May Sunday

These early summer days back at the Stone House have been nostalgic for me. I’d forgotten the sounds and sights, the feel, if you will, of the mature deciduous forest here. The trees are tall and massive with spacious understory.

Here there has been some better forest management… So much better than massive poplar trees falling across roads and lines to rot away. Trees like any other renewable resource, should be harvested and used for paper and building materials.

We’ve been walking these streets carved into the woods as potential subdivision (which never became, I might add) for almost forty years. The trees are forty years bigger. I’ve always loved these trees, but they’re under poor management. People who have never seen Wisconsin were sold small plots between the streets that are spaced 200 feet apart. They’ve paid taxes on “land” or “lots” the sizes on which they will never be allowed to build. All the good it does them is to be able to say that they own land in Hayward, Wisconsin.

This old white pine broke off long ago up there where the four branches now have grown straight up to take the place of that main trunk. I suppose this tree and a lot of the others are upwards of ninety feet tall. I really wanted to get a picture of the whole tree with Elv at the bottom, but by the time I would back up enough for that the man and his dog would be very small indeed on the picture.

I love this picture of my man. The woods are his happy place and have become mine. He has made our living as a logger most of our married life. Sunday afternoon walks naturally happen there too. Mosquitoes notwithstanding. Elv carries pepper spray for dogs and bears especially since Kjelgaard goes with us.

The ferns are perfect just now. This one is called the sensitive fern simply because it will curl up and die at the slightest frost.

Another fun study for me is using the Merlin app to identify the birds that live here. There’s a red eyed vireo whose lovely song has been part of our summer mornings here. Now I’ve finally learned which bird it is! After all this time! Her nest could be at eye level in the underbrush out behind the house. But I’ve never seen it. There are nests in the grape vine thicket and on the top of the stone pillars…the corners of our house. Robins and finches use these nests.

We planted three apple trees. If they grow as strong and lovely as the woods around us there will be bushels of apples in our cellar soon and for years to come. The sprinkler keeps busy on lawn and baby trees. Growing a lawn under these big trees is a challenge.