After losing nearly all snow during the Christmas thaw, we've added three inches. This picture shows the southeast corner of the Jut, along with a portion of our neighbor's big field. In the middle distance is the peak of Mt. Prospect and Weeks State Park, which includes the summer home of a former Massachusetts member of Congress and Secretary of War. The views from the fire tower on the peak are truly spectacular.
The coastal storm only added up to 2 1/2 inches here. 100 miles south, the state had some locations with 40 or more inches. You know you're in northern NH, when on the perfectly clear day after the storm, shining white in the air surpasses the white on the ground.
A neighbor hunting about 20 miles east of here took down a bear last year. A crockpot of bear chili will be tonight's suppah. The amazing aroma partners with the beautiful color.
Homemade potato and leek soup (with the two main ingredients from this year's garden) is warming up on the stove for tonight's suppah. Snow expected this weekend. Per the changing forecast, we'll get somewhere between 3 and 24 inches!
Thanks to the neighbor's pigs and the neighborhood smoking project, we had the best ham ever yesterday during the Hardwood Hermitage Thanksgiving celebration!
Every day, we're thankful to live in such a pretty place.
Apple butter has many wonderful uses. The special treat often goes on bread. Today, apple butter was baked into bread! This might be the most beautiful loaf to ever come out of our machine!
A tank from the little saw did nice work north of the house on a cool November morning. Also, we decided to cut the pin cherry group just west of the house so the blueberry bushes -- pictured with their protective cages and after pre-winter mulching -- can receive more sun in the spring.
Some thinning further out will help several young sugar maples, birches, and oaks receive more sun. The firewood from this project will not burn for about two years. The main target for this part of today's work was several red maple stump sprouts (with a small amount of white ash, visible below, in the mix). Pieces from two main piles will move up to the house, then get cut to length.
We received 2 inches of snow on election day. Temps will warm considerably soon. Highs in the 60s are expected for several days.
Today we helped check off an item on our neighbor's "bucket list." He has wanted to cure and smoke a pig. We built an old fashioned smokehouse from another neighbor's old barn boards. The cured pork belly, hams, and shoulder roast -- in addition to some cheese -- went in this morning. We built a fire in an old cast iron stove. The cold smoke worked its magic for 6 1/2 hours.
We tested the cheese mid-afternoon. It was yummy! The coup de grace was bacon as part of dinner. Everything was better than we imagined. We'll definitely do this again next year.
The earliest first snow on Hardwood Hermitage started to fall overnight after a lot of rain yesterday. Pics taken early this a.m. due to expected high of 50 degrees.
With most leaves already down, the peak of foliage season did not last long, although the intensity of the yellow, red, and orange were wonderful this year. An afternoon walk this afternoon proves plenty of grand sights are still to be had.
An area overrun with red maple stump sprouts was thinned out this morning. Two tanks in the little saw were necessary. Several preferable species (the birches, sugar maple, and red oak) will greatly benefit from the decreased competition in the area. The cluttered forest floor will be cleared out before snow, then some seeding will be done in the spring.
Here are two before pictures, followed by evidence of today's work.
With wind and a few inches of rain predicted for later this week, the peak color season may end today. Here are a few pictures from an afternoon walk. The first features two great red maples, with yellow birch, red maple, and striped maple in the second photo. The final picture is dominated by the bright crowns of a white ash and double-trunked yellow birch.
Trees have really been turning over the last few days. Very warm temps may make the trees wonder if they should've ditched the green so quickly, but the beauty cannot be denied. This much color at an early date is quite rare, and the quality of the hues are likely unmatched in the nine full seasons spent here.
Today's featured picture is a wonderful rainbow. The photo was taken on the west side of the year's finest raspberry patch. Now the area glows with a wondrous variety of autumn beauty.
Alas, the forest means work, even during the most spectacular season. Ten, yes TEN, birch bark bags had a long journey this morning from the northeast reaches of the property. The future fire starting material now basks in the nearly 80 degrees of late September!
Many of the orange, red, and yellow colors people see during autumn start to show up in northern New Hampshire in the waning days of summer. Shortly after sunrise this a.m., a white ash was showing its major head start on most other trees.
With a pleasant coolness to the air and some leaves turning, signs of autumn are growing every day. Mums and a pumpkin, the first ever from the neighbor's garden, prove the season is here (even if officially still 10 days away). Another pumpkin, much larger than the one pictured, also grew this year.
A few apples from our forest joined 40 pounds of Granny Smith bought in Littleton to create many great fruity delights. In the first picture, apple jelly sits in jars in the top rows, with darker apple butter below. A wonderful apple crisp came out of the oven this morning, too.
With the season well advanced, the saw blade on the brush cutter is passed its prime, but the excellent tool continues to do great work. With a tank this morning completed down the hill several hundred feet, forest management remains a central activity in the woods. With some delicate work in a patch of paper birch, several other trunks were cut, mainly balsam fir. The remaining trees are enjoying the brilliant sunshine on a very pleasant morning.
The brush cutter also goes to work thinning weeds to help oaks. These two small ones, living almost totally in shade, are probably not destined for long life, but they are better off than a few minutes before. Sometimes hope is all an oak needs.
With the big trunks in the shade, the crown of a beautiful, magnificent, and huge double paper birch shined in the sun earlier this week.
Tropical storms aren't all bad when not too destructive. Last week's wind and rain weren't that fierce, but there was enough of a wallop to break a red maple. No surprise that the light species already exhibiting some dieback would break. The crown ended up in the trail between Pine Cut Curve and the favorite raspberry patch. After the top got cut out of the trail this morning, additional work dropped the 25 feet still standing. Further processing led to 16 pieces of 22 inches, which will make their way up the hill over the next few days. Splitting and cutting then remains for each piece after the trek home.
Here's the fallen crown prior to cleanup, with the break visible on the tree in the middle background (sorry for slightly blurry photo).
The doomed tree's stump is visible on the lower right of the last picture. Birches that previously missed out on sun because of the red maple's trunk and crown now have a wide open spot to grow faster and healthier.
