Febuary 11, 2013
Lindsay:
With this pleasant February weather, Andrew and I have starting staging the materials we will be using to create a Hugelkultur bed during an upcoming Permaculture workshop.
Lindsay loading branches into the flatbed trailer
The material we are gathering is primarily coming from sections of our forest we are thinning in efforts to reduce the amount of fuel available if and when a forest fire comes through. Since we have already done much of the thinning and limbing, we now just have to move the biomass from one part of the forest to the other.
Logs from recently felled small diamater pine and oak
Large, well decayed fir rounds
Branches galore!
Walt is manning the tractor as Andrew and I load the flat-bed trailor. The tractor is light weight compared to the work truck and its weight is distributed more widely over the large tires, and this minimizes the soil damage on the forest floor that is currently very soft due to a high moisture content.
Walt backing the tractor up for unloading
We are ammassing a diverse collection, recently felled trees and ones that are quite well decayed; branches and logs; pine, fir and oak. The bed we will be building is approximately 80 feet in length, 5 feet tall, and 5-6 feet wide at the base, with an additional 2'x2' section that will be buried in the ground. So, we are collecting a lot of biomass!
Andrew unloading the tractor
Lindsay standing on the pile of branches