Pop trees - Two Far 2018 - Trailing through the Rust Belt - CycleBlaze

Pop trees

Today started out rainy, as forecast, and unexpectedly turned into a nice day.

One minute it was cloudy.
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Seconds later the sky was blue.
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Smukers provided fixins to celebrate the change in weather.
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Everyone has heard of popcorn. Today we encountered a lot of poptrees on the Holmes county trail. These trees drop dark berries on bike trails. When you run over these berries, they make a pleasing popping noise, similar to the noise kids enjoy when walking on bubble wrap.

After the berries make their pleasing popping noise, they stick to your tires. Then they stick to leaves, twigs and other debris on the trail, which quickly gets jammed under your fender. Pay no attention to the racket, in a few seconds the gunk gets ground up and disappears.

Pop berries.
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A pop tree.
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Pop tree leaves, in case someone wants to identify the actual species of tree.
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Bill ShaneyfeltMaybe chokecherry?

http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/single_weed.php?id=26
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6 years ago
Alain AbbateTo Bill ShaneyfeltThe choke cherry description sounds pretty close to what we saw, except that it says the trunk is 2 - 6 inches in diameter. I'm pretty sure some of the poptrees we saw had larger trunks. I'll try asking locals to identify the tree.
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6 years ago

We were riding in Amish country today. Traffic on the Holmes county trail is separated onto the two sides of the trail. The separation is not based on the direction if travel, it's bicycles vs. buggies.

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The trail is not without wildlife. We saw two kinds of bears.

Brown bear.
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Black bear.
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Bill ShaneyfeltFrom what I can find, it looks like maybe both bears are Virginia tiger moth caterpillars. Colors are extremely variable from nearly white to nearly solid black.

http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Caterpillars

https://bugguide.net/node/view/10244
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6 years ago

We saw a book-mobile. Amish kids don't go to public schools and may not have easy access to libraries located in town. The book-mobile makes books more accessible to that community.

Local artists painted the outside of the book-mobile.
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One of my favorite books.
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The inside is just as nice as the outside.
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Gerber's chickens are worth crowing about.
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Gerber also sells wood products. Why was I thinking they were in the baby food business?
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We encountered a Smith Slurry Store tank. It was next to a family farm with cattle, but not a huge commercial operation. We didn't see anyone around to ask about the tank. Maybe someone from the farm belt can explain how these work. Does it produce methane? Fertilizer? Is it just a load of BS waiting to be disposed of?

Slurry. What's it used for?
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Boris FayferManure agitation equipment
It’s estimated that cows, along with the process of milking, produce 20 gallons of manure and 10 gallons of water per cow per day. Add this up and consider the need for six months of storage plus extra storage for a 25-year, 24-hour storm event. When you multiply this across the herd, it’s easy to see where the need for larger lagoons comes in.
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6 years ago
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