I've learned a lot about firewood this year. For example, this gem courtesy of Kayla's father (slightly tweaked): Tulip-trees are always longer than they are tall.

Or how about this one: If you want to create a sugar-bush/goat-pasture hillside, cut down your trees before putting up your fences.

Here's a word to the wise: Let the goats eat up the poison ivy before sticking your head into the thicket to cut up logs.

And I'll end with: An hour a day fills up the woodshed (with a little help from your friends).

Now, if we can just remember to starting cutting firewood in March instead of June next year, we might finally have a fully dry stash of combustibles when winter rolls around. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the fact that we're nearly on quota for this coming winter, and that the hillside above the starplate coop now has a canopy open enough to let goat-friendly herbs grow on the forest floor. Here's hoping the sugar maples and black birches we carefully left behind will also benefit from the extra light and will produce plenty of sugar next spring.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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