Woods

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    Spring, the Garden and Roads

    Every season here has its special beauty but spring, maybe because of the rampant abundance of growth, the season always stands out.

    We still have logs in the the garden area, pines which had fallen years before. After cutting up three logs with the chainsaw in March, I hauled the logs away in April and mowed that spot. When spring came the barren expanse was filled with ferns and Solomon seals. Strangely, when I mowed the garden for the first time this year, most of the new growth was gone, eaten by deer or killed by the hot weather and direct sun.

    After a wind storm some poplar flowers were on the grown. It’s easy to see why they were called tulip poplars.

    We’re done cutting firewood and it’s stacked by the roads ready to bring in next autumn.

    Everything is green now when a couple of months ago it was shades of tan and brown. This is a view down one of the roads in our woods.

    I mow the garden area every other week in the spring and summer. The yard, because of all the shade, is mowed just once a month. Most of the yard is covered with moss rather than grass, like here. The patches of sunlight are so bright. This is part of the yard at the edge, where yard turns into woods.

    A lot of April was hot, and then May was cool. We were using the woodstove the week before Memorial Day weekend. It’s warmed up, but since we’re in shade now, it’s cooler for us than out in the open.

     

  • March in Like a Lion

    March this year came in for us like a lion with a windstorm that blew over a number of trees, some across roads in our woods. Molly from our home saw one large pine go down.

    treedown

    This was a large (about 24 inches diameter at chest height) pine that blew down during the March 1 storm. The trunk is visible to the right. This is the road that goes toward our southeast boundary, past the road to the Sheep Rocks.

    treedown_road

    The trunk of the tree lay across the road with parts of the top and other small trees on the road beyond.

    treedown_back

    This is the view from the other direction, back toward our home. We started cutting from this side to clear the road.

    branches

    Clearing the branches means entering the tangle with a chain saw and being very, very careful.

    road_clear_logs

    We cut the trunk into 4 foot long sections and it took both of us to roll the heavy pieces off the road. The sections were so thick we had to cut from both sides — the bar on the largest chainsaw we use is 18 inches long.

    road_clear

    This is the view of the cleared branches and stuff toward home. We spent about 3 hours clearing this section of the road. Downed trees on the county line road took another two mornings to clear. One of those trees what a large white oak so we were able to get some firewood out of this. We can’t burn pine, but the piles of limbs make good animal habitat.