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.

Spring in the woods seems to be a bigger transition than autumn. In autumn our activities focus on dealing with the masses of leaves that fall in the yard. The woods change in appearance, but the change is slow, over a period of time beginning in late August. Spring seems to happen all at once. I have my deadline for being done with firewood cutting the first of May and March and April seem to be a rush.

I finished the cutting season with two large red oaks. This tree had fallen several years ago near the point, the area where I cut so much firewood the previous year. This photo was taken March 18 after I had cut the tree and was in the middle of splitting. Most of the large rounds after being cut rolled down a slope so not much is visible in the picture.

This is a better view of some of the split wood. This is looking north toward our garden and house. This tree was about 2 feet in diameter at chest height before it toppled over.

Cutting firewood is probably the easiest part. Splitting takes twice as long, maybe longer, than cutting. Carrying and stacking firewood can take longest. One stack is almost finished, another was made at right angle. This light snow happened while I was stacking firewood.

This is an old road in the hollow to the east of our home. Molly and I were out hunting morels. Didn’t find any, there seem to be less now than in the days of the Great Morel Hunt. This photo was taken on April 14 and trees were starting to show green.

This photo shows the trees starting to leaf out.

Molly looking awfully small walking up from the hollow after our search for morels. The gully is an old road that has eroded. A 1911 map shows a dwelling was in the hollow below near this spot.

This photo was taken April 22 from the hollow to the west of our home. The photo shows a little more green in the trees. The picture was taken looking east and our home is on the top of the ridge.

Cancer root appears in early spring.

This photo was taken May 13 in the same hollow to the east of our home. This is near where I found the spots where deer had bedded in the snow last winter.

The woods are becoming so dense with green leaves that the sun forms bright splashes of light where it hits the trees.

A mystery plant with beautiful flowers I have yet to identify. This photo was taken May 21.

Blue eyed grass. We have some growing in your yard and it can be found in the woods.

The Rocks road on May 21. This is just a little further down the road from the trail I created up to the knoll shown in the photo in the previous post.

Just past the Rocks there are two wood piles covered with blue tarps. Each pile is about a month’s worth of wood for heating.

This photo was taken June 11 looking north from a road that passes our home. Four buildings can barely be seen. The shack is in the center. The large shed is to the right (the roof is visible) with the shop almost completely hidden above. Our home is almost completely hidden also, to the left. The northwest corner of the screen porch is most plain on the left edge of the photo.