October 1, 2017
gem
animals, farm, flowers, horse
beets, carrots, cayene, garden, gleaning, habañero, jalapeño, Norway, pumpkins, sweet peppers, Virginia, watermelon, wood
The best way to garden in the Fall is apparently to go to Norway. Then when you come back, it is actually Fall and time to move wood and gather in the last of the garden.
Farm Truck
First Load of Wood
The garden is quite the disaster.
But hiding behind all of those brown corn and sunflower stalks is a bunch of good stuff: pumpkins, sweet peppers, cayene, jalapeño, habañero, carrots, beets, and watermelon. More to come too!
Mini pumpkins hide under the grass and weeds.
An entire basket of peppers with more to come.
Hotey admires the flowers while eating corn.
Fin.
Fall bounty.
December 17, 2014
gem
animals, farm, fire
dogs, nature, photography, river, shenandoah, shenandoah river, solstice, solstice fire, solstice party, winter solstice, wood
Puck sez “Fire ready to light”
The solstice fire is ready. The weather report is improving (sorry cynthia). Time to turn the sun around!!
Spring-like day on the Shenandoah
Sunlight begets fire light
Before.
2014 fire
After (2013).
April 6, 2014
apothecaryshedster
farm, food, nature, Photography
amy, mushroom, nature, photography, wood
Acer negundo good for something!
December 27, 2013
apothecaryshedster
farm, fire, nature, party, Photography
nature, photography, solstice, solstice fire, wood
The log that will not burn.
one. big. dude.
November 29, 2013
gem
farm, fire, party
photography, shenandoah, solstice, solstice fire, wood
10 hours of wood piling (2 today), chain sawing, throwing, and general merriment later—welcome to the solstice fire.
Before the day.
A job well done.
Quite the pile.
Done.
Time for a walk by Shenandoah.
April 27, 2013
gem
farm, fire, nature, party
firewood, garden, nature, red shed, solstice, solstice fire, summer solstice, tilling, tree architecture, winter, wood, woodpile
Prepare for winter of course. No rest for the pattern bound on this planet.
Firewood in the red shed.
Remember that tree? Well it has been almost completely consolidated.
Spring light on the winter woodpile.
It’s not just winter we get ready for in Spring. We have to get ready for summer too.
Freshly weedeaten and tilled. Way too early to plant though.
Dirt.
And the summer solstice fire is growing. (Thanks to the tree.) Architecture by Allen.
Solstice fire at 2/3rds ready.
February 10, 2013
gem
farm, fire, nature
black walnut, chainsaw, destruction, firewood, piles, skeleton, solstice, wood
After around 8 hours of work (times 2.25 people), the distinguished tree is dismantled. Plenty of firewood for next winter and wood for the solstice fire too!
Before
During
There
Black walnut dismantled
Wood piles
Almost as tall as Ame.
Several cords (splitter required)
Solstice wood (several piles like this)
Butt log
Base by the ball (over 36 inches)
An interesting joint.
Tree skeleton.
February 9, 2013
gem
farm, nature
destruction, nature, phase one, tree, wood
A distinguished tree is dismantled. Phase one. (before)
Firewood
The buttlog persists
January 31, 2013
gem
farm, fire, nature
apocalypse, destruction, solstice, wood
Good morning walnut tree.
Morning sun peeks over the mountain.
That’s what happens with 40-50MPH winds, soggy ground from 3 inches of rain, and a formidable old tree that had already begun its ultimate lean.
The butt log is several feet in diameter.
From time to time people wonder where the massive solstice fires come from. Wonder no more!
Down to earth.
An ornamental forest pansy redbud is smashed under the crown in the circle—a second victim of the storm.
Adventures in tree removal begin tomorrow. Anybody want to buy the butt log? It has to be worth a few thousand bucks.
November 6, 2011
gem
blog business, nature
wood
Life at Apothecary Shed is not always a bed of roses and formaldehyde. After staying up way too late with some visitors at Coal Stove Sink on Friday (4am?), it was up in the morning to split wood. Our fence recombobulation project this summer resulted in a huge pile of large cherry and locust logs too big to burn in the fireplace. So we rented a splitter from True Value (a whopper packing 2 tons of hydraulic pressure). Saturday was spent moving the same log multiple times. Must have split 5 cords (and moved 13).
Tote that barge, split that wood, stack it in the shed.
Sunday involved moving more wood, finishing up the solstice bonfire (save the date: December 17th), and attempting to clean out the pig pen. Our well meaning animal sitter threw about 4 bales of hay at our pigs (Berlusconi and Sarkozy) in June, resulting in a very wet, absolutely disgusting mix of wet hay, pig poop, and mud in just about equal parts. It’s so heavy that shoveling is not an option. We removed a panel from the pen and got the tractor in there this evening. Still pretty much a mess.
Five weeks and six days until the solstice fire is lit. Here it is in all of its idyllic Fall glory.
The weather was absolutely perfect.
