Thinning followed by snow

The thinning in the birch grove promised three posts ago took place on Sunday. Black cherry was the primary casualty. Here's a picture of the bigger stuff in a pile this morning, with a fresh coating of "Still Wintah" snow.

Our little bit of snow today is falling in a fierce wind with temps allowing the wet flakes to stick on trees. Here's a shot from the eastern portion of the thinned grove. This shows the variety of color in Hardwood Hermitage bark.

Paper birch is whiter than normal thanks to the snow. Here's the grove's biggest example of the state tree.

Technically it is Spring, but in reality it is still Wintah!!!!

We started Spring off with 40kwh of solar production -- marking the first time we have had 40kwhs 2 days in a row! This makes us net-zero for the preceeding 5 weeks!!! ROCK OUT!!! The first day of Spring also marked the first day of chain saw work -- cut down a bending yellow birch, a small (ugly) black spruce, and cut up another black spruce tree that we'd cut down last year. This "cleans up" the terrace a bit. Our "river" is waffling between being liquid and ice --

Ice crystals still remained early Sunday on a little patch behind the wood shed on the south hill:

Two weeks ago, this creature and several of its pals stopped by for a quick snack. One was within a few feet of the screened in porch.

Of rocks and birches

The balmy wintah continues. A trace of snow yesterday led to discovery of what seems undoubtedly to be bear tracks. No pics of the bear (yet), but there's always birches. The first shows the panorama of a birch grove that will benefit from cutting in a few weeks.

Black cherry, which is a fine tree, will be cut out of the grove. Note the dark young trunks of the appropriately named tree. The species grows best farther south, so birches get the benefits when cherry is thinned up here. A quaking aspen and a few other less desirable trees are also doomed in this area.

A typical hardwood forest in northern New Hampshire. Note the red oak on the right, bigger paper birch, and yellow birch in the middle. Visible somewhat in the distance is a towering red maple.

Rocks and birches go so well together, don't they?

15 megawatt/hours

Yesterday, the solar panels reached 15,000 kilowatt/hours of total production (15 megawatt/hours) since May 2013! For the entire month of February last year, thick snow covered the panels, so we had zero production. We'll easily pass 100 kilowatt/hours this month, thanks to the relatively balmy conditions. We're hoping to top 6,000 kilowatt/hours for the entire year.

Porcupine enjoying sap

While on a walk yesterday afternoon, a big round ball was seen up in a tree from quite a distance. Getting closer, what was thought to originally be a bear was a porcupine enjoying some nibbles on sugar maple. He was about 50 feet high when this picture was taken. Sugar maples often get nibbled on like this from creatures who can't resist tasting the sweet sap. The porcupine also climbed that high as a means to soak up the sun.

Like porcupines, trees will do what it takes to stay alive. This young red oak, with the house in the background, has grown 8 feet in the nearly four years since the brush cutter rescued it from an ocean of weeds.

We avoided the big coastal storm. Nearest snow was about 100 miles south. But we found this neat Abominable Snow Monster, who makes an appropriate addition to any northern New Hampshire home.

Transitioning paper birches

Young paper birches, which are just about everywhere on Hardwood Hermitage, stand strong against the worst of winter. The first pic shows a grove with today's rising sun in the background. Others in the transition stage to their shiny white glory are seen against snow on the ground.

Moose print

The potato fork marked the spot of what is undoubtedly a moose print.

A birch grove will benefit in the spring from some clearing.

Our spring, which is on the far side of the jut (about 1/3 of mile to walk to from the house) usually keeps pumping out water during the whole winter.