Jammin' and Woodland Treasures

It's been one busy weekend! Phew! (There are a few pics.)

My brother came over with his jammer to help us get our firewood logs out of the swamp and hemlock grove. That's it, the blue thing I'm following into the woods.

The chains that are hooked one side to the other, are what carry all the weight of the logs as they are loaded, hauled out and unloaded. In this case, the logs will be unloaded at the edge of the turn-around at the cabin.

Hook, drag, rehook, load, unload, a total of 4 times in and out of the woods from a quarter mile in, which is the distance of a standard 40.
To unload, the lock on the chains, is tripped with the tip of a pick, so as NOT to take a hand off in the process. By now it was noon and we were blessed....with
RAIN!!!!!, much needed Rain. Since it rained the rest of the afternoon and half the night, there were always other jobs to do, like....eat homemade tomato soup with thinly sliced pork steak and toasted cheddar cheese sandwiches, washed down with fresh brewed coffee. ( Sorry Jack! I had to do it.) Besides, I'm sure Sherry will make you some. and like.....
Welding a break in the iron on the jammer. The boys had that job finished lickety-split and had time to beat me at a game of golf, (that's a card game).
Next day while the boys were hard at it, I followed again with the box of needs of a logger; like water, apples, chain saw and the parts bucket for Bill. The bucket carries the chainsaw files, oil, a few hand tools, and apples. My man loves his apples.

Anyway, while they were loading again, I moseyed around the grove. The old timers family who owned this woods before us, used to always tell me that there used to be an old 'still' around this area we were logging. I always thought he was just making interesting conversation...telling me that on Sundays, the neighbors would drop by. The womanfolk would go in the house and make dinner while the men would go to the shed and drink hooch that they kept cooled down the well. He always said that someday, I will find signs of 'the time', if I only keep my eyes open. Well, lookie what I found! These old pieces of iron are the legs to an old cook stove of some kind. Hmmmm, I wonder if I will find any hooch. Now I'm looking for copper.
Pretty cool, huh?

By the findings, I also come across this huge hemlock with a nice hiding place at its root system. Cool too!Back to business. This huge yellow birch, cut in the standard 8 ft. lengths, took a couple of loads to get out. Usually a load will carry quite a few logs, if you check back to the first load., you will see what I mean. This load, could only carry 4 logs.
Four of the eight 8 ft. sticks from this massive yellow birch...and we have seen many bigger ones. Compare the size to DH who is a big man. You get the idea.
The burl on this log barely fit in the jammer rack and was a bear to release. The boys said it was a good thing they welded the break before attempting to take it out of the woods. The clamp teeth are spread their distance and still have a long ways to go to hug that burl completely. Oh, a burl, is a 'bump on a log'. Nuff said.

I also was looking for deer sheds, antlers the deer loose in the winter. I did not find any this time but did see some photo worthy things like this peeling yellow birch bark overhanging the edge of the creek., and
rebirth of the forest, a new maple sapling just emerging it's pretty face,
a witches face, the mouth and eye, long bent nose of the right side of the cedar trunk, and her scraggly hair behind her.
Are you still using your imagination? Do you see the green alligator out of his terrain? I love his eyes.
Dead hemlock trees and stumps often have these Hemlock Varnish Shelves from the Polypore family of the mushroom world.
They create their own little community...I suppose I could fence them in....no, they love room to spread 'them-shelves'.
How about this Captain's Chair? I found it in the middle of a cedar swamp that's still so dry even with the rain we finally got. A half-inch just doesn't make the creek rise.
And, who ever would have thought that in the middle of our dense forest, I would find a golf ball, of all things. Now I know what one of the boys does while he is supposedly hunting? It lay within a 1/4 mile of his deer blind.
At the end of the branch lying on the ground, bottom center, is that ball. Forest golf, anyone?
All total, this weekend, nine loads of logs were jammed out, a few more loads of firewood were split, hauled and piled, 2 Cotoneaster and the Mohican Viburnum were planted, and still had time for a Roast Beef Dinner with roasted potatoes, onions, celery and carrots, smothered in homemade beef gravy just like Mama used to make when I was growing up. That meal sure took my brother and I home.

We topped it off with double chocolate brownies and a tall, cold glass of apple juice. When you work hard, you eat good and work it off an hour later. Mmmm

good.

Hope you all had a busy weekend too. It sure makes a body feel good!

God Bless