25 Acre Woods Digest (2023-10-08): Leaf Season Arrives

Thank goodness the writer’s strike is over so we can get back to work on the digest.

Yes, the Digest was out of business there during the strike. But, in the end, management caved to the 25 Acres Crack Content Team’s ambitious demands. Yes, our creators are now allowed unlimited privileges to schlep firewood and/or take dogwalks.

Interested in joining the team? Start with an internship.

Yep, it’s leaf season. Everything is coming up rainbows.

“Higher-than-average snowfall and lower-than-average temperatures”

- Farmer’s Almanac

And we all know what follows leaf season. Winter is coming.

See that forecast above? Well, the guys down at the fire station treat the Almanac as gospel.

So we’re thinking we should probably lay in some extra firewood. Crack content team? Anyone? Anyone?

(Ref: The 25 Acre Woods Guide to Maine Seasons)

A bonus sighting of the Tomato Monster, the plant that would not stop growing.

We had a rainy spring. Most plants washed out. But our tomatoes and cucumbers leapt in to take up the slack.

25 Acres is now shipping pints of cherry tomatoes. Minimum order: 12.

Michelle, the Master of the Mimscreant, has declared doggo to be one year old.

As she is an undocumented immigrant who was bussed up from Florida to Maine, we don’t really know her birthday.

But we have Google-Fu identified her as a Cajun Squirrel Dog. Which accounts for her routine: Time to go out? Time to go out? Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel!

Near as we can tell, the last squirrel left the property a month ago. No matter, Mimsey think chipmunks, frogs, and sometimes falling leaves all count as squirrels.

And, squirrels obviously like to hide at the bottom of puddles, so we’ve found it’s critical to root through them too. All of them. Over and over.

Ah, this summer has featured the Great Terrace Project.

We’ve now completed Phase VII, Subphase 14.

As shown in this old shot, the terraces are cut in. The 100+ trees and stumps are removed. The paths are lined with rocks.

As not shown here, also the brush is removed and stacked for chipping. The drainage ditches are in … even if they don’t actually quite work yet. The hillside is mostly smoothed. New trails are cut to the left to let us get up and down.

Such progress! We only have maybe another dozen phases to go.

Time to chip the brush and spread the chips on the paths so the trees don’t regrow. And add a couple of tons of fresh dirt for the gardens. And plant fruit trees. And, and, and ….

This project originally seemed like it’d be a 3-week slog. But, we are grateful that it’s now evolved instead into a multi-year gift of a way to spend quality time outdoors. Apparently, we’ve reached the complexity of NASA’s latest moon shot. Did we mention that opportunity to apply for internships?

That’s all for this issue. Stay tuned for next issue. The terrace project has put us behind on gathering firewood. Will we be able to recover? A nail-biter.