septic headaches and woodlot management

Friday, April 1, 2011

septic headaches and woodlot management

myrtle and blackberry

 Oregon wild current

Its been a while. I had to get the septic tank pumped and dig up the main  drain line that was plugged possibly with an abundance of lanolin-treated Charmin toilet paper. All is well now and I'm planing on burning all but the grossest t.p. in the future.
My recent exercise regimen includes an hour-a-day of picking up some of the thousands of old drain rocks that clutter the lawn.
After two months of which there was a mere handful of days in which we were not caught in a deluge, a squall, or a steady drizzle, the past three days have been pleasant and dry.

I have five acres here, one of which is cleared for house, gardens, chickens and future pole-barn. The other four are heavily wooded. I've been spending a lot of time in the woods getting familiar with a variety of trees and attempting to formulate a harvest for heat plan.
I have read that five acres can support heating a house in northern climes. I would think that four acres should support a wood stove that is my main heat source- especially considering that five months of the year, May through October, heat is unnecessary in southern Oregon. But, so as not to harvest so much that the integrity of the forest is disrupted, for now, I want to attempt to harvest half to three quarters of of what I need for heat-between 3 and 4 cords.

Oak clusters

The Curry Coast was burned in the 1930's so practically all the trees are  somewhere between forty and sixty years old. The Spruce are dominant. They have grown faster than the Douglas Fir and Hemlock and taller than the pine, Myrtle, wax myrtle, cedar, and cypress. There are probably 50 of Spruce, varying in diameter between a foot and four feet. Their long arms reach out to deprive neighbors of sunlight.  In the shadows of their limbs many of the shore pines have died and have fallen or remain standing as snags. A dozen Madrone and fifty or so tan oaks are co-dominant in the woods. They seem to have claimed the road sides and the slopes along the creek.
The root structure of the tan oak survives the fires and suckers sprout following the destruction. From each of the ten giant oaks burned, there are clusters of four to ten trees that share a root structure.

Yesterday I had a logger fall one of the trunks of a cluster of ten. I will have about a cord from it that will cure over the summer.

pine

He also bucked up a monster double trunk pine that had split and each trunk had hung up and died in the arms of their spruce neighbors. The pine will result in another two cords of soft wood. Its nice to have about as much hard-wood (oak or madrone) as soft but if I only need to buy one cord of oak this summer, I will be happy.

next winter's heat source, a cord of oak

 As I  take my daily walk through the woods over the next year, I will be attempting to choose a large spruce to sacrifice. It should be one that has a cluster of struggling hemlock and Doug fir surrounding it that will die soon if not given access to more light. The wax myrtle, silk tassel, salal, and huckleberry will thrive in the void while the slower growing evergreens stretch toward the sky.

I planted nantes carrots and shallots today. Steve and Terri caught the first springer for our neighborhood. Chickens laying a dozen eggs-a-day.

updating the front entrance with new pavers, Irish moss and alyssum.

septic headaches and woodlot management

Friday, April 1, 2011

septic headaches and woodlot management

 Oregon wild current

Its been a while. I had to get the septic tank pumped and dig up the main  drain line that was plugged possibly with an abundance of lanolin-treated Charmin toilet paper. All is well now and I'm planing on burning all but the grossest t.p. in the future.
My recent exercise regimen includes an hour-a-day of picking up some of the thousands of old drain rocks that clutter the lawn.
After two months of which there was a mere handful of days in which we were not caught in a deluge, a squall, or a steady drizzle, the past three days have been pleasant and dry.

I have five acres here, one of which is cleared for house, gardens, chickens and future pole-barn. The other four are heavily wooded. I've been spending a lot of time in the woods getting familiar with a variety of trees and attempting to formulate a harvest for heat plan.
I have read that five acres can support heating a house in northern climes. I would think that four acres should support a wood stove that is my main heat source- especially considering that five months of the year, May through October, heat is unnecessary in southern Oregon. But, so as not to harvest so much that the integrity of the forest is disrupted, for now, I want to attempt to harvest half to three quarters of of what I need for heat-between 3 and 4 cords.

Oak clusters

The Curry Coast was burned in the 1930's so practically all the trees are  somewhere between forty and sixty years old. The Spruce are dominant. They have grown faster than the Douglas Fir and Hemlock and taller than the pine, Myrtle, wax myrtle, cedar, and cypress. There are probably 50 of Spruce, varying in diameter between a foot and four feet. Their long arms reach out to deprive neighbors of sunlight.  In the shadows of their limbs many of the shore pines have died and have fallen or remain standing as snags. A dozen Madrone and fifty or so tan oaks are co-dominant in the woods. They seem to have claimed the road sides and the slopes along the creek.
The root structure of the tan oak survives the fires and suckers sprout following the destruction. From each of the ten giant oaks burned, there are clusters of four to ten trees that share a root structure.

Yesterday I had a logger fall one of the trunks of a cluster of ten. I will have about a cord from it that will cure over the summer.

pine

He also bucked up a monster double trunk pine that had split and each trunk had hung up and died in the arms of their spruce neighbors. The pine will result in another two cords of soft wood. Its nice to have about as much hard-wood (oak or madrone) as soft but if I only need to buy one cord of oak this summer, I will be happy.

next winter's heat source, a cord of oak

 As I  take my daily walk through the woods over the next year, I will be attempting to choose a large spruce to sacrifice. It should be one that has a cluster of struggling hemlock and Doug fir surrounding it that will die soon if not given access to more light. The wax myrtle, silk tassel, salal, and huckleberry will thrive in the void while the slower growing evergreens stretch toward the sky.

updating the front entrance with new pavers, Irish moss and alyssum.

Ophir tsunami

The tsunami alarm went off at 4AM. It seemed kind of silly to evacuate our house which sits 70 feet above an open beach ocean when constricted inlets in Hawaii got a 7 foot wave. After not finding the cat-carrier for Terri and Steve to evacuate with Lu, we decided to water-watch from the deck while drinking coffee and eating apple pie with sharp cheddar cheese.
Eventually Terri and I walked across the road to a viewpoint across 101. A  set of dungie buoys became an indicator of the current and water depth. When the full force of the  one foot curb of water flooded the beach the buoys sunk in the north flowing current. When the water receded the buoys were slack in the shallows. The rise in water was less apparent than the receding water because of the distance between the waves from the wet sand.

the water recedes, green buoys in the shallows

high water-one green buoy sunk in the current (right side, center of pic)

When we returned home the siren went off again, reminding people to stay off the beach after some beach-walkers were washed of the sand and rescued, south of here at Pistol river.
The harbors of Brookings (35 miles south) and Crescent City(50 miles south) were damaged which will hinder the dungeness fishermen here who have access to limited secure harbors.

We had planned to hike up-river but I can not tear myself away from the Pacific Ocean. I think about those suffering in Japan with losses of friends, family, community, and homes. This great ocean on the edges of which I have spent most of my life, made my living, watched storms build, and birds, mammals, and fish co-exist, sometimes, with great ferocity, takes lives.
 Here, in Oregon the waves are relentless and bone-yards of  bleached  skeletons of forests form windrows between dunes. In the coming years splintered Japanese homes will deposit themselves into the ligneous graveyards.
I feel  my community, those who live on the Pacific shorelines,  suffering. I look out across the ocean and hope most of the Japanese schoolchildren made it to high ground.
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We had cut up a Silk Tassel tree the other day. They grow primarily in Curry County. The wood is heavy, white with an almost black center. Ed cut some rounds to see how it would dry. They split.

Ed and I hiked up a logging road above Euchre creek the other day.

Its interesting to see the regeneration of the forest. One area had been replanted in the past few years. Another seems to have been replanted about 15 years ago. The myrtle and oak trees regenerate from the stumps.

Myrtlewood regenerating

Tan oak regeneration

March 8 Foraging with Ed

nettle &

Caterpillar

Lots of rain but it stopped for a day and a half and we rode the bikes up Euchre Creek and picked nettles.

We cut some snags on the property, walked on the beach and  visited a neighbor who gave us a couple of truffles.

We stopped at Euchre creek's marshy floodplain and cow pasture to listen to the deafening chorus of frogs, incredulous that we could not find the hidden singers.

Breakfast today was the last piece of 2010 Chinook, freshly gathered eggs with sliced truffles and "Killer Dave's" bread. Reading Moe's Greenhorn zine and laughing while the salmon-seine fence undulates in the wind and rain, and the soggy chickens take refuge in their coop.

Astoria for Fisher poets--a slushy trip resulting in a nasty cold

painted dumpster--classy!

Poor Balika had laryngitis in Astoria. Ely Lansing and I helped her read her comical list of the differences of girl and boy boats and her ode to extratuffs while she mimed and modeled her boots.
Here are some pictures of Astoria and the ride up the coast. Andrew helped forge through the snow squalls.

the wall of the wet dog saloon

Balika and Ely as Lewis and Clark

Astoria column

Agate season opening

The waves here have been enormous all winter. Every set of big tides  repositions tons of sand.
Yesterday, in the pre-dawn hours, there was a ten foot tide and I woke to a moon setting, the sun rising and for the first time in months I couldn't see the breakers from the deck.

So I grabbed the camera and set out for the beach to find a small agate as soon as I got to the pebble line.

Morning light 

acacia & flowering quince

Its been cold at night and chilly in the morning. I went back to the beach for the morning sunrise this morning.
Later drove up Cedar Valley to help with the "over the rainbow" riding program. Clouds hovered above the Rogue and its tributaries.