Sunday, November 7, 2010

Elm Removal Crew

We spent an hour and a half cleaning up a pile with several dead elms. What a great day to work in the woods with family and friends. Almost lost a nut, but ended up going home with all the nuts we came with. Thanks Tajenay for taking our photo.

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

A toad for T

Steve brought the Allis-Chalmers tractor to the timber today. Yay!

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Tractor driving practice

Dad and I intended to move the tractor to the timber today. I got some good driving practice. But, when we tried to load it on the trailer, we found we needed a few more inches on the trailer. We'll need to try again another day with a bigger truck.

All in all, a nice hot day in the sun.

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Last of Four Morels

I found four Morels after over an hour of searching. This is the last one I found and the largest.  It was very nice to find any, but I still don't have the secret for really timing my search and finding them.  It is a great excuse to hang in the woods in any event.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

May Day 2010

On May day, we got to the timber for our first search for morels this season.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any. But, we did see many wild flowers and many more Garlic Mustard plants.  We did see Jack-in-the-Pulpit, yellow and purple violets, "trout" lily, May Apple, and even a few dandelions.

We also found that several trees lost their tops this past winter and a large Red Oak and White Oak went down.  The Red Oak had severe rot at the base and may not have any saw logs at all.  The White Oak was the lesser of two trunks and would have at least one log if Steve can get it before too long.

I also have much clean up work to do from many years without substantial firewood harvest.  I sure wish that Grandpa was still here making his firewood runs.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Timber Cruising with Bill

I met Bill and Tina's mom at Bill's timber this morning. We spent a little over two hours with Steve reviewing each larger tree for defects or decay that would mean it should be harvested sooner rather than later. We saw lots of medium to large White Oaks and Shagbark Hickory trees, some nice Black Cherry and many large Red Oak trees. Tina's mom, Donna, joined us to interpret for us and get to spend a very enjoyable morning in the woods.

Steve showed us "cat faces" and how to tell Gray Elm from Red Elm. The Gray Elm has a distinctive white band in the cross-section of the bark while the Red Elm has a reddish-brown band nearest the sapwood. Bill marked several dead and dying trees for cutting in the fall. There are some very nice sized Red Oak, but the question is always "when" should they be cut. Most of the Red Oak's had frost cracks and various degrees of "starring" at the base of their trunks.

There were trails from horses pulling a sleigh or sled and lots of deer and squirrel tracks in the snow. The warm temps were a welcome change from the bitter cold January we've had so far. I can't wait to get out to my timber now and do some more cruising and TSI (timber stand improvement).