Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The north forty

This is a view of the section of our yard that I call the "north forty." I'm standing under the Himalayan cedar looking east. Our house is on the right. The three birches are the ones coming down this summer. Behind them is the big round juniper bush that is also coming out. It's hard to see, but it's full of tree saplings and thorny blackberry vines and is a general mess. We'll have a bare patch for a while before the grass and wildflowers fill in.

The birch branches on the ground are what's left of what fell on the fence in December. I cut the bigger branches up with a chainsaw and burned them in the wood stove when we ran out of heating fuel a few weeks ago. That metal contraption is a sawhorse.

There's another dead birch next to the carport that is also coming down this summer. It's sad to have lost so many trees in such a short time, but I understand that birches don't have a very lengthy lifespan and they've been here for close to fifty years. Still, it's nice to open the yard up to more light and better views, so there's an upside. We don't have plans to replace the trees or or the juniper in the north forty.

5 comments:

  1. That's going to be a major change in your views. Nice. We had mature juniper in Connecticut. It was beautiful but a bear to clean out, and I an awful skin reaction every time I tried. Fortunately, good gin doesn't have quite the same effect -- so far, only sinus congestion, but I suppose I shouldn't take any chances.

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  2. "That metal contraption is a sawhorse.".... I have the same!
    But I have just seen an eight-legged one and you cut in the middle section....
    so you don't have to keep bending to pick up the logs!!

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  3. That contraption is interesting! I've never seen sawhorses of that size before! I love that photo! Overhanging tree branches just look calming and peaceful to me.

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  4. Birch trees tend to be rather fragile, as I recall, so to have one that's fifty years old -- that's a regular Methuselah. Maybe you could save the bark, make a canoe, a little wintertime project.

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  5. mitch, the bigger they get, the harder they are to keep tidy. And who knows what lives inside?

    tim, wow! I don't use mine much any more. I can now get firewood that is already cut to the right size.

    mary, it really was helpful during the years when I had to saw 1 meter logs into three pieces.

    emm, oh sure, something ELSE to do! LOL

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