RicelandMeadows

October 22, 2024

The fall foliage is almost at its peak. It is a beautiful time of year in northeast Ohio. I was able to participate in a logging seminar at a friends farmstead in southern Ohio.

We came together as friends to share our knowledge and experience about restorative forestry, chainsaw safety, tree selection, tree felling, surgical log extraction using draft horses and why these things are important to us. We, the Suffolk horse groups from northern and southern Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia, had a great time coming together for a fun, productive day in the woods.

We were joined by many people from the public, but our main goal was to teach some of our younger members and friends the process of production logging. It was an excellent, productive time. We felled white pine trees that had been planted by the current landowner’s grandfather. The big trees are showing their age and decline. The surrounding native hardwoods need more sunlight to thrive. This made for a needed harvest and a wonderful teaching opportunity.

Upon returning home, I was inspired to continue filling our sugarhouse woodshed. I started cleaning up some wind blown, dead and down trees. The location is near the sugarhouse, on a small hill that can use some attention.

Here too, white pines planted 60 years ago, are shading out more desirable hardwoods. They are too close even for themselves to flourish. I will begin removing a few once I get the storm damage cleaned up.

I first take out the saw logs. They will be sawn out for usable lumber. In the corpse of just one wind blown, down white pine tree, I salvaged 6 nice logs from 12 to 8 feet in length. I will pull the logs out with the horses in the coming days.

There was also a fair amount of dead and dying apple wood to be cleaned up. That wood will be used in the sugarhouse to boil maple sap. The white pine brush from the treetop will be piled and burned for now. In the next few weeks I will harvest a few more trees. The tops and branches from those trees will be piled to create winter habitat for small woodland creatures. I think that is a productive way to be a good steward for the woods and its animals.

Our young horses will get a chance to learn all about logging too. Here Amee teaches her daughter Grace how to work as a team. This was Grace’s first time hitched as a team. We are walking back to the barn after pulling a wagon. She is learning quickly and easily. We are proud of our girl. Grace is in the foreground of the photo. (Some of you will remember that Grace fell into an old hand dug well as a weanling. She recovered fine and will soon be a integral part of our farming operation.)

The month of October is going by fast. The weather has been very nice. We know winter is coming, but we are enjoying some warm and dry autumn days. We are capitalizing on these days to finish the filling of the woodshed, while cleaning up dead wood that would otherwise just go to waste. I also like the look of the clean landscape and a healthy woodlot. There is a lot happening in October that is for sure.