Unity Farm Journal - First Week of December 2014

As the snow falls and windy/moist winter weather envelops the farm, the work has become a combination of managing warmth, tending the vegetables in the hoop house, and indoor activities.Woodlot management has become my major winter exercise - walking the trails and inspecting the forest for fallen trees, broken branches, and pieces of long dead cedar that have not decayed.    I’m still working on processing ash trees that fell during Hurricane Sandy.   Ash does not need to be aged and becomes instant firewood.  I do my best to leave stable dead trees in place so they can become bird habitat .I leave fallen/decaying logs in place as they are an important source of food and shelter to many species.   Up to 20% of the species living in the Unity Farm forest depend upon dead trees and fallen debris.However, I do harvest freshly fallen trees/branches, cedar, and leaning trees that are caught by other trees.    The technique for cutting leaning trees is challenging and dangerous so I hire professionals to take down the larger trees that are likely to cause me harm.I've divided the property in zones per the lessons I learned from The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach by Ben Falk, which I read on my Kindle Paperwhite while traveling.      This weekend, I'll be in Zone 3, which includes areas accessible by our trails that I visit at least once per week.  In the upcomi...
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