In a small canyon in the Southern Cascades
So the last of the large grey pine trees with in the fire safety zone of the home have been removed and almost entirely cleaned up. Winter is the best time to reduce the fire fuel with in the safety zone of the home & structures. There is still more to go but the big offenders have been taken care of.
We are cleaning the road-trail that goes to the approx 1/4 mile of creek that runs through the eastern most portion of the Canyon. There is lots of opportunity to collect fire wood.
We are cleaning the road-trail that goes to the approx 1/4 mile of creek that runs through the eastern most portion of the Canyon. There is lots of opportunity to collect fire wood.
The road cut above the house has grown several pretty large Grey Pine trees. One of the largest of these died a few years ago and was leaning out over the road toward the house. It dawned on me that hey this was a significant fire hazard as well as crush a passing car hazard so we had GoodLiffe Tree Servicie take it down. I have been little by little taking down and hauling away from the homestead area the other Grey Pine within 100 yards of the house.
The road cut above the house has grown several pretty large Grey Pine trees. One of the largest of these died a few years ago and was leaning out over the road toward the house. It dawned on me that hey this was a significant fire hazard as well as crush a passing car hazard so we had GoodLiffe Tree Servicie take it down. I have been little by little taking down and hauling away from the homestead area the other Grey Pine within 100 yards of the house.
OK so there must be a lot of things I could be better. We will continue with the drying and milling just for the learning.
OK so there must be a lot of things I could be better. We will continue with the drying and milling just for the learning.
A cool but mostly sunny day. I left for the Canyon pretty early. After picking up a few things Arturo had requested from Safeway I was on my way up the mountain side by 7:30 am. About halfway up, before cell phone coverage is lost, I got a call from Arturo. He had a couple more things to add to the list, so I said I would stop at the Forest Ranch Store to pick them up. When stopped at the store for those few items, and got inside with the nice smells from the deli counter, I decided what the heck, I’ll stay at the Canyon for lunch. I ordered a couple of deli sandwiches. The Forest Ranch Store makes fabulous deli sandwiches, just a tip.
I didn’t see any wild life on the way down in the Canyon. Often there are turkey & deer, rarely, but sometimes, fox, and bear, and lion, oh my! My mission I decided was to split all the beautiful black oak rounds I had cut last trip up. I couldn’t wait to see if the rounds would split a nicely as I imagined.
After greeting Arturo and unloading supplies I pulled the pick-up close to the pile of rounds, rolled down the windows and turned up the radio. It was a bit cold so I started slow but was soon down to a my long sleeve T-shirt happily splitting away. Not even one round I could not split with simply two splitting mauls! Ahhhhh what satisfaction.
It is a good feeling to know you have the firewood gathered for the winter. All year-long as you go about the business of the Canyon you are in the back of your mind looking for a good place to get firewood. Last year I found a very nice situation below the old pig corral / now materials depot. This year I found an even BETTER one, still accessible by pick up truck, the perfect situation. A large limb of a black oak tree, which has aged dead, still in on the tree, falls but only touches the ground in a place or two, so sits another year or so aging, laying just above the ground in such a manner that you just start up your chain saw and cut off the beautiful rounds, that split apart like pistacheo nuts. Hmmmm good.
Arturo and I also fetched a load of old oak from where I had cut some rounds in the spring while clearing the trail along the water line. This is also the trail to the “Broom eradication site”. The photo with this entry is our load back from picking up some of those rounds. The wood is ok but not great. A little too “digested” by being on the ground. I think we’ll let the rest of that carbon stay where it is and slowly become soil. We have better dead wood in other spots. The trail along the water is quite nice now, or at least passable. We spend a little time each year at improving “the water line trail”. This spring (2011) the CCC crews spent all their time on the water line trail. Last spring (2010) the crew focused on the area around the “mine pond” and the “high road” to homestead. I am happy to say we have the Broom Infestation “on the run” . Of course every year time will need to be spent pulling up fresh seedlings and cutting re-sprouts of “too-big-to-pull-old plants”, and searching and attacking smaller isolated stands. BUT the big infestations have been hit very hard.
Ok, I’m building little compost piles with heavier stuff in the big pile, (coffee grounds, weeds, leaves) mixed with the straw w/ pigeon poop in the black plastic bags.