Snow is gone, I've opened enough pastures to keep the cows fed - and give them their choice. Meanwhile, side-tracked by two more "easy" study guides to publish...
Sounds familiar--minus the livestock. The emerald ash-borer....that ash, which has probably been here since about the 1701-beginning of the Penn-plot township, is going to come down. In a few weeks, when the ground is frozen, to minimize soil damage from equipment. Following the felling, we'll be able to accurately determine its age. A few decades ago, husband had arborist inject it with some compound (antibiotic?). No use. That's going to be a whopping lot of firewood and chips. A mountain of chips for my four little orchard plots. Very good thing I cleared the north corner of property this last year: now there's room for a mountain of chips. Firewood--which he splits with a maul, I with my own smaller sledge hammer and a wedge-- sits by our spring house, rather a distance from front door, nearest to the fireplace. Pile grew too large, so he started another, close to front door, under protection of a large Norway spruce. House was built in 1828, when fireplace was only source of heat: so our three, functioning (out of four) fireplaces were constructed to be very effective at giving heat. And this has been so valuable more than once, when a January ice-storm took down power for days to a week.
Envy your fireplaces. These days, we are trying to get back to eco- and wallet friendly wood fueled heat. Paralleling nature's own built-in efficiency.
Hope you plan on replacing it with a long-lived shade tree, maybe several species...
Do not intend on any replacement at all. Shade and roots not desired--they prevent "agricultural" use of north corner of property (which is only 3/4 acre). Tree sits 5 feet from the springhouse...far too close. And I am really hopeful for a garage in that location: in our 52 years of marriage, we had a garage (of two storeys, built in 7 weeks by us, his friend, his father and brother, my father ) for six years. Only six years. Moved here 37 years ago.
Sounds familiar--minus the livestock. The emerald ash-borer....that ash, which has probably been here since about the 1701-beginning of the Penn-plot township, is going to come down. In a few weeks, when the ground is frozen, to minimize soil damage from equipment. Following the felling, we'll be able to accurately determine its age. A few decades ago, husband had arborist inject it with some compound (antibiotic?). No use. That's going to be a whopping lot of firewood and chips. A mountain of chips for my four little orchard plots. Very good thing I cleared the north corner of property this last year: now there's room for a mountain of chips. Firewood--which he splits with a maul, I with my own smaller sledge hammer and a wedge-- sits by our spring house, rather a distance from front door, nearest to the fireplace. Pile grew too large, so he started another, close to front door, under protection of a large Norway spruce. House was built in 1828, when fireplace was only source of heat: so our three, functioning (out of four) fireplaces were constructed to be very effective at giving heat. And this has been so valuable more than once, when a January ice-storm took down power for days to a week.
Envy your fireplaces. These days, we are trying to get back to eco- and wallet friendly wood fueled heat. Paralleling nature's own built-in efficiency.
Hope you plan on replacing it with a long-lived shade tree, maybe several species...
Do not intend on any replacement at all. Shade and roots not desired--they prevent "agricultural" use of north corner of property (which is only 3/4 acre). Tree sits 5 feet from the springhouse...far too close. And I am really hopeful for a garage in that location: in our 52 years of marriage, we had a garage (of two storeys, built in 7 weeks by us, his friend, his father and brother, my father ) for six years. Only six years. Moved here 37 years ago.