Creatures great and small

The pic came out a bit blurry because of the low light, but there was another bear sighting recently.  This one walked down the trail west of the house yesterday morning.

A moose was seen while visiting a neighbor last week, who has two new cows, pictured below.

Small creatures are also wonderful.  Three hummingbirds have been providing entertainment since showing up about three weeks ago.

Some morning splitting

A nice collection of red maple pieces was collected from an area west of the house in recent days.  Here's part of the pile prior to some splitting work today.

And this is how the big pile looks after the splitting.  Each piece will get cut in half in the sawbuck, then it's to a new stacking spot.

Four medium-sized red maples were dropped recently to create this latest firewood.  Some of the larger pieces, split once for now, are still near the original drop zone.  Several oaks will benefit from the extra sun they're getting after the maples were taken down.

Thanks to the setting sun

What a magnificent week of weather! The solar panels were really going to work during the very sunny days.  They produced 270 kilowatt/hours since sunrise on Monday, which was about 120 more than the house used.  Next week looks like some cloudy days, but the panels will still get lots of work.

I think, therefore I wood

 

Howling winds

Winds picked up big time last night just a bit after dark.  The rain wasn't too heavy, but the breezy conditions continued into this afternoon.  A walk on the eastern half of HH demonstrated once again the power of nature.  An 80 foot white pine fell into the trail heading to the eastern cleared area.  This picture looks south toward the very large tree in the trail.

Farther north, a red maple broke in the wind, adding another crown to be cleared from a blocked trail.  The part of the trunk still attached to the ground can be seen on the right side of the pic, with the downed crown in its resting place.