Winter Trees

Winter Trees, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

One more wintry post before - we hope - Spring begins bursting forth in Joy.

Night Trees

Night Trees, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

Inspired by a recent night hike...

An Icy Winter At the Farm

Winter At the Farm, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

Her hair shone silver
like a crystal chandelier
and her clarion voice sparkled
when she sang

and the song she played
could only last a day
still she glimmered and glistened
and proclaimed

Apple Cider Festival 2013 Poster

Apple Cider Festival 2013 Poster, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

We celebrated the 2nd Semi Biennial Apple Cider Festival & Highwater Hootenanny this last weekend and a good time was had by all!

Tree of Heaven

farm_03, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

Yesterday, a group of unnamed farmers traipsed through the early fall forest in search of Trees of Heaven, in order to mark them for destruction.

Tree of Heaven - ailanthus - you see, is an invasive species. Part of our forestry plan included the process of getting rid of these trees in the woods around the homestead. And the thing is, you can't just cut them down. When you do that, the trees go into defensive mode and send out roots all around the cut-down tree, so instead of one Tree of Heaven, you end up with three or four.

So, we had to mark the trees while the leaves were still on (so as to be more easily identified) to be chemically removed later on in the fall.

There were a goodly number of these invaders. Certainly dozens were identified before I left, and they were still working on it beyond that.

And so, if you were to visit the woods at the Unnamed Farm in the next few weeks, you would see tree after tree marked "Danger" and "Caution."

And that's the news this week.

(I will add, editorially, that it seems wrong, somehow, to mark a plant called "Tree of Heaven" for destruction... Perhaps they should have called them "Trees of Perdition...")

Classified Forest

DSC_0004, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

It's official!

Howl at the Moon Housewarming and Hootenanny

Farm Families, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

After years and years of planning, work and preparation (and planning and work), the Brown Kinloch and Thomas families have joined the Lori/Togami family living together in community.

God bless them all as they begin this adventure together!

A Housewarming Limerick

The families, Brown Kinloch, Thomas and Lori
And Togamis all dreamed a great story
That once 'pon a time
A community sublime
Could be built with hard work, to great glory

And so they sat and began to plan
And they planned and they planned and they planned
They planned a bit more
Then planned a bit more
And they planned and they planned and they planned

And AFTER all that hard preparation
And applying for permits and probations
And moving huge logs
Bringing chickens and dogs
The families moved in with jubilation

Happy Moving In Day!