I’ve had the chance to spend quite a few hours walking the forest with Rich to get to know our trees.  It’s been amazing to see the great care he’s taken manage the woodlot over the years for the varying purposes from biodiversity to lumber and fire wood.  On these walks, I try to soak up as much of the wisdom he so generously offer as I can. Rich seems to have managed the forest down to each individual tree — and I think he really even knows every single tree here.

On our walks, we’ve discussed which white pines to encourage for future harvesting to build a house, which trees to keep for wildlife and biodiversity, and which trees to cull to advance any number of aims.  As time goes along, I’ll write a bit about some of the individual trees and other detail.

Rich, Mike & Karlene have also helped me get a start on cutting firewood for next season.  We cut a bit of poplar for heating the shed during our selling weekends plus some other trees to heat our home.  It’s been fun to watch Mike & Rich work together, two chainsaws going at a tree, in an unscripted dance that turned a red maple into a half cord of stacked firewood in short order.

A lot of firewood came out of that one tree

Taking a break

Karlene running the splitter