800 for August

It took five tries, but the Hardwood Hermitage solar panels have created 800 kilowatt/hours in an August.  This is the 7th month we've reached that epic level of production.  Hooray for the sun!!!

Nature's blessings

What spectacular weather here lately! August has been rather sunny without being too hot.  This morning barely surpassed 40 degrees. 

Nature blesses Northern New Hampshire in many ways.  Besides weather like today, some examples on Hardwood Hermitage include:

1.  Plenty of blackberries.  About 8 pints were picked today.  The awesome fruit is being turned into jam now.

2.  The sheer bliss of productive tomato and pepper plants.

3.  And, the greatest aspect of enjoying nature on Hardwood Hermitage:  Growing your own heat.  This big stack of about 2-and-a-half cords glistens in the sun this afternoon.  None of these delightful pieces will burn for over a year.

Nearing 9 cords

Our goal at the start of each burning season is to have 9 cords of wood split and stacked in our various storage locations.  With another round of cutting, splitting, and stacking this weekend, we're almost there.  Nine cords is enough to heat the house for two years.  Here are pics taken after this morning's latest efforts.  The first picture shows a close up shot of some split black cherry, a very pretty wood.

Kindling we use to get fires started does not count toward the nine cord goal.  All of the small stuff in the front of this picture will help the stove get going, but not until 2019, most likely.  We already have way more kindling ready to burn than we'll use this looming burning season.

The work never ends, as attested by piles of some wood yet to be cut or split.

Green, white, and blue

Green rules the summer forest.  But there's plenty of birchy white.  And some blue sky, too, today.

Curved Oak Trail

The spools went on the FS131 over the weekend.  Ten tanks of gas were used to trim along the driveway and across much of the trail system since Monday morning.

The busy tool took a break in a trail this a.m.

A new trail has been added to Hardwood Hermitage.  The Curved Oak Trail is near the house.  The short loop has a big elevation change.  The trail's namesake is pictured here.

The big oak is at the top of the trail's elevation.  With lots of sun thanks to being so high, the oak is the property's best acorn producer.

Like so much of the rest of the trail system, young birches stand on both sides of Curved Oak Trail. 

 

The neighbor's garden continues to provide us bounty.  This 18-inch long zucchini squash was picked today.

A roaring weekend

Lots and lots of chainsaw time this weekend as wood near the house was processed.  This post includes six pictures, four before pics, and two taken after this weekend's work.  Much progress, especially today with low humidity and very pleasant temps.

The first three pics show three separate piles of wood prior to any cutting.

 

 

Here's the after picture of the three piles in one photo.  Notice all the sawdust! A great deal of cutting took place on each of the piles, with a fair amount of stacking done (the beginnings of the new stack of cut firewood is in the middle background).

 

The next two pictures are of the same stack of wood cut from a neighbor's property.  We helped him clear trees along a rock wall that will be removed to expand a hay field.  We get to keep most of the wood, but some will go back to the neighbor after we process it for him.  The after picture still shows a lot of wood in the pile, but we cut many pieces into burnable lengths.

 

Garden harvesting

The forest is our biggest garden, but more traditional summer crop harvesting takes place on the hill, as well.  This picture shows some peas from our neighbor's very large and productive garden, with some tomatoes and green beans that were grown in containers by the house here on Hardwood Hermitage.