Some doomed snow falls

We received two inches of snow yesterday, the first time this season we've had more than a dusting. We'll have very mild temps later in the week, with some rain, so this won't last. But it's pretty for a short time, especially on outside seasonal decorations. The second photo shows a wreath made by a neighbor using some barbed wire!

More red maple casualties

Continued thinning of red maple stump sprouts took place today. Note the young paper birches in the background of the first two pictures and the downed red maple that will provide the birch, which are to the north, more shade. Again, we'll lop the red maple for future kindling. Also, a broken larger red maple was taken down as well. Some of those bigger pieces can be seen in the third picture.

Thinning of red maple

Throughout Hardwood Hermitage, red maple (acer rubrum) grows profusely. As a second-tier species, the tree often becomes kindling for us. We did a lot of thinning today in one area in order for young birches, sugar maple, and red oak to find more sunlight. The little chainsaw had red maple falling furiously, especially because the pesky species has a tendency to grow in clumps (stump sprouts), with maybe a dozen trunks crowded together. Here are some pictures from today's carnage: This is a before/after shot of the area we worked in. Notice the significant reduction of standing red maple in the second picture. Also, the piles of cut and lopped future kindling are visible in the second picture.

Much work is involved in making the cut stuff today ready to burn. But we have a nice addition to our 2017 kindling, while also helping the forest by reducing the large amount of competition in the woods.

Always thankful for wood

Happy Thanksgiving! A before/after series of pics once again demonstrates that our wood preparation for the next season is continually on our mind.

We take our stacking of wood very seriously. Here's the two previous pics after cutting, splitting, and stacking. Most of this won't be burned until after next Thanksgiving!

A bit of forest thinning of broken and dead birch and red maple was brought over this morning to create our next cutting pile. With warmth and little precip, we have yet to put the snow blower on the tractor, so three loads in the big bucket moved this from west of the house.

Birch retrieval

We did several hours of work this morning to bring up some broken paper birch. Two broken trees beyond the last terrace were cut down, then cut to about 22 inches. We moved each piece up, along with some red maple, all the way to the house. Some splitting will be done, then the pieces will be cut again for fitting into the stove next season. The morning's job will only give us about one-fifth of a cord, which isn't much. But the work was satisfying -- more labor to bring up our own heat!

We won a door prize at a neat craft store in Dalton, about five miles south of here. We make an annual trek there to find Christmas decoration. The basket included great crackers and other treats.

Moosewood

This clump of striped maple is living up to its nickname, "moosewood." Moose really like to eat the bark off of them.

Here's a sunset panorama from today. The similar picture posted in May looks much different, because the sun is so much further south in the sky in November.

When moose get the munchies

During a trip with the brush cutter this morning, some tree damage was seen down the frosty slope. A moose, or possibly a bear, broke a young paper birch, then munched on the buds of the main trunk. On the other side of the trail, bark was stripped off a tree, another sign of a hungry moose.

The birch should be OK -- notice the second, smaller trunk that was untouched by Bullwinkle. The red maple, a favorite browse species for critters, won't be hurt by the munching, but perhaps by the small chainsaw in our quest for a never-ending kindling supply.

A golden forest floor

Freshly fallen maple and birch leaves displayed a golden coating on the forest floor during a walk this morning.

Some snow fell overnight. A mum near the garage still held a bit white stuff while receiving mid-morning sun.

A birch grove in October

Peak foliage has passed, and Friday was gloomy with some rain. But a birch grove always looks nice and shiny.

Shade tolerant sugar maple gets boxed in sometimes, but this one, aglow with mid-October burnt orange, lets the softwoods know who rules the neighborhood.

Trees need not be mighty in stature to enjoy treasured status on Hardwood Hermitage. This baby bur oak, growing about an inch a year for now, may be alive -- and much bigger -- in 500 years.

Lest the paper birches get jealous of another oak picture, here are more visions of our state tree.

Empire of Wood

Wood everywhere! We've made lots of progress on the cutting and splitting from the August tree work. And we kicked off the 2015-16 burning season on Friday. Another nice fire going now. Solar news remains good. We logged our first ever October day of 30 kw/hrs of produced energy today. Here are some recent photos of our Empire of Wood.

Sunny September

We had more than 35 kilowatt/hours of solar produced today. Tomorrow morning we'll surpass 700 for the month. That's a tremendous amount for September. Not much fall color yet, but a few trees are showing some signs. A white ash down the hill displayed a bit of purple on our very sunny Saturday. The second pic is a distant view of Vermont, with one of our red maples in the foreground showing how ready it was for autumn.

Shed filling up

The new shed is filling up quickly. This wood has been split for some time. It's nice and dry, totally ready for this season.

Lots of wood was cut, split, and stacked this weekend. These splendid pieces, from the trees cut down earlier this month, won't burn for more than a year. Paper birch needs many months to dry out. We'll have enough room in the shed for some newly split wood, as well.

Shed done as wood work continues

Some siding needed to be back ordered, so our new wood shed wasn't completed until yesterday.

A handy shelf will help us store kindling above the big wood.

Also some work this weekend on some future shed wood!

A morning of log cutting

We made progress on cutting the logs taken down on Monday. Tremendous weather this morning, with lows in the 50s and great shade, led our big saw to roar for a good chunk of the a.m. Some pieces are now short enough to split, but a lot of work was needed just to cut the longest and thickest logs down to four feet.

Lots of logs

Here are some pictures of the logs placed in several places after Monday's cutting operation. The tractor moved 6 bucket loads close to the house. These will be cut, split, and then stacked on the north side of the main garage.

Some of the longer logs in other locations have been measured and marked, the blue line shows where the saw will cut the log. Smaller pieces will be 44 inches, then go in the sawbuck for higher cutting than the ground.

Big logs like these will be cut shorter because of the weight.

Some red maple was included in the job, but most of the logs are paper birch, like these.

The work crew chipped smaller portions of each tree. We decided to keep the end product. We'll use this as mulch and in some wet areas in our trail system.

Raining sawdust

In order to protect power lines and get a year of firewood, a cutting operation was completed today. The work required professionals and a big bucket truck because of the proximity to power lines. Because of the cutting high up in the bucket, it was raining sawdust today! Here are some images of the work.

The biggest trees taken down were showing signs of dieback. These were also the trees that were the biggest threat to the lines. Several lovely paper birches also taken down along driveway. Just the growth from all of the young paper birches on our property this year might make up for the biomass cut down today, though! We'll get a year's worth of firewood out of the deal. Lots of sawing and splitting to do to prep the heat for our 2016-17 season.