Mini Logging Operation Complete

The contractor we hired to cut down a bunch of trees on the South hill and to the East of the build site has completed the project.  He cut these trees all by hand and moved them with the help of a skidder (shown below).

We now have approximately 30 trees of various species and sizes in several piles ready to be cut and split for firewood.  The trees include pine, maple and oak and range in size up 2 1/2 feet in diameter.

This old pine stump was one of the largest "house killer" trees that was cut.  Note the 2 extra large work gloves to give you a sense of the size of the tree.

We are going to buy another chain saw that is more powerful in order to be able to cut these logs to the appropriate length for the wood stove and wood boiler.


Here is a photo taken today showing fog over the Connecticut River and the Vermont mountains in the distance.  Fall colors are really making their appearance.

Bye Bye Pin Cherries!!

Sunday was a glorious day!  Cool temps, slight breeze, mostly sunny -- we spent about 5 hours with the chain saw clearing the last of the Pin Cherry Trees from the build site.  We now have a much better sense of the ground to the North as well as the view we'll have from the living room / deck (below). 

If you look closely you can see a small white pole at the far left of the photo -- that is more or less where the west end of the house will be. The east side will be just to the right of the mound in the middle of the photo.  We are going with a 1 floor ranch approximately 71'x30' (exterior size).

 

With the demise of the pin cherries (the chain saw did a great job!!), we have more than doubled our kindling pile!!   We are leaving the wood long for now so that it is not in the way of construction and easier to move once the house is built.

 

I moved some of the rocks that I had gathered up at the build site down to the road to fill in the culvert.  Folks up here have different opinions about whether or not the rocks actually slow down the water.  Either way, we think it looks bettter and it certainly doesn't hurt anything.

 



Below is a photo of the sign we purchased from the NHTOA.  This will go on a post on the West side of the driveway; on the hill just to the left of the culvert shown above.

 

This week we are continuing to various research and tasks related to the build and will post more once the dust settles.

 

Get ready for fall!!!!!!

Driveway, build site progress

6 a.m., 47 degrees, foggy.  We are happy that the driveway has been roughed in.  There's a turnaround area at the build site.  Thanks to the chainsaw and contractor, we now have a better sense of exactly where we'll place the house.

Wood piles continue to grow, as do the rock piles.  There isn't a shortage of either up here.

Over the holiday weekend, we went to the fair, and also found many good deals at Simon the Tanner, a great local clothing store.

We'll be pondering building design issues this week.  Here's what the build site look like after additional clearing and some extra digging.

Red Oak (Quercus rubra)

Red oaks exist throughout the property.  We've found several young ones while brush cutting.  They are grand trees, and we have enjoyed helping the little fellows get additional sun by cutting back brush.

This species is not as common up here at birches and maples, but red oak is a very worthy component of Hardwood Hermitage.  It might be a relatively weak acorn crop this year, so we might not get new red oaks started in the cleared areas.

Here are two pictures of relatively young red oaks.  The pointed leaves are quite distinctive.

There are several large red oaks on the property.  We'll make sure that we get some fall foliage pictures of them.  They'll be alive with a brilliant red display in a month.