02 September, 2010



Well, it's not pollution that's going on here, but I still feel a little saddened. The Friday before a man called us about selling timber. We had talked to another guy last fall & I guess he gave our number over. Anyway, he came out Mon., walked the property w/ Mike to see what we would like done & came in w/ a bulldozer, 2 grapple skidders & some chopping delimber thing.

Anyway, Mike told him to clear cut the whole mountain side & they'll walk back behind the house later for selective cutting. There are some pros & cons to this, we talked for about 5 min. before the decision was made. Pros, the trees will let in light for things we plant, we've gotten a road cut through the entire property for free, we've space for a proper orchard & perhaps a pasture & we'll be able to afford tuition for the semester. This is the last time we have to pay out of state rates & they are 3 times as much.

Cons include: this is a one time deal, besides it looking terrible I think it's poor stewardship of the land as it'll be another year before we get anything planted back there, where will my moths live? And other things in a similar vein. By law he is not allowed to touch any tree w/in 50' of the stream, though Mike had asked him to, so thank you Forestry Dept.


Victor is in 7th heaven, the skidder has always been his favorite piece of equipment even before those logging shows on Discovery came on. He saw a picture of them in a book & I bought him a little model on ebay which he played w/ forever until I lost. They leave the equipment here, so I let him climb & "esplore" to his hearts content for date night.



I started this post last month, the loggers have been & gone. Here are before & after pictures:


I guess there are no before pictures; on top is the high road, below is the low end of the road.


Jonas Ridge, as seen from the top of the property. I guess we're not really in the mountain mountains. It's levelling out to the foothills.


Those two white spots in the middle are the goats.


Mike was out back trying out his bow today & w/ all of the disturbance he found a lot of tracks. Like as big as his hand tracks. So no more goat following for the chickens. Victor & Charlotte will go everywhere, in flip flops too, to follow the goats. It drives me crazy, there is always a yellowjacket or goat poo to step on too. I just went through Victor's old clothes for her, she got 2 "new" Thomas shirts & his old hiking boots. So far that's helping a great deal. My family is coming to visit this week, we're getting excited.

2 comments:

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