burning laurel

I've been clearing the mountain laurel out from our woods. We have around six acres of land and I'd say that the great majority of it is taken up by thick patches of mountain laurel that doesn't allow you to even walk through the woods. You would have to literally crawl through the woods on your hands and knees to be able to get through the woods in most areas. I'm using an old Husky chainsaw that I got from Adam. The stupid saw throws the chain all the time so it's slow progress. I need to invest in a decent chain saw.

Apparently when they clearcut this part of the United States, the laurel was the first thing to grow back and it saved the land from being errored away. However, there were bad floods during that period of time and a lot of land slides. It's hard to imagine the area where I live to have been clear cut, but one of the old timers around here that is my neighbor has described the steam trains coming in on my land to pick up all the timber. He said the trees were massive in this area. That means that all the trees that are decent size are all new growth. Well, the laurel chokes all the life out of the woods and engulf most of the healthy trees so I've been clearing it out. Most people around here warn about burning the laurel, but Brandon has lived here his entire life, has burned his fair share of it, and he says just to get the fire hot and let it burn. Of course if you look it up on the internet, you'll get a million experts that tell you one thing or another. 

Jill has always liked the laurel because it stays green through winter, but I think she is finally on board with getting rid of it now that she can walk through the front woods. She even came out to help me burn one of the piles the other day. Brandon came by to assist as well. We had a healthy fire burning. 

There's more to burn though...

 

flood shop spring: flowing into spice bottom creek

We've had a super rainy winter here in Western North Carolina at the start of the new year. The spring behind my shop that Brandon and I created this paste summer was really running well and Spice Bottom Creek flows through the front section of my property and it was raging with all the rain we've gotten. It's amazing to watch how this water can displace boulders that we had trouble moving with a track hoe. I love the sound of the water though and I am so thankful for this feature on my property. I have to remind myself that I am so blessed to be living on this land and to have a place to work and create things. One of my favorite things to do it take a break from working in the shop and to come out to water running across the land. It's awe inspiring.

home

I pulled these from my Mom's camera during the holidays. Taken off the back deck of my parent's house during fall 2014.

home

When we visit home, we usually visit on a weekend. It was a little strange to be there during the week when everyone else is working and going about their lives. We dropped by the Toledo courthouse to see Jill's Mom at work before we left town. We also went over to Greenup to see my parents and for Jill to meet up with her sister at a new clothing store in town. While we were waiting for Jill, I took the kids to play on the playground equipment outside the municipal building and then we walked across the street to where I had painted a section of a small mural when I was in early high school. If memory serves me right, I painted the "out of perspective" firetruck and part of the firehouse. Anyway, the kids thought it was cool enough to pose in front of. We used to paint a lot of murals as a part of Art Club and summer school thanks to my high school art teacher Mr. Graves. It's funny to see that this one has survived. I might also mention that the porches that you see in the picture above have been a unique feature of downtown Greenup for quite sometime.