Timber!!!!

Wow! Lots of activity today.  As the picture shows, we had some trees cut down.  The guy who cleared our south hill last year was back today to take down a few more.  He does a great job felling trees because of his immense experience, and how fast he can run!  It was amazing watching him take two that were chained together.  One just yanked the other along with it.

Those far more afraid of cutting down big trees (us!) stuck to less intense cutting.  We cut up some of the south hill trees that had by in a pile for a year.  This will give us a lot of firewood down the road.

Tractor arrives

We've put a few hours on the tractor already.  This includes turning practice, moving wood, and -- as seen below - picking up some gravel.

The wood we moved included some stray pieces here or there, as well as remnants of a big blow down that blocked part of the driveway in a spring storm.  Yet more red maple to add to our collection.

We had the best five consecutive days of solar production from Tuesday through Saturday.  We logged 157 kilowatt/hours.  Clouds and rain today, but sun returns tomorrow.

Purple Majesty

Tuesday started out below freezing.  But that's OK.  Time for our first fire!

For all of its beauty, and the status as the state tree, I sometimes wonder if paper birch isn't as pretty as yellow birch.  This lovely double trunked yellow birch certainly makes the case for that species! Picture was taken during a.m. walk today.

Then there's the purple majesty of white ash.  They are just starting to change now.  Note the purple leaflets in several spots.  Maybe 10 days before leaf peak up here! And it's not even fall yet!

Foggy start

We had a few bits of frost Monday morning.  Today will be close to 85 degrees.  The fog was very thick this a.m., as you can see.

The warm sun burned through the fog.  This white ash, already showing a few bits of purple on some leaves, was absorbing the heat.

Inside, one of the universal laws of physics was demonstrated:  Every sun beam finds a cat.