Christmas Eve at Middleworld Woods

T'was the day before Christmas, and all through the woods,
The birdies are feeding - the seeds all taste good...

Woke up to a light covering of ice on the trees - just enough to make the woods look like glass.  Took a hike out to check on the OSO site - it's very cold but peaceful out in the woods. The wood nymphs are are sleeping, the squirrels are all cozied up with their stache of nuts. The temp has risen to 35 degrees so the ice is melting and all the dripping in the woods sounds like the flowing of a stream. 

Solstice was excellent Tuesday morning. I stayed up all night to film the enire Winter Solstice-Full Moon-Total Eclipse.  If you didn't see it, you missed an historic event. 

Here are some photos from the woods.  Have a Happy Holiday folks!

Planning for Spring

This week I made some investments into Middleworld Woods - I ordered 25 Ninebark seedlings, 50 Shortleaf Pine seedlings, 25 White Pine seedlings, 1500 Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds, 1500 Pearly gates Morning Glory Seeds, 50 mixed Tulip bulbs, 25 Ice Follies Daffodil Bulbs, and 30 Mixed flower bulbs.  This Spring we will decide how best to utilize these in beautifying Middleworld Woods.
We will be taking donations of packets of seeds, bags of grass seed, potting soil, bags of landscaping rocks, bags of mortar or concrete, etc... Most of these run less than $5 a bag, so even donating 1 bag of something will really help.

There had been some discussion about planting a garden in the pasture area to grow lavender, herbs, vegetables, etc... There's plenty of room to do this, with the understanding that the groups that plant the gardens will be responsible for their maintenance and upkeep. 

We're looking forward to the workday tomorrow. While it may be a bit cool, the weather is supposed to be nice. We will be working from 11am - 4pm and we do have sausages to cook on the grill if anyone is hungry.  If you can come out, please do. 

Added Electricity to Shelter Hut

I ran electricity out to the shelter hut this afternoon and installed a temporary outdoor light in the ceiling of the shelter.

As you can see, the shelter frame is coming along nicely. Still, the photos do not do the hut justice - it's much larger and better looking in person. 

There's still quite a bit to do, adding more branches and weaving in much more grapevine.  It was quite windy and cold out this evening, but on a calmer night, and after the additon of more branches, it should be a very hospitable gathering place.  The ability to lay canvas over the shell of the hut adds a greater opportunity for comfort.  It's a work in progress, but it does give members an idea of what they can do in their own areas.

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Sapling Shelter Hut

One of the nice aspects of Middleworld Woods is that there are saplings growing close together in almost every part of the woods.  We experimented with a small group in the common area and came up with a plan to use live saplings to construct a domed shelter hut. I will outline those instructions here.

This is the basic design concept of the hut:

We found several saplings that were growing approximately 10' - 15' apart. Using a heavy rope, we snagged the top of the saplings and pulled them over in an arc and secured them with large zip ties. We used the branches to interweave a latticework between the samplings.  In the Spring, when these saplings leaf out, the leaves will provide a natural covering for the hut.

We took other saplings that needed to be thinned out and created additional support arcs and then used branches, grapevine, etc.. and weaved these in between the support saplings.  We left two sections open for doors.  We cleared the "floor" inside the hut - there's a large enough area inside for a small rock fire ring, should one be desired.  There is also plenty of room for several lawnchairs around the perimeter of the hut.

The photo doesn't do the actual hut justice - from the inside it is much more developed and intricate. It is hard to see this in any of the photos we took.

In addition, we will be planting grapevine, trumpet vine, honeysuckle, and morning glories all around the perimeter of the hut - all of which will eventually grow up and over the entire structure, except for a opening at the top of the hut where smoke from the fire in the fire ring can escape.  The advantage of having this hut in the common area is that we can run an extension cord out to the hut to provide light as needed.  It is also possible to put a small outdoor propane heater in the hut.  The hut is large enough to accomodate 10-15 people, and eventually with the growth of the foliage around the hut, it will provide substantial protection against the cold in the winter months.

These type of huts can be easily built most anywhere in Middleworld Woods.  They make a great alternative to tents as well - I can picture a bunch of these little huts all over the woods at some point.  And the best part is that no trees have to be killed in making these "living" huts.  Hope everyone has a great holiday season, and don't forget the workday next Saturday.

Thanksgiving at Middleworld Woods

It was a holiday season here. Wednesday night we had a tornado touch down less than 5 miles from here, and by Thursday morning the ground was covered in a thin layer of ice.  We had a lot of rain, but not enough to make the waterfall run more than a slow flow.  I'm always very disappointed in the phtotos of the waterfall because the photos all fall victim to an optical illusion - the waterfall looks like it's a 1 foot drop, when actually it's more like 4-6 feet, depending on how much debris has accumulated at the bottom of the falls.  John built a 3 foot rock wall around the basin to form a catching pool, but it still isn't perfected - it still lets too much water out too quickly.

The small pond at the back of the house had accumulated quite a bit of water though.  At center it was waist deep.  This is a much better gauge of how much rain we actually received. 

I have walked the trails several times over the last couple of weeks - most of the trees have shed their leaves now and it's the perfect time to really do some work on the trails and clearing areas.  I'm looking forward to the workday on Dec 4 - there's so much that has been done since the last workday, and if we have a good turnout, we can accomplish quite a bit more.  Oakshade Sanctuary is scheduled to pick out and clear their site as well on this upcoming workday.  Please start spreading the word about the workday - we need as many people as possible.  Hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

Started cutting new paths.

We started recutting the front path today - the one we had done 3 years ago before the 2 ice storms hit.  The farther we went the more trees we found toppled from the wind storm last year.  Spent the morning out and about in the woods cutting wood for wands from several different species of trees.  Sanded, carved and stained 2 special Harry-Potter type wands for my grandsons. Gage, the oldest, went around today casting all sorts of strange spells - one went something like "petrified asses" - his pronunciation of some of the Harry Potter spells is hilarious. So far I have about 20 wands cut, and about half of those have been rough sanded. 

We have wands from Elm, Ash, Poplar, Cherry, Mock Orange, Privit, White Pine, Oak, Hackberry, Lilac, Spruce, Rose of Sharon, Pear, Walnut, etc... I'm hoping we can find someone who excels in natural wand making and carving.

Tomorrow seems to be the last day of good weather for the week, so I will try to get as much done tomorrow as possible.  Not quite sure what's in store for Yule this year - haven't heard if anyone is going to be using the woods for Yule or not yet.  Here's hoping everyone has a great week.

Worked All Afternoon on the Common Area

John and I started working on the shelter for the common area - we bent several saplings together in an arc and secured them and added several small tree trunks for support. I cleared the ground under the shelter and we wound grapevine throughout the saplings and support trees. I also started the frame for a triangular rock table and finished clearing the trail from the common area to the pasture.  Once the shelter is complete, it will be covered in foliage and grapevine. We will also be planting morning glories at the base of each tree and support trunks which will then grow up and over the shelter walls and top.  We are both pretty beat!  Tomorrow will be another workday of sorts - feel free to come out and lend a hand if you can.  Here's hoping everyone has a great weekend.