From Felling to Firewood

Last week I shared that we began the process of felling some trees in preparation for our spring garden.  Today, we decided to harvest all that wood.  What I mean by that is we needed to cut all the branches off the trunks, and chop both branches and trunks into smaller pieces so we could transport them back to the cabin to cut into firewood.  Our wood burning stove has been blazing nonstop for the past week and we've used lots of wood...I keep wondering how much wood we would use throughout a full winter if the weather was "normal" rather than unseasonably warm like it's been this year!   It was a good, productive afternoon, with quite a few interesting diversions as we worked. 

Being that it is Sunday, I did take a few moments to sit quietly and give thanks for all my blessings...some would say Sunday is a day of rest, but for me, being in nature and working with my hands keeps my soul whole. 

As I walked to the garden (Johny rode Big Bear) I was this captivated by this sheet of ice over a puddle in the road; I looked at it for quite some time, wondering how those interesting curves and ripples were created... 

Back to the task at hand, here are the piles of branches and logs, ready to be piled into the small trailer Big Bear was pulling.  There is another pile of logs on the other side of the garden, behind the pile of branches in the far right corner of the picture.

While Johny waited for me to get to the garden, he discovered what appears to be a fox's den at the edge of the woods near the NE corner of the garden.  

I moved my camera a little deeper into the hole for this picture...

 ...and a little deeper for this one.  It does appear nothing has been in this den for a while (the leaves at the entrance have not been disturbed for a while, but we thought it was pretty neat.  We are going to put our Critter Cam on this spot to see what we can see.

This is our first load of logs and thicker branches...all will make good firewood.

As I walked back to the cabin to unload the trailer, I came across a log with this pretty fungi growing on it.  I liked how the sun was hitting the cluster.

Second load of logs (these were heavy so we didn't want to overload the trailer)...

At one point I looked over and saw Pogo eating something on the ground (he will eat anything, and I mean ANYthing), so I walked over to see what he was munching on.  I was surprised to find him chomping on this bone!  It looks like a tibia (leg bone)...I sure am curious what kind of animal this was attached to at some point!  If anyone has some idea, please do leave a comment.

Third and last load of logs.  We will be coming back for the branches another day, which will be used to make mulch.

Last distraction, I noticed these leaves growing at the end of our ramp.  They are from some bulbs I planted a year or two ago after the flowers finished blooming (I think they are daffodil's, but I'm not sure about that).  I can't wait to see them bloom, though it sure does seem early for them to be sprouting!

The next step for the wood we collected today will be to chop it into burnable pieces...Mountain Man will be doing this in the next few days.  Maybe I'll chop a piece or two, but he enjoys that task!

A final friendly reminder for those who haven't seen it yet, if you haven't taken my 1 question poll yet, check it out!  You will find it on the top right side of this blog post.  If you have a different answer than those that are available, you can leave it in a comment.  The poll will close today at 11:59PM.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise