Got Wood?

Cause we do...if you need any. We got this pile.







And these piles.






And this big fire wood pile.






And look at all these!!





This one is waiting for the road ban to be lifted on May 15th. And then its off to market.






Paul Bunyan needs to do a lot of this. But he's supposed to have his chaps and helmet on...and steal-toed boots, but I'll talk to him about that later.






It was this guy who made such a big mess in my back yard. Yea, he's hiding because he's broken and a little embarrassed that he's been sitting here since February.




We are lucky enough to have 135 forested acres to romp around in, get muddy in, get lost in, make trails on, splash around in, find all sorts of animals in, and generally bask in the glory of all the trees. We have the land enrolled in the state's Current Use Program, which allows us to have a tax break on all the acreage as long as we don't develop it. Which is perfect, since we don't want to develop anything. In order to be enrolled, we have to have a forest management plan, which gives the state an idea of how we're going to maintain the woods over the next 10 years. Here is a page out of the plan:








It talks about what kind of trees you can find in this section of the woods and what needs to be done to manage them for regeneration. So in accordance to the management plan, we had some logging done in February, when the ground was frozen and the least amount of damage could be done to the existing trails and roads. Despite the ground being frozen, I knew that there would be some damage to our roads because of the size and weight of both the skidder and forwarder, especially when they were loaded down with gigantic trees. I went up into the valley yesterday to see what tree carcasses remained.






The blue spot on this tree means it still needs to come down. Dave, the logger, left a few for Paul Bunyan to take down for fire wood.







Here is where it starts to get messy. Dave put down lots of branches and smaller logs in the wettest part of the logging road.

Up into the valley.

Onto the ridge.

Piles of tree tops.

I get kind of sad to think about the years of growth crumbling in one fell swoop. I definitely don't like the sound of a tree crashing to the ground. And the idea of cutting down something that is a combatant against our world-ending greenhouse gasses, makes my heart crumble. However, I do know that in order for life to prevail, things must die. And in this case, if it means a tree comes down just so another can grow in its place, I'm okay with that.

Especially if the young one is as beautiful and as straight and as sweet as this one.