As you already know, we have a huge amount of beetle-kill on our land. It's sad when another once-beautiful stately pine gives up and succumbs to gravity. Last week we came home from being in town and I looked out the window and the view just didn't look right. I said to Rick, that tree wasn't down before was it? No, it wasn't and it's a biggun. But at least the trees that are dead and eventually fall will go on to keep us warm and cozy in the winter. Gathering wood is essential to our lifestyle, and it also keeps the ground clear of fallen trees.

Here Hailey demonstrates where the tree is in regards to the cabin. I think we are leaving the tree right where it is for now and we have plans for how to use it —maybe a sign for our new (yet to be done) gate post? Maybe some furniture? Two people close by have a sawmill that would make quick work of it. And, the wood is so lovely.

We still have a huge stack of logs from the cutting of the trees in the meadow that are close to the cabin. We decided that instead of taking the easy way out and using that stack we would go further into the meadow and harvest from there for now since in winter it will be covered in snow and unreachable. Better to save the close-in wood for a winter emergency stash. We also need to get the darned wood shed built, and now that our propane generator is delivered and in place we'll soon be able to start on it once the propane tank is delivered, which we are hoping won't be too long from now.

We posted a week or so ago about putting up wood and here is how it looked then. I thought you might be interested in seeing the steps that go into that nice neat stack of wood. Well, okay, I admit it's not as neat as I would like it. It kind of leans and takes a turn in the middle. But, hey.

This is a load of logs that we cut down in the bottom of our property from a large tree that had fallen over years ago and also what was left of two trees that were leaning over the road that our neighbor Mark (who owns land above us) cut down. We told him he could have the wood if he wanted it, and then he left us a couple of logs.

Here is Rick sectioning out a large tree (already fallen) into logs out in the meadow.

Our bounty from the meadow loaded up into MM (Mountain Mia, as we call our Ranger). Again, some pretty hefty logs!

Next comes the smaller sectioning of logs in prepartion for the splitter. We cut the log lengths into smaller segments that will fit into our wood stove. Longer pieces can be burned in the fireplace. It's a messy process and the reason why we wear overalls when doing this part—sawdust everywhere! Rick runs the saw and I push the log into place for him with each cut.

Next comes the fun part — the splitting! Having the splitter makes it so easy. Some of the bigger logs need to be cut into six or eight pieces, depending on the size of the tree. Make a split, put it back on, split it again! This one I think we ended up splitting six ways. I love running the splitter, but sometimes I load the logs onto the splitter and Rick splits. Either way, with two people working the time passes quickly and pretty soon you have a wonderful piney-smelling big stack of lovely split wood! (see next photo).

Here is all the wood after it's been split.

It's not only fun (well, I think so) but a good workout for the abs and everything else. Plus, you get to see and feel the wood up close. All this wood is beetle kill which gives it layers of blue-ish-gray rings. When it's cut into lumber it makes cool stripes. We found all kinds of funny things inside the trees marking-wise. Some had a yellow laquer and funny holes. Some bark had what I like to call "ancient tree writing" on it, which I think are just simply bug tracks. It looks like tree hieroglyphics to me. And some pieces just had ants. Tons of red ants, some of which ran down into my overalls biting at my tender flesh. Damn things.

Sometimes I see wood that I want to keep which drives Rick crazy. I have a pair of "boots" that I use as bookends. I also kept this slab of wood because this tree had two hearts and a beautiful beetle pattern. Rick is going to sand it down for me and then I think I will shellac it and display it.

Another find of mine from this batch of wood, is this single boot. I liked it because it does look like a cowboy boot and the heart of the tree is so lovely and round on the front of the boot.

After all the gathering, sectioning and splitting comes the stacking. Of course. Here is our finished stack of wood which is about a cord and half, with another 2/3 cord on the front porch.

Yes, it does seem like ALOT of work, doesn't it? But there is something very satisfying about working with wood and knowing that all your hard work now will pay off in the winter when you are sitting around a toasty wood fire nodding off for a nap with your book in your lap. That, and that you can stand back and look at what you've accomplished —just you and no middle man. Making use of what nature left behind. I am thinking it's a good thing and well worth the effort.

One annoying thing that we experience up here are unwanted cow visitations. Ranches will bring their cattle up to graze on Forest or BLM land, and they find their way into Sand Creek Park and onto our property. Cattle guards get filled with dirt over time and are no longer effective. The beetle killed pines fall over and take down fences. It is almost impossible to "fence them out", which is the rule of the West.

And, we really don't like them on our property. They can be destructive (to outdoor furniture, bird feeders, etc). And, their poop is a real mess (that the dog's just love to eat, play in, track around, etc).

So, when we woke the other day to about 15 head in our beautiful meadow and up against the house, we were pretty upset. They were eating bird food, rubbing against the cabin, and generally being obnoxious. So, we let Bella out.

As I told our neighbor when I called him about 7:30, "I've got good news and bad".

"The good news is that Bella has natural herding instrincts and somehow knew exactly what to do to drive some cattle away from our place and keep them together as a group."

"The bad news is that she drove about half of them through your gate and into your pasture."

A few minutes later I drove the Ranger (we've decided to call Mountain Mia), over to their place and Deb was on horseback rounding them up. She drove them through some broken fence and then stayed with them to move them back onto Forest land.

Later that day, we were sitting inside the cabin and heard someone hollering. I went out back to find an old cowboy (Richard), sitting on a beautiful horse at our back door. "Hear you got some cattle in here", he said. I told him that Deb had driven them back onto forest land, so he tipped his hat, turned his horse, and went on his way.

Lately we've been getting some beautiful birds that appear to be just passing through. They are not our regulars and only stay about a day or so after checking out the feeder. Our bird feeding station is right outside the window where I always sit in the mornings to check email and drink my coffee, so it's obvious when different birds show up.

This beautiful Lazuli Bunting showed up the other morning and stayed the better part of the day.

He checked out the seeds along with the pine siskins, juvenile red-winged blackbird and juvenile evening grosbeak. He was not a very big bird in size, but big on color!

Another day visitor was this Bullock's Oriole. I never could get a clear photo of him. He did land on the hummingbird feeder looking for something sweet but he was not interested in the seed at all.

Another bird that has been around a lot lately is the Clark's Nutcracker aka Camp Robber. We haven't seen them all summer but now they seem to be everywhere. They like the sappy green pinecones. They are large birds, the size of a magpie and very beautiful in flight. You know when they're around because they are noisy. Hey, after all they are a jay!

I'm sure we'll be seeing more visitors as they migrate to their winter homes.

We moved the game cameras last week hoping to get some different wildlife. Here are a couple of shots that we got:

Yup, that's a mountain lion! (And, a moose).

I figure we'll need 7 to 8 cords of wood for winter. And, maybe a bit more "around the edges" at the start and end of colder weather. So, the strategy is to put up a cord of wood each week during August and September, and then opportunistically cut more if we get the chance.

A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet of wood. This is usually figured as three rows of 16" logs stacked 8 feet long and 4 feet high. That's 4x4x8 or 128 cubic feet.

A few days ago, Lynne donned her overalls, I got out the saw and fired up the splitter and we did a cord. Two-thirds of it is stored on the front porch (which my "fire wise" friends will point out is a bad idea, but when it is -20° outside and the wind is howling, it is nice to have a stash on the porch). The other 1/3 is in a temporary stack awaiting the construction of a wood shed.

Here is a photo of our wood cutting, splitting and stacking setup (note the large pile of logs in the center-right of the photo):

Lynne "manning" the log splitter:

Two-thirds on the porch:

The final third stacked. More to join this stack soon!

We love our new log splitter (built right here in Colorado). It works like a charm.

The next step is to sharpen the blade on the chain saw and do another cord this weekend.