Destruction and creation

Nature's two most powerful forces, destruction and creation, are constant companions when you live in a forest.  We lost a big paper birch in that wicked storm earlier this month.  Also, the power company's tree crews did some preventive cutting of a few trees leaning toward the lines.  We got a lot of wood out of both events.

This weekend we did cutting of paper birch logs and a red maple log.  Most are in 22" or 44" lengths.  We'll cut those into burnable lengths later.  Here are pictures of the work, followed by a baby red oak created recently.  During the storm, the blown down paper birch and a dead conifer both came really close to wiping the little oak out.  But the lovely tree survived.

A wicked Friday night

We had another summer storm.  This one lasted about 10 minutes, but it knocked out our power for 22 hours, and some trees were blown over.  We think this might have been a microburst -- intense wind for just a few minutes.  The storm's power was amazing!

Some double-trunked red maples fell in the storm.  This large tree was rather lovely.  The full crown would have been a bright red this fall.  This tree may be a whole winter's worth of firewood, looking on the bright side.

Here's the root ball of that tree, lifted out of the ground by the short, powerful wind.  This is about 12 feet in diameter.  Another red maple fell on the driveway.

Several white pines fell, too.  I think nature used the storm to mock us.  Several pines are now blocking cleared walking paths.  Lots of work to make the paths, just a second to block them again.  We'll get the saws out, though, to make short work of these weak softwoods.

Two maples broken on our south hill.

Oaks are prized for many reasons.  We like their very hard wood and deep taproot, which make them much more resistant to storm damage than most trees. You can see a tall and unfazed red oak on the left, with a wonderful rounded crown.  On the right, a broken red maple.

Negative 188

We wanted to provide a solar production update.  Our smart meter was installed on May 20.  In those two months, our meter reads negative 188 kilowatt hours.  We've produced that much more than we used in that time.

The last eight days have been very productive.  The sun has been out a lot, even though afternoon storms have occurred quite a bit.  We're paying for that with highs that have reached 90.  That's rare for way up here.

Overall, since our system went on line on May 15, our solar panels have produced 1,340 kilowatt hours of electricity.  Long live the sun!

More wood ready

This red maple will be ready for the wood stove when cold season arrives.

Based on work last year, we had these pieces in 20" to 24" lengths.  We moved it from west of the house a bit closer yesterday.  Today, we cut the pieces roughly in half.  Some were also split.  Now each one will fit in our stove.

Living up to name

The lovely red leaves on this red oak don't mean an early fall has arrived.  Rather, this is sign of new growth, even with the rainy, cloudy summer we've been experiencing.  The new leaves, sporting their natural color, will turn green after we get some sun back.  We'll see the beautiful red again this fall.

This photo was taken after some brush cutting this a.m.  Weeds, softwoods, and quaking aspen are getting wacked to make room for the young birches, sugar maple, and oaks that can be found throughout the property.

Independence Day project

While we won't be fully independent from the electrical grid, our wood supply continues to grow.  On the 4th, we made a wood shed.  Cutting and stacking of the "pin cherry pile" has been going well.  Much of this wood was growing on the build site, now it's stacked and ready for the wood stove.

Our rows of larger wood continue to grow.  Rather hot and humid lately, but you can never lose sight of next winter up here.

A curious deer ventured toward the house the other day.

We've been enjoying the screened in porch.  Although we've had a lot of rain, there have still been sunny days.  Our solar panels have exceeded 1 megawatt/hour of production (1,000 kilowatt/hours).  Our electric meter is at negative 77 since May 20.