphrus our beloved fellow servant”
It seems likely hat Epaphrus himself had been converted in Ephesus during Paul’s long stay there—and from there had gone forth to establish the church in Colossae and perhaps in other cities as well. Then he had come up from Colossae to see and speak to Paul about the Colossian church, and perhaps to seek counsel about some problems there.
We know that he is with Paul when Paul writes the letter because Paul sends greetings from him back to the church in 4:12…
“Epaphrus, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you many stand mature and fully assured in Christ.”
Now, while you’re in chapter 4, turn back to verse 3. Paul in that paragraph is asking for prater for the gospel—and notice what he says
“—on account of which I am in prison”
So, Paul, who is writing this letter, is in prison on account of the gospel.
But if he’s in prison how is he going to get the letter to the Colossians?
Well, in fact, he is sending the letter back to Colossae by way of another fellow servant—turn over to verses 7-9 of chapter 4.
“Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.”
So, Paul is sending his representative Tychichus to the Colossians to deliver the letter, and to give a report. He is also sending Onesimus, himself a Colossian, a dear brother and runaway slave of another brother Philemon, also from Colossae, who we know will also be getting a letter—our book of Philemon.
Notice that Epaphrus is not going back with the others. It is generally believed that Epaphrus had indeed been imprisoned with Paul.
But where is it that Paul and Epaphrus are in prison? There is vigorous debate amongst scholars about this.
You may remember that as the book of Acts ends, Paul is in prison in Rome. Many believe Colossians was written from Rome.
Before Paul was sent to Rome he was in prison for two years in Caecarea on the Mediterranean coast near Palestine. Some believe Colossians was written from Caecarea.
Before that, Paul had spent a few years in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. He which is not terribly far from Colossae. While there he got into some trouble. Many believe that he was likely imprisoned there, and that Colossians was written from there.
Though it is a close call, this is the view I take.
But why write the letter at all?
It seems likely that Epaphrus had come to Paul from Colossae with a general report about the church there in Colossae. This report would have included, I think, talking to and seeking wisdom from Paul about some people who were destabilizing or threatening the young church there in Colossae.
We don’t know for sure whether these were folks inside the church or outside the church, though based on Paul’s approach it seems more likely that it was an outside group.
These folks were looking down on the Colossian Christians. It seems they were making the Colossian Christians think that they were not yet complete, that they were not yet mature, that there were various things they still needed to do to become full.
Notice for example chapter 2 verse 16…
“Let no one pass judgment on you…in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or sabbath…”
Look at verse 18…
“Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions…”
So Paul is going to set to work in the letter combating this teaching. And, positively, he is going to call this young church to maturity, not by pointing it to something it doesn’t have, but by calling it to lay hold more completely of what it already does have—which is Jesus Christ who Himself is the fullness of wisdom and knowledge.
And so we see in chapter 2 verse 6—the central theme or focus of the book…
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
We see this concern about maturity as the focus of Paul’s own ministry—chapter one verse 28:
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
We see this as the focus of Epaphrus’ prayers in chapter 4 verse 12:
“Epaphrus, who is one of you, a servant of Jesus Christ, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in the will of God.”
The Colossian Christians don’t need anything but a stronger connection to what they already have—Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God, in whom the fullness of God dwells, Jesus who has reconciled them to God by the blood of His cross.
My brethren at Covenant Fellowship—the same is true of us.
Now, before I move on to the second word of the letter, let me call your attention to one interesting point—look at the very last verse of the letter—verse 18 of chapter 4.
“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.”
Most of the letter was not actually written in Paul’s handwriting. Whether he dictated it word for word, or whether he spelled out the major themes and someone else filled in the fine print, we don’t know.
But just so the Colossians will know that the letter is indeed from him, he signs his name at the end in his own handwriting.
Ok, back to verse one.
“Paul, an apostle.”
Immediately we see Paul setting forth his credentials. This letter really isn’t just a personal letter, and indeed by naming himself as an apostle this way he makes it somewhat more formal and serious.
The word “apostle” is used three different ways in the New Testament.
First, “apostle” is used in a very general non-technical sense of a messenger or emissary—someone who is sent out by someone else.
Second, “apostle” is used in a semi-technical sense of a Christian with a specific commission—so in this sense Barnabas was commissioned and sent out by the church in Antioch along with Paul to proclaim the gospel to the peoples of Asia, and thus Barnabas was referred to as an apostle.
Third, “apostle” is used in a technical sense to refer to the twelve plus Paul.
Indeed, Paul was not simply just one of this select group, but he was uniquely set apart and sent out as an “apostle to the Gentiles.”
And so it was with the full authority of being an apostle in that highest sense, along with his reputation of being the apostle to the Gentiles, that Paul addresses this Gentile church that he had not founded and which had not met him face to face.
He goes on to say that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus.
This means both that he was “sent by” Christ Jesus and that he “belonged to” Christ Jesus. We are reminded of Paul’s dramatic conversion, when the risen Jesus appeared to and commissioned him.
In Colossians the norm is to see Jesus’ name and title written as “Christ Jesus” rather than “Jesus Christ.”
And just so we’ll all know, “Christ” is our English way of writing and saying the Greek christos, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “anointed” or “anointed one.”
So “Christ Jesus” is like saying “Messiah Jesus” or Jesus, who is the anointed one of God.
And so, even though this was a Gentile church, which means a church made up mostly of Gentile believers in Jesus (as opposed to Jewish believers) they were still believers in a Jesus who had been preached to them as the fulfillment of the Jewish hope and expectation.
However, it is possible that “Christ” here in Colossians may be as much a name as a title.
Paul then says that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.
Paul is always anxious to remind the people that he didn’t ordain himself to office of apostle. He knows has no right or basis in himself to be an apostle—after all, he persecuted the church. He is what he is by God’s sovereign grace and choice. He was set on destroying the church when by the will of God the risen Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and called him to Himself, and commissioned him to be a light to the Gentiles.
And so as Paul goes on in the letter to authoritatively deal with issues and problems in the Colossian church, he does so as one called by the will of God to proclaim Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.
Paul goes on to say in verse one that the letter comes also from Timothy, our brother.
Interestingly, there is no mention of Timothy in the rest of the letter. It doesn’t appear to be the case that Timothy even knew the Colossian church.
However, of all the people associated with Paul’s ministry no one had more honor and greatness of reputation than Timothy. Indeed, Timothy was Paul’s #1 right hand man.
Timothy had been converted when Paul and Barnabas had spent time in his home town of Lystra on their first journey into Asia Minor. On this his second missionary journey, when Paul went back to strengthen the churches, he was very impressed by Timothy and decided to take him along. Timothy had had a devout Jewish grandmother Lois and Jewish mother Eunice. He was exposed to and acquainted with the Jewish Scriptures but his father was a Greek, and Timothy had not been circumcised as a Jew.
But Paul had him circumcised, and took him along. Timothy was a crucial member of the rest of that journey. And over time Timothy built quite a reputation as a godly, caring, wise believer.
Some believe that Timothy may have actually penned the letter being sent to the Colossian church.
Perhaps when Epaphrus came from Colossae with his report he talked to Paul and Timothy, who discussed the situation amongst themselves, and decided how to address it. Perhaps Paul dictated the letter and Timothy wrote it out, or perhaps after talking it over with Paul Timothy simply wrote it and Paul signed off on it.
At any rate, adding Timothy’s name would have given the added impression that what was in the letter was not just from Paul himself.
Paul goes on to mention the recipients…
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae…
In this phrase first of all, we notice that he is writing to “the saints.”
The Greek noun can be translated as “saint,” as “holy one,” as “sanctified one.” To be “holy,” or to be a “saint,” is to be set apart for God. All the Colossian believers in Jesus Christ have been set apart by God as His very own. They have a special status with relation to God. This is true of all Christians. All Christians are saints. Every Christian has been set apart for a special restored relationship with God and for a special purpose in his world.
These Colossian believers are also called “faithful brothers.”
Here Paul is affirming their steadfast commitment. He is going to be calling them to even greater faithfulness and steadfastness—but he’ll only be pushing them farther in the same direction that they are already going.
These Colossian believers are saints and faithful brothers in Christ.
We are going to learn a lot about this phrase “in Christ” as we go through Colossians. It is Paul’s shorthand way of talking about our connection to, and life in, the risen Jesus.
And these Colossians, the believers in Jesus that Paul has never met—these saints and faithful brothers, well, they are brothers because they, like Paul, are in Christ. See, if your life is “in Christ” and my life is “in Christ” then we are brothers, even if we have never met—so this letter from Paul goes forth to brothers.
Where are these particular brothers?
They are in Colossae. They are, positionally before God, in Christ, in geographically, in this physical world in Colossae – both at the same time. Colossae was a town, once quite significant and prosperous, along the Lycus River, a tributary of the Meander, in Asia Minor. If you have a map in your Bible this would be a good time to look at it. What we call “Asia Minor” the Greeks used to call simply “Asia.” Later it began to be called Asia Minor. It is the Asian part of present day Turkey. A great deal of south central and western Asia Minor was evangelized by Paul in his various missionary journeys.
This area of the world had a very long and complicated history, having known rule and occupation by the Hittites, by Phrygia, by Lydia, by Persia, by Alexander the Great, and by the Selucids. During the Selucid period about the 3rd century BC. many Jews were brought into Asia Minor from Babylon. They were given a great deal of honor and freedom by Romans. There were some 11,000 Jews in Laodicea.
So there were synagogues in most of the good size cities in Asia Minor.
As you went from place to place, from city to city, there was a strange amalgam of Greek and Roman gods—and various mystery religions—and combinations thereof—and local town deities. It was a crazy mixed up time religiously speaking.
Paul, along with Barnabus or Timothy, evangelized these kinds of towns and cities east and south of Colossae on first and second missionary journeys.
On his third missionary journey he spent a long time in Ephesus which was just up from the coast on the west of Colossae.
While Paul ministered there in Ephesus, the area of “Asia” as it was called was significantly evangelized—people would come up to Ephesus, hear Paul preach, receive Christ, stay a while, and go back to their towns. This is probably what happened with Epaphrus, himself from Colossae.
The second verse goes on…
Grace to you and peace from God our father.
Here Paul brings together a Greek word, given Christian meaning of course—charis—grace, which means God’s unmerited favor, and the Hebrew idea of “shalom” translated into Greek—a word which means more than a peaceful easy feeling but “wholeness, restoration to god and community, rest and blessing”
And these are the two great gifts God brings to us in Jesus Christ – grace, His unmerited favor, and peace, His wholehearted embrace.
And, notice, finally, that these gifts are wished for these Gentile Christians from God who is now our Father – Father of both Jew and Greek through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We will continue next time…
Amen
Joel Gillespie @ 2002
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Paddling within an Hour's Drive of Greensboro
(prepared for http://www.backporch.org/)
I am looking just to my right at an ADC map of the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. Winston Salem, High Pont and Greensboro are pretty much in the center, but the map covers Charlotte to Danville, Southern Pine to Sparta. It gives a pretty good sense of our region.
I want in this section to talk about opportunities for canoeing and kayaking in our region. I think it obvious that the serious white water enthusiast needs to travel a little farther than an hour from Greensboro. The same is true of the serious low country flat water enthusiast. Great white water opportunities abound to our west, and great low country flat water rivers about to our east and southeast, our of the range of this category “Paddling Opportunities within an hour of Greensboro.”
But we have our share of delightful and beautiful piedmont rivers that offer their own special characteristics and blessings. There is the Dan and Mayo to our north, the Eno and Haw to our east, the Deep and Uwharrie to our south, and the Yadkin to our west.
There have developed over time associations of citizens who made the well being of these rivers and watersheds a matter of high priority, and they have useful and helpful websites. In addition there are local outfitters that can equip and transport folks for trips down various sections of all of these rivers.
The best single source of information on paddling our local piedmont rivers can be found in the book, A Paddler’s Guide to Eastern North Carolina, by Bob Benner and Tom McCloud. The book can be picked up at most local book stores or outfitter type stores, and the text can be accessed through a subscription to trails.com.
For more general information about paddling North Carolina Rivers there is the Carolina Canoe Club and the Tarheel Paddlers Association.
As to our regional rivers, there is the Dan River Basin Association. There is there much excellent information about the Dan River and its tributaries, including an excellent PDF file entitled Adventures in the Dan River Basin by Forrest Altman, on their site. Rockingham County has very helpful information on both the Dan and Mayo Rivers at the “Rivers” section of their web site.
You can get much information on the Mayo River from Dan River Basin Association site (click on “Dan River Access” and you will also get all the access points for the Mayo River), as does the Rockingham County “Rivers” section cited above. And the brand new Mayo River State Park has a web site as well.
The Eno River Association has an excellent and helpful web site for paddling the Eno and its tributaries., as well as delightful photos and fascinating history of the river basin. You can also find very helpful information on the Eno River at the site of the Eno River State Park.
The Haw River has an advocate an excellent organization called the Haw River Assembly. Other fascinating information about the Haw River can be found at the site of The Haw River Historical Association. There is also great information at the William Neely Memorial Haw River Trail site. And finally, for those who are interested, we have our first State park here in Guilford County along the Haw River, and you can learn about that at the Haw River State Park site.
I do not know of a Uwharrie River Association, but information on paddling this short but lovely river just to our south abounds. You can get information on paddling the Uwharrie from riverfacts.com, from the Uwharrie National Forest Water Recreation Guide, from trails.com, and can even pick up useful information from wikipedia.
Again, I know of no Deep River Association per se, at least accessible online, but as with the Uwharrie, there is much information on the web. A good short synopsis can be found on the paddling.net website. Trails.com has a decent synopsis as well. Benner and Mcloud’s Paddler’s Guide has a lengthy section on the Deep River.
The Yadkin River Trail Association has a lot of information on the Yadkin River to our west, a river which has contributed much to the history of the state of North Carolina. An excellent report on canoeing the Yadkin River can be found at the paddling.net site. Trails.com has a short but helpful overview. A fascinating account of a Yadkin River Paddle of 80 years ago can be found at a site for A Voyage Down the Yadkin-Great Peedee River Douglas L. Rights, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1928.
I will attempt to provide specific information on outfitting companies in the separate articles on the Dan, Mayo, Haw, Eno, Uwharrie, Deep, and Yadkin Rivers respectively.
I am looking just to my right at an ADC map of the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. Winston Salem, High Pont and Greensboro are pretty much in the center, but the map covers Charlotte to Danville, Southern Pine to Sparta. It gives a pretty good sense of our region.
I want in this section to talk about opportunities for canoeing and kayaking in our region. I think it obvious that the serious white water enthusiast needs to travel a little farther than an hour from Greensboro. The same is true of the serious low country flat water enthusiast. Great white water opportunities abound to our west, and great low country flat water rivers about to our east and southeast, our of the range of this category “Paddling Opportunities within an hour of Greensboro.”
But we have our share of delightful and beautiful piedmont rivers that offer their own special characteristics and blessings. There is the Dan and Mayo to our north, the Eno and Haw to our east, the Deep and Uwharrie to our south, and the Yadkin to our west.
There have developed over time associations of citizens who made the well being of these rivers and watersheds a matter of high priority, and they have useful and helpful websites. In addition there are local outfitters that can equip and transport folks for trips down various sections of all of these rivers.
The best single source of information on paddling our local piedmont rivers can be found in the book, A Paddler’s Guide to Eastern North Carolina, by Bob Benner and Tom McCloud. The book can be picked up at most local book stores or outfitter type stores, and the text can be accessed through a subscription to trails.com.
For more general information about paddling North Carolina Rivers there is the Carolina Canoe Club and the Tarheel Paddlers Association.
As to our regional rivers, there is the Dan River Basin Association. There is there much excellent information about the Dan River and its tributaries, including an excellent PDF file entitled Adventures in the Dan River Basin by Forrest Altman, on their site. Rockingham County has very helpful information on both the Dan and Mayo Rivers at the “Rivers” section of their web site.
You can get much information on the Mayo River from Dan River Basin Association site (click on “Dan River Access” and you will also get all the access points for the Mayo River), as does the Rockingham County “Rivers” section cited above. And the brand new Mayo River State Park has a web site as well.
The Eno River Association has an excellent and helpful web site for paddling the Eno and its tributaries., as well as delightful photos and fascinating history of the river basin. You can also find very helpful information on the Eno River at the site of the Eno River State Park.
The Haw River has an advocate an excellent organization called the Haw River Assembly. Other fascinating information about the Haw River can be found at the site of The Haw River Historical Association. There is also great information at the William Neely Memorial Haw River Trail site. And finally, for those who are interested, we have our first State park here in Guilford County along the Haw River, and you can learn about that at the Haw River State Park site.
I do not know of a Uwharrie River Association, but information on paddling this short but lovely river just to our south abounds. You can get information on paddling the Uwharrie from riverfacts.com, from the Uwharrie National Forest Water Recreation Guide, from trails.com, and can even pick up useful information from wikipedia.
Again, I know of no Deep River Association per se, at least accessible online, but as with the Uwharrie, there is much information on the web. A good short synopsis can be found on the paddling.net website. Trails.com has a decent synopsis as well. Benner and Mcloud’s Paddler’s Guide has a lengthy section on the Deep River.
The Yadkin River Trail Association has a lot of information on the Yadkin River to our west, a river which has contributed much to the history of the state of North Carolina. An excellent report on canoeing the Yadkin River can be found at the paddling.net site. Trails.com has a short but helpful overview. A fascinating account of a Yadkin River Paddle of 80 years ago can be found at a site for A Voyage Down the Yadkin-Great Peedee River Douglas L. Rights, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1928.
I will attempt to provide specific information on outfitting companies in the separate articles on the Dan, Mayo, Haw, Eno, Uwharrie, Deep, and Yadkin Rivers respectively.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Northern Mockingbird
(prepared for http://www.backporch.org/)
The other day I saw an unusual thing. I was driving down Regents Park Lane. You have to drive so slow on Regents Park you could practically write a dissertation between stop signs. Anyway, I saw up ahead, in the air, a large bird being swarmed by a bunch of smaller birds. At first I thought it was a hawk and some crows. Then when I saw that the smaller birds were not crows, but Mockingbirds, I thought maybe it was Mockingbirds and a crow. As I got closer I realized that it was neither of those combinations. It was Mockingbirds and a hawk.
I have watched crows harass hawks all my life, and even got to see that drama recently in my own cul-de-sac. But in all that time I’ve never seen a crow actually make contact with the hawk. This time was different. Just as I approached this drama above me on Regents Park Lane, one of the Mockingbirds flew right down and clawed or pecked the hawk on the back of the head. The hawk’s body language was similar to what I would call wincing in humans. He jerked his head back almost standing upright in mid air, paused, and then really put on the gas. He wanted nothing more to do with those Mockingbirds.
All this brought back many wonderful memories of this common and perhaps my favorite bird.
When I was a kid in Columbia, well, our area was very wooded with pine trees and dogwoods and other under story trees and large hedges. Mockingbirds abounded. So did cats. Every year baby or juvenile Mockingbirds would end up on the ground. You could hear the squawking before you even knew what was going on. We used to love to watch our cats get dive bombed. Often they would just give up, and if not we’d intervene for the little bird. On many occasions I myself got pecked on the head, and it hurts! No wonder that hawk winced.
Cats and Mockingbirds seem to be caught up in a life long battle, like hyenas and lions. Just a month or two ago, my inside cat Socks was sitting on the bed looking out the window. His tail was flapping and you could tell he was excited. So I lay down next to him, my head next to his, and I watched too. A mocking bird was jumping around in our holly bush picking the last of the berries from last fall’s crop.
(An aside…Socks looked over at me, like “why are you here.” But I looked at him and then the bird, and it was like he understood. We were watching the bird, him and me. I think he liked it that we were doing this together – just two guys hanging out. It was cool.)
There are two things about Northern Mockingbirds I love the most – their coloration and their singing.
Just standing there a Mockingbird is a rather non descript gray looking bird, with darker tail and wing ends, of about average songbird size. But all these years of watching mocking birds I am still filled with joy every time I see one fly, those white tail ends and white wing patches displaying every wing beat. Why it is so pleasing I cannot exactly say, but it is one of the most beautiful things in the world to me.
And then there is their singing. I am grateful that every year we have had Mockingbirds live in our little patch of the suburbs. They love to sit on the point of our roof, or at the very top of the hemlock, or sometimes on the old antennae, and just sing away. You can almost always tell when it’s a Mockingbird singing because the song varies so much. They don’t call it a “mocking” bird for nothing! It can copy the songs of 20 or 30 other species of birds, and it can copy non-bird sounds too. There may be those who doubt this, but I used to sit out and make a particular whistle sound over and over and over, for days, or weeks, off and on. Yes, the Mockingbird would pick up on that sound and add it to its repertoire. They can even imitate dog barks, squirrel screeches, and repetitive machine sounds.
They aren’t fooling anybody of course, especially other birds, so it’s not a mimicry that scares away predators, or draws in prey. I’m sure that the experts would say that it is a mating thing. I rather like to believe that they just enjoy doing it, well, because they can. OK, the experts are probably right, but maybe I’m right too. Maybe both are true.
Very little in life brings as much pleasure as just sitting outside in a decent chair watching and listening to birds, and Mockingbirds make that all the more joyful for me. They tend to vocalize most in the late afternoons or early mornings. Sit out one day and see how many calls a Mockingbird is making. You might even be able to tell which bird it is mimicking – that is very cool!
We are fortunate as well that many Mockingbirds over winter here. They love berries in the winter when the bugs have declined, and holly is a favorite. If you’re ever thinking of planting some shrub, plant a holly, the red-berry producing kind, just for the Mockingbirds. You’ll be doing them a favor and giving yourself a winter’s worth of enjoyment watching them.
If you want to see pictures of Mockingbirds, and here their vocalizations, head to the Cornel Labs site, here, or here.
There is a lovely picture of a Northern Mockingbird at the Piedmont Bird Club site, here.
Joel Gillespie, copyright @ 2006
PS – don’t you just wish they were called Southern Mockingbirds?
The other day I saw an unusual thing. I was driving down Regents Park Lane. You have to drive so slow on Regents Park you could practically write a dissertation between stop signs. Anyway, I saw up ahead, in the air, a large bird being swarmed by a bunch of smaller birds. At first I thought it was a hawk and some crows. Then when I saw that the smaller birds were not crows, but Mockingbirds, I thought maybe it was Mockingbirds and a crow. As I got closer I realized that it was neither of those combinations. It was Mockingbirds and a hawk.
I have watched crows harass hawks all my life, and even got to see that drama recently in my own cul-de-sac. But in all that time I’ve never seen a crow actually make contact with the hawk. This time was different. Just as I approached this drama above me on Regents Park Lane, one of the Mockingbirds flew right down and clawed or pecked the hawk on the back of the head. The hawk’s body language was similar to what I would call wincing in humans. He jerked his head back almost standing upright in mid air, paused, and then really put on the gas. He wanted nothing more to do with those Mockingbirds.
All this brought back many wonderful memories of this common and perhaps my favorite bird.
When I was a kid in Columbia, well, our area was very wooded with pine trees and dogwoods and other under story trees and large hedges. Mockingbirds abounded. So did cats. Every year baby or juvenile Mockingbirds would end up on the ground. You could hear the squawking before you even knew what was going on. We used to love to watch our cats get dive bombed. Often they would just give up, and if not we’d intervene for the little bird. On many occasions I myself got pecked on the head, and it hurts! No wonder that hawk winced.
Cats and Mockingbirds seem to be caught up in a life long battle, like hyenas and lions. Just a month or two ago, my inside cat Socks was sitting on the bed looking out the window. His tail was flapping and you could tell he was excited. So I lay down next to him, my head next to his, and I watched too. A mocking bird was jumping around in our holly bush picking the last of the berries from last fall’s crop.
(An aside…Socks looked over at me, like “why are you here.” But I looked at him and then the bird, and it was like he understood. We were watching the bird, him and me. I think he liked it that we were doing this together – just two guys hanging out. It was cool.)
There are two things about Northern Mockingbirds I love the most – their coloration and their singing.
Just standing there a Mockingbird is a rather non descript gray looking bird, with darker tail and wing ends, of about average songbird size. But all these years of watching mocking birds I am still filled with joy every time I see one fly, those white tail ends and white wing patches displaying every wing beat. Why it is so pleasing I cannot exactly say, but it is one of the most beautiful things in the world to me.
And then there is their singing. I am grateful that every year we have had Mockingbirds live in our little patch of the suburbs. They love to sit on the point of our roof, or at the very top of the hemlock, or sometimes on the old antennae, and just sing away. You can almost always tell when it’s a Mockingbird singing because the song varies so much. They don’t call it a “mocking” bird for nothing! It can copy the songs of 20 or 30 other species of birds, and it can copy non-bird sounds too. There may be those who doubt this, but I used to sit out and make a particular whistle sound over and over and over, for days, or weeks, off and on. Yes, the Mockingbird would pick up on that sound and add it to its repertoire. They can even imitate dog barks, squirrel screeches, and repetitive machine sounds.
They aren’t fooling anybody of course, especially other birds, so it’s not a mimicry that scares away predators, or draws in prey. I’m sure that the experts would say that it is a mating thing. I rather like to believe that they just enjoy doing it, well, because they can. OK, the experts are probably right, but maybe I’m right too. Maybe both are true.
Very little in life brings as much pleasure as just sitting outside in a decent chair watching and listening to birds, and Mockingbirds make that all the more joyful for me. They tend to vocalize most in the late afternoons or early mornings. Sit out one day and see how many calls a Mockingbird is making. You might even be able to tell which bird it is mimicking – that is very cool!
We are fortunate as well that many Mockingbirds over winter here. They love berries in the winter when the bugs have declined, and holly is a favorite. If you’re ever thinking of planting some shrub, plant a holly, the red-berry producing kind, just for the Mockingbirds. You’ll be doing them a favor and giving yourself a winter’s worth of enjoyment watching them.
If you want to see pictures of Mockingbirds, and here their vocalizations, head to the Cornel Labs site, here, or here.
There is a lovely picture of a Northern Mockingbird at the Piedmont Bird Club site, here.
Joel Gillespie, copyright @ 2006
PS – don’t you just wish they were called Southern Mockingbirds?
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Willow Oak: Quercus phellos
(prepared for www.backporch.org)
Outside my office window, maybe at 1:30 to the right of my monitor, is a huge old tree planted long ago on Bessemer Drive. It is right there at the corner of Bessemer and North Elm. It’s about five feet in diameter, and though the crown of the tree is not healthy, there are still great huge limbs growing outward that are healthy, and it still provides much shade. My car sits under it’s shade even now as I write.
When I was a kid making money raking lawns, I confess I hated this tree. The leaves were so narrow that it took multiple passes of the rake to get them up. But what did I know, I was a kid. Now we have leaf blowers that sweep the little Willow Oak leaves up in no time flat. I hate the noise of leaf blowers. I’d rather get the exercise triple raking the old fashioned way.
Of course I am talking about that most popular of street shade trees, the Willow Oak, Quercus phellos.
“Phellos” you say? Yes, phellos is the Greek work for cork. Though the young Willow Oak has bark that is fairly smooth and grey, as the tree gets older, the bark becomes furrowed with fairly large vertical ridges. These ridges are somewhat “corky” in texture, hence the name.
You know the tree – darkish furrowed bark, small 2-3 inch long very narrow (“willowish”) leaves ending in a little bristle tip, and those tiny acorns that cover the ground all around. My favorite row of Willow Oaks in Greensboro, despite the damage done due to ice storms the past few years, remains that strip on Lawndale between Cornwallis and the new Target Shopping Center.
According to the Treasure Trees of Guilford County, 2005 booklet, the largest Willow Oak in Guilford County is on the grounds of Aycock Middle School. Again, Willow Oaks make for excellent park, school yard, and street trees. The champion Willow Oak at Aycock School comes in at 138 feet in height, 62.5 inches in diameter, with a crown spread of 84 feet. I don’t care what anybody says; that’s a big tree!
If you check out the more general description of the two kinds of oaks – the reds and the whites, found in the writing on the White Oak, well, the Willow Oak falls into the red oak category. The bristle tip gives it away, as does the darker bark, the hairy inner lining of the acorn shell (not the cup), and the fact that you can notice that the acorns take two years to develop on the tree. Just this big tree with narrow willow like leaves, and you’re probably thinking of a Willow Oak.
The Willow Oak is, more naturally, a bottomland tree, though it does not like swampy or overly wet soils. It tends to favor slightly moist soils, and grows largest is such environments. Yet, it is found also on mesic, or medium- moisture sites such as are common in the Piedmont. It is a shallow rooting tree. One of its distinguishing traits is that the root area at the bottom of the trunk will swell upward and outward, seeming to lift the whole tree as it were a foot or two in the air. It does not do well right next to sidewalks – or maybe better put, sidewalks don’t do too well right next to Willow Oaks. Neither do home foundations. Willow Oaks should not be planted too close to a house.
Because of the huge abundance of smallish acorns the Willow Oak is an important food tree for a great variety of birds and small mammals. For this reason their seeds are widely distributed. Though not thought of as an open field tree, because of this distribution you will often find Willow Oaks rising from cleared fields soon after the pines and sweet gums. But, because the Willow Oak grows not as tall as some of its oak brothers, or as grand as other forest trees, it is usually not found in the mature canopy of a climax forest.
The Willow Oak is not a spectacular fall tree, though given the right weather the leaves are capable of turning a lovely golden yellow. More often they turn an yellowish brown.
For most of us we will know and enjoy the Willow Oak as a planted street, park, or yard shade-tree. It grows rapidly for an oak, and before “sixteen years and sixteen summers gone now” will be providing shade for an otherwise sunny and blank yard or street.
I am thankful for whoever it was that looked into the future and imagined our Greensboro streets lined with mature Willow Oaks providing shade and beauty even in the warmest summer seasons. What a gift to give for the generation of your children or grandchildren!
Joel Gillespie, copyright @ 2006
Outside my office window, maybe at 1:30 to the right of my monitor, is a huge old tree planted long ago on Bessemer Drive. It is right there at the corner of Bessemer and North Elm. It’s about five feet in diameter, and though the crown of the tree is not healthy, there are still great huge limbs growing outward that are healthy, and it still provides much shade. My car sits under it’s shade even now as I write.
When I was a kid making money raking lawns, I confess I hated this tree. The leaves were so narrow that it took multiple passes of the rake to get them up. But what did I know, I was a kid. Now we have leaf blowers that sweep the little Willow Oak leaves up in no time flat. I hate the noise of leaf blowers. I’d rather get the exercise triple raking the old fashioned way.
Of course I am talking about that most popular of street shade trees, the Willow Oak, Quercus phellos.
“Phellos” you say? Yes, phellos is the Greek work for cork. Though the young Willow Oak has bark that is fairly smooth and grey, as the tree gets older, the bark becomes furrowed with fairly large vertical ridges. These ridges are somewhat “corky” in texture, hence the name.
You know the tree – darkish furrowed bark, small 2-3 inch long very narrow (“willowish”) leaves ending in a little bristle tip, and those tiny acorns that cover the ground all around. My favorite row of Willow Oaks in Greensboro, despite the damage done due to ice storms the past few years, remains that strip on Lawndale between Cornwallis and the new Target Shopping Center.
According to the Treasure Trees of Guilford County, 2005 booklet, the largest Willow Oak in Guilford County is on the grounds of Aycock Middle School. Again, Willow Oaks make for excellent park, school yard, and street trees. The champion Willow Oak at Aycock School comes in at 138 feet in height, 62.5 inches in diameter, with a crown spread of 84 feet. I don’t care what anybody says; that’s a big tree!
If you check out the more general description of the two kinds of oaks – the reds and the whites, found in the writing on the White Oak, well, the Willow Oak falls into the red oak category. The bristle tip gives it away, as does the darker bark, the hairy inner lining of the acorn shell (not the cup), and the fact that you can notice that the acorns take two years to develop on the tree. Just this big tree with narrow willow like leaves, and you’re probably thinking of a Willow Oak.
The Willow Oak is, more naturally, a bottomland tree, though it does not like swampy or overly wet soils. It tends to favor slightly moist soils, and grows largest is such environments. Yet, it is found also on mesic, or medium- moisture sites such as are common in the Piedmont. It is a shallow rooting tree. One of its distinguishing traits is that the root area at the bottom of the trunk will swell upward and outward, seeming to lift the whole tree as it were a foot or two in the air. It does not do well right next to sidewalks – or maybe better put, sidewalks don’t do too well right next to Willow Oaks. Neither do home foundations. Willow Oaks should not be planted too close to a house.
Because of the huge abundance of smallish acorns the Willow Oak is an important food tree for a great variety of birds and small mammals. For this reason their seeds are widely distributed. Though not thought of as an open field tree, because of this distribution you will often find Willow Oaks rising from cleared fields soon after the pines and sweet gums. But, because the Willow Oak grows not as tall as some of its oak brothers, or as grand as other forest trees, it is usually not found in the mature canopy of a climax forest.
The Willow Oak is not a spectacular fall tree, though given the right weather the leaves are capable of turning a lovely golden yellow. More often they turn an yellowish brown.
For most of us we will know and enjoy the Willow Oak as a planted street, park, or yard shade-tree. It grows rapidly for an oak, and before “sixteen years and sixteen summers gone now” will be providing shade for an otherwise sunny and blank yard or street.
I am thankful for whoever it was that looked into the future and imagined our Greensboro streets lined with mature Willow Oaks providing shade and beauty even in the warmest summer seasons. What a gift to give for the generation of your children or grandchildren!
Joel Gillespie, copyright @ 2006
Cool Greensboro and Guilford Maps on the Web
(prepared for www.backporch.org)
If you would like to research topographical aspects to Greensboro or Guilford County, go to the Quest site (http://www.maptech.com/) and click on “Online Maps.”
If you would like to see a map of the Cape Fear River Basin, which includes most of Guilford County, go to http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/basinwide/whichbasincapefear.htm.
If you would like to see what the future holds for Interstate Highways surrounding Guilford County, go to http://www.ncroads.com/maps/gboro.html.
For a somewhat crude but interesting map of Guilford County in 1895, go to http://www.livgenmi.com/1895/NC/County/guilford.htm.
For a fascinating map of Guilford County in 1808, go to http://www.geocities.com/nadineholder/Guil1808.jpg.
If you would like to see a map of ancient Indian trading paths across North Carolina, go to http://www.tradingpath.org/images/stories/maps/moseleylefttop_m.jpg.
If you would like to see a map of the great Philadelphia Wagon Road that brought so many of the early settlers to Guilford County, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncguilfo/greatwagonroad.html or to http://www.waywelivednc.com/maps/historical/great-wagon-road.htm.
If you would like to see a very cool depiction of how our NC counties were formed, go to http://www.segenealogy.com/northcarolina/nc_maps/nc_cf.htm
For a railroad map, circa 1900 go to http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl?data=/home/www/data/gmd/gmd390/g3901/g3901p/rr002740.sid&style=gmd&itemLink=D?gmd:6:./temp/~ammem_YTi4::@@@mdb=aaodyssey,gmd,gmd,gmd,gmd,gmd,gmd&title=Railroad+map+of+North+Carolina,+1900,+examined+and+authorized+by+the+North+Carolina+corporation+commission.+
For 18th century maps of Alamance and Guilford counties go to http://www.elon.edu/troxlerc/alacotpm.htm
If you would like to see a famous and interesting map made of much of current NC and SC in 1779, go to http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1779n4.jpg
If you would like to see online maps of the new world from the University of Georgia Hargrett rare Book and Manuscript Library, go to http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/maps.html
If you would like to see a copy of the famous “Mouzon” map, much used by both Greene and Cornwallis, go to http://battleofcamden.org/mouzon.jpg.
If you would like to research topographical aspects to Greensboro or Guilford County, go to the Quest site (http://www.maptech.com/) and click on “Online Maps.”
If you would like to see a map of the Cape Fear River Basin, which includes most of Guilford County, go to http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/basinwide/whichbasincapefear.htm.
If you would like to see what the future holds for Interstate Highways surrounding Guilford County, go to http://www.ncroads.com/maps/gboro.html.
For a somewhat crude but interesting map of Guilford County in 1895, go to http://www.livgenmi.com/1895/NC/County/guilford.htm.
For a fascinating map of Guilford County in 1808, go to http://www.geocities.com/nadineholder/Guil1808.jpg.
If you would like to see a map of ancient Indian trading paths across North Carolina, go to http://www.tradingpath.org/images/stories/maps/moseleylefttop_m.jpg.
If you would like to see a map of the great Philadelphia Wagon Road that brought so many of the early settlers to Guilford County, go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncguilfo/greatwagonroad.html or to http://www.waywelivednc.com/maps/historical/great-wagon-road.htm.
If you would like to see a very cool depiction of how our NC counties were formed, go to http://www.segenealogy.com/northcarolina/nc_maps/nc_cf.htm
For a railroad map, circa 1900 go to http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl?data=/home/www/data/gmd/gmd390/g3901/g3901p/rr002740.sid&style=gmd&itemLink=D?gmd:6:./temp/~ammem_YTi4::@@@mdb=aaodyssey,gmd,gmd,gmd,gmd,gmd,gmd&title=Railroad+map+of+North+Carolina,+1900,+examined+and+authorized+by+the+North+Carolina+corporation+commission.+
For 18th century maps of Alamance and Guilford counties go to http://www.elon.edu/troxlerc/alacotpm.htm
If you would like to see a famous and interesting map made of much of current NC and SC in 1779, go to http://scarlett.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1779n4.jpg
If you would like to see online maps of the new world from the University of Georgia Hargrett rare Book and Manuscript Library, go to http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/maps.html
If you would like to see a copy of the famous “Mouzon” map, much used by both Greene and Cornwallis, go to http://battleofcamden.org/mouzon.jpg.
The Early Settlers: 1750-1770
(written for www.backporch.org)
In the mid 18th century the interior of what is now North Carolina, especially around the area we call the Triad, was remarkably empty of human habitation. Though there are ample signs of long periods of Native American settlement and life going back thousands of years, buy the mid 18th century most of the tribes of this area had been forced to move out, nit because of pressure from European settlers, but because of Indian raids from the north. See my article on Indians of the Middle Piedmont.
Ironically the very means by which northern Indian tribes moved so easily south to harass southern tribes became the means by which European settlers from the northern colonies came by the thousands to the interior of North Carolina in the mid 18th century.
I refer to what is now called The Great Wagon Road which from Southeastern Pennsylvania down through Maryland, through the mountains and mountain valleys of western Virginia, and entering North Carolina through present day eastern and southeastern Stokes County, western Forsyth County, and eventually down through the present day Charlotte area all the way to Augusta Georgia. There were various spurs off the main path, which connected it to other ancient Indian trails, many of which became main roads (and even present day Interstates!).
A secondary but not unimportant route for early settlers was along the ancient Indian Trading Path which ran more or less form Petersburg Virginia to the southwest, through present day Alamance and Guilford Counties eventually connecting the Catawba Indian settlements down near present day Charlotte. The is roughly the path of present day I-85!
The backcountry of North Carolina was settled by a whole different breed of folk than earlier settled the coastal areas. A case can be made that the piedmont of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina was in effect a de facto separate colony, so different were the people and their ways from the moneyed elite of the coastal plain and coast.
The Triad was settled primarily in a wave of migrations by four religious groups, the Moravians, the German Lutheran and Reformed, the Quakers, and the Scots-Irish Presbyterians. All four groups came to our area and began settlements between around 1745 and 1770. We will try to deal with each in turn as we look at this period from 1745 to 1770.
Copyright 2006 Joel Gillespie
In the mid 18th century the interior of what is now North Carolina, especially around the area we call the Triad, was remarkably empty of human habitation. Though there are ample signs of long periods of Native American settlement and life going back thousands of years, buy the mid 18th century most of the tribes of this area had been forced to move out, nit because of pressure from European settlers, but because of Indian raids from the north. See my article on Indians of the Middle Piedmont.
Ironically the very means by which northern Indian tribes moved so easily south to harass southern tribes became the means by which European settlers from the northern colonies came by the thousands to the interior of North Carolina in the mid 18th century.
I refer to what is now called The Great Wagon Road which from Southeastern Pennsylvania down through Maryland, through the mountains and mountain valleys of western Virginia, and entering North Carolina through present day eastern and southeastern Stokes County, western Forsyth County, and eventually down through the present day Charlotte area all the way to Augusta Georgia. There were various spurs off the main path, which connected it to other ancient Indian trails, many of which became main roads (and even present day Interstates!).
A secondary but not unimportant route for early settlers was along the ancient Indian Trading Path which ran more or less form Petersburg Virginia to the southwest, through present day Alamance and Guilford Counties eventually connecting the Catawba Indian settlements down near present day Charlotte. The is roughly the path of present day I-85!
The backcountry of North Carolina was settled by a whole different breed of folk than earlier settled the coastal areas. A case can be made that the piedmont of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina was in effect a de facto separate colony, so different were the people and their ways from the moneyed elite of the coastal plain and coast.
The Triad was settled primarily in a wave of migrations by four religious groups, the Moravians, the German Lutheran and Reformed, the Quakers, and the Scots-Irish Presbyterians. All four groups came to our area and began settlements between around 1745 and 1770. We will try to deal with each in turn as we look at this period from 1745 to 1770.
Copyright 2006 Joel Gillespie
The Early Moravians
(written for www.backporch.org)
The Moravians trace their origins to the great preacher of Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) John Hus, who led one of the significant pre-reformation reform movements in the early 1400’s. Eventually Hus was condemned by the church, declared a heretic, and burned at the stake in 1415.
Hus’s followers, called Hussites, turned Hus’s religious reform movement into political and military revolt against the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire. Though this led to increased independence for the Czech region (Bohemia, Moravia, and Slavakia), it did not lead to the purity of Christian life and doctrine Hus had hoped for. So in 1457 the Hussite “denomination” officially broke from Rome and formed, the “Unitas Fratrum” (Unity of Brethren) which was able to negotiate some recognition from the Catholic Church. It thrived for almost two hundred years throughout the Czech region.
However, the complex war known as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) resulted in the complete devastation of the Bohemian/Moravian homeland and the end of the organized “Unitas Fratrum.” The Hussites went underground for over a hundred years and suffered many persecutions. Many fled.
Around 1722 some of these “Hussites” or “Moravians” or “Brethren” ended up in acquaintance with a young Christian nobleman named Count Zinzendorf in Dresden in Saxony Germany. Zinzendorf was moved by their plight, and soon many hundreds of Brethren and other persecuted Christians found refuge on the great estate. There they worshipped together, founded a community called Herrnhutt, and before long they covenanted together to form a new fellowship which came to be known as the “Moravian Church.”
Moravians left Saxony in great numbers as missionaries to all parts of the world. Many came to the New World for that purpose as well, to do mission work amongst the Indians and white settlers and to develop communities that exemplified their ideals. Their first major settlement was in Pennsylvania and was given the name “Bethlehem.” They also founded Nazareth and Lititz, PA.
But Pennsylvania had become the destination of choice for many immigrants – German (Lutheran, German Reformed, and Moravian) the Presbyterian Ulster Scots, and of course thousands of Quakers, all of whom held in common that they had experienced persecution and trouble in their homeland and were drawn to the opportunity of religious liberty in the new Pennsylvania colony. So popular a destination was it that by the middle of the 18th century land prices had risen greatly and there was simply not enough land left for the steady flow of immigrants.
Meantime vast stretches of inner North Carolina were still unsettled. Although the Lord Proprietors had sold their interest to King George II in 1729, one proprietor, John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, had not. His piece was a 60 mile wide piece of land running from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and lying between North latitudes 36° 30' on the north and 35° 34' on the south, the former being current NC/VA border, the latter running just above Seagrove in Randolph County.
Earl Granville was anxious to populate his territory and approached Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg (also known as Brother Joseph) head of the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania, about the prospect of buying and settling some of Granville’s property. So in 1752 Bishop Spangenberg led a small party via Edenton NC to look over and survey land toward the mountains. After much exploration and many difficult travels Spangenberg decided that the Moravians would purchase just under 100,000 acres of land in or near present day Winston Salem.
This land they named Wachau-the-Aue for “meadowland, as the land resembled a valley in Austria where many of the Moravians had once lived. Later this was Anglicized to Wachovia.
The next year Brother Joseph led twelve men, all skilled in particular necessary trades, from Bethlehem down the Great Wagon Road to Wachovia, where they laid the foundations of the first settlement there, which they named Bethabara, a Bible name in the King James Bible in John 1:28:
“These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.” Many other ancient manuscripts give the name Bethany rather than Bathabara.
A few years later, in 1759, the need arose for a community dedicated more to farming, and as an additional place where Moravian refugees could find shelter and home. And so the town of Bethania was settled just a few miles to the west of Bethabara.
The new colonies prospered, but neither Bethabara nor Bethania were intended to be the primary towns of the Wachau tract. So, in the mid 1760’s Frederic William Marshall, the business manage (if that is an appropriate word) for the Wachau colony, began searching for a site for the new primary town, closer to the center of the Wachau tract. After looking at and seeking the Lord’s guidance through the drawing of lots, a decision was made to locate the new settlement on a hill above what is present day Salem Creek, near the intersection of present day Business I-40 and Highway 52.
It was decided that this settlement would be primarily for artisans and tradesmen. Soon a road was built from Bathabara to the new Community, and ground was broken on the first structures in January of 1766. The town was given the name “Salem,” the Hebrew word for “peace” or as it is often transliterated into English, “shalom.”
Salem was very much a planned community with almost every decision overseen by three councils. The town was to prosper and become a major trading center in interior North Carolina well into the 19th century, and, as is well known, merge with the newer town of Winston to form the present day Winston –Salem.
In fact, and this is of interest to us in Guilford County, the prosperity and location of the Moravian community at Salem would play an important role in the founding of High Point, for it was at the intersection of the new North Carolina Railroad and the plank road running from Fayetteville to Salem that High Point would be founded!
Old Salem remains one of the most fascinating historic sites in the United States. See also 1766salem.
Copyright Joel Gillespie @ 2006
The Moravians trace their origins to the great preacher of Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) John Hus, who led one of the significant pre-reformation reform movements in the early 1400’s. Eventually Hus was condemned by the church, declared a heretic, and burned at the stake in 1415.
Hus’s followers, called Hussites, turned Hus’s religious reform movement into political and military revolt against the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire. Though this led to increased independence for the Czech region (Bohemia, Moravia, and Slavakia), it did not lead to the purity of Christian life and doctrine Hus had hoped for. So in 1457 the Hussite “denomination” officially broke from Rome and formed, the “Unitas Fratrum” (Unity of Brethren) which was able to negotiate some recognition from the Catholic Church. It thrived for almost two hundred years throughout the Czech region.
However, the complex war known as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) resulted in the complete devastation of the Bohemian/Moravian homeland and the end of the organized “Unitas Fratrum.” The Hussites went underground for over a hundred years and suffered many persecutions. Many fled.
Around 1722 some of these “Hussites” or “Moravians” or “Brethren” ended up in acquaintance with a young Christian nobleman named Count Zinzendorf in Dresden in Saxony Germany. Zinzendorf was moved by their plight, and soon many hundreds of Brethren and other persecuted Christians found refuge on the great estate. There they worshipped together, founded a community called Herrnhutt, and before long they covenanted together to form a new fellowship which came to be known as the “Moravian Church.”
Moravians left Saxony in great numbers as missionaries to all parts of the world. Many came to the New World for that purpose as well, to do mission work amongst the Indians and white settlers and to develop communities that exemplified their ideals. Their first major settlement was in Pennsylvania and was given the name “Bethlehem.” They also founded Nazareth and Lititz, PA.
But Pennsylvania had become the destination of choice for many immigrants – German (Lutheran, German Reformed, and Moravian) the Presbyterian Ulster Scots, and of course thousands of Quakers, all of whom held in common that they had experienced persecution and trouble in their homeland and were drawn to the opportunity of religious liberty in the new Pennsylvania colony. So popular a destination was it that by the middle of the 18th century land prices had risen greatly and there was simply not enough land left for the steady flow of immigrants.
Meantime vast stretches of inner North Carolina were still unsettled. Although the Lord Proprietors had sold their interest to King George II in 1729, one proprietor, John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, had not. His piece was a 60 mile wide piece of land running from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and lying between North latitudes 36° 30' on the north and 35° 34' on the south, the former being current NC/VA border, the latter running just above Seagrove in Randolph County.
Earl Granville was anxious to populate his territory and approached Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg (also known as Brother Joseph) head of the Moravian Church in Pennsylvania, about the prospect of buying and settling some of Granville’s property. So in 1752 Bishop Spangenberg led a small party via Edenton NC to look over and survey land toward the mountains. After much exploration and many difficult travels Spangenberg decided that the Moravians would purchase just under 100,000 acres of land in or near present day Winston Salem.
This land they named Wachau-the-Aue for “meadowland, as the land resembled a valley in Austria where many of the Moravians had once lived. Later this was Anglicized to Wachovia.
The next year Brother Joseph led twelve men, all skilled in particular necessary trades, from Bethlehem down the Great Wagon Road to Wachovia, where they laid the foundations of the first settlement there, which they named Bethabara, a Bible name in the King James Bible in John 1:28:
“These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.” Many other ancient manuscripts give the name Bethany rather than Bathabara.
A few years later, in 1759, the need arose for a community dedicated more to farming, and as an additional place where Moravian refugees could find shelter and home. And so the town of Bethania was settled just a few miles to the west of Bethabara.
The new colonies prospered, but neither Bethabara nor Bethania were intended to be the primary towns of the Wachau tract. So, in the mid 1760’s Frederic William Marshall, the business manage (if that is an appropriate word) for the Wachau colony, began searching for a site for the new primary town, closer to the center of the Wachau tract. After looking at and seeking the Lord’s guidance through the drawing of lots, a decision was made to locate the new settlement on a hill above what is present day Salem Creek, near the intersection of present day Business I-40 and Highway 52.
It was decided that this settlement would be primarily for artisans and tradesmen. Soon a road was built from Bathabara to the new Community, and ground was broken on the first structures in January of 1766. The town was given the name “Salem,” the Hebrew word for “peace” or as it is often transliterated into English, “shalom.”
Salem was very much a planned community with almost every decision overseen by three councils. The town was to prosper and become a major trading center in interior North Carolina well into the 19th century, and, as is well known, merge with the newer town of Winston to form the present day Winston –Salem.
In fact, and this is of interest to us in Guilford County, the prosperity and location of the Moravian community at Salem would play an important role in the founding of High Point, for it was at the intersection of the new North Carolina Railroad and the plank road running from Fayetteville to Salem that High Point would be founded!
Old Salem remains one of the most fascinating historic sites in the United States. See also 1766salem.
Copyright Joel Gillespie @ 2006
Sweet Gum
(written for www.backporch.org)
When I was a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old, a friend of mine from school lived in a house with a huge backyard – several acres, including a great field for playing baseball. He also had some of the best climbing trees anywhere. My favorite, due to the ease of getting very very high, was a tree with these pointy little balls all over the ground and hanging from the ends of the limbs. I really didn’t know what it was then, but we could climb so high – this tree was higher than the surrounding old loblolly pines, that it was just a great feeling. Of course, being kids, we’d go to the very top and sway back and forth. If poor mom had ever known…
I am of course talking about the venerable old Sweet Gum tree, Liquidambar styraciflua. Seems these days this is one of those trees people most love to hate, mainly because the gum balls are a pain to clean up year after year. Oh the things we come to hate for our perfectly trimmed and chemically produced lawns. “But it hurts to step on them!” Come on, a few weeks running barefooted and you won’t even feel it. Oh I forgot, running barefoot is out. What did Hopkin’s say (from God’s Grandeur):
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod
No matter the season, it’s easy to know when you’re standing underneath a Sweet Gum tree. Scattered all around you on the ground are those round prickly balls, about an inch and half in diameter. With little holes between the prickly parts, these balls house the seeds of the Sweet Gum tree, and are referred to as “gum balls.” If it’s winter and you find yourself stepping on gum balls in a parking lot or in someone’s yard, look up, and you’ll usually see many gum balls still hanging onto the tree by their three inch long stems.
These fruit balls provide food to many species of bird and mammal. (Author’s note: on the day of this writing I sat in my car and watched a gray squirrel sitting on a fence in front of me systematically nibble off all the spines of a Sweet Gum ball to get at the enclosed seeds.) So the next time you feel like griping or cursing over all those prickly gum balls, remember, to a lot of animals they are food for the winter. You can learn to love them, you can!
Notice the tree trunk, fairly dark, mildly furrowed, and heavy looking, with somewhat of an “alligator” skin appearance. The limbs tend to come somewhat horizontally off the trunk and somewhat evenly spaced in altitude, to make Sweet Gums, even very large ones, some of the best trees for climbing, as many brave children will attest.
Sweet Gums grow up to 80 to 120 feet, and even taller ones can be found deep in southern bottomland forests, though 60-80 feet may be more normal in Guilford County. There is a great old Sweet Gum right out in front of the clubhouse of Bur-Mil Park, worth a look on a beautiful day. In fact, it holds the present county record under the Guilford County Treasure Tree Program, being 115 feet tall, 49.5 inches in diameter, and having a crown spread of almost 70 feet!
The leaves of the Sweet Gum are very distinctive, usually five pointed, six or so inches across, with a star or perhaps starfish shape and appearance. The top of the leaf is glossy or shiny, which, given its star like shape, adds to its beauty. In the fall the Sweet Gum leaves tend to turn a deep crimson red, adding splash to the yellow dominated palate of the piedmont autumn.
If crushed in the hand the leaf has a particular odor called “resinous” by the tree books. That may be the best way to describe the sappy, tart odor.
Often the small branches and twigs of the Sweet Gum have little ridges growing out on each side. These corky ridges called “wings” also show up on “winged elm trees.
Walk through any field in Guilford County recently abandoned and you will probably find many young Sweet Gums mixed with the usual opportunistic pine trees. Though slower growing than the pines which usually first to take over a field, and thus left in their shade for a time, the Sweet Gum is one of the first hardwoods to rise above the pines and begin the transition from pine to mixed hardwood forest.
So, why is this tree called a “gum” tree anyway. The Sweet Gum tree produces a sap or resin (that flows more freely the farther south you go, giving it the name liquidambar) that when hardened this sap can be chewed as a gum. This resin of the Sweet Gum tree was long reputed to have medicinal qualities, used for the treatment of skin sores. It was widely used for treatment of dysentery during the Civil War.
The Sweet Gum tree provides one our most important furniture woods, used mainly for veneers, but also for cabinets and boxes and toys, and even as pulpwood.
It’s just a great tree all around.
Copyright Joel Gillespie @ 2006
When I was a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old, a friend of mine from school lived in a house with a huge backyard – several acres, including a great field for playing baseball. He also had some of the best climbing trees anywhere. My favorite, due to the ease of getting very very high, was a tree with these pointy little balls all over the ground and hanging from the ends of the limbs. I really didn’t know what it was then, but we could climb so high – this tree was higher than the surrounding old loblolly pines, that it was just a great feeling. Of course, being kids, we’d go to the very top and sway back and forth. If poor mom had ever known…
I am of course talking about the venerable old Sweet Gum tree, Liquidambar styraciflua. Seems these days this is one of those trees people most love to hate, mainly because the gum balls are a pain to clean up year after year. Oh the things we come to hate for our perfectly trimmed and chemically produced lawns. “But it hurts to step on them!” Come on, a few weeks running barefooted and you won’t even feel it. Oh I forgot, running barefoot is out. What did Hopkin’s say (from God’s Grandeur):
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod
No matter the season, it’s easy to know when you’re standing underneath a Sweet Gum tree. Scattered all around you on the ground are those round prickly balls, about an inch and half in diameter. With little holes between the prickly parts, these balls house the seeds of the Sweet Gum tree, and are referred to as “gum balls.” If it’s winter and you find yourself stepping on gum balls in a parking lot or in someone’s yard, look up, and you’ll usually see many gum balls still hanging onto the tree by their three inch long stems.
These fruit balls provide food to many species of bird and mammal. (Author’s note: on the day of this writing I sat in my car and watched a gray squirrel sitting on a fence in front of me systematically nibble off all the spines of a Sweet Gum ball to get at the enclosed seeds.) So the next time you feel like griping or cursing over all those prickly gum balls, remember, to a lot of animals they are food for the winter. You can learn to love them, you can!
Notice the tree trunk, fairly dark, mildly furrowed, and heavy looking, with somewhat of an “alligator” skin appearance. The limbs tend to come somewhat horizontally off the trunk and somewhat evenly spaced in altitude, to make Sweet Gums, even very large ones, some of the best trees for climbing, as many brave children will attest.
Sweet Gums grow up to 80 to 120 feet, and even taller ones can be found deep in southern bottomland forests, though 60-80 feet may be more normal in Guilford County. There is a great old Sweet Gum right out in front of the clubhouse of Bur-Mil Park, worth a look on a beautiful day. In fact, it holds the present county record under the Guilford County Treasure Tree Program, being 115 feet tall, 49.5 inches in diameter, and having a crown spread of almost 70 feet!
The leaves of the Sweet Gum are very distinctive, usually five pointed, six or so inches across, with a star or perhaps starfish shape and appearance. The top of the leaf is glossy or shiny, which, given its star like shape, adds to its beauty. In the fall the Sweet Gum leaves tend to turn a deep crimson red, adding splash to the yellow dominated palate of the piedmont autumn.
If crushed in the hand the leaf has a particular odor called “resinous” by the tree books. That may be the best way to describe the sappy, tart odor.
Often the small branches and twigs of the Sweet Gum have little ridges growing out on each side. These corky ridges called “wings” also show up on “winged elm trees.
Walk through any field in Guilford County recently abandoned and you will probably find many young Sweet Gums mixed with the usual opportunistic pine trees. Though slower growing than the pines which usually first to take over a field, and thus left in their shade for a time, the Sweet Gum is one of the first hardwoods to rise above the pines and begin the transition from pine to mixed hardwood forest.
So, why is this tree called a “gum” tree anyway. The Sweet Gum tree produces a sap or resin (that flows more freely the farther south you go, giving it the name liquidambar) that when hardened this sap can be chewed as a gum. This resin of the Sweet Gum tree was long reputed to have medicinal qualities, used for the treatment of skin sores. It was widely used for treatment of dysentery during the Civil War.
The Sweet Gum tree provides one our most important furniture woods, used mainly for veneers, but also for cabinets and boxes and toys, and even as pulpwood.
It’s just a great tree all around.
Copyright Joel Gillespie @ 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
Pied Beauty
Pied Beauty: Gerard Manley Hopkins
GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Greetings Guilford Gardeners - from Karen Neill (II)
Lawns
The key to a happy, healthy lawn is to water it deeply, and then leave it for several days, depending upon the air temperature. By alternately soaking your lawn to a depth of 6-8” several times a week, and then allowing the top layer to dry out, your grass roots will develop deep down, not near the surface. By saturating this layer of soil deeply, you’ll stimulate dense root growth, which will help save your lawn during a drought.
What can be done to prevent lawn mower accidents? The following practices will prevent most accidents:
Read the operator’s manual. Read the instructions and then follow these instructions carefully. The manual explains safe procedures that should be followed.
Train operator. Be sure anyone operating the mower understands how the mower operates. Then demonstrate how it should be used. Observe the operator until satisfied that he / she can handle the mower safely.
Check your lawn before mowing. Objects picked up and hurled by the blade cause many injuries, even deaths. Clear the lawn of sticks, stones, toys, bones and other objects.
Check guards and shields. Be sure all protective devices are in place before starting the mower. Shields and guards are for your protection and will prevent numerous injuries if used.
Dress properly to do the job safely. No bare feet! No sandals! No sneakers! Always wear sturdy shoes; steel-toed safety shoes are preferred.
Handle gasoline with care. Do not fill the gasoline tank while the engine is running. Let it cool first. Fuel up outdoors, then wipe up all spills.
Keep all persons and pets away from mowing area. Remember, a mower blade can pick up and throw objects with force sufficient to seriously injure or kill.
No riders on riding mowers. Always say “no” to small children asking to ride the mower with you. Extra riders can be thrown from the mower and run over. Extra riders also distract an operator, contributing to careless mistakes.
No horseplay around lawn mower. Playing with a mower is asking for serious trouble. This has caused many serious injuries. Use a mower only for the purpose it was designed – to mow lawns.
Do not use riding mowers on steep slopes. Mower overturns cause serious injury. Drive up and down slopes when operating a riding mower. Mow across the slope when using a walk-behind mower.
Take care of your mower. The operator-presence switch should stop the mower immediately when you release the control. Clean and safety-check your mower during the mowing season. If you have any doubt about how to adjust or repair your mower or sharpen your mower blade, see an expert. An annual inspection by an experienced service person is a good idea anyway.
Store fuel safely. Store gasoline outside the house and away from any heat source. Frequently remind yourself and everyone in the family that gasoline is a volatile flammable liquid.
Use earplugs to preserve your hearing. Inability to hear high-pitched sounds is the first indication of damage. Hearing loss from loud noise is permanent.
Mower Safety Guidelines
Before Starting Mower
Put on close fitting clothes and sturdy, non-slip shoes.
If the lawn is wet – wait!
Go over the lawn carefully to pick up stones, wire, toys, dog bones – anything the mower blade might pick up and throw.
If your electric mower isn’t labeled "double insulated," never plug it into anything but a grounded (3-prong) outlet.
Adjust cutting height before starting mower.
While You Mow
Never run mower over gravel, stones or hard, immovable objects like pipes, rocks or sidewalk edges.
Mow advancing forward whenever possible so you can see where you’re going.
Keep electric mower cord out of the cutting path.
Stay clear of the blade housing and the discharge chute.
Never point discharge chute at others.
Turn off the mower before you leave it – even for a moment.
Be Sure To
Disconnect spark plug or power cord before working on your mower.
Treat gasoline like the volatile fuel it really is.
Keep the power cord of an electric mower in near-new condition
Safety practices are just common sense – but we often need reminders. Take a few minutes to review these safety suggestions at the beginning of each mowing season.
In The Vegetable Garden
The “Three Sisters” Farming Technique
The principal vegetables cultivated by Native Americans elsewhere were corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, tobacco and gourds. Some eastern tribes employed an ingenious intercropping system with corn, beans and squash.
An Iroquois legend portrays corn, bean and squash as three loving sisters, who must always live together to be happy. The older sister (corn) grows tall, strong and graceful. The next younger sister (bean) loves to twine about her. The youngest sister (squash) rambles at the feet of the others. That all Indians grew the “three sisters” together is as mistaken as that all Indians lived in teepees. However, many cultures used the combination because it worked for them.
Corn stalks served as stakes for the beans. Bean roots were able to capture atmospheric nitrogen to feed the corn and squash. The squash’s prickly leaves protected the corn from raccoons and also shaded out weeds. This is so clever that gardeners often want to try it today.
Unfortunately, the system is not as workable for us as it was for its originators. If you have grown green beans, you know it’s best to harvest every few days. This means walking carefully among the squash vines, trying not to step on them. When corn is ready to pick, you may need to break the twining beans to pull off the ears.
Think about the difference. Native Americans were growing dried beans and flour corn. They could just leave the “three sisters” alone until the end of the growing season, then harvest them all at once
Plan a visit to our Extension office at 3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro and tour not only our Legacy Demonstration garden but our Community Gardens. The Community Gardens Program, a project of the Extension Master Gardeners, has been expanding over the last several years to accommodate the increasing number of gardeners who no longer have land available to raise crops in. We now have 64 garden plots that are being leased. Each of those leasing a plot also commits to contribute 10% of what they produce back to the community as part of the Plant a Row for The Hungary Program. If you have extra produce from your garden later this season, feel free to drop this off at the Extension office and we’ll make sure it gets to the food banks and soup kitchens.
Local Strawberry Pre- Picked Or Pick Your Own
Apple Farm
Harold Apple (owner)
3922 High Rock Rd
Gibsonville NC 27249
336-621-4247
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own
Directions: Hwy. 29 north of Greensboro, right on to Hicone Rd to Huffine Mill Rd left), right onto High Rock Rd, .8 mile farm located on left. Hours: Monday – Friday 7 pm – 7 pm & Saturday 7 am – 5 pm
Bernie's Berries
James Kenan (owner)
6126 Jonquil Dr.
Greensboro NC 27407
336-852-1594
Directions: I-85 Business South to Groometown Rd. exit # 33 old exit #120, turn south and go about 2.9 miles. Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Hours: Monday-Saturday: 7 am until picked over.
Byrley’s Strawberries
David Byrley (owner)
5520 Coble Church Rd.
Julian, NC 27283
336-685-4740
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own; Greensboro Curb Market (Sat. only)
Directions: South on Alamance Church Road, turn right on Coble Church Road, cross Old Julian, 2nd house on right.Hours: 7 am – 7 pm Monday – Saturday; call ahead to verify
Fryar Farms
Philip Fryar (owner)
5631 Friedens Church Rd.
McLeansville NC 27301
336-375-3337
336-697-7577
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: From Hwy 70 go north on McLeansville Rd. for 2.5 miles then right onto Friedens Church Rd (at the shopping center), go 0.5 miles on left.
Hours: 7:30 am – 7 pm Monday – Friday;
7:30 am – 6 pm Saturday
Greeson's Strawberry Farm
Fred and Sandra Greeson (owners)
5164 Watchtower Rd
Julian NC 27283
336-685-0360
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: Take Liberty Rd from Forest Oaks shopping center, go approximately 2 miles, turn left on to Donna Rd, go to stop sign left on Monnett Rd, go 150 yards right on Watchtower Rd.
Hours: Open Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 7:30 am – 7:30pm April 25th – October 15th
Ingram's Strawberry Patch
Richard Ingram (owner)
6121 Riverdale Rd
High Point NC 27263
336-431-2368
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: Located 4 miles east of Archdale on Hwy. 62. On left side, 2 miles east on Hwy 62 off I-85.
Hours: 7 am – 11 am, 3 pm – 7 pm; Saturday 7 am-5 pm
Ma & Pa’s Strawberry Farm
Frank Yost (Owner)
6301 Lisa Lane
Oak Ridge, NC 27310
336-643-4583
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own
Directions: Hwy. 68 North, turn left on Meadows Rd., then turn right on Lisa Ln.
Hours: 7 am – 7 pm Monday – Saturday
May’s StrawberriesW.C. May (owner)
6810 McLeansville Rd
McLeansville NC 27301
336-375-3613
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own
Directions: East on Hicone Road, turn left onto McLeansville Road, go 1.25 miles on right.
Hours: 7 am – 7 pm all week
Rudd Farm
Kenneth Rudd (owner)
4021 Hicone Rd
Greensboro NC 27405
336-621-1264
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: Hwy 29 N to Hicone Rd, left onto Hicone Rd, 0.1 mile on right
Hours: 7:30 am – 7 pm Monday – Friday;
7:30 am – 6 pm Saturday
Payne Strawberries
John Henry Payne (owner)
7648 NC 61 North
Browns Summit, NC 27214
336-656-3530
Directions: 1 mile south of NC 150
Type of Market: Pre-pick
Hours: 7 am until dark
Smith’s Produce
Craven Smith (owner)
6806 Tickle Road
Gibsonville, NC 27249
336-656-3574
Type Of Market: Pre-Picked: sold at Greensboro Curb Market Saturday morning
Sawyer’s Strawberries
Alan Sawyer (owner)
4605 Randleman Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27406
336-215-1215; 336-382-6257
Type of Market: Pre-Pick
Directions: 5 miles south of I-40 on s. Elm/Eugene or Randleman Rd. (1.8 miles south of I-85 bypass)
Hours: Call For availability Monday – Saturday
USE OF NAMES DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE N. C. COOPERATIVE EXTENSION OF THE BUSINESSES NAMED NOR CRITICISM OF SIMILAR BUSINESSES NOT MENTIONED. ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO PROVIDE ACCURATE INFORMATION.
****************************************************
Upcoming Events:
“Enhancing Your Garden With Vegetables, Herbs and Edible Flowers”
May 15th, 2006 @ 7:15 PM - 9:00 PM
Greensboro, NC
Presenters: John Neville, Head Gardener Dike Mansion Charlotte
Event Location
Natural Science Center
Lawndale Dr.
Greensboro, NC
Contact
Ginny Leone at (336) 852-3209
Event Sponsor
Guilford Horticulture Society
Arboretum Program Series ("Daylilies: Past, Present & Future")
May 21st, 2006 @ 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Greensboro, NC
Presenters: Kaye and Steve Arnold, Critter Creek Farm, Seagrove. There will be a slide program depicting the astonishing evolution of daylilies through hybridization over the past fifty years and a look at the future.
Event Location
Greensboro Arboretum Educational Facility
401 Ashland Dr.
Greensboro, NC
Contact
Karen Neill at (336) 375-5876
Event Sponsor
NC Cooperative Extension, Guilford County, and Greensboro Beautiful
Fall Gardening Gala / Regional Advanced VMG Training Conference October 4, 2006 at 8:30 am through 4:00 pm
The Fall Gardening Gala is a special day devoted to horticulture. This year's speakers include: Dr. Dennis Werner, Director of the JC Raulston Arboretum; and Barbara Pleasant, former Master Gardener and garden writer for Carolina Gardener Magazine. Workshop speakers will be entomologist Dr. Tom Creswell; organic expert Debbie Roos; Paul Fontz, botony specialist, will cover scientific names and how they are chosen, and Dr Marihelen Glass of North Carolina A&T University, will give tips on Propagating Hydrangeas. Master Gardeners will also be giving tours of the Community and Legacy demonstration gardens located on site. Tickets may be purchased in advance for $25.00, or $30.00 at the door.
Event Location
Guilford County Agricultural Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC 27405
Contact Mary Olson at (336) 852-7345
See our Upcoming program section of our website at: http://www.guilfordgardenanswers.org or send me (Karen_neill@ncsu.edu) your suggestions for program topics and I will make every effort to schedule these.
Karen Neill
Urban Horticulture Agent
NC Cooperative Extension
Guilford County Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC 27405
Phone: 336-375-5876
Fax: 336-375-2295
http://www.guilfordgardenanswers.org
The key to a happy, healthy lawn is to water it deeply, and then leave it for several days, depending upon the air temperature. By alternately soaking your lawn to a depth of 6-8” several times a week, and then allowing the top layer to dry out, your grass roots will develop deep down, not near the surface. By saturating this layer of soil deeply, you’ll stimulate dense root growth, which will help save your lawn during a drought.
What can be done to prevent lawn mower accidents? The following practices will prevent most accidents:
Read the operator’s manual. Read the instructions and then follow these instructions carefully. The manual explains safe procedures that should be followed.
Train operator. Be sure anyone operating the mower understands how the mower operates. Then demonstrate how it should be used. Observe the operator until satisfied that he / she can handle the mower safely.
Check your lawn before mowing. Objects picked up and hurled by the blade cause many injuries, even deaths. Clear the lawn of sticks, stones, toys, bones and other objects.
Check guards and shields. Be sure all protective devices are in place before starting the mower. Shields and guards are for your protection and will prevent numerous injuries if used.
Dress properly to do the job safely. No bare feet! No sandals! No sneakers! Always wear sturdy shoes; steel-toed safety shoes are preferred.
Handle gasoline with care. Do not fill the gasoline tank while the engine is running. Let it cool first. Fuel up outdoors, then wipe up all spills.
Keep all persons and pets away from mowing area. Remember, a mower blade can pick up and throw objects with force sufficient to seriously injure or kill.
No riders on riding mowers. Always say “no” to small children asking to ride the mower with you. Extra riders can be thrown from the mower and run over. Extra riders also distract an operator, contributing to careless mistakes.
No horseplay around lawn mower. Playing with a mower is asking for serious trouble. This has caused many serious injuries. Use a mower only for the purpose it was designed – to mow lawns.
Do not use riding mowers on steep slopes. Mower overturns cause serious injury. Drive up and down slopes when operating a riding mower. Mow across the slope when using a walk-behind mower.
Take care of your mower. The operator-presence switch should stop the mower immediately when you release the control. Clean and safety-check your mower during the mowing season. If you have any doubt about how to adjust or repair your mower or sharpen your mower blade, see an expert. An annual inspection by an experienced service person is a good idea anyway.
Store fuel safely. Store gasoline outside the house and away from any heat source. Frequently remind yourself and everyone in the family that gasoline is a volatile flammable liquid.
Use earplugs to preserve your hearing. Inability to hear high-pitched sounds is the first indication of damage. Hearing loss from loud noise is permanent.
Mower Safety Guidelines
Before Starting Mower
Put on close fitting clothes and sturdy, non-slip shoes.
If the lawn is wet – wait!
Go over the lawn carefully to pick up stones, wire, toys, dog bones – anything the mower blade might pick up and throw.
If your electric mower isn’t labeled "double insulated," never plug it into anything but a grounded (3-prong) outlet.
Adjust cutting height before starting mower.
While You Mow
Never run mower over gravel, stones or hard, immovable objects like pipes, rocks or sidewalk edges.
Mow advancing forward whenever possible so you can see where you’re going.
Keep electric mower cord out of the cutting path.
Stay clear of the blade housing and the discharge chute.
Never point discharge chute at others.
Turn off the mower before you leave it – even for a moment.
Be Sure To
Disconnect spark plug or power cord before working on your mower.
Treat gasoline like the volatile fuel it really is.
Keep the power cord of an electric mower in near-new condition
Safety practices are just common sense – but we often need reminders. Take a few minutes to review these safety suggestions at the beginning of each mowing season.
In The Vegetable Garden
The “Three Sisters” Farming Technique
The principal vegetables cultivated by Native Americans elsewhere were corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, tobacco and gourds. Some eastern tribes employed an ingenious intercropping system with corn, beans and squash.
An Iroquois legend portrays corn, bean and squash as three loving sisters, who must always live together to be happy. The older sister (corn) grows tall, strong and graceful. The next younger sister (bean) loves to twine about her. The youngest sister (squash) rambles at the feet of the others. That all Indians grew the “three sisters” together is as mistaken as that all Indians lived in teepees. However, many cultures used the combination because it worked for them.
Corn stalks served as stakes for the beans. Bean roots were able to capture atmospheric nitrogen to feed the corn and squash. The squash’s prickly leaves protected the corn from raccoons and also shaded out weeds. This is so clever that gardeners often want to try it today.
Unfortunately, the system is not as workable for us as it was for its originators. If you have grown green beans, you know it’s best to harvest every few days. This means walking carefully among the squash vines, trying not to step on them. When corn is ready to pick, you may need to break the twining beans to pull off the ears.
Think about the difference. Native Americans were growing dried beans and flour corn. They could just leave the “three sisters” alone until the end of the growing season, then harvest them all at once
Plan a visit to our Extension office at 3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro and tour not only our Legacy Demonstration garden but our Community Gardens. The Community Gardens Program, a project of the Extension Master Gardeners, has been expanding over the last several years to accommodate the increasing number of gardeners who no longer have land available to raise crops in. We now have 64 garden plots that are being leased. Each of those leasing a plot also commits to contribute 10% of what they produce back to the community as part of the Plant a Row for The Hungary Program. If you have extra produce from your garden later this season, feel free to drop this off at the Extension office and we’ll make sure it gets to the food banks and soup kitchens.
Local Strawberry Pre- Picked Or Pick Your Own
Apple Farm
Harold Apple (owner)
3922 High Rock Rd
Gibsonville NC 27249
336-621-4247
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own
Directions: Hwy. 29 north of Greensboro, right on to Hicone Rd to Huffine Mill Rd left), right onto High Rock Rd, .8 mile farm located on left. Hours: Monday – Friday 7 pm – 7 pm & Saturday 7 am – 5 pm
Bernie's Berries
James Kenan (owner)
6126 Jonquil Dr.
Greensboro NC 27407
336-852-1594
Directions: I-85 Business South to Groometown Rd. exit # 33 old exit #120, turn south and go about 2.9 miles. Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Hours: Monday-Saturday: 7 am until picked over.
Byrley’s Strawberries
David Byrley (owner)
5520 Coble Church Rd.
Julian, NC 27283
336-685-4740
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own; Greensboro Curb Market (Sat. only)
Directions: South on Alamance Church Road, turn right on Coble Church Road, cross Old Julian, 2nd house on right.Hours: 7 am – 7 pm Monday – Saturday; call ahead to verify
Fryar Farms
Philip Fryar (owner)
5631 Friedens Church Rd.
McLeansville NC 27301
336-375-3337
336-697-7577
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: From Hwy 70 go north on McLeansville Rd. for 2.5 miles then right onto Friedens Church Rd (at the shopping center), go 0.5 miles on left.
Hours: 7:30 am – 7 pm Monday – Friday;
7:30 am – 6 pm Saturday
Greeson's Strawberry Farm
Fred and Sandra Greeson (owners)
5164 Watchtower Rd
Julian NC 27283
336-685-0360
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: Take Liberty Rd from Forest Oaks shopping center, go approximately 2 miles, turn left on to Donna Rd, go to stop sign left on Monnett Rd, go 150 yards right on Watchtower Rd.
Hours: Open Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 7:30 am – 7:30pm April 25th – October 15th
Ingram's Strawberry Patch
Richard Ingram (owner)
6121 Riverdale Rd
High Point NC 27263
336-431-2368
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: Located 4 miles east of Archdale on Hwy. 62. On left side, 2 miles east on Hwy 62 off I-85.
Hours: 7 am – 11 am, 3 pm – 7 pm; Saturday 7 am-5 pm
Ma & Pa’s Strawberry Farm
Frank Yost (Owner)
6301 Lisa Lane
Oak Ridge, NC 27310
336-643-4583
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own
Directions: Hwy. 68 North, turn left on Meadows Rd., then turn right on Lisa Ln.
Hours: 7 am – 7 pm Monday – Saturday
May’s StrawberriesW.C. May (owner)
6810 McLeansville Rd
McLeansville NC 27301
336-375-3613
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own
Directions: East on Hicone Road, turn left onto McLeansville Road, go 1.25 miles on right.
Hours: 7 am – 7 pm all week
Rudd Farm
Kenneth Rudd (owner)
4021 Hicone Rd
Greensboro NC 27405
336-621-1264
Type of Market: Pre-Pick or Pick Your Own Directions: Hwy 29 N to Hicone Rd, left onto Hicone Rd, 0.1 mile on right
Hours: 7:30 am – 7 pm Monday – Friday;
7:30 am – 6 pm Saturday
Payne Strawberries
John Henry Payne (owner)
7648 NC 61 North
Browns Summit, NC 27214
336-656-3530
Directions: 1 mile south of NC 150
Type of Market: Pre-pick
Hours: 7 am until dark
Smith’s Produce
Craven Smith (owner)
6806 Tickle Road
Gibsonville, NC 27249
336-656-3574
Type Of Market: Pre-Picked: sold at Greensboro Curb Market Saturday morning
Sawyer’s Strawberries
Alan Sawyer (owner)
4605 Randleman Rd.
Greensboro, NC 27406
336-215-1215; 336-382-6257
Type of Market: Pre-Pick
Directions: 5 miles south of I-40 on s. Elm/Eugene or Randleman Rd. (1.8 miles south of I-85 bypass)
Hours: Call For availability Monday – Saturday
USE OF NAMES DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE N. C. COOPERATIVE EXTENSION OF THE BUSINESSES NAMED NOR CRITICISM OF SIMILAR BUSINESSES NOT MENTIONED. ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO PROVIDE ACCURATE INFORMATION.
****************************************************
Upcoming Events:
“Enhancing Your Garden With Vegetables, Herbs and Edible Flowers”
May 15th, 2006 @ 7:15 PM - 9:00 PM
Greensboro, NC
Presenters: John Neville, Head Gardener Dike Mansion Charlotte
Event Location
Natural Science Center
Lawndale Dr.
Greensboro, NC
Contact
Ginny Leone at (336) 852-3209
Event Sponsor
Guilford Horticulture Society
Arboretum Program Series ("Daylilies: Past, Present & Future")
May 21st, 2006 @ 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Greensboro, NC
Presenters: Kaye and Steve Arnold, Critter Creek Farm, Seagrove. There will be a slide program depicting the astonishing evolution of daylilies through hybridization over the past fifty years and a look at the future.
Event Location
Greensboro Arboretum Educational Facility
401 Ashland Dr.
Greensboro, NC
Contact
Karen Neill at (336) 375-5876
Event Sponsor
NC Cooperative Extension, Guilford County, and Greensboro Beautiful
Fall Gardening Gala / Regional Advanced VMG Training Conference October 4, 2006 at 8:30 am through 4:00 pm
The Fall Gardening Gala is a special day devoted to horticulture. This year's speakers include: Dr. Dennis Werner, Director of the JC Raulston Arboretum; and Barbara Pleasant, former Master Gardener and garden writer for Carolina Gardener Magazine. Workshop speakers will be entomologist Dr. Tom Creswell; organic expert Debbie Roos; Paul Fontz, botony specialist, will cover scientific names and how they are chosen, and Dr Marihelen Glass of North Carolina A&T University, will give tips on Propagating Hydrangeas. Master Gardeners will also be giving tours of the Community and Legacy demonstration gardens located on site. Tickets may be purchased in advance for $25.00, or $30.00 at the door.
Event Location
Guilford County Agricultural Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC 27405
Contact Mary Olson at (336) 852-7345
See our Upcoming program section of our website at: http://www.guilfordgardenanswers.org or send me (Karen_neill@ncsu.edu) your suggestions for program topics and I will make every effort to schedule these.
Karen Neill
Urban Horticulture Agent
NC Cooperative Extension
Guilford County Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC 27405
Phone: 336-375-5876
Fax: 336-375-2295
http://www.guilfordgardenanswers.org
Greetings Guilfford Gardeners - from Karen Neill (I)
Greetings Guilford Gardeners,
I’d like to say that those April showers have sure brought out those May flowers but we could have used a few more showers. Right now we are down by approximately 7 inches and that’s on top of the 11 we were down last fall. While our lakes have remained fairly full due to the storm water runoff, our groundwater is not recharging very quickly. Something to consider, would be installing a rain garden as a way to capture runoff from your house and property before it runs down the storm drains. This way the water is allowed to filter into the ground slowly and the pollutants are removed by the mulch and the plants. Rain gardens are just one of the components found under the “Managing Storm water” principle in our Carolina Yards and Neighborhoods Program.
Be sure to check out the whole Carolina Yards and Neighborhoods program, a landscaping program design to help you enhance your landscape while working with and protecting North Carolina’s environment www.guilfordgardenanswers.org
Call for a Free Piedmont Yardstick workbook - 375-5876
Celebrate National Drinking Water Week!
May 7 - 13, 2006
The Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW), together with states, tribes, and its many partners, protects public health by ensuring safe drinking water and protecting ground water. OGWDW, along with EPA's ten regional drinking water programs, oversees implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which is the national law safeguarding tap water in America.
Local Drinking Water Quality
Source Water Protection
Drinking Water Standards
Public Drinking Water Systems
Underwater Injection Control
Protect Your Water for Life
Ornamentals
With cut flowers available year-round from florists, why would anyone want to grow their own? There are many reasons once you think about it.
First, consider cost. The price of a few packets of seeds and a little water, fertilizer, and sometimes pesticide is the only monetary outlay for gardeners. Even if you add the value of your labor, the resulting cost is a savings over store-bought bouquets.
Second, think about availability. For one reason or another, not all varieties of flowers that do well as cut specimens can be found in local flower shops. Your selection of blossoms for arrangements can be increased tremendously by growing your own.
Third, you just can't get a fresher product than a flower cut from your own backyard. If conditioned correctly, the flowers you grow for yourself have the potential of lasting much longer than those supplied by a florist.
Lastly, by growing cut flowers, you have the opportunity to design arrangements without the constraints of high cost or limited availability. You can use leaves from landscape plants for foliage to fill in arrangements. By combining home-grown varieties with exotics from a flower shop, you can come up with unlimited possibilities.
To grow your own cut flowers, start with a good location for the flower bed. You need good garden soil and a minimum of six hours sunlight. Since you plan to cut these flowers when they reach peak quality, you don't want the bed in public view. A section of your vegetable garden may be ideal.
Start with seed catalogs, choosing varieties of flowers you like. Vary sizes, shapes, and colors. Be sure to choose flowers for all seasons. Check the All American Selections noted as good cut flowers.
Annuals for cut flowers are often referred to as cut-and-come-again because they will re-bloom if cut during the growing season. They provide many flowers over a long time at a low cost, but annuals must be replanted yearly.
Perennials have a higher initial cost than annuals, but they usually increase in plant size and number of blooms each year. Compared to annuals, they usually have a shorter bloom time, but with careful selection you can choose perennials with long, blooming periods.
The following website is from Virginia and gives more information than most homeowners would need but is a good reference to specific recommendations. VCE Web Publication 426-619W, "Field Production of Cut Flowers: Potential Crops."
Come visit our Legacy Demonstration Garden located at the Guilford County Ag. Center, 3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro. This garden was created and is maintained by Extension Master Gardener Volunteers as an outdoor educational Classroom. Our Featured PLANT OF THE MONTH, for May 2006 is Syringa patula ‘Miss Kim’. This plant is also known as the Manchurian lilac. This plant is located at the front corner of the Legacy Garden. Manchurian lilac is a 6-8 foot tall deciduous shrub that grows best in full sun to partial shade in our Piedmont gardens and produces panicles of fragrant, lavender blooms in May. The foliage turns red-purple in the fall, providing multi-season interest.
Here is another mulch alert I thought I should make you aware of, it is a Cocoa bean by-product. I do know that this Cocoa bean by-product is being sold in Guilford County, so if you own dogs this may be one to stay away from. For more information go to: http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_publicationscocoa
Pests
The wool sower gall is a distinct and unusual plant growth induced by the secretions of the grubs of a tiny gall wasp, Callirhytis seminator. If a fresh wool sower gall is held in a plastic bag out of the sun (so it will not get too hot), within one to three weeks the tiny, harmless gall wasps will emerge. The wool sower gall is specific to white oak and only occurs in the spring. Pulling the gall apart exposes small seed-like structures. The gall wasp grubs develop inside these structures. (This gall is also called the oak seed gall.) Fortunately, wool sower galls are hardly ever abundant enough to cause harm to white oaks. If the galls are actually damaging the trees, the best time to control them is mid-winter when the wasps are laying their eggs or spring just as the buds are breaking. The eggs hatch just as the new growth emerges in spring. Gall wasps invariably have alternation of generations in which one generation develops in one kind of gall (leaf gall) and their offspring develop in another kind of gall (stem gall). Wasps of each alternate generation are slightly different is size and the galls of each generation are enormously different from the parents. The wool sower gall is probably the leaf gall of this species because of its transient nature. Many other galls are forming now.
Leaf Gall
Exobasidium leaf gall (caused by the fungus Exobasidum vaccinii) is very common and widespread in the early spring on new leaves as plants leaf out. The leaves become thickened, curled, fleshy and pale green to white. In the latter stages of the disease, the leaves are covered with a white powdery substance. If left on the shrub the affected leaves eventually turn brown. The disease is more alarming than damaging. Even highly susceptible cultivars are not seriously damaged. If you only have a few plants, control the disease by hand picking and destroying diseased leaves as soon as the swelling starts (April or early May in North Carolina). Leaf gall seldom causes enough damage to justify spraying a fungicide. This fungus also attacks rhododendrons and a related fungus causes leaf gall of Camellia sasanqua, the fall blooming camellia, as new leaves develop in the spring.
Scale insects in the genus Pulvinaria are reported to be currently depositing their ovisacs. The cottony maple leaf scale insect and the cottony camellia scale insect, are the two most common cottony scale insects in North Carolina. I was pruning leaf gall off my camellia and just happened to look at the underside of the leaf, revealing the cottony camellia scale. The cottony maple leaf scale (see insect note at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/O&T/trees/note37/note37.html) sometimes infests holly and maple, but it seems to be most common on dogwoods in North Carolina. The cottony camellia scale infests camellia and taxus. These latter two scales are in the genus Pulvinaria. Trees heavily infested with Pulvinaria scales may exhibit dieback. The month of June is a good time to spray insecticide for Pulvinaria scales as the lady beetles that specialize on feeding within the egg sacs of the scales will have then departed, and the crawlers and young scales are exposed on the leaves. Horticultural oil and Sevin are effective. The horticultural oil is a better choice since it is less likely to harm the beneficial insects. So the important thing to remember about Pulvinaria scales is that now is not a good time to treat for them because spraying kills lady beetles but not all of the eggs. Wait until late June to early July to treat.
Carpenter Bees
I've been out on the porches and decks this week-end and observed these large black and yellow bees buzzing around the siding and rafters. They resemble "bumblebees" and use strong mandibles to excavate tunnels about 1/2 inch in diameter, usually on the lower side of a board.
Males emerge from tunnels where they have spent the winter and begin to carouse about looking for the girls who usually show up later. The females begin to excavate the nesting sites (isn't that the way?) boring in about 1/2 inch or so, then turning 90 degrees to follow the grain of the wood. Sometimes several of the girls work together with a single entrance but separate quarters inside. Inside her own tunnel the female deposits a pollen ball and an egg. She seals this chamber with chewed wood and repeats the process several times.
The adults soon die and a new generation will hatch out later in the summer. They seldom create new tunnels but may clean out an old one to provide a nice place to spend the winter months while you bring in firewood.
I doubt that you can get rid of carpenter bees. They are simply one of the critters with whom we share this world. They are annoying, but we learn to live with annoyances and to minimize how annoying it is.
Entomologists with whom I have discussed this insect suggest that a tennis racket is the most effective control strategy, and they seem to be serious. They also suggest that treating the wooden surfaces with insecticide is of limited effectiveness for multiple reasons: 1) They are effective for only a short period even when reapplied every few weeks. 2) the bees don't actually eat the wood so they actually are exposed to only a sub-lethal dose. 3) any exposed wood may be subject to boring by carpenter bees, and there is usually a lot of surface that is not accessible with reasonable application strategies. (I don't include power washing your home with an insecticide among reasonable application strategies.) 4) trying to spray a moving bee in the air is probably neither wise nor safe. I can see you backing off the steps while spraying your mother-in-law with the insecticide. The tennis racket is probably more effective, but do watch where you lunge. I've gone in a circle now.
Treating individual holes with an insecticide spray or dust may reduce future activity but is not guaranteed. Be sure to stand upwind and be aware that a spray may ricochet back in your face. These treatments tend to be more effective if the individual hole is sealed afterward. And of course, accessibility to individual holes is no easier than spraying the whole house. I'm back to thinking tennis racket again.
The good news is that carpenter bees seldom create serious structural damage unless they are allowed to drill many tunnels over a period of years. And that argues for treating individual holes.
Karen Neill
Urban Horticulture Agent
NC Cooperative Extension
Guilford County Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC 27405
Phone: 336-375-5876
Fax: 336-375-2295
http://www.guilfordgardenanswers.org
I’d like to say that those April showers have sure brought out those May flowers but we could have used a few more showers. Right now we are down by approximately 7 inches and that’s on top of the 11 we were down last fall. While our lakes have remained fairly full due to the storm water runoff, our groundwater is not recharging very quickly. Something to consider, would be installing a rain garden as a way to capture runoff from your house and property before it runs down the storm drains. This way the water is allowed to filter into the ground slowly and the pollutants are removed by the mulch and the plants. Rain gardens are just one of the components found under the “Managing Storm water” principle in our Carolina Yards and Neighborhoods Program.
Be sure to check out the whole Carolina Yards and Neighborhoods program, a landscaping program design to help you enhance your landscape while working with and protecting North Carolina’s environment www.guilfordgardenanswers.org
Call for a Free Piedmont Yardstick workbook - 375-5876
Celebrate National Drinking Water Week!
May 7 - 13, 2006
The Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW), together with states, tribes, and its many partners, protects public health by ensuring safe drinking water and protecting ground water. OGWDW, along with EPA's ten regional drinking water programs, oversees implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which is the national law safeguarding tap water in America.
Local Drinking Water Quality
Source Water Protection
Drinking Water Standards
Public Drinking Water Systems
Underwater Injection Control
Protect Your Water for Life
Ornamentals
With cut flowers available year-round from florists, why would anyone want to grow their own? There are many reasons once you think about it.
First, consider cost. The price of a few packets of seeds and a little water, fertilizer, and sometimes pesticide is the only monetary outlay for gardeners. Even if you add the value of your labor, the resulting cost is a savings over store-bought bouquets.
Second, think about availability. For one reason or another, not all varieties of flowers that do well as cut specimens can be found in local flower shops. Your selection of blossoms for arrangements can be increased tremendously by growing your own.
Third, you just can't get a fresher product than a flower cut from your own backyard. If conditioned correctly, the flowers you grow for yourself have the potential of lasting much longer than those supplied by a florist.
Lastly, by growing cut flowers, you have the opportunity to design arrangements without the constraints of high cost or limited availability. You can use leaves from landscape plants for foliage to fill in arrangements. By combining home-grown varieties with exotics from a flower shop, you can come up with unlimited possibilities.
To grow your own cut flowers, start with a good location for the flower bed. You need good garden soil and a minimum of six hours sunlight. Since you plan to cut these flowers when they reach peak quality, you don't want the bed in public view. A section of your vegetable garden may be ideal.
Start with seed catalogs, choosing varieties of flowers you like. Vary sizes, shapes, and colors. Be sure to choose flowers for all seasons. Check the All American Selections noted as good cut flowers.
Annuals for cut flowers are often referred to as cut-and-come-again because they will re-bloom if cut during the growing season. They provide many flowers over a long time at a low cost, but annuals must be replanted yearly.
Perennials have a higher initial cost than annuals, but they usually increase in plant size and number of blooms each year. Compared to annuals, they usually have a shorter bloom time, but with careful selection you can choose perennials with long, blooming periods.
The following website is from Virginia and gives more information than most homeowners would need but is a good reference to specific recommendations. VCE Web Publication 426-619W, "Field Production of Cut Flowers: Potential Crops."
Come visit our Legacy Demonstration Garden located at the Guilford County Ag. Center, 3309 Burlington Road in Greensboro. This garden was created and is maintained by Extension Master Gardener Volunteers as an outdoor educational Classroom. Our Featured PLANT OF THE MONTH, for May 2006 is Syringa patula ‘Miss Kim’. This plant is also known as the Manchurian lilac. This plant is located at the front corner of the Legacy Garden. Manchurian lilac is a 6-8 foot tall deciduous shrub that grows best in full sun to partial shade in our Piedmont gardens and produces panicles of fragrant, lavender blooms in May. The foliage turns red-purple in the fall, providing multi-season interest.
Here is another mulch alert I thought I should make you aware of, it is a Cocoa bean by-product. I do know that this Cocoa bean by-product is being sold in Guilford County, so if you own dogs this may be one to stay away from. For more information go to: http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_publicationscocoa
Pests
The wool sower gall is a distinct and unusual plant growth induced by the secretions of the grubs of a tiny gall wasp, Callirhytis seminator. If a fresh wool sower gall is held in a plastic bag out of the sun (so it will not get too hot), within one to three weeks the tiny, harmless gall wasps will emerge. The wool sower gall is specific to white oak and only occurs in the spring. Pulling the gall apart exposes small seed-like structures. The gall wasp grubs develop inside these structures. (This gall is also called the oak seed gall.) Fortunately, wool sower galls are hardly ever abundant enough to cause harm to white oaks. If the galls are actually damaging the trees, the best time to control them is mid-winter when the wasps are laying their eggs or spring just as the buds are breaking. The eggs hatch just as the new growth emerges in spring. Gall wasps invariably have alternation of generations in which one generation develops in one kind of gall (leaf gall) and their offspring develop in another kind of gall (stem gall). Wasps of each alternate generation are slightly different is size and the galls of each generation are enormously different from the parents. The wool sower gall is probably the leaf gall of this species because of its transient nature. Many other galls are forming now.
Leaf Gall
Exobasidium leaf gall (caused by the fungus Exobasidum vaccinii) is very common and widespread in the early spring on new leaves as plants leaf out. The leaves become thickened, curled, fleshy and pale green to white. In the latter stages of the disease, the leaves are covered with a white powdery substance. If left on the shrub the affected leaves eventually turn brown. The disease is more alarming than damaging. Even highly susceptible cultivars are not seriously damaged. If you only have a few plants, control the disease by hand picking and destroying diseased leaves as soon as the swelling starts (April or early May in North Carolina). Leaf gall seldom causes enough damage to justify spraying a fungicide. This fungus also attacks rhododendrons and a related fungus causes leaf gall of Camellia sasanqua, the fall blooming camellia, as new leaves develop in the spring.
Scale insects in the genus Pulvinaria are reported to be currently depositing their ovisacs. The cottony maple leaf scale insect and the cottony camellia scale insect, are the two most common cottony scale insects in North Carolina. I was pruning leaf gall off my camellia and just happened to look at the underside of the leaf, revealing the cottony camellia scale. The cottony maple leaf scale (see insect note at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/O&T/trees/note37/note37.html) sometimes infests holly and maple, but it seems to be most common on dogwoods in North Carolina. The cottony camellia scale infests camellia and taxus. These latter two scales are in the genus Pulvinaria. Trees heavily infested with Pulvinaria scales may exhibit dieback. The month of June is a good time to spray insecticide for Pulvinaria scales as the lady beetles that specialize on feeding within the egg sacs of the scales will have then departed, and the crawlers and young scales are exposed on the leaves. Horticultural oil and Sevin are effective. The horticultural oil is a better choice since it is less likely to harm the beneficial insects. So the important thing to remember about Pulvinaria scales is that now is not a good time to treat for them because spraying kills lady beetles but not all of the eggs. Wait until late June to early July to treat.
Carpenter Bees
I've been out on the porches and decks this week-end and observed these large black and yellow bees buzzing around the siding and rafters. They resemble "bumblebees" and use strong mandibles to excavate tunnels about 1/2 inch in diameter, usually on the lower side of a board.
Males emerge from tunnels where they have spent the winter and begin to carouse about looking for the girls who usually show up later. The females begin to excavate the nesting sites (isn't that the way?) boring in about 1/2 inch or so, then turning 90 degrees to follow the grain of the wood. Sometimes several of the girls work together with a single entrance but separate quarters inside. Inside her own tunnel the female deposits a pollen ball and an egg. She seals this chamber with chewed wood and repeats the process several times.
The adults soon die and a new generation will hatch out later in the summer. They seldom create new tunnels but may clean out an old one to provide a nice place to spend the winter months while you bring in firewood.
I doubt that you can get rid of carpenter bees. They are simply one of the critters with whom we share this world. They are annoying, but we learn to live with annoyances and to minimize how annoying it is.
Entomologists with whom I have discussed this insect suggest that a tennis racket is the most effective control strategy, and they seem to be serious. They also suggest that treating the wooden surfaces with insecticide is of limited effectiveness for multiple reasons: 1) They are effective for only a short period even when reapplied every few weeks. 2) the bees don't actually eat the wood so they actually are exposed to only a sub-lethal dose. 3) any exposed wood may be subject to boring by carpenter bees, and there is usually a lot of surface that is not accessible with reasonable application strategies. (I don't include power washing your home with an insecticide among reasonable application strategies.) 4) trying to spray a moving bee in the air is probably neither wise nor safe. I can see you backing off the steps while spraying your mother-in-law with the insecticide. The tennis racket is probably more effective, but do watch where you lunge. I've gone in a circle now.
Treating individual holes with an insecticide spray or dust may reduce future activity but is not guaranteed. Be sure to stand upwind and be aware that a spray may ricochet back in your face. These treatments tend to be more effective if the individual hole is sealed afterward. And of course, accessibility to individual holes is no easier than spraying the whole house. I'm back to thinking tennis racket again.
The good news is that carpenter bees seldom create serious structural damage unless they are allowed to drill many tunnels over a period of years. And that argues for treating individual holes.
Karen Neill
Urban Horticulture Agent
NC Cooperative Extension
Guilford County Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC 27405
Phone: 336-375-5876
Fax: 336-375-2295
http://www.guilfordgardenanswers.org
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Me Too
OK, I’ll join the chorus. I’ve been into American Idol this year more than any year so far. Actually, I said to myself “no more” two years ago when Fantasia and LaToya were in the bottom two, and LaToya got the boot. What’s the point, I thought – there are too many 13 year olds who like nothing better than play speed dial for two hours. I won’t invest myself in this anymore. No mas!
I really don’t care that Chris is from here. From the beginning, to me, he has been in a class apart. he has a special voice quality (as did Fantasia) that just does not come around every day. I fully expected it to come down to Chris and….well, Katherine was my guess.
I was stunned last night. Stunned. My daughter cried. I woud have but I was too mad. I kept thinking, “people must have just assumed he was safe.” Otherwise I have no rational explanation for this.
I bet the AI ratings will actually fall the next few weeks. With Chris gone the competition is less interesting.
I’m going to pull for Taylor, but I’d put my money on Catherine.
As for me, now I can miss AI without guilt.
I hope Chris cuts a great a CD anyway. I'll buy it. Outside of the AI umbrella it may end up being better music anyway.
Joel
I really don’t care that Chris is from here. From the beginning, to me, he has been in a class apart. he has a special voice quality (as did Fantasia) that just does not come around every day. I fully expected it to come down to Chris and….well, Katherine was my guess.
I was stunned last night. Stunned. My daughter cried. I woud have but I was too mad. I kept thinking, “people must have just assumed he was safe.” Otherwise I have no rational explanation for this.
I bet the AI ratings will actually fall the next few weeks. With Chris gone the competition is less interesting.
I’m going to pull for Taylor, but I’d put my money on Catherine.
As for me, now I can miss AI without guilt.
I hope Chris cuts a great a CD anyway. I'll buy it. Outside of the AI umbrella it may end up being better music anyway.
Joel
American Aquarium Now on CD Baby
The band in which my daughter Shannon plays bass, American Aquarium, recently has had their CD "Antique Hearts" made available by CD Baby. Click here to hear the songs from Antique Hearts, read reviews, and find out how to buy the CD. It’s just $10.00. The music is good, and you’re helping put a kid through college!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
A White, White Tailed Deer - No Kidding
Chewie,
Yes, I LOVED the story. It was worth the wait!
I just hope I can see him/her some day myself.
Joel
Yes, I LOVED the story. It was worth the wait!
I just hope I can see him/her some day myself.
Joel
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Scanner Project
Hey, I have a question for you computer/peripheral wizards out there, and if you need to, feel free to send this to anyone who you think may have insight...
I have three huge scanning projects waiting, and I have been FROZEN as to what approach to take.
1) I have a lot of plain office stuff to scan – an office paperwork digitizing process. Flatbed needed with very good OCR software - I'll buy the OCR separately so I don't have to depend on the bundled software.
2) I have a zillion old to very very old photographs to scan for the extended family. Some of these I will scan as TIF or other big files as masters and in order for some extended family members to print them. Most of them I plan to scan as TIFs for masters and then convert to jpegs for web stuff and e-mailing to extended family and old friends. The better pictures will go on my web page www.joelgillespie.com or MSN blog, http://spaces.msn.com/joelblog/.
I need a good flatbed scanner with very good tools for dealing with old pictures - by tools I mean hardware based tools like Digital Ice or the equivalent for print scans. My wife and kids use 35mm point and shoot cameras and so included in this would be scans of 35mm prints of theirs -- family stuff for family purposes.
3. I have a thousand +or so old slides to scan from the days when I did a lot of decent photography. I want to get or borrow a dedicated slide scanner for that, or perhaps even use an external service.
So, first off, I am trying first to find a good flatbed that will handle the picture and document projects. I have no need for the film/slide add on features for that, but it seems hard to find a good flatbed without these features. That's what I think I want - a good flatbed for the photograph and document work, and then a separate scanner for the slides.
So, any thoughts on the flatbed in particular?
Joel Gillespie
I have three huge scanning projects waiting, and I have been FROZEN as to what approach to take.
1) I have a lot of plain office stuff to scan – an office paperwork digitizing process. Flatbed needed with very good OCR software - I'll buy the OCR separately so I don't have to depend on the bundled software.
2) I have a zillion old to very very old photographs to scan for the extended family. Some of these I will scan as TIF or other big files as masters and in order for some extended family members to print them. Most of them I plan to scan as TIFs for masters and then convert to jpegs for web stuff and e-mailing to extended family and old friends. The better pictures will go on my web page www.joelgillespie.com or MSN blog, http://spaces.msn.com/joelblog/.
I need a good flatbed scanner with very good tools for dealing with old pictures - by tools I mean hardware based tools like Digital Ice or the equivalent for print scans. My wife and kids use 35mm point and shoot cameras and so included in this would be scans of 35mm prints of theirs -- family stuff for family purposes.
3. I have a thousand +or so old slides to scan from the days when I did a lot of decent photography. I want to get or borrow a dedicated slide scanner for that, or perhaps even use an external service.
So, first off, I am trying first to find a good flatbed that will handle the picture and document projects. I have no need for the film/slide add on features for that, but it seems hard to find a good flatbed without these features. That's what I think I want - a good flatbed for the photograph and document work, and then a separate scanner for the slides.
So, any thoughts on the flatbed in particular?
Joel Gillespie
Monday, May 08, 2006
Butterflies of the Piedmont
Dorothy E. Pugh is an accomplished naturalist, writer and photographer who wrote this overview of Piedmont Butterlies for The Back Porch project. You can read more of Dorothy’s work and see her wonderful photographs at Field and Swamp.
There are a little over 80 documented species of butterflies in the North Carolina Piedmont region, about half the total number in the entire state of North Carolina. These species are contained in two superfamilies, the “true” butterflies (Papilionoidea) and the skippers (Hesperoidea). The members of the other 33 superfamilies comprising the Lepidoptera order are moths. Most or all of the moth superfamilies each contains only one family; the same holds for skippers. But one skipper family (Hesperiidae) is divided into five subfamilies, two of which are familiar to those of us in the Piedmont: the grass skippers (Hesperiinae) and the spread-winged skippers (Pyrginae). "True" butterflies tend to rest with their wings pressed together behind their backs; spread-wing skippers tend to rest with their wings mostly open. Grass skippers can move their forewings independently of their hind wings and, while trying to attract members of the sex, separate these wings so that both sides of their forewings and the dorsal (upper) sides of their wings are visible from some angle. All "true" butterflies and skippers have clubbed antennae, which moths do not, and are diurnal rather than nocturnal, a characteristic which they have in common with some moths.
So the long and short of it is that “true” butterfly species are much more closely related to one another than those of moths are to one another. In fact, moth species are generally no more closely related to one another than they are to any “true” butterfly species, as far as we know.
What may be more familiar information is that Papilionidea contains six families, with one (the Metalmarks) being relatively uncommon in North Carolina. The others are 1) the familiar Swallowtails, the largest butterflies, 2) the tiny Gossamer-winged Butterflies (also known as blues, azures, and hairstreaks), 3) the medium-sized Whites, Sulphurs and Yellows, and 4) the most varied and, in my humble opinion, the fanciest butterflies: the Brushfoots, so named because their front pair of feet are tiny. Most people in the Piedmont have made note of swallowtails, while most have probably completely overlooked the Gossamer-winged Butterflies.
Butterflies are perhaps the most-studied insects in America, at least by hobbyists, but not because of their environmental impact. There are many orders of insects that contain much more important (but rarely noticed) pollinators, such as the Flower Flies (family Syrphidae in the order Diptera) and solitary bees (several bee families including the Andrenidae within the Hymenoptera order). These high-powered pollinators are very small, often less than a quarter of an inch, but they are very numerous. Relatively few butterfly species (most notably the Cabbage White) are significant threats to crops; one butterfly species (the Harvester) has a carnivorous caterpillar that is too uncommon to have much of an impact.
Yet butterflies do play an important role in some aspects of environmental research. Caterpillars tend to be very choosy about the leaves of which plants they eat, perhaps the reason we often see butterflies frantically flying past numerous flowers over large distances, especially in the early spring. Because of this, butterflies serve as easily visible markers for different plant populations, including plants with major environmental significance. On the other hand, an important key to locating rare butterflies seems to be knowledge of where certain rare plants grow and when they flower.
Not all butterflies visit flowers, although they use a long, skinny tube called a proboscis to draw suck nutrients from a number of sources. Some butterflies that live mainly in the woods, the Nymphs and Satyrs, such as the Common Wood Nymph, the Northern Pearly Eye, the Gemmed Satyr and the very common but often overlooked Carolina Satyr depend largely on minerals taken from the soil and from animal feces. The Anglewings, such as the Question Marks and Eastern Commas also follow this pattern, but several Question Marks did visit my butterfly bush one summer, so they apparently keep an open mind! Butterflies of many species, most notably tiger swallowtails, engage in “puddling,” an activity in which butterflies gather at a shallow body of water to satisfy their thirst.
The members of most butterfly species apparently migrate north from the Deep South in the spring and return in the fall, laying eggs on the way. Their offspring also participate in the migration, sometimes that year, and sometimes reproduce that year. If such butterflies produce grandchildren in the same year, we say their species produces three broods. If they produce children but not grandchildren, then there are just two broods. This produces some interesting patterns of sightings, with butterfly counts following a predictable pattern of waxing and waning in a particular place within a year. The Piedmont is in the middle of the migration path, so we see three surges in the populations of some butterfly species during the warmer part of the year.
Some butterflies that we see in North Carolina are members of species that are tolerant of cold and don’t have to go all the way to the Deep South to survive; although they migrate to find food, these migrations don’t follow the easily defined patterns of less cold-tolerant butterflies because they originate in so many different places. Two Brushfoot species, the Question Marks and Mourning Cloaks, are the most obvious examples in the Piedmont, sometimes popping up during warm spells in February or even earlier if they are disturbed. They overwinter, remaining under dead leaves in a state of diapause, a state in which their metabolic rate greatly slows and they don’t need to eat. It’s somewhat like hibernation in bears.
Monarchs are the best-known migrating butterflies. They stand out because their eastern migration path, between Mexico and New England, is unusually narrow. There is a place on the Appalachian Trail where countless Monarchs have been sighted at a fairly predictable time every year. Although a very large number of Monarchs make it all the way to Mexico every year, some (although apparently very few) spend the winter somewhere in North Carolina. Most of us in the Piedmont can see a large number of Monarchs during a relatively small period of time in the fall of every year. In contrast, the smaller Viceroy, a Monarch mimicker, sticks around the Piedmont during the summer and has dark bands across its hind wings. The Viceroy is a member of a different sub-family than the Monarch is.
Sleepy Oranges deserve a special mention because of their unusual wing-coloring patterns. Depending on the time of year or possibly climatic conditions when an adult emerges, its hind wings can range (surprisingly gradually) from being bright yellow with a big dark brown dash in the middle to being all light brown. I’ve noted deviations from the usual pattern after major hurricanes, when summer-form Sleepy Oranges show up in early fall. There’s also an orange middle stage in which the dash looks more like a dimple. So if you keep track of the Sleepy Orange wing patterns for each time of year in your region, you might be able to tell the age of an individual Sleepy Orange without tagging it. There hasn’t been any research in this area, but I think there ought to be. They usually overwinter farther south, but sometimes in the spring you can see a “winter-form” Sleepy Orange with torn-up brown hind wings that may have spent the winter up here.
Butterflies don’t have a particular life-span the way we do. Although they spend a fairly consistent period of time, generally several weeks, as caterpillars and chrysalises, as adults they generally live until they mate, lay eggs, or are killed by predators or accidents. Monarch adults often live several months, during which they migrate hundreds of miles. At the other extreme are summer butterflies which mate immediately; I seem to remember one story about a male butterfly that waited for a female to hatch out of a chrysalis and then mated with her. Males die soon after mating, while females continue on for some time to lay eggs. In Durham County, over a short period last October, I noted many female Eastern Tailed Blues but no males.
There are basically two ways of getting to know butterflies. One is traveling around to a variety of habitats. Some of the more obvious ones in our state are state and national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, natural areas, nature preserves, nature reserves, and public gardens. But rare butterflies are more often located in places very few people go to, often private property. Deciduous forests, meadows, pine barrens, and wetlands share many species of common butterflies but rare butterflies are usually found in only one type of habitat, typically at one kind of plant.
The other way to get to know butterflies is to put together a butterfly garden, which is the best way to observe the entire butterfly life cycle in this region dominated by tall trees. Butterfly bushes attract a lot of butterflies, but they don’t start blooming until June. Lantanas, which are tropical plants that don’t make it through the winter, are also very popular. Butterfly milkweed is attractive to the smaller butterflies, such as Hairstreaks. Parsley draws swallowtails. But this is just scratching the surface. Some common-sense rules: pick flowers that bloom at different times of the year and make sure their flowers have a variety of sizes and shapes. It’s easy to find butterfly books that tell you what the larval food plants of the different butterfly species are. Figuring out what size and shape of flower and plant a particular butterfly species can get nectar from (while finding a place to stand) takes a little more work, though, but is worth it because some butterflies visit many different types of flowers.
I wish I could say more about butterfly behavior, but (as is decidedly not the case with birds), this gets very little formal study. Most of it seems very straightforward and mainly motivated by hunger, fear and reproductive drives, but every now and then you see something puzzling. Recently on a stroll on a park, I saw a Carolina Satyr attacking a Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle; the butterfly kept diving at it, knocking it around very aggressively, while the poor beetle looked increasingly confused and helpless. What was Rudyard Kipling really thinking about when he wrote the “The Butterfly that Stamped” in his Just So Stories?
© 2006 Dorothy E. Pugh
Again, you can read more of Dorothy’s work and see her wonderful photographs at Field and Swamp.
There are a little over 80 documented species of butterflies in the North Carolina Piedmont region, about half the total number in the entire state of North Carolina. These species are contained in two superfamilies, the “true” butterflies (Papilionoidea) and the skippers (Hesperoidea). The members of the other 33 superfamilies comprising the Lepidoptera order are moths. Most or all of the moth superfamilies each contains only one family; the same holds for skippers. But one skipper family (Hesperiidae) is divided into five subfamilies, two of which are familiar to those of us in the Piedmont: the grass skippers (Hesperiinae) and the spread-winged skippers (Pyrginae). "True" butterflies tend to rest with their wings pressed together behind their backs; spread-wing skippers tend to rest with their wings mostly open. Grass skippers can move their forewings independently of their hind wings and, while trying to attract members of the sex, separate these wings so that both sides of their forewings and the dorsal (upper) sides of their wings are visible from some angle. All "true" butterflies and skippers have clubbed antennae, which moths do not, and are diurnal rather than nocturnal, a characteristic which they have in common with some moths.
So the long and short of it is that “true” butterfly species are much more closely related to one another than those of moths are to one another. In fact, moth species are generally no more closely related to one another than they are to any “true” butterfly species, as far as we know.
What may be more familiar information is that Papilionidea contains six families, with one (the Metalmarks) being relatively uncommon in North Carolina. The others are 1) the familiar Swallowtails, the largest butterflies, 2) the tiny Gossamer-winged Butterflies (also known as blues, azures, and hairstreaks), 3) the medium-sized Whites, Sulphurs and Yellows, and 4) the most varied and, in my humble opinion, the fanciest butterflies: the Brushfoots, so named because their front pair of feet are tiny. Most people in the Piedmont have made note of swallowtails, while most have probably completely overlooked the Gossamer-winged Butterflies.
Butterflies are perhaps the most-studied insects in America, at least by hobbyists, but not because of their environmental impact. There are many orders of insects that contain much more important (but rarely noticed) pollinators, such as the Flower Flies (family Syrphidae in the order Diptera) and solitary bees (several bee families including the Andrenidae within the Hymenoptera order). These high-powered pollinators are very small, often less than a quarter of an inch, but they are very numerous. Relatively few butterfly species (most notably the Cabbage White) are significant threats to crops; one butterfly species (the Harvester) has a carnivorous caterpillar that is too uncommon to have much of an impact.
Yet butterflies do play an important role in some aspects of environmental research. Caterpillars tend to be very choosy about the leaves of which plants they eat, perhaps the reason we often see butterflies frantically flying past numerous flowers over large distances, especially in the early spring. Because of this, butterflies serve as easily visible markers for different plant populations, including plants with major environmental significance. On the other hand, an important key to locating rare butterflies seems to be knowledge of where certain rare plants grow and when they flower.
Not all butterflies visit flowers, although they use a long, skinny tube called a proboscis to draw suck nutrients from a number of sources. Some butterflies that live mainly in the woods, the Nymphs and Satyrs, such as the Common Wood Nymph, the Northern Pearly Eye, the Gemmed Satyr and the very common but often overlooked Carolina Satyr depend largely on minerals taken from the soil and from animal feces. The Anglewings, such as the Question Marks and Eastern Commas also follow this pattern, but several Question Marks did visit my butterfly bush one summer, so they apparently keep an open mind! Butterflies of many species, most notably tiger swallowtails, engage in “puddling,” an activity in which butterflies gather at a shallow body of water to satisfy their thirst.
The members of most butterfly species apparently migrate north from the Deep South in the spring and return in the fall, laying eggs on the way. Their offspring also participate in the migration, sometimes that year, and sometimes reproduce that year. If such butterflies produce grandchildren in the same year, we say their species produces three broods. If they produce children but not grandchildren, then there are just two broods. This produces some interesting patterns of sightings, with butterfly counts following a predictable pattern of waxing and waning in a particular place within a year. The Piedmont is in the middle of the migration path, so we see three surges in the populations of some butterfly species during the warmer part of the year.
Some butterflies that we see in North Carolina are members of species that are tolerant of cold and don’t have to go all the way to the Deep South to survive; although they migrate to find food, these migrations don’t follow the easily defined patterns of less cold-tolerant butterflies because they originate in so many different places. Two Brushfoot species, the Question Marks and Mourning Cloaks, are the most obvious examples in the Piedmont, sometimes popping up during warm spells in February or even earlier if they are disturbed. They overwinter, remaining under dead leaves in a state of diapause, a state in which their metabolic rate greatly slows and they don’t need to eat. It’s somewhat like hibernation in bears.
Monarchs are the best-known migrating butterflies. They stand out because their eastern migration path, between Mexico and New England, is unusually narrow. There is a place on the Appalachian Trail where countless Monarchs have been sighted at a fairly predictable time every year. Although a very large number of Monarchs make it all the way to Mexico every year, some (although apparently very few) spend the winter somewhere in North Carolina. Most of us in the Piedmont can see a large number of Monarchs during a relatively small period of time in the fall of every year. In contrast, the smaller Viceroy, a Monarch mimicker, sticks around the Piedmont during the summer and has dark bands across its hind wings. The Viceroy is a member of a different sub-family than the Monarch is.
Sleepy Oranges deserve a special mention because of their unusual wing-coloring patterns. Depending on the time of year or possibly climatic conditions when an adult emerges, its hind wings can range (surprisingly gradually) from being bright yellow with a big dark brown dash in the middle to being all light brown. I’ve noted deviations from the usual pattern after major hurricanes, when summer-form Sleepy Oranges show up in early fall. There’s also an orange middle stage in which the dash looks more like a dimple. So if you keep track of the Sleepy Orange wing patterns for each time of year in your region, you might be able to tell the age of an individual Sleepy Orange without tagging it. There hasn’t been any research in this area, but I think there ought to be. They usually overwinter farther south, but sometimes in the spring you can see a “winter-form” Sleepy Orange with torn-up brown hind wings that may have spent the winter up here.
Butterflies don’t have a particular life-span the way we do. Although they spend a fairly consistent period of time, generally several weeks, as caterpillars and chrysalises, as adults they generally live until they mate, lay eggs, or are killed by predators or accidents. Monarch adults often live several months, during which they migrate hundreds of miles. At the other extreme are summer butterflies which mate immediately; I seem to remember one story about a male butterfly that waited for a female to hatch out of a chrysalis and then mated with her. Males die soon after mating, while females continue on for some time to lay eggs. In Durham County, over a short period last October, I noted many female Eastern Tailed Blues but no males.
There are basically two ways of getting to know butterflies. One is traveling around to a variety of habitats. Some of the more obvious ones in our state are state and national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, natural areas, nature preserves, nature reserves, and public gardens. But rare butterflies are more often located in places very few people go to, often private property. Deciduous forests, meadows, pine barrens, and wetlands share many species of common butterflies but rare butterflies are usually found in only one type of habitat, typically at one kind of plant.
The other way to get to know butterflies is to put together a butterfly garden, which is the best way to observe the entire butterfly life cycle in this region dominated by tall trees. Butterfly bushes attract a lot of butterflies, but they don’t start blooming until June. Lantanas, which are tropical plants that don’t make it through the winter, are also very popular. Butterfly milkweed is attractive to the smaller butterflies, such as Hairstreaks. Parsley draws swallowtails. But this is just scratching the surface. Some common-sense rules: pick flowers that bloom at different times of the year and make sure their flowers have a variety of sizes and shapes. It’s easy to find butterfly books that tell you what the larval food plants of the different butterfly species are. Figuring out what size and shape of flower and plant a particular butterfly species can get nectar from (while finding a place to stand) takes a little more work, though, but is worth it because some butterflies visit many different types of flowers.
I wish I could say more about butterfly behavior, but (as is decidedly not the case with birds), this gets very little formal study. Most of it seems very straightforward and mainly motivated by hunger, fear and reproductive drives, but every now and then you see something puzzling. Recently on a stroll on a park, I saw a Carolina Satyr attacking a Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle; the butterfly kept diving at it, knocking it around very aggressively, while the poor beetle looked increasingly confused and helpless. What was Rudyard Kipling really thinking about when he wrote the “The Butterfly that Stamped” in his Just So Stories?
© 2006 Dorothy E. Pugh
Again, you can read more of Dorothy’s work and see her wonderful photographs at Field and Swamp.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Ode on Spring - Thomas Gray
While he is not Hopkins (who is?), I’ve always loved Thomas Gray’s poems. As the week winds down, along with my blog work, I thought I’d leave you with another reflection on this beautiful season.
Joel
Ode on Spring - Thomas Gray
Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours, fair Venus' train appear,
Disclose the long-expecting flowers, and wake the purple year!
The Attic warbler pours her throat,
Responsive to the cuckoo's note, the untaught harmony of Spring;
While whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
Cool zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky their gathered fragrance fling.
Where'er the oaks thick branches stretch a broader browner shade,
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech o'er-canopies the glade,
Beside some water's rushy brink
With me the Muse shall sit, and think (at ease reclined in rustic state)
How vain the ardour of the Crowd,
How low, how little are the Proud, how indigent the Great!
Still is the toiling hand of Care; the pantin herds repose;
Yet hark, how thro' the peopled air the busy murmur glows!
The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honeyed spring, and float amid the liquid noon;
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some show their gaily-gilded trim quick-glancing to the sun.
To Contemplation's sober eye such is the race of Man;
And they that creep, and they that fly, shall end where they began.
Alike the Busy and the Gay
But flutter thro' life's little day, in fortune's varying colours drest;
Brushed by the hand of rough Mischance,
Or chilled by age, their airy dance they leave, in dust to rest.
Methinks I hear in accents low the sportive kind reply:
Poor moralist! and what art thou? A solitary fly!
Thy joys no glittering female meets,
No hive hast thou on hoarded sweets, no painted plumage to display;
On hasty wings thy youth is flown;
Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone - we frolic, while 'tis May.
Joel
Ode on Spring - Thomas Gray
Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours, fair Venus' train appear,
Disclose the long-expecting flowers, and wake the purple year!
The Attic warbler pours her throat,
Responsive to the cuckoo's note, the untaught harmony of Spring;
While whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
Cool zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky their gathered fragrance fling.
Where'er the oaks thick branches stretch a broader browner shade,
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech o'er-canopies the glade,
Beside some water's rushy brink
With me the Muse shall sit, and think (at ease reclined in rustic state)
How vain the ardour of the Crowd,
How low, how little are the Proud, how indigent the Great!
Still is the toiling hand of Care; the pantin herds repose;
Yet hark, how thro' the peopled air the busy murmur glows!
The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honeyed spring, and float amid the liquid noon;
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some show their gaily-gilded trim quick-glancing to the sun.
To Contemplation's sober eye such is the race of Man;
And they that creep, and they that fly, shall end where they began.
Alike the Busy and the Gay
But flutter thro' life's little day, in fortune's varying colours drest;
Brushed by the hand of rough Mischance,
Or chilled by age, their airy dance they leave, in dust to rest.
Methinks I hear in accents low the sportive kind reply:
Poor moralist! and what art thou? A solitary fly!
Thy joys no glittering female meets,
No hive hast thou on hoarded sweets, no painted plumage to display;
On hasty wings thy youth is flown;
Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone - we frolic, while 'tis May.
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