Knitting on public and waiting for the game to begin. Whoo hoo!!
We spent a good portion of this past Sunday afternoon gathering, actually hauling (more about this later), wood from the property next to ours over to our place for splitting and stacking. Here is this weekend’s haul.
Here in Alabama, forestry is the number one industry. Here are a few interesting facts that I found through the Alabama Forest Owner’s Guide.
Facts about Alabama’s Forests and Forest Industry
- Alabama’s forests cover more than 22 million acres, or 67% of the total land
- Alabama currently has about 23 billion cubic feet of timber "in the bank"
- There are twice as many trees in Alabama today as there were 50 years ago
- For every tree harvested in Alabama, 5 are planted
- Alabama’s forest are: 35% pine, 45% hardwood, and 20% mixed pine and hardwood
- There are over 700 species of birds living in Alabama’s forests
- Private, non-industrial landowners own 71% of Alabama’s forests
- There are over 1,100 forest products manufacturing operations in Alabama
- Forestry is Alabama’s No. 1 industry
- About 170,000 people are employed directly or indirectly by Alabama’s forest industry
Many landowners in Alabama, whose property consists of large plots of timber, frequently sell their timber to the forest industry here. This "sale" of the timber gives the company the ability to come onto the property and basically clear cut and haul away all the timber they desire. Depending on the company, they may require hardwood or softwood, like pine.
In our area, it is most often the paper mill who gathers the timber and they are only interested in the pine. This leaves behind a huge bounty of hardwoods that have been literally plucked from the ground by massive machines. The pines are picked and loaded on trucks. The hardwoods are sometimes, but not always, piled off to the side as biomass
The property owner next to us sold his pine timber this summer and now we have a plethora of hardwood to collect and haul home, with his blessing. Thus, clearing the property for the next generation of timber. So, if you try to reach me on chat, twitter, or Skype and I don’t answer, you can make a safe bet that I am out splitting and stacking wood.
Category : Journal
Category : Journal
We tried our hand at planting a fall garden this year. Well, sort of. We actually planted things we thought might produce just prior to the first frost. Having never done this before, we were not sure what would happen.
One thing you can pretty much grow, year round, in the Southern United States, are tomatoes. We have always been able to produce these. Apparently, Lettuce, Onions, and Broccoli require way more attention and cooler temperatures than we are able to provide. So the lettuce is growing in pots inside the house and every once in a while Mr. K picks a few leaves for a salad. The onions were a flop. Same with the broccoli and the Brussels sprouts.
We determined that the pumpkins and winter squashes would have done better if planted where they would get more sun. Since we have only been in the house 2 years and this is our first (feeble) attempt at a garden, we at least were able to learn more about where the sun is shining throughout the day and which plants would do better where.
The one surprise in this experiment was the bush beans. They are growing like wildfire. So, perhaps over the next few years we can figure out what works in a Southern garden and what does not. For now, I am going outside to carve the $4 pumpkins I just purchased from Wal-Mart…
Category : Journal
I can finally say with certainty that Fall has arrived. The hummingbirds have all headed south and it is time to take the feeders down. This year we had two feeders and about 10 birds constantly buzzing each other and us while fighting for the chance to get at the food. This particular day I was changing their food and this little lady couldn’t wait for me to hang the thing. She started buzzing me and I thought “Well, if you can get that close to my head, let’s see if you will eat from my hand.” She did!
Although the hummers are gone for the season, we still have a lot of Eastern Bluebirds hanging around and it is quite possible that they will be here throughout the winter. Next year we are hoping to place nest boxes in various spots on the property for the Bluebirds as well.
Now is the time we prepare for the deer sightings. Every year we put out piles of deer corn and at night we watch, under moonlight, for the deer to come through and feast. We don’t hunt them on this property, but there are hunters properties on either side of ours and so, the deer are constantly migrating through. Every year, when they realize that the corn is out consistently, they come to eat on a nightly basis.
So, goodbye hummers and hello deer…
