Category Archives: Woods
First copperhead of the season
Hiking trail
In the last few years I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the woods clearing brush and thinning scrub cedar trees. Just playing with the chainsaw as much as anything but the brush piles resulted in some paths so I’ve toyed with the idea of a walking trail.
With no shortage of rocks I decided to line the entrance and that work is just about done. Here’s a “before” look.
We like big rocks (and we cannot lie)
Yesterday we had a couple of big rocks moved to where they can be seen and appreciated. Took the landscape guy (Brad) about half an hour.
Wildlife: Black Snake
The door in the photos below is to my tool room in the Annex. Guarding the door is our resident Black Snake, Murray. 
Wikipedia assures me Murray is a “good” snake (my word, not theirs);
Rat snakes live in a variety of habitats; some overlap each other. Rat snakes are excellent climbers and spend time in trees. They live in habitats ranging from a rocky hillside to flat farmland. It prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches; the snake is also a competent swimmer. During winter it hibernates in dens, often with copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. This association gave rise to one of its common names, pilot black snake, and the superstition that this nonvenomous species led the venomous ones to the den.
While Black Snakes are harmless, I give this guy a wide birth because… well, he’s a snake. Like the article says, where you find Black Snakes, you’ll find copperheads. I killed at least a dozen last summer. Fortunately, they tend to stay on the ground. Like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. But they’re part of rural living, so…
More brush pile porn
When you start clearing brush there are no good (close) places to put it so you just start a pile. Or several piles. As you make progress you quickly see you should have put the piles where they would be less visible but now it’s too late to move them. I got tired of looking at a couple of piles so it was time for the Big Chipper.
Clearing brush
Warmer days means more time spent in the woods. Clearing brush on a piece of our property that doesn’t appear to have been touched in… forever.
Spring will bring more ground cover and everything will look very different. And this isn’t what anyone would call “pretty” woods. Lots of scrub cedar and rocks. And more rocks. But the birds love it, and so do I.
Firewood reloaded
This week we burned the last of our two year supply of firewood so today we went to see the Firewood Man for another load. Props to Barb for the exceptional job of stacking (bottom photo).
Trail blazing
Okay, that’s a little much. For a while I’ve been thinking about cutting some walking paths through some of our heavily wooded property. Nothing fancy, maybe four foot wide. Just to make it easier to take a little nature walk. Barb and I did a little scouting over the weekend.
My original thought was to map out a path and try to follow that on the ground…
but I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to just start walking and cutting (with my handy little electric chainsaw), making it up as I go. Truth be told, it’s pretty unlikely this will get much use by anyone except Barb and I. To launch the project –which will take a long time to complete– I picked a starting point.
Which this space for progress reports.
Dying ivy vines
It’s been about 14 months since I cut the ivy vines that were slowly killing the big oak trees on the property next to ours. The first thing I did following the purchase. The leaves are slowing falling and I hope the vines do in time.
