Woods

October was when the big change happened in the woods. Leaves changed color and fell. Temperatures were cooler—we began using the wood stove in September.

I cut up another large red oak brought down by wind next to the rocks road in October. The tree fell between two smaller trees which helped keep the log off the ground. The top was snarled on two bent trees. Once the top was dealt with, cutting the log was not that difficult since it was mostly in the air and not under tension. Most of this tree is now cut and split leaving the bolt stuck between the two trees and a bit of the top to cut once hunting season cools down a bit and it’s safe to work in the woods again.

Maple leaves tend to fall earliest and show the most color.

I started to bring up firewood stacked in the woods to restack near our home for the wood stove this winter. Some of the firewood is stacked along the roads on our property. The bulk of the firewood is in the woods reached on trails like this one by our ATV pulling a trailer.

This is a photo showing the west side of our garden in October. The western section of the fence is to the left. The newest solar panels are to the right. We’re looking south.

October was very dry which meant lots of clear blue sky. Great for generating power but a little nerve wracking heading into fire season.

There were still flowers in October. These yellow flowers (ragweed?) were next to the path into the garden.

And these white flowers were on the other side of the path into the garden.

By the end of August we already saw changes in the woods. The briar leaves had turned yellow and had started to fall. There were even some spots of color where tree leaves were starting to change. The end of summer here and the beginning of fall were extremely dry, hardly any rain at all.

Even though there had been very little rain, mushrooms were still starting to appear. These mushrooms popped up on the dirt road to our house.

There were still flowers like these tiny delicate wildflowers.

A summer storm brought down three trees across roads on our property. There was a nice sized red oak on the rocks road. A large dead pine fell across the county line road near our home. A large red oak fell across the county line road near our southern border. I cleared a pathway through the roads first and then went back and cut up the red oaks for firewood. This photo shows the large red oak that fell across the county line road being cut and split. The tree where it crossed the road was about 20 inches in diameter. A big tree—there’s now more than a month’s worth of firewood stacked by the road for next winter.

We came across this large caterpillar in our yard. If you look closely at the head, there are horns. The horns and spikes make it seem formidable. The insect was about 2 inches long.