Sawdust ocean

We added to the sawdust ocean that is Hardwood Hermitage.  Large pieces of red oak and red maple from recent sessions were cut to stove-sized lengths, and then stacked.  The first pic shows some of the new sawdust the big saw created today.

After the cutting, the pieces were added to a pile near our wood shed.  None of this will burn for more than a year!

This is a close up of red oak, prized for its many uses and cool grain.  The wood does a great job in the stove -- the species is perhaps the best firewood that is common to New England.

Some of tomorrow's victims, branch pieces and some thinned trees, will also burn.  The small saw will do this work.

Extensive trail work

Hardwood Hermitage has echoed with the sounds of Stihl power tools for more than 4 years.  A big period of work has occurred with trail maintenance started on Monday.  Several areas with existing trail, like the loop mentioned previously, have been widened with the trimmer (again, the brush cutter with spool and line, not the saw blade).  Some older trails received special attention for the first time in a while.  Here are some pics taken today of the work, which will continue tomorrow.  That should be the last day of trail work for a while!  Ten tanks of gas (nearly two gallons) burned in five days!

This is a pic of the trail just west of the house, heading toward the start of the loop.  Down you go on the north slope!

The loop begins here, a bit north of the first pic.

Baby birches, everywhere as our fans know, mark the trail in many places.  But to call the grove on the right babies may be an insult.  Growing so fast, several of the trees are 30 feet tall, adding about 4 feet a year!  And today's sun had to help!

After a big dip to the north, the east side of the loop turns mainly west.  This is a primary way to get to blackberry bushes and some lovely parts of the property.

This connector trail is near the house.  It's a way to get from the loop to the main eastern trail that also goes primarily north.

The eastern trail isn't quite as pristine as the loop.  There are more old stumps and rocks.

A delightful morning of cutting

The other broken red maple was cut up today.  We had an excellent 90 minutes of work.  More fodder for the wood stove! Most likely, none of this will burn until early 2018.

Walking by baby birches

Relatively speaking, trees are still babies when they are already 12 feet tall.  Young paper birch groves are simply wonderful places to be.  The optimism of new life, the pleasant air rustling leaves, and the sheer awesome sight of transitioning bark.  These types of photos show why Hardwood Hermitage abounds with life that never takes a step.

Greatest solar month

With one day to go, July 2016 goes down as our best month of solar production.  We surpassed our spectacular April this year with a day of more than 36 kw/hrs today.  We're already planning our 20 megawatt/hour party (for 20,000 produced kilowatt/hours), which will take place by mid-September or so, depending on how much our favorite yellow orb shows itself in August.

Another red maple blown down

As expected, some new winds took down another red maple.  Instead of going down the north hill to tackle the broken tree from last week, we climbed the south hill by the house take care of the closer tree.  This series of pictures shows the action from today.  The big tree is all cut up and split.  We'll carry down the pieces to cut in the saw buck one more time, then it's to the 2017-2018 woodpile.

Past and future wood work

Does our life focus too much on firewood? We don't think so! We cut several pieces from an oak that toppled about three years ago.  Oaks don't normally blow down, so on further investigation, it was determined that much of the tree's base had been growing over a rock.  The poor tree simply couldn't get firmly rooted.  The first picture shows some of the pieces we created with the big saw.  The second pic shows those split pieces near the final cutting and stacking spot.

A big wind storm last week broke a red maple, which was certainly no surprise.  Our long time fans know how weak red maple can be against summer gales.  The area around this tree (which was about 70 feet tall and has two trunks) was brushcut and lopped to prepare the cutting area.  Both saws will see action, perhaps this weekend, to process this.  Then the regular splitting, carrying, further cutting, and stacking.  The whole tree will likely yield about half a cord of wood.

The same storm also broke a branch on a white ash.  This tree now has a big scar on the side.  The branch is a bit high, so cutting or pulling it off the tree will be difficult.  The branch might be that way for a while.  The broken limb rests above our loop trail.