Apple Butter Bread

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!

Friday forest management

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.

Snow on Election Day

We received 2 inches of snow on election day. Temps will warm considerably soon. Highs in the 60s are expected for several days.

 

A day of smoking

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.

First snow

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.

Post-peak color

 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.

Stump sprout carnage

 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.