Pick up know-how for tackling diseases, pests and weeds.
Farm bill, farm marketing, agribusiness webinars, & farm policy.
Find tactics for healthy livestock and sound forages.
Scheduling and methods of irrigation.
Explore our Extension locations around the state.
Commercial row crop production in Arkansas.
Agriculture weed management resources.
Use virtual and real tools to improve critical calculations for farms and ranches.
Learn to ID forages and more.
Explore our research locations around the state.
Get the latest research results from our county agents.
Our programs include aquaculture, diagnostics, and energy conservation.
Keep our food, fiber and fuel supplies safe from disaster.
Private, Commercial & Non-commercial training and education.
Specialty crops including turfgrass, vegetables, fruits, and ornamentals.
Find educational resources and get youth engaged in agriculture.
Gaining garden smarts and sharing skills.
Timely tips for the Arkansas home gardener.
Creating beauty in and around the home.
Maintenance calendar, and best practices.
Coaxing the best produce from asparagus to zucchini.
What’s wrong with my plants? The clinic can help.
Featured trees, vines, shrubs and flowers.
Ask our experts plant, animal, or insect questions.
Enjoying the sweet fruits of your labor.
Herbs, native plants, & reference desk QA.
Growing together from youth to maturity.
Crapemyrtles, hydrangeas, hort glossary, and weed ID databases.
Get beekeeping, honey production, and class information.
Grow a pollinator-friendly garden.
Schedule these timely events on your gardening calendar.
Equipping individuals to lead organizations, communities, and regions.
Guiding communities and regions toward vibrant and sustainable futures.
Guiding entrepreneurs from concept to profit.
Position your business to compete for government contracts.
Find trends, opportunities and impacts.
Providing unbiased information to enable educated votes on critical issues.
Increase your knowledge of public issues & get involved.
Research-based connection to government and policy issues.
Support Arkansas local food initiatives.
Read about our efforts.
Preparing for and recovering from disasters.
Licensing for forestry and wildlife professionals.
Preserving water quality and quantity.
Cleaner air for healthier living.
Firewood & bioenergy resources.
Managing a complex forest ecosystem.
Read about nature across Arkansas and the U.S.
Learn to manage wildlife on your land.
Soil quality and its use here in Arkansas.
Learn to ID unwanted plant and animal visitors.
Timely updates from our specialists.
Eating right and staying healthy.
Ensuring safe meals.
Take charge of your well-being.
Cooking with Arkansas foods.
Making the most of your money.
Making sound choices for families and ourselves.
Nurturing our future.
Get tips for food, fitness, finance, and more!
Understanding aging and its effects.
Giving back to the community.
Managing safely when disaster strikes.
Listen to our latest episode!
Pack Rats
Moving, and by necessity and desire, downsizing is stressful. After a month of stirring my stuff, I finally called in professional help. It has helped because it is far easier for someone else to stuff your mementos into a trash bag than do it yourself. Looking at the piles of stuff, one can’t help but think of packrats.
While there are eight packrat species native to North America, they should not be confused with the Norway rat that is the scourge of mankind wherever they occur. By contrast, packrats — or, as they are called in the eastern states, woodrats — are sleek, clean animals that live happily in wild places away from human habitation. But, if something sits empty and unused long enough near a woodland where these animals live, a bit of cross-species interaction can be expected.
The gray colored woodrat male is about the size of a small squirrel but with the characteristic slender tail and large, bright shiny eyes, well adapted for its nighttime prowls. Females are slightly smaller. They feed on seeds, berries, vegetation, young twigs and bark — about anything in their environment. Their nests — called middens — are most often seen in sheltered bluff overhangs, in and around abandoned buildings and in the crotches of trees.
The middens look like a random pile of sticks but in fact are intricately woven structures that will be added to over many generations. Like beaver lodges, they have rooms where winter food supplies are cached, living quarters and multiple escape routes. And they are often decorated with bright and shiny things.
Packrats get their name for their characteristic habit of trading up. If they are heading back to their nest with an acorn to add to the pile, they are easily distracted by some new, shiny thing. Dropping the acorn, they carry off the new treasure. To the packrat this is a fair exchange, but for the new bride who left her wedding ring overnight on a picnic table only to find an acorn in its place in the morning, it smacks as a one-sided bargain.
We humans are also attracted to bright and shiny things. And sometimes, just things. On my office shelf, I rediscovered a fist sized piece of driftwood I fished out of the Chesapeake Bay more than 50 years ago. It was a short pine branch with a fusiform rust growth that reminded me of a dressed quail carcass ready for the frying pan. For some reason it has survived numerous moves and, for no good reason, now sits in my new home. Crazy, yes, I know.
While this little memento is quirky (or so I think instead of crazy), books were my real problem. I’ve always loved to read and have surrounded myself with all kinds of books. Thousands of them. Maybe they were a way to make me feel smarter or more entitled to be called a college professor. But for whatever reason, they made me happy and I loved them.
The difference between hoarding and clutter is a bit subjective. Because my books were mostly lined up neatly on book shelves and I could usually find a volume I was searching for, I self-diagnose my condition as cluttered, not pathological hoarding. With more than 30 years in my work office at the university and another 30 in my home, stuff accumulates.
Now that I’m downsizing, I vow to do better. I only moved a hundred volumes or so and found acceptable homes for the most important subsets of my library, so the books are under control. From here on out I hope to live a curated life, saving only things of great significance. Birthday cards, no matter how cute or heartwarming the sentiment, go to the trash bin.
As Thoreau said in Walden, “I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust.” It has been a journey, and except for the five-gallon buckets of rocks I brought with me, I’m doing better. But I think I now grasp the idea that less is more, no matter how bright and shiny the thing may be, when it comes to stuff.
Gerald Klingaman is a retired Arkansas Extension Horticulturist and retired Operations Director for the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. After more than two decades of penning the popular Plant of the Week column, he’s taking a new direction, offering views on nature as he pokes about the state and nation. Views and opinions reflect those of the author and are not those of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Klingaman about these articles contact him at musingsonnature@gmail.com.