The final walk of the year occurred this morning. Weather warm for early winter, but we likely won't lose all our snow. The cold comes back with a vengeance by Monday morning. The final work in the woods for 2021 was the dropping of a small ash to help an unpictured oak. A nifty blade Santa delivered did the job.
After the walk and work, a fave dish was made for the final lunch of the year: Manchurian Style Cauliflower.
A snowstorm of up to eight inches will start this afternoon. Prior to this, we've been warmer than average for late autumn. All 13 inches of our snow so far has melted. A major windstorm this week brought down two big pines about 500 feet north of the house. The root balls were torn out of the earth, something quite common for pines in the region. Here is a picture of the bigger of the two trees.
A small sugar maple was lucky to not be hit by the massive force of the falling huge pine. This little fellow will hopefully have hundreds of years to grow and thrive after the near miss.
Thanks to our neighbor, fresh venison went into the crockpot this a.m. Chili for supper! With some excellent cornbread, too.
When you have a good shot at living 300 years, you're never in a hurry. Red oaks always leaf out late, sometimes not until Memorial Day weekend. They are also slow to change color in the autumn. Most other trees have no leaves left, but red oaks hold out for a while. Here are some pictures from yesterday and today, two days of glorious sunshine and pleasingly cool fall temps. The last photo shows an oak behind some lovely paper birches still retaining some leaves.
All ready for a quite winter in two separate storage locations, recently processed wood looks great. Two years will pass before this lovely biomass goes into the stove.
The latest cutting and splitting project started over the weekend with the bowsaw drop of a red maple with some dieback in the crown. The little saw cut a path through a small softwood grove, then made the V on the east side of the trunk. About 25 minutes of bowsaw cutting then dropped the tree.
This a.m. cutting of the trunk proceeded well using both saws. Then, some of the unsplit wood moved down the hill by the house, with bigger pieces staying at the cutting site for some splitting first.
A dead paper birch west of the house was cut down today. Prone to rapid rotting due to the amount of water in the trunk, we'll get excellent burning out of the tree after processing and about two years os seasoning. Crown pieces were still solid, so these will also eventually go into the stove.
This project is still a work in progress, with a good chunk of the tree still needing to be split. A few more images from the morning's action:
Working down the hill for three hours this morning led to a wonderful harvest. The potatoes are especially beautiful on this very sunny and pleasant day.
At 4:32 p.m. today, with inside temp at 66 and overnight low of 44 expected, a match was struck to light the first fire of the season. Decorative birch comes in over the spring to make for a lovely arrangement by the stove. This is the first wood to burn, along with the pictured kindling and shards.
The firebox was quickly ready for the match.
Twelve minutes after the initial flame, extra wood increased the stack temp to 580 degrees.
One of the signs of having bears in your woods is the destruction of old biomass. Bears really like eating insects. With their strong sense of smell and immense strength, a bear can easily find insects and tear to shreds an old stump like this one.
Old logs can also receive rough treatment from bears. Today's destroyed stump is just one of many found this year so far.
There have been plenty of berries for bears to eat, as well. Fortunately, a human picked six cups of blackberries this morning, before bears could get them. This flip top was filled in 50 minutes of walking. Today's two previous cups are already in the freezer.
The weather has been rather cool this summer, which feels great. There has been plenty of rain, which has cut back on solar production for what is normally the best month of the year. A lot of sun was visible today, making for our 7th day this month with 52 kilowatt/hours of production. Two Julys ago, we had 19!!!!! Overall, we'll have about 450 fewer kw/hrs this month than July 2019. But it's hard to complain with a lovely breeze and highs barely 70 degrees for the last few days this month. The forest looks great no matter what the temperature.
A morning of work outside deserves to be celebrated with a wonderful lunch. Raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, all picked from the hill, joined rum raisin bread for some great french toast. The raspberry patches still look great, with blackberries just starting to fill in. The three blueberry bushes have produced many great berries so far, with more ripening.
Raspberries are scattered this season due to the relative lack of sun. However, much magic has happened in the garden. Another round of lettuce, which has been especially good this summah, was picked today, as well as the lovely items pictured.
Tropical rain from yesterday yielded to delightful conditions today. The trimmer went to work on a very beautiful morning. Two tanks gave a good butch to the loop trail and a few other areas. This will help with raspberry access, although the harvest will be later than normal. Today's sunshine has been a rare treat this summer so far. The berries haven't ripened yet, most still green at this point.
Big wood, kindling, and birch bark get a lot of attention here. One must not forget the glory of more humble items destined to burn. Shards from cutting and splitting end up doing great service at the start of many fires.
The pool cover wood is cut, split, and stacked for another season. The shed has nearly 4 cords ready to go. None of the pool cover wood will burn until the Autumn of 2022. Now we must fill up the area north of the main garage.
With every swing, a wood splitter dreams of channeling the grace, accuracy, and power of a Sandy Koufax fastball. A lot of great pitchers aren't nearly as good as Koufax, though. Maybe once every thousand swings, the mauls and humans on Hardwood Hermitage find the Koufaxian moment. Much can still get done when you're less than perfect. A dead paper birch and spring poled red maple were dropped with the bow saw last week. Cutting yesterday and today allowed for a major splitting session still this morning. This wood isn't far from the house on the south hill.
Heat and humidity dominate for a few days, with relief arriving tomorrow afternoon. It's mid-June, so such uncomfortable conditions are not a surprise. A way more spectacular late spring event: Lupine time!
Several cool mornings in a row mean the potential for lots of wood work. Splitting, cutting, and stacking has moved along quite well. This morning's session included plenty of great exercise, including the burning of a tank of gas in each saw.
A tank each in both chainsaws cut nearly half a cord this a.m. It's so beautiful as stacked wood.
With Mother Nature spreading tree seeds everywhere, small areas in the woods can become very crowded. In the first picture, one red oak was spotted in a packed bit of earth, a location that gets little sun. Thinning can be a vital way to improve the forest by removing excess, less desirable species. After the precision of a surgical tornado (thanks in this case to loppers and the bowsaw), the second picture was shot about 35 minutes later. The oak, about eight feet tall, can barely be seen in either photo. It started as a heck of an acorn to grow in a shaded, overgrown spot. The tree leans a bit north for now. Hopefully, light and warmth will make the tree stand straighter through the years. Some additional thinning could be done in this area down the road. Birches to the north and east of the photo (behind the photographer) will also benefit from today's thinning work.
