my first big tree

So I haven't really spent much time thinking about what I was going to do about wood this year. I knew I was going to take down the big tree by the old house because I intend to do some gardening there and I need more sunlight. Half of that tree is what ended up smashing the roof of the old house, and although there wasn't any rot in the other half, it seemed like it was ok to cut down. I'm not someone who really wants to cut tons of trees down, but I do think that there are times when it's important to do so. The guys were a bit sad about it, and I don't blame them. It was a pretty fine tree.

I was a bit nervous about attempting to drop this tree--it was by far the biggest tree I have ever cut. It was bending a bit towards the old house, and because I intend to save as much of that wood as possible, I didn't want the tree to just land on it. I cut some notches, tried to predict where it fall, and low and behold, it dropped exactly where I wanted it to. Really, I don't think anyone could have done it better. Not even me a second time around!


There will be a lot of nice wood, but I am buying 3 cords from a guy around here as I know I won't have enough of my own to last the winter. That will be perfectly fine, though, because I can continue to work on wood this winter for next year.

The next big project I need to do this fall is build the wood shed. I've decided to move it a bit farther away from the house than what I had originally intended, mostly because I don't think it would look very good there. It will be somewhere beyond the formost tree in this picture, and in front of the big tree that can be seen in the background. More or less, that is. I'll be able to use the old posts from the goat barn, so that that will save some money. Instead of having a shed with a peak on it, I'm thinking of just making it a slanted roof with the same green metal roofing material that is on the house. It should look and function pretty well. Down the road I'll also move the propane take from behind the house to behind the wood shed for ease of getting it filled. Right now I can't really put a garden in where I want to because the propane truck will have to back up close to the house.



Can't remember if I posted pictures of the cleaned out goat barn area ( a few more beams to move but I need some help), and the bonfire pit. Things are looking pretty good!!