Author: Diana Blakney

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Work goes on!

Jessica and Julius flew down to help pick out flooring for the remaining first level floors.
Julius sought Bianca’s opinion.
Sandra and Rossana help with siding.
Gio puts up the siding and it looks great!

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Blowdown!

We suffered some blowdown from the December windstorms. Shane, one of our farm foresters will evaluate tomorrow. In the meantime, this is what Sid found after a brief look-see.

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Barn looks great!

Wow! No longer just a view of insulation, the barn is looking fantastic.
Bianca looks for predators in the late fall field.
Oregon in late fall causes Bill and Sid to dress accordingly.
Not much rain, so the creek is low.
Time to move some firewood closer to the house.
So pretty with the gold and green in contrast.
From left to right you can see the faint deer trail as they jump the fence from our neighbor’s place to ours in order to eat apples.
If you look hard you can see the apples.

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Fog and Wind

Driving to the farm up Henkle Way, the fog looms large.
Left over now dots the Shiver River fields.
Neither fog nor snow will stop the need to stack firewood.
The wind blew our new shed into the neighbor’s yard and broke part of the frame.
Sid and Gio got one bay of the barn cleared and organized. Indoor work! Yay!

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Shiver River tour

Shiver River Tour, Tuesday, October 25th, 9 – 11 am.
Come join 2019 BSWA Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year, Diana Blakney and Sid Picht, for a visit to see beautiful Shiver River at the base of Marys Peak. Shane Hetzler of Trout Mountain Forestry and logger Shane Russell of ShaneCo Timber Inc. will lead the tour of the 60 acre commercial thinning that was completed in mid October. Along the one mile moderate loop hike on a logging road, we will learn how the trees were selected, how the markets were chosen, and the various challenges faced. Trout Mountain and its predecessors have helped manage Shiver River’s 140 acres of timber sustainably for nearly 50 years. 
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 25 from 9 to 11.   
This is a great opportunity to bring a friend or neighbor and talk about trees!
 
Young hemlock tree growing out of a stump.
Whipplea modesta
Whipplevine
Mat of trailing stems. Main stem somewhat woody; bark gray-brown, peeling in narrow strips. Leaves oval to egg-shaped, shallowly toothed, on very short petioles, with coarse hairs. Leaves persist on stems after withering. Inflorescence consists of dense terminal clusters on short erect shoots from main stem. Flowers small, with 5–6 white egg-shaped petals. Grows in conifer forests, openings, on banks, below 5000 ft.
Rarity: Common
Flowering Time: Late Spring, Early Summer
Life Cycle: Perennial
Height: Mat
Habitat: West-Side Forest
Found In: Olympic Np, Mt. Rainier Np, N Cascades Np, Siskiyous
Native: Yes
Thank you, Shane!

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Education and an Excellent Farmhand

Bill admiring a hot saw? feller buncher? both? on a tour we took of a Starker project. We learned a lot!
We also attended the Marys River Watershed Council’s Annual Picnic and got a wetlands tour.
Only one more load of chip & saw logs yet to go before the logging is complete.
Sid enticed Gio, a young man who worked with him on the Annex, to do some other work around the farm. He was unstoppable! He put in laundry room windows.
Helped Sid finish the irrigation system Sid and Alex had trenched.
Built structures around plants that need protecting in the winter.
Gio, hard at work as always!

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Firewood Galore!

Preparations being made for a new storage location for firewood that is handy to access during a cold and rainy night.
The larger, less handy firewood storage shed is full.
And there is more coming!

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