Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Moose, you're right. I discovered the mistake early this afternoon, prompted in part by your previous question. Then, while working the turn and checking my two carriers, I found that they were shy about 35-40 SBDs and SBCs. That set bells to ringing, so I checked the combat report again. The strike was indeed listed, but I thought it was a strike by Malaya LBA against shipping near Victoria Point (the fact that the bombers had no escort, and the fact that I didn't recognize the place name, through me off the scent. I was reading fast, looking for an escorted carrier raid). So my carriers did react; the dive bombers did fly unescorted (whether against John's AO TF or his carriers, I don't know); and I did lose a bunch of dive bombers. I'm not sure why the escorts didn't fly. John got pretty lucky, I guess. I had a decisive detection advantage and almost got in a strike against his carriers without a counterstrike against mine.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel


Yesterday, the leaves were barely changing color. Today they got serious. Most of the color here is southern dogwood, which takes a wine-colored hue.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Days of wine and roses and a hint of mint.

Red maple leaves provide the "wine and rose" colors.

Southern red oak leaves provide the mint color.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

This is the Pinhoti Trail, near it's Pocket Road trailhead, about 20 miles north of my house. My hike covered three miles to the crest of Horn Mountain. It was spitting rain and quite cold. But beautiful.

Yesterday, the leaves were barely changing color. Today they got serious. Most of the color here is southern dogwood, which takes a wine-colored hue.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Trees are "right in my wheelhouse" (using a baseball term). I have a degree in forestry. Here's some information along the lines of what you guys posted. This comes from ol' memory, not Google:

The sprout trees with the green leaves are southern red oak (Quercus falcata). Juvenile leaves are notoriously difficult to identify in the oak species. They can be a-characteristically oversized or misshapen compared to the adult leaves. But this one is very distinctive. The base of the leaf is the real giveaway. Notice how it's almost bell-shaped? And the tips are actually fairly pointed rather than distinctly rounded, as you'd find with a white oak. Juvenile white oaks leaves are generally pretty characteristic of the adult leaves. But this is a pretty easy call - these leaves are almost identical to mature southern red oak leaves.

American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was nearly wiped out by chestnut blight, beginning in 1904 in New York City and spreading south through the 1940s. The tree survives, but mostly by sprouting from old root stock. Usually, the sprouts are killed before they reach nut-bearing size, though occasionally the trees are able to reproduce. Spanish chestnut and Chinese chestnut are resistant to the blight and have been widely planted in the USA. They are inferior trees, in terms of size and quality of wood and nut. You probably are enjoying one of those species. The American Chestnut Society and various educational and research groups have been crossbreeding American chestnut with the resistant varieties for forty years or longer. They now have hybrids that are something like 15/16th American (going from very old memory there) that have the desired resistance to survive in the wild. These hybrids are far superior to the non-native species and close to the original species. I think they are available for sale. There is an acre-sized plot at our local Berry College with young trees perhaps 20 years old. The American Chestnut Society is located somewhere in southwestern Virginia (Roanoke or Blacksburg?).

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits only taste better after frost or temperature drop purely by coincidence. The ones I enjoy in August and September taste just as good as the ones I eat in October and November. The wood of persimmon is very hard, very dense, shock resistant, dark and beautiful. It was used for the old "wood" heads on golf clubs.

Southern dogwood (Cornus florida) was hit hard by dogwood anthracnose beginning around the 1990s. The disease (I don't know if it's a fungus or something else) seemed to arrive here but then disappear. As best I can tell, the southern dogwood population in northwest Georgia is as high as ever. The wood of dogwood is very hard and dense. In fact it's the second densest wood in North America, trailing only live oak (which Old Ironsides was made of, largely). Dogwoods don't get big enough to provide lumber, but the dense wood was used for specialty items, especially the old loom shuttles in textile mills. Also, children's toys.

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is a member of the legume family. The pretty lavender flowers are edible and taste distinctly like raw peanuts. Redbuds are small trees. Legend is that Judas Iscariot hung himself from a redbud (I think a European or Asian member of the redbud family), thus dooming the tree to it's short status.

Edited to correct typo (I couldn't let "dentate" remain uncorrected).

quote:

American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was nearly wiped out by chestnut blight, beginning in 1904 in New York City and spreading south through the 1940s. The tree survives, but mostly by sprouting from old root stock. Usually, the sprouts are killed before they reach nut-bearing size, though occasionally the trees are able to reproduce. Spanish chestnut and Chinese chestnut are resistant to the blight and have been widely planted in the USA. They are inferior trees, in terms of size and quality of wood and nut. You probably are enjoying one of those species. The American Chestnut Society and various educational and research groups have been crossbreeding American chestnut with the resistant varieties for forty years or longer. They now have hybrids that are something like 15/16th American (going from very old memory there) that have the desired resistance to survive in the wild. These hybrids are far superior to the non-native species and close to the original species. I think they are available for sale. There is an acre-sized plot at our local Berry College with young trees perhaps 20 years old. The American Chestnut Society is located somewhere in southwestern Virginia (Roanoke or Blacksburg?).

quote:

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) fruits only taste better after frost or temperature drop purely by coincidence.

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton






I have massive red and white oak trees in my yard but all of the dogwoods have died over the past 25 years as a result of that fungus. It has been sad to see. Dogwoods were the jewel of the Washington area but I would say that 90% of them are gone now. Both in the burbs and in the wild. The only real survivors are those that get enough full sun to stave off the fungus. It will never be the same. They have been replaced by redbuds which are lovely but not as striking as dogwoods.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lecivius

As for fighter escorts, I have found various branches do not support one another. In other words, Marine fighters won't escort Navy Bombers, the Army won't support the Navy, the British won't support the Americans, and everyone ignores the Australians. It's not right, but I suppose there is some realism there.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

The victory points aspect of the game is well thought out and adds an immense level of excitement and challenge in 1944 and 1945. Many of you have commented on this before. I recall specifically that Bullwinkle and Alfred have emphasized this in many posts.

This game is a good example of the point. John's been back on his heels for a long, long time. But the VP angle makes the game taut and challenging here in 1945. The Allies are going to win the war militarily and I think I'm going to win the game, but John can still fight hard, come up with novel or fun ways to stave off defeat, and the contest is just as exciting to me now as it was in 1942.

That's a testament to the quality of the game - the quality of the work done by the designers.

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Back on the subject of trees. I am a realtor and love to show older homes in the DC area that have . It is worth stripping the paint off to show it off if you have it.

As for the red oaks and white oaks in our area, we are having serious issues with them. There is red oak decline which is causing many older trees to slowly die but more significant is that the exploding deer population is severely altering our old growth forest. The deer eat all of the young oak seedlings and they are not able to replace themselves. There is a looming disaster coming as a result and our politicians have no clue or don't care. A walk in the woods these days shows that beech trees are ascendant and the undergrowth trees seem to be all holly. The only good news is there is plenty of oak firewood around these days.

quote:


Chestnut trim on the interior

quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Back on the subject of trees. I am a realtor and love to show older homes in the DC area that have . It is worth stripping the paint off to show it off if you have it.

As for the red oaks and white oaks in our area, we are having serious issues with them. There is red oak decline which is causing many older trees to slowly die but more significant is that the exploding deer population is severely altering our old growth forest. The deer eat all of the young oak seedlings and they are not able to replace themselves. There is a looming disaster coming as a result and our politicians have no clue or don't care. A walk in the woods these days shows that beech trees are ascendant and the undergrowth trees seem to be all holly. The only good news is there is plenty of oak firewood around these days.

It's nice looking wood - Chestnut, especially if stained in a way that brings out it's natural color. Not modern toxic stains, but using "Old School" like a mixture of Linseed oil and beeswax which is nontoxic.

quote:


Chestnut trim on the interior

Can you tell if it's done by hand? I make molding using hand planes.