Trees

Aahhhh, the foggy forest primeval

________________________

The day we first looked at our property, this is not what I saw. I saw a lot of treeless areas, and not very happy looking trees where there were any. I took one look and said, nope.

________________________

The land had been "selectively" logged a couple of years before, to improve the health of the forest, but it looked pretty sad. There were great bare patches, forlorn looking wispy trees and bulldozer tracks criss-crossing to piles of half-burned trees and slash.

________________________

But...nothing better turned up, and I thought, wait a minute, I like trees a lot, but I also like the sun, and maybe this opened up forest is just the thing. So here we are.

________________________

On further inspection, I learned that there are still some nice foresty areas on the property, with larger trees, native vegetation and nice little thickety mossy pockets. So here is the best of both worlds, really, sun and forest in one parcel.

________________________

I never saw the before picture, but I learned that it was crowded with Lodgepole pines and not enough light made it in to grow healthy trees. Prior to the recent logging, it had been logged 100 or more years before, and the huge stumps from that event are still here. The recent removal of the Lodgepoles was no doubt necessary to make things better, although it didn't look very good at first.

________________________

Now, finally, baby trees are filling in the bare spots. And the skinny, light starved trees that the loggers left behind are filling out and taking advantage of all the new space.

Someday, there will be a forest in there again.
_______________________

We're in charge of making the forest healthy and "productive" since we own it now and have the forest land designation, which considerably lowers our taxes. We've burned all the remaining piles and cleaned up a lot of slash, to discourage beetle attacks. And we try to get rid of dying trees quickly for the same reason.

There are a couple of things I wish I hadn't done, that have done some damage.

One, I planted grass seed, which competes with the trees. A big no no. But I do love a meadow.

Two, I had Firesmart come out to trim the trees up (it's a free service provided by the county to protect your house from fire). The trees look terrible without their lower branches! But more importantly, I think they're harmed by not having their root area shaded, and by the wounds made in their trunks, which invite insects and disease in. Some of the trees that were trimmed(mangled) have succumbed to beetles, and a couple looked so ridiculous that we cut them down for Christmas trees. Thank goodness they didn't do all the trees.

Not to ignore fire safety though. I think the safest thing is to have an area around the house that doesn't have any trees, or anything else flammable, and to keep any landscaping well watered. Not that we do that, but that's another story. At the very least we need to cut down the Douglas firs near the house, which are extremely flammable.

One positive thing we've done for the trees is to keep the knapweed invasion at bay. Nothing can grow where knapweed takes over.

And one thing we need to do in the future is thin out the excess Lodgepoles coming up and favor the Ponderosas over both them and the Douglas firs.

Whew! So much responsibility.

This is a list of tree species that I've found, starting with the most abundant.


Douglas Fir
Christmas tree! And that wonderful smell.
The needles on D. firs go all the way around the stem, like a bottlebrush.

A baby Doug fir growing with Bearberry

Lodgepole pine

The weed tree, to some, to others, very useful for making poles and log houses.

Groups of two needles per bunch - these used to be the dominant species before logging, now most of them are little.

Ponderosa pine

Love this tree!

Groups of 3 needles per bunch - we have all sizes of these but many young ones are coming up now that there's more sun.

The telltale puzzle piece bark - we have a few large Ponderosas still, good for hugging.

The differences between the pines: Lodgepole on left and Ponderosa on right.

Grand Fir

It is.

Needles lie flat in a row - we have quite a few of these beautiful trees, mostly young ones.

Our pet G. fir, in the lawn so it gets summer water; far too close to the house for fire safety, but isn't it lovely?

Western red cedar

We only have two of these, that I've found. This one is a baby near the house that I water in the summer to keep it alive.

Hemlock

The tip top of the tree and some of the branches bend over - our only one, and my favorite tree, probably because it's the only one.

Small needles

It's growing out of a massive decayed tree lying on the ground, which Rusty is standing on. I wonder if it was another Hemlock?

Western Larch - We planted about 50 of these one summer, only 3 or 4 survived. Burned to a crisp! We have a few wild ones too.

I'll have to add a Western Larch photo later, because I missed my chance to photograph them this year. They put on such a beautiful show with their golden needles in October. But now they are bare, so nothing to see.

And last but not least, the mysterious...

Western White Pine! Not a one here, but our neighbors found one on their property. By what the old-timers around here say, this tree was everywhere up in these here parts. Then they all got logged and completely decimated by White pine blister rust. Now we are encouraged to replant with a new improved variety. After the Larch experience, I'm not so sure it will work, but I guess we have to try.

That's the story on the conifers. In the spring maybe I'll go looking for some deciduous trees in the neighborhood. I've seen a Mountain ash, and some Aspens up the road...

Winter begins on the 22nd

Ugh. Aagh. Haaahghhghchooo.

Even the pine needles are cold.

It's the time of year I dread, the days preceding and following the winter solstice.

Although this is generally a miserable time for me, I have to admit that it may have purpose. As in, without dark there can be no light. Ok, but does it have to be sooo dark?

Every winter I wonder why we live so far from the equator. Why don't we live down there where it's always warm and sunny? The answer is, I'm a glutton for punishment. Yes, but also, wouldn't it be a little boring to have the sun all year? Maybe, but so is winter. I'd probably be happiest in a place where there are four seasons that rotate quickly. Or a place where it's spring most of the year, my favorite season.

For a gardener, winter is a welcome rest. It's time to organize the cupboards (oh boy, that sounds fun), or start a new hobby. People always talk about making plans for the garden in winter, but that doesn't really work for me until spring.

Wild strawberries

So, I've had time to experiment with the camera. I didn't read the manual yet. I decided to just start pushing buttons. I found the manual setting and discovered how to change the aperture or the f-stop or whatever (two photography classes really made a lasting impression, didn't they). Experimentation makes it a lot more fun.

I went around taking pictures of everything outside, and discovered a camera is a great device for getting me out of the house and into the real world. Part of winter's problem for me is that I don't go out enough and I get cabin fever. The camera will give me something to do out there.

Wild rose hips

He follows me everywhere.

This little viola still blooming against a nice warm rock reminded me of somewhere warm and dry and Mediterraneany. That's where I'd be right now if I had a magic wand, in a nice little stone house with a stone walled garden where I'd grow zucchini and tomatoes and green beans and I'd bake out in the sun with them. Then I'd sit on the stone patio at a little round table under the shade of lemon trees or maybe a grape arbor for lunch. No sweater necessary. Aahhh, sounds perfect.

The violas may be covered up in snow tomorrow, if the forecast is correct.

I'm prepared for the deluge this year, with two brand new snow shovels and new snow boots. Last year was a disaster with our broken shovel and none in the stores. I pledge to shovel often and early this year. Or to get someone else to do it for me.

My next post will be about our wonderful trees.

It's 31 degrees, mostly cloudy at 8:45 am.

Snow's a flyin'

First snowball fight of the season.

Yep, it snowed the day after TG, now it's almost all gone.

Rusty's having none of it.
This is where he and I like to hang out.
Foggy, 38 degrees, air stagnation alert in effect! at 3:45 pm.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi y'all, happy turkey day, or as I prefer to think of it, pie day.

Mmm, apple pie, I may just have to break the caveman diet for this.
Hope everyone has a good feast!



The weather:
12 degrees this morning.

The days are getting colder, but still no snow. In the mornings frost covers everything and when the sun comes out the trees and plants sparkle. The camera doesn't capture it well but if you look hard you can see the little sparkles on this tree. Is that why we decorate trees with lights?

The frozen yarrow and grass is still pretty.

Isn't this an eerie scene? It looks like the road to nowhere.

The fog was so pretty one morning I tried to take pictures of it. I think it's time to read the manual on the camera.

It's 30 degrees, cloudy and dark at 5 pm.

It's not that bad

It's that time of year again.

The wood has been cut and stacked (thank you dear), the pool has been drained, the trampoline taken down, the lawn chairs put away. Now we wait for the snow, which usually starts around Thanksgiving.

This is what we're burning now, pine and fir. It's pretty light and burns fast, which is good because the real cold hasn't hit yet. Now we have the fire turned down most of the time, so the wood burns more slowly. The pine and fir were generously donated to us by S and J, who still have a lot of downed trees on their property. We used to harvest our own, but our supply has dwindled. We have about 2 cords of this.

We also bought and had delivered 2 cords of a birch/tamarack (larch) mix, which is in the back row there. It's much heavier and denser so it burns longer. It's good to get this going with the lighter stuff and then throw on a birch yule log before bed to last through the night.We had more insulation put into the house this year, and J put in a bathroom heater. This morning it was 14 degrees on the thermometer, but I didn't know it till I went downstairs and looked.

Before the arctic air mass arrived, we had a few days of rain via the pineapple express. It was nice and mild and misty and moist. I imagine it's what Seattle feels like.

It was good to get all that moisture, but I can see how it would get old fast.

After the deluge, it was dry and windy, with the occasional bit of sun.

Rusty was pondering the universe here in the hot spot. Not 15 minutes later the clouds returned and it started to hail.

There isn't much color around anymore, everything is brown brown brown and grey and dark green, except for these bright spots:

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi - Bearberry

Willow?

Oregon grape with Bearberry

Gaillardia trying to bloom, better late than never.
It's cloudy and 41 degrees at 1:50 pm.

First Snow

The snow is here, for a bit. Rain is in the forecast later on.

J is putting lots of leaves on the garden and will till them in before the ground freezes. I hope.
It's 32 degrees at 3:30 pm, light snow falling. It's already too dark outside to take pictures.

Oh Happy Day

Spring has come in November!

The Color Kittens' experiments have come to life, the paint has spilled and it's mixing and turning red and blue into purple. Yahoo! And what's next?

But they had no green. "No green
paint!" said Brush and Hush.
And they wanted green paint, of course, because
nearly every place they liked to go was green.

There it is, everything I ever needed to learn about life in one Little Golden Book.

Here's to a bright and beautiful future.

It's 41 degrees, mostly cloudy at 1:00 pm.