Birch retrieval

We did several hours of work this morning to bring up some broken paper birch. Two broken trees beyond the last terrace were cut down, then cut to about 22 inches. We moved each piece up, along with some red maple, all the way to the house. Some splitting will be done, then the pieces will be cut again for fitting into the stove next season. The morning's job will only give us about one-fifth of a cord, which isn't much. But the work was satisfying -- more labor to bring up our own heat!

We won a door prize at a neat craft store in Dalton, about five miles south of here. We make an annual trek there to find Christmas decoration. The basket included great crackers and other treats.

Moosewood

This clump of striped maple is living up to its nickname, "moosewood." Moose really like to eat the bark off of them.

Here's a sunset panorama from today. The similar picture posted in May looks much different, because the sun is so much further south in the sky in November.

When moose get the munchies

During a trip with the brush cutter this morning, some tree damage was seen down the frosty slope. A moose, or possibly a bear, broke a young paper birch, then munched on the buds of the main trunk. On the other side of the trail, bark was stripped off a tree, another sign of a hungry moose.

The birch should be OK -- notice the second, smaller trunk that was untouched by Bullwinkle. The red maple, a favorite browse species for critters, won't be hurt by the munching, but perhaps by the small chainsaw in our quest for a never-ending kindling supply.

A golden forest floor

Freshly fallen maple and birch leaves displayed a golden coating on the forest floor during a walk this morning.

Some snow fell overnight. A mum near the garage still held a bit white stuff while receiving mid-morning sun.

A birch grove in October

Peak foliage has passed, and Friday was gloomy with some rain. But a birch grove always looks nice and shiny.

Shade tolerant sugar maple gets boxed in sometimes, but this one, aglow with mid-October burnt orange, lets the softwoods know who rules the neighborhood.

Trees need not be mighty in stature to enjoy treasured status on Hardwood Hermitage. This baby bur oak, growing about an inch a year for now, may be alive -- and much bigger -- in 500 years.

Lest the paper birches get jealous of another oak picture, here are more visions of our state tree.

Empire of Wood

Wood everywhere! We've made lots of progress on the cutting and splitting from the August tree work. And we kicked off the 2015-16 burning season on Friday. Another nice fire going now. Solar news remains good. We logged our first ever October day of 30 kw/hrs of produced energy today. Here are some recent photos of our Empire of Wood.

Sunny September

We had more than 35 kilowatt/hours of solar produced today. Tomorrow morning we'll surpass 700 for the month. That's a tremendous amount for September. Not much fall color yet, but a few trees are showing some signs. A white ash down the hill displayed a bit of purple on our very sunny Saturday. The second pic is a distant view of Vermont, with one of our red maples in the foreground showing how ready it was for autumn.