Five Tree Project

With a ten-day streak of amazing weather, we have processed about a cord of firewood. The "Five Tree Project" was completed on Sunday. Four red maples and a paper birch went through our normal process of dropping, bucking, splitting, then sawbucking. The days have been cool and beautiful, with full sun the norm for two weekends in a row and the days in between.

Great color still

Even as the third week of October starts, great autumn color remains, as a nice walk on a sunny day proved this afternoon.

Recent activities

Enjoying wonderful homemade cinnamon rolls

Admiring autumn color

Baking oatmeal bread

Preparing firewood

Forest management case study

Getting more sunshine to red oaks remains the primary forest management goal on Hardwood Hermitage. Work with an axe after a long walk down the hill should bring a sunnier future for several young oaks. Previously, a balsam fir cast much shade, while an ash crowded the western side of one oak while also covering the preferred tree's crown. The work is hard, but very pleasant conditions this week helped move things along. The large coastal storm has brought some wind gusts today, but no measurable rain has fallen yet.

Fall color continues to pop out, with birches really showing their yellow.

Season's final beet and onion harvest

Wow! What great color today from the final beet and onion harvest. We'll have the lowest temp of the late summer overnight, but will probably avoid frost. 

 

Tomato soup: Before/After

With all the main ingredients grown on the hill, some excellent veggies were roasted yesterday. They became the best tomato soup ever after a day in the crockpot.

90 minutes of splitting

We had another wonderful morning for our favorite exercise in the woods: Splitting!!! We've been processing some white ash, paper birch, and hop hornbeam.