Post Twelve: Seeing the Forest Through the Trees

The weekend of April 13th, we brought Brother Clint back up to Madrone Haus to resinstall appliances and help get the house back in order now that the tile had been completed (more on that, next post.)  Once that set of tasks had been more or less completed, the forest began to beckon the would-be lumberjacks.

Having 10 acres of forest is becoming a daunting proposition.  The weekend before this one, Barry had begun to do some clearing of the area just adjacent to the driveway, and quickly realized that there was no way he (we?) would be able to clear and maintain all the land.  Not even the area just surrounding the house.  Not, at least, without a chain saw.  So, off he went, in search of power tools of the highest order.  The story goes, a visit to the local chain saw peddler yielded only cursory interest in his plight from the staff, so he defaulted to our new favorite place to shop, "B & C" Hardware.  Now, of course, once he had his new Husquavarna back to the Haus, he could not get it started.

Upon returning to Novato, he told his sorrowful tale to us, and went to work the next day.  Of course, Neil was able to get it running before he got home, and the story will be told for years, I am sure, of how simple "perserverence" (according to Neil), was able to make it work.

So, the next weekend, armed with a working chain saw and the encouragement of big brother Clint, the deforestation began.

  We are coming to the realization that we have plenty of firewood .  What we need is a bigger woodstove.  And a wood chipper.  And a quad to haul it with. And so it begins.....

It's also wonderful seeing new plants and flowers in the yard as spring warms the ground and provides more sunlight.  As we morph into summer, we are really looking forward to warm summer evenings on the deck surrounded by our land.