reading

I finished up Henry Beston's Northern Farm: A Glorious year on a small Maine farm a while ago, maybe a week. Technology changes, but people and how people react to technology really doesn't change. It sounds like he had the perfect small Maine farm, up on a hill with a pond or lake at its feet, close to the coast but not on the coast.

At these times when I feel so distressed, it's good to remember that people have thought society was going downhill for much longer than I've been alive. It's a perverse kind of perspective.

29. Henry Beston Northern Farm

apple season

This time of year is always hard for me. I love the weather: cooler temps, less humid air, no bugs. But the loss of sunlight is hard. Also, I have a hard time getting started in the morning because unless I have something very active to do first thing, starting the day outside is difficult. I was reminded of that Friday as the thumb joint on my right hand started to ache just because I went for a walk first thing with insulated work gloves on.

Earlier this week I dropped the very large and very rotten ash tree that which had dropped a limb on the upper neighbor's lawn. It was a scary tree, over 3 ft diameter at the base and growning like it was going to fall before I even started. Turns out it wasn't inclined to fall. I put the straps and boat winch on it and cranked it as far as I could and the tree refused to fall. So I had to take the chainsaw to it and cut it properly. Turns out the whole center was rotted to the point of being nearly hollow. There was 2 to 3 inches of bark and wood all the way around and everything else was compost. But it didn't do anything crazy. (Rotten trees can be full of surprise action) I was able to make the notch, then do the back cut, then back away and wait for it to fall.

Unfortunately, because it's so rotten, we aren't getting much firewood out of it. The upper limbs are good, but the lower 30 ft is all pretty much garbage which is too bad because that would have probably been a couple of cords of wood if it was intact. That tree had the potential to provide most of a year's wood, but as it is will only provide one cord of the five we need to put aside this fall.

But I'm basically done with cutting up the rounds and almost done splitting it. Derien has been hauling it down through the woods in the wheelbarrow and is nearly done getting it all down and stacked. We still have to small twigs and limbs to haul down to the sawbuck. With this batch I've probably accumulated enough small rounds to make the cutting worthwhile.

Other than the tree, I've been pretty unproductive this weekend. But I did get the bolts for the front suspension on the van and got those installed yesterday. I'm still awaiting a tool to press out some bushings so I can get the whole thing put back together again. Found out yesterday that the vendor had oops and not bothered to send it, so they will be expiditing that order which means we might get it some day. I also re-wrapped two of the "temporary" storm windows on the garage. They are exterior and the thin plastic I put on last year did not hold up to the flying debris which is known in Maine as winter. Two more to go.

Yesterday we also went apple picking up the road. We got two big bags of apples (total of 4 varieties), a gallon of cider, and two fresh donuts. It was absurdly expensive, but the fresh apples are so good I really don't care. I love my "in season" apples. Derien made the first apple crisp of the season last night.