The takeaway from all this, I guess, is that in the second-growth Eastern US forests, there are vanishingly few *mammals* that will hurt you, but plenty of plants that will make your life hell.

Also ticks and mosquitos.

Yiiiiikes.

Personally I like it even better the way you originally wrote it.

Oh God, stinging nettles. No thank!

A weeding volunteer in our local pocket forest accidentally grabbed one of these (a big one) to pull it out. She was in real pain, very quickly. We had to ID the plant and diagnose it as fast as we could - sent her running to the nearest barnyard sink. Ugh.

And nowadays, it's the overpopulation of deer that keep a lot of forests clear of underbrush. Which is a real problem for forest ecology. There aren't enough deer predators, which means there aren't many human predators either.

(Except poison ivy. I'm terrified of that stuff. Weeks of misery.)

The spruce forests of the mountainous Northeast US - moose habitat - are as thick and dense as you describe. Impossible to run through! Lots of hiding places for predators.

But the friendly lowland forests? Many are clear enough to run around easily. Indigenous ppls kept underbrush clear w/ fire.

100%. Nothing beats looking down on the earth from that height.

The typographical sins committed here are giving me a headache. JFC

Which video? Would love to see it!

Just did the same, with three new white pine trees I just planted.

Pretty sure I have almost identical photos of my grey... hold on...

Yep.

Double yellowhead Amazon! 💚 Yours, I take it?

That's skimboarding, no?

(Not trying to erase slip'n'slides, which are their own category of fun)

Not to mention the air traffic controllers.

Last Friday the NYC metro area was down to 20% of their ATCs actually working shifts. Don't see it getting much better as we approach Thanksgiving.

Love to see high participation! And thanks for doing the poll work.

Chicken Creole:
2-3 lb chicken pieces - brown in heavy pot
3 28oz cans diced tomato - add to pot
Add salt, pepper, thyme, bay, etc
Dice onion, celery, sweet pepper, garlic - saute in separate pan, squirt ketchup (!) on it, stir, cook ~2min more
Scrape veggies into pot, cook ~30 min
Serve over rice

1 lb dry beans
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 Tbsp garlic
Cumin, oregano, chili powder (or whatever spices)
5-6 c water

Cook in Instant Pot on high pressure for 33 min (small beans) to 36 (giant beans). Allow natural release, waiting as long as an hour. Mix in a little lime juice and as much salt as it needs.

Food sourcing tip: some supermarkets, e.g. the Market Basket chain in Boston, will package and sell scraps of fish and meat for much, MUCH less per pound than the pretty stuff. If all you're doing is making a fish stew or stir-fry, salmon or haddock bits are perfectly good!

Man, I would love to replace almonds with pecans in almost every use case!* But the prices are eye-watering. I get them from local producers when I travel down south, but it's still expensive.

*except, as you point out, nut milks. Trying to move off almond and towards coconut and oat milks instead