Mountain Projects

We stayed busy on the mountain this fall. We had a couple of problem trees that needed to go. One had twisted in a micro wind burst and was  dying, the other had grown to lean over the house and we worried about it falling at some point.

The Forest Service has a program called 'Firewise" intended to help those living in the forest reduce the fire danger to their home. This program reduces the number of trees and spacing between them to prevent fire spread. Some of our land was densely packed with dead falls, dying trees packed closely and considerable debris all over the ground. None of this is per good forestry practice. The Forest Service comes in and identifies the trees that need to be removed and a wood cutting service arrives to do the actual clearing.

It worked out that our problem trees were able to be removed as part of this program. The Forest Service picked up about half the cost of reducing the fire danger on two acres of our land around the cottage.

It is like living in a park now.

The twisted fir tree dropped

And cut up and ready for splitting into firewood

Trees thinned to reduce fire danger

Trees thinned and ground cleared. The enclosure conceals two storage tanks for water to be used for filling fire trucks

We mowed the grasses back of the house

Much of the ground clearing was done with this machine

Many of the trees were cut into firewood lengths

We designed and manufactured a 12 foot wood rack to hold the latest cuttings of firewood

This is in addition to the other wood racks already filled for the season

The folks that deliver our propane told me the vent for the system really needed to be protected from snow buildup

We built this enclosure to protect the propane vent from snow buildup while still allowing airflow

Last on the list was the construction of a rack to hold the various lengths of wood we have acquired