We have sealed up the shed very nicely and quickly before the big rain expected to bring heavy downpours.
Category Archives: farming
December 2, 2023 Shed building and a walk around Saint Andrews Forest Farm
For weeks, we have been building our shed. It will be our camp until we have more structures. We are pleased with how it has come together. The doors and windows are on and roof is sealed with a protective membrane. Yesterday, we added drip edge to seal down the roof membrane. As we worked, we heard the woodpecker in the forest laughing. We still have lots of details, trim and the metal roof to put on the shed but are pleased with the progress and could begin to use it as a camp soon. We were prepared for this weekend but our plans were rained out so we are going to use the extra time to get the inside insulated and fitted out a bit.
We’re finding interesting mushrooms and plants on our walks through the forest. Yesterday, we started our trail from front off of the driveway and walked down along the waterway and connected to South Trail. We passed by Chanterelle Trail, not wanting to disturb the fox family and headed to the bottom trail. We followed our trail around to where SAFF meets the back road and walked along our side of the property line. We passed through where we saw the black bear months back and saw no evidence of him. We have found trees in multiple spots with bark scratched pecked or bitten off.
It has been dry in Virginia. We’ve had forest fires in the National Forest and a month long drought. Hunting season is in full swing. We are careful to always wear blaze orange shirts. We hear rifles and shotguns and dogs. This weekend we finally got a good long soaking rain. This was a great relief.
November 5, 2023- Shed floor joists and a walk through the woods
The weather has gotten cooler and the woods have changed. Unless we’re in a piny spot with lots of needles softening and muting our steps, we hear a cacophony of leaves crunching. My grandmother would say we sound like a herd of buffalo. We are happy to be loud in order to alert the bear we are coming through and to also alert hunters. We’re always wearing our bright orange shirts as well.
We’ve explored new areas of the forest and expanded our trails each time we’ve gone out. We found new water spots and some new trees. Right now, the beech trees still have coppery leaves hanging on and are easily visible everywhere. We have an enormous beech by the south bottom near the waterway.
We can’t wait to get the shed built so we can camp out over there. In the end, the shed will be a bathroom and shower but, for this winter, Chris and I will use it as a camping space.
We hope to camp out sometime soon. We are insulating the floors next.
We saw the fox den has been significantly expanded. We must have first spotted it when they began digging. The area looks enormous now. They’ve been working hard for their little family. We are keeping our distance from the den. With all of the construction going on, it is easy to spot and avoid. Usually they are multi chambered with multiple entrances and exits.
Red Spruce just identified
September 28, 2023 Mushrooms, trail blazing and hanging signs to keep hunters away
We started at the south side of the property along the road and hung signs, cut small and dying trees and laid them along the path perpendicular to the water flow and trailblazed a new path. We wound around along the edge of Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm property line along the power lines. We also followed the waterway at bottom of property to property markers at southwest corner. We found interesting mushrooms, plants and finally found paw paw trees.
We did not see the young male black bear. We saw a small lizard in the clearing up top. We saw and heard many birds in the forest. Hunting season starts tomorrow. We’ve got our signs up and hope the animals hide out from those hunters. Especially the young black bear. We heard his range might be 5-10 miles for a young bear. For an adult bear, 10 to 20 miles.
Gentiana alba, a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the Gentian family Gentianaceae, producing yellowish-white colored flowers from thick white taproots. It is native to North America from Manitoba through Ontario in the north, south to Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Carolina, and it is listed as rare, endangered, threatened or extirpated in parts of this range.[2] Found near the south waterway.
September 27, 2023 Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm Mushrooms and Boundaries
We went to Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm to hang signs all along our boundaries. The drive over was colorful as leaves are slowly becoming yellow and falling. It was overcast and cool. 69 degrees Fahrenheit was the high temperature today.
We were excited since it was a lot of new exploration for us. We began in the front, north side and posted signs as we walked our property edge. We culled small, dead and dying trees and limbs along the way. It was lovely in this new to us corner of the farm.
We saw mushrooms everywhere as the weather has been rainy and cooler. We saw Amanitas, Russulas and many smaller ones in between.
We were able to get signs up along multiple stretches of our boundaries and hope to finish this task before the weekend is done.
We did not see the young black bear today.
Violet toothed polypore, Trichaptum biforme, a tough, hairy bracket fungus with violet margins and zones of white, brown, and black; pores whitish violet, breaking into teeth. Grows on stumps and logs of deciduous wood. Year-round. Cap semicircular, flat; zones of white-gray, ochre or dark brown, and brown-black; violet along the margin; texture tough, hairy. Pores angular, becoming toothlike; whitish brown with violet tinge, fading to buff, with violet along the margin. Stalk not present. Spore print white. Spores magnified are cylindrical, smooth.
September 24, 2023 A Mushroom Walk and a Young Bear
Tropical storm Ophelia moved through Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm with gusting winds and rain just the day before. As we drove over from Staunton, we saw several large trees blown over and wondered what impact the storm had on the trees at SAFF. As we pulled in, we did not see any downed trees only a few limbs on the ground.
We hope we didn’t scare the young bear off. We want him to stay safe on our property from all of the hunters in the area. Next time we go out to SAFF, we will hang up more signs to alert hunters to stay off of our farm. We would like the wildlife to have a sanctuary.
It is wonderful to have the cool weather to explore and get jobs done. We were able to mow and dig another footing for the shower and compost toilet structure.
We also saw more of the Cranefly orchid’s leaves emerging along the trails all through the woods. We were able to clear hundreds more small stick trees using loppers.
Friday September 22, 2023 Mushrooms and Cranefly Orchid fall leaf sighting
We got the truck running again about midweek by replacing both the alternator and the battery. We also cleared many many hundreds of stick trees, mostly light starved, undeveloped and unwell tulip poplars and black cherries.
We were so excited to see these leaves (in photo above) emerging from the ground. These delicate flowers grow from edible corms.
It felt very much like fall yesterday with coolness in the air and leaves on the ground. Ophelia moved in to North Carolina and Virginia bringing rain and wind. We can’t wait to see what the new season brings to Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm.
September 17, 2023 Leaf cutter bees and the Sugar Hackberry
Yesterday we went to Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm and we had truck trouble right as we arrived, the alternator went out. All the warning lights came on and the battery died. Luckily, we were in the driveway when it happened. We troubleshooted by jumping the truck battery with the mower battery but it only held a charge long enough to get the windows rolled up. We were grateful for that much, as rain was expected soon. We called for help and my daughter came directly from work in Richmond to drive us home to Staunton. We were so thankful!
While we waited, we limbed up and cut down trees in the front near where we were trying to jump the battery. We were also able to clear out more trees from the compost toilet and shower site as well as the shipping container site which will be an office and camping site for us. It is amazing how much better the woods look with a bit of attention and care.
We cut down a very large black cherry tree near where we plan to place the shipping container for our office. This tree had black knot fungus. We culled a medium sized pine from the front which was growing up against another. We also culled many many smaller trees. We pulled a few tree of Heaven, ailanthus, by the roots as the ground was wet enough. We are trying to rid the farm of this invasive nonnative in multiple ways as it restricts and chokes out growth of our native species. We will save our sweet Sugarberry tree for these leaf cutter bee babies to be sure! 🐝
September 15, 2023
We went to the farm and did weekly chores. After mowing and weed whacking, we blazed a new trail which wound around from the front and followed along a new waterway we found that meets the waterway from the south through to the creek. We made a trail and connected it to chanterelle trail and then made it about half way to the north trail. We used loppers. As we culled these trees, we laid them down along the edge of the trail. We laid them perpendicular to the water flow to begin to build up a berm along the outside of paths. Where we left off, it was still really very dense with tiny light-starved trees.
We found multiple types of mushrooms. When we pulled in we found large red and yellow boletes. We have narrowed these down to several possibilities to identify. We need further testing and data but we enjoy looking at them for now and leaving them alone.
August 31, 2023- St Andrew’s Forest Farm Visit and mushroom walk
We mowed and planned our swales in the clearing. We walked down the north trail to creek and followed it to the south trail and up. We went down chanterelle trail.
The cooler weather is wonderful. We heard a hawk. We saw toads in the water.
Molly took all of the photos. It was wonderful to walk around the woods with her today. There’s a crispness in the air and moving into the new season at Saint Andrews Forest Farm is exciting with so much to look forward to!