Cookies and birches

Two great Christmas traditions in Northern New Hampshire:  Decorated cookies and shining young birch groves

Last sunrise of autumn

The sun rose through the eastern line of trees and over the Kilkenny range this morning.  Tomorrow morning's sunrise will be in winter.  This panoramic shows the sun at its most southerly in our morning sky.  The timeless and incessant rotation of the earth starts bringing our favorite yellow orb back to the north for the next six months.  Then, in the third week of June next year, we'll have almost 8 hours more daylight compared to today.  The sun will be rising that day much further to the left in this photo, and three hours earlier!

Great suppah

The menu for tonight's suppah included two homemade items:  venison beer chili (the main ingredient made possible by a hunting neighbor) and cocoa pumpernickel bread.

Holiday baking

The second thaw of the season is happening this weekend.  Lots of rain and wind today, with temps not getting below freezing again until later tomorrow.  It's a good day for some baking! Pictured below are chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, and candied fruit peel.

Spring pole cutting

The hill has now received a foot of snow already! Warmer for a few days, with rain tomorrow, so much of the snow will go away, hopefully without ice forming.

Recent work in the woods included taking down some spring poles with the bow saw.  The biggest was a large white ash (fraxinus Americana).  Permanently bent, spring poles create a lot of shade, limiting growth potential for smaller trees to the north.  Here's a pic of the ash prior to cutting.

After about 15 minutes of work, the felling cut (on the right) continues to open as the lean of the spring pole pushes the left side of the trunk downward with growing pressure.  The diameter of the tree at the cut is 9 inches.

This picture was taken looking in the opposite direction of the previous picture.  Continued cutting led to the demise of the spring pole.  Notice how the energy of the drop pushed about two feet of the tree backwards while ripping several feet of bark off.  The wood remaining above the cut is known as a barber chair, a frequent condition created when dropping spring poles.  Barber chairs make predicting the exact direction of the drop difficult.  That means getting out of the way before the big drop occurs.  Remaining in the cutting spot for this tree would have resulted in being hit by a tree weighing 40-45 pounds per cubic foot, with the energy of the fall to go along with it.  As in all felling operations, a clear work area is absolutely vital.  The advantage of the bow saw is the much slower drop compared to a big and powerful chainsaw.

In the spring, 22" cuts will be made and some splitting will occur here, then the future fuel heads up the hill.  White ash is one of the greatest firewood species in northern New England.  Because the wood retains little water, decay is inhibited.  If the tree remained on the ground and uncut for five years, almost no wood would be lost due to rotting.

2 inches of snow

A few flakes fell the other morning, but melted within a couple of hours.  Two inches arrived yesterday.  Most of this should be gone by the end of the weekend.  Cold and windy today, with sun and warmer conditions tomorrow, then 40 degrees on Sunday.  Only a little snow is needed to transform the relative drabness of mid-autumn into epic beauty.

Autumn windstorm

As happens several times a year, winds whipped across the hill late last week, with some tree casualties (softwoods, as expected) throughout the property.

This double-trunked fir almost took out a young oak as the wind ripped the root ball out of the ground.  Loppers were used to get rid of the fir branches suddenly in the oak's way.  The young survivor will benefit greatly because the fir created a lot of shade.  This is located in "The Jut" on the east side of the parcel.

A pine, about 70 feet tall, also took a dive in the recent winds, another big root ball that couldn't stay grounded.  The top few feet of the pine was across one of the walking trails until cut with the bowsaw.  Another oak, perhaps 12 feet tall, stands to the left of the photo, gaining sunlight thanks to the storm.

With most remaining leaves on the ground now after the windy days, things are settling down with the drop in temperatures.  Even as color season ends and lows below freezing are common, scenes are rather inviting.