This has been another beautiful day, and we've taken advantage of it.  Around noon Washington Electric came to trim the trees around the line that comes to our house.  The trees had grown up around and under it so some of the limbs were rubbing on the wire and we were afraid when the snow comes we could lose our power.  They did an excellent job - or rather, their contractor, Matt Foster and his crew did.  They chipped the smaller stuff and left the larger pieces for us to use as wood, so we have some pretty decent birch and maple to pick up and add to our wood pile.  We took some pictures and I made a short slide show.  We now have a tunnel through the trees where the power line is.

Later in the afternoon we decided to take a walk in the woods to see where Johnny Doyon, our neighbor's logger, was working.  We could hear him working far up on the hillside, but we were curious whether he had crossed a deep ravine that runs close to our property line.  Our neighbor, Don Encarnacion, owns both sides of the ravine, but crossing it at the upper level is no easy task.  It's very deep and although this time of year there usually isn't a lot of water in the brook, there are a lot of wet, swampy areas that could be difficult for Johnny's very large machine to navigate. 


We had no trouble finding where he was working, on the southeast side of the ravine.  It's interesting to watch that machine work.  It grabs the tree trunk, cuts it and limbs it in less time than a man with a chain saw could complete his angle cut.  We were lucky that Johnny had to shut down the machine to change the chain on the saw, so we were able to chat with him for a few minutes.  

At top right, that's me working my way through a boggy area.  My walking stick kept getting stuck in the mud, but I always like to have one to poke away underbrush and deep grass before I step, and to help me keep upright in rough spots.  This picture on the left is a drier, hilly section that is in much better condition than we found in other spots. The woods is scattered with trees knocked down by Tuesday's storm.  Just inside the woods off our lawn there is a bunch, literally, that all came down together.  I'm not sure why we didn't take pictures - I guess we were so surprised to find them down and the roots all exposed we forgot we had the camera.  There were other trees, some saplings, some deadwood, and a few mature trees down, and lots of limbs down or leaning.  When hope Johnny can clean some of them out for us.  

This next picture is high on the hill in back of Don's.  There will be a nice view of the pond once he's finished taking out the soft wood trees and mature hard wood.  He said he cuts in strips, making his way up the hill and then heading back down.  He pretty much has to cut his way through, taking out small stuff to be able to move around.  The next photo shows you how thick the underbrush is.  

As we were heading back towards home we found a huge, obviously very old maple on the side of the hill.  We remembered it and were pleased it is still standing.  It looks like two trees, but it really isn't.  It has a seam on its lower trunk, but as you can see from the bottom picture, it is one almost limbless tree, tall and straight.  The wonder is that it has stood so long on that hillside.  Its roots must be well anchored in ledges, otherwise, gravity alone would have toppled it by now.  I wish I'd captured the whole span of the trunk in the picture.  There is at least as much again outside the frame of the picture.  Next time we're up there, we'll get a better shot of it.
 
It's not easy getting through the woods right now.  We were able to follow some deer paths part of the way, but mostly we stumbled through brush and climbed over logs.  It was wetter today than it was a week ago when we were up there.  We enjoyed our outing and look forward to doing it again soon.  We were both surprised that, as well as we know our woods, so much had changed we weren't sure some of the time exactly where we were.  It wasn't just the trees that have come down - we haven't lost that many - it is also that all the trees have grown so rapidly.  Just a couple years of not walking through there much has made a huge difference.  We resolve to go more often from now on. 

I have a couple of things I need to mention.  First, Helen Morrison told me about some work she's had done in her gardens recently.  Here's what she wrote: 
Nancy Murray, who does gardening for Sonja and Ted Decker recommended a young man to me, Ryan Holt, to work in my flower gardens as she is totally booked up.  He is a wonderful, friendly young fella, trying to get started in the gardening/landscape arena.  He does a great and careful job and has lots of interesting ideas.  He got 5 flower gardens back in beautiful shape for me when I thought they were a lost cause.  He charges $35 per hour but can do it as an estimate of how many hours/days he thinks it will take and he sticks to that even if he goes over.  It is $280 for an 8 hour day.  His phone number is (802) 745-7987.  It'd be great if he could find some clients around Joe's Pond.

I'm sure there are people in our area who would like some help with their gardens or need some landscaping done.  I'd say Ryan comes well recommended.

Also, I'm helping out at the Apple Pie Festival on October 13th, actually helping Marvie Domey on the silent auction.  We need items for it - she said old "antique" things go well, even things like cookbooks; also, theme baskets with things like wine and cheese, appetizers, sweets, bath items, cooking items, etc. are good.  I just received several very nice hand knitted items from Tucky Sancibrion in South Carolina.  She puts me to shame - I could have been knitting or crocheting for this instead of doing Sudoku puzzles.  Oh, well, there's always next year.  If you have items you'd like to donate for the silent auction, let me know and I can either pick them up from you or you can drop them off here or at Bonnie Dannenberg's in Cabot Village.  If we have them ahead of time, I can make tags for them and it will be easier for us when we're setting up on Friday evening before the event.  This is our one big fund raiser for the Cabot Historical Society, so we hope you will plan on being there to enjoy the fun, eat some pie and browse the craft tables - and participate in our silent auction, of course. If you enjoy baking, by all means enter the pie contest.  I'll have more about that posted here very soon.