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Forestry Entries

Misty Morning

Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

Every once and awhile, our homestead is visited by a churning, swirling blanket of fog. Sometimes I can see it rolling in over the mountains to the West; other times, it seems to emanate from our land itself. The mist moves quickly, settling into l...

A Good Arrangement

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

For the last few weeks, we've had some new company in our woods. Jonathan, who works at the local Stihl shop, has begun doing forestry work on our land. In exchange for keeping us stocked with split and stacked cordwood, he gets to sell whatever w...

Building the Solar Shed, Part Three: Siding

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

We haven't done much of anything outside since our shed building blitz this January. For the last two months, we've been hunkered down in our camper, keeping warm as feet of snow accumulate on our land. This morning, a crack appeared in winter's ...

Clearing Trees for Solar Power

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

With the roof of our solar shed nearly complete, it's very easy to see which trees are going to block sunlight for the solar panels we want to install on it. Unfortunately, the biggest offenders are right next to our wellhead and camper, two thing...

Stacking Wood

Monday, October 28th, 2013

For the last few days, Tara and I have spent an hour or two each morning stacking wood. It'll be a year or more before we start burning these logs to heat our little cottage, but the work fills me with an immediate sense of joy. It just feels rig...

Splitting Wood

Sunday, October 20th, 2013

Over the last year we have harvested a huge amount of wood while clearing downed trees on our land. We've been dumping the collection near the top of our driveway—after eight months of off-and-on work, the pile has become something of a mountain....

Cleaning the Drive

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Today, we spent nearly ten hours clearing logs along the edge of our driveway. We've worked at this project on many occasions, but today we were armed with Rick's dump-trailer, and it made a world of difference. Once we had the wood chainsawed in...

A Visit from Kyle the Forester

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Yesterday, as snow fell softly, we met with our local county forester, Kyle. After he pulled on his hiking boots and donned a warm hat, he joined us on a hike around our land, happy to escape the drudgery of office-work in favor of being in the wo...

Waking Early

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

We've been waking early these days, aiming to find balance between laboring on our land and typing in our camper, eyes glued to our computers. If we get outside at first light and do some work with our hands, we seem to be happier and more product...

Informed Decisions

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Over the past few days, I've become increasingly uneasy about our woods cleaning project. I'm not wild about having a big, hulking excavator here, and I feel like we're "wasting" perfectly good wood in our burn piles. So far, I've rationalized aw...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Five

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

Tyler: Rick and his dog Oliver arrive late this morning, ready for another round of clearing downed trees. At first, I'm not thinking there will be much news to report. I'm expecting another long day with more of the same: pulling downed trees ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Four

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

Today, while Tyler was busy programming, I was outside in my work jacket and chaps, tackling the massive cleanup operation in our woods. I spent most of the morning dragging smallish logs and dead treetops out of the woods with our truck. I ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Three

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

This morning, as I chat with Rick about what we want to accomplish with his excavator, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the scale of what Tara and I have set out to do with this homesteading project. When I look closely at our land, the work to be done ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Two

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

Today, Rick showed up with his excavator. It's flipping huge. Tomorrow, we'll get to work. I can't wait! ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part One

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

We're not sure how long it has been since our land was inhabited, but we do know that the woods haven't been managed in many years. For every ten trees standing, there are probably one or two laying dead. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if we ...