Looking more like spring

Leaves and blooms have been weeks behind schedule, but it's really looking like spring, finally.  A paper birch and pin cherry along the driveway are grand together.

Work on the south hill led to this nice pile of red maple.  Note the lovely tulips in the upper part of the pic.

Large quantities of red maple stump sprouts cut down last year continue their journey to the house.  Pieces in this big pile still have about 450 feet to go.

First asparagus harvest

From plantings last year, a bunch of asparagus has started to show itself.  They somehow got enough warmth and sun from this cloudy and cool spring to get really long in some cases.  It's hard to beat home-grown asparagus!

Wood work in cool weather

Some splitting and cutting work done in the last few days.  The temps are cool, so a fire a day is still happening.  Today's high might get to 55.

8th sawing season starts

For the eighth year in a row, a chainsaw has roared on Hardwood Hermitage.  Preliminary work today took crowns off of two fallen red maples.  The biggest work was to drop a diagonal red maple with the smaller saw.  The first picture shows two trunks, with the center trunk dropped with the bow saw a few weeks ago.  The bow sawing started over the winter, but the job was really difficult.  The bigger trunk in the upper right is the diagonal taken down with the chainsaw today.

Several pieces of the crown from both trees will end up as firewood, to say nothing of many pieces from the two large trunks.

Another red maple, on the south hill like the two trees above, broke during the winter.  The winds were fierce that day, as the top of the tree (in foreground) ended up about 20 feet from the main trunk (partially visible in upper middle of picture).  The main trunk, shown in the second pic below, was taken down with the saw today.