Old school forestry

Sometimes you just need to pick up an axe. This old head has a new helve thanks to a neighbor's craftsmanship. He even burned Hardwood Hermitage initials into the lovely hickory, a rock solid wood great for absorbing shock.

Sunny color, cloudy color

Some great pictures of our strange color season are still possible. The first one was taken before a few days of much needed rain. The sun makes the birches and yellow leaves really shine. But even on a cloudy day like this afternoon, the trees look great.

Cousins in the sun

Towering over the understory, a sugar maple (left center) and red maple (top) shared some sun yesterday morning.

The warm, dry fall facilitates nice work in the woods. Thinning of mainly ash and then the cutting to length has made this handy pile of future kindling and bigger wood ready for 18 months under a tarp before boxing up and moving into the garages in the distance. None of this will burn for two years.

Busy inside and out

 Some projects over the last few days:

Crafting

Wood moving

Apple Butter!!!!

Color before rain

Before much needed rain today, an afternoon walk yesterday shows the vibrant nature of the woods, even on a generally cloudy day.

Late-summer color

4

Morning work

What beautiful, cool weather this week! We decided to start the small saw to do some cutting along the driveway. The biggest casualty was a spring-poled apple near a really nice sugar maple. We also took down a few small birches that were diagonal toward the driveway, Trimming, pole sawing, and lopping rounded out the excellent hour and 15 minutes.