Early leaf drop

Each year a few trees have changing leaves by now. The high temperatures at several points since June must have triggered something. We've had several trees already change color and drop nearly all leaves. One large red maple on the south hill was totally yellow a few days ago. Here is the picture of a trail near the house with many birch leaves already down. 

Most trees are still green, like this huge yellow birch farther down the hill. Due to its advanced age, the peeling bark is starting to crack. Big plates of yellowish-silver will mark the tree as a very mature specimen.

Each walk brings more and more beauty.

Morning harvests

This week we've picked great vegetables from the raised beds near the house, as well as perfect berries from the woods. The broccoli ended up small, but they will be marvelous.

Forest management case study

Once again we discuss the irony of thinning trees to make the forest better. Yes, taking some trees out can be a good way to help preferred species. This work area is close to the northwest corner of the loop trail, about 1000 feet north of the house. Mother Nature decided to let a lot of red maple grow, which can quickly overtop red oak, yellow birch, and sugar maple.

This first photo shows the aftermath of axing out three red maple stump sprouts. Note the smaller sugar maple on the right of the clump, which will get more sun and not wrap around the removed trunks any more. Removal of the remaining red maple will be for another day.

Some stump sprouts are way too big for easy removal, but a pole saw will help the red oak and yellow birch on the right of these pesky red maples. (Note the large amount of downed branches/leaves from the red maples). The two smaller preferred trees will still struggle, but they have more of a chance.

Easier work makes more crown space for an oak, illustrated by this before/after duo of photos. Once again, red maple stump sprouts were removed to help out the quercus rubra.

Before:

After!!!

The axe can be quite handy to quickly remove a balsam fir creating a lot of shade. Previous pole saw work cut away many lower branches for much easier axing.

Wildflowers!!!

You know it's the second week of June on Hardwood Hermitage because of the annual return of our lupine and the beautiful white daisies. We've had some nice sun this week, a pleasant change from the abundant rain.

Loaf worthy of immortality

Oatmeal bread can make great the rainiest of days!

A Sawbuck State of Mind

Not in the limelight as much as the power tools, our sawbuck still does great work. Today, we cut big wood from the recent red maple project, as well as a bunch of kindling, some of which was brought up over the fall and winter. The sawbuck allows for cutting a great deal of wood in a short time while elevating all the biomass. It's a great time saver, as well as much better on our backs!!

 

Work in progress

Some splitting remains, as does moving the wood up, but we had a lovely morning for dropping the last of the four red maple quad trunks, about 45 degrees at7 a.m. It's nice to see the sun, which has been hidden for much of the month.

Another great hour

With an hour of work this a.m., we dropped the third of the quad-trunk red maple a bit northwest of the house. The previous two drops occurred last fall. The morning's tree fell, then got cut and split. We're happy with our efficiency for the first big cutting project of 2025!!!

 

Another pretty day

We've enjoyed fine sun and very comfy temps this week. Two new round garden beds, 17 inches high, include pea and tomato seeds.

Also, wood has been moved to fill the shed. This biomass was originally processed as part of our big Fall 2023 project. We transferred 47 tractor bucket loads to go from empty shed to this picture.

 

On a lovely walk today, birches relished to rays, even though leaves haven't started appearing yet.

New bed for asparagus

We completed a morning project today -- transplanting asparagus into a new raised bed. The original 4'x8' spot now has our transplanted roots higher in half the width. The great moist soil will hopefully decrease the stress of the big move on each asparagus stem. We'll see how much wants to come up this spring. Today's fine weather will give way to some rain tomorrow, perfect for the asparagus, as well as the seeds started in the taller bed to the east.

Magic number

Providing its annual proof of never wanting to let go, winter decided that 17 was the magic number again, as in the low temp this morning. About 2 total inches of snow fell across most of the day yesterday. 

Wood Party

Morning low today: 17 degrees. Even with really nice sun, we're still keeping the stove hot. The tractor went to work before lunch in another "Wood Party," moving biomass from the garage or shed into the house. The shed doesn't have much left, but we're well stocked in the garage now.

We had six inches of snow on Saturday, but most of that has melted. Some flakes are expected to fall tonight, as well.

The Big March Melt

After we received four feet of snow in February, we thought winter would be quite visible for some time. A major thaw began on Friday, thanks to rain, wind, and warmth. This below/after shows the same scene from Friday morning to this morning. What a change!

Another chilly walk

We've had more major temperature swings, as can be expected in late winter. At 7 p.m. last night, it was in the mid-50s. Twelve hours later when a walk started, we were 30 degrees colder. The scenes on either side of sunrise today looked grand.

Chex Mix Monday

Perhaps we've had the last negative temperature of the season??? Minus 3 this morning! For the cold start, a beautiful batch of Chex Mix was made.

Grabbing the sun

This baby birch seemed so ready for spring this afternoon! It's trying to grab the sun! Temps reached 40 for the first time in quite a while today. Cold has plenty of time to return, but the sun looks great.

In another interesting sight today, these old apple trunks retained a snowy top, looking like a double ice cream cone.

Snowy and cold

We've received more than two feet of snow in February, with low temps regularly at or near zero. Two sunny days (although with highs still well below the freezing point) led to some nice snow clearing work to widen the cleared width of the driveway or move lots of white stuff away from the frost walls. Happy Win-tah!!!

Long way to growing season

Based on frost and freeze data, our growing season lasts 148 days a year on average. As obvious from the raised garden bed, we're quite distant from Day One.

Great loaf

The first 2025 loaf of cocoa pumpernickel just came out of the machine! The aroma for the last two hours has been truly marvelous.

Birches rule the winter

About 8 inches of snow has fallen since the New Year's thaw. As usual, the forest becomes even more beautiful when the horizontal white mixes with the vertical variety.