Hard to see, but there is a small tree about 2 feet to the right of the "log" in the photograph. That is a Carpathian walnut tree. It is under planted with roses, coreopsis, ornamental grasses, comfrey and sweet william as well as many other perennial plants, mostly to create mulch, habitat and draw in insects. This tree is still a baby and hasn't had any walnuts on it yet, hoping soon. To the left of it are 2 black walnut trees which are also small babies (not in photograph). This is the beginning of our trails north into the woods.
This is the other side, right, of the same area where the trail begins to go off North into the woods. Where the coreopsis are growing here is another walnut tree, this one is a Butternut, also a baby and really hard to see. You can also see a small woodpile on the left against a tree. There are two trails going to the east from either side of that woodpile, through the woods. One comes back around to a telephone pole bench North of our pond and the other comes out by the east end of the pond where the two Heartnut trees are planted. I also put a few baby black walnuts in the woods but not sure if they grew or not, they were tiny seedlings and I've lost them since I put them in.
This is the same are but from the other direction.
This is where the south trail comes out of the woods by the telephone pole bench (made from two chimney blocks and a piece of old telephone pole). The woodpile is left there for critters to next in. This is one of my morel mushroom areas in the spring.
This is where the North trail that went off by the woodpile comes out of the woods near the East end of the pond, you are looking toward the trail from the pond here. On either side of this trail are 2 heartnut trees (a form of walnuts). Also to the right are jerusalem artichokes and comfrey plants at the edge of the trail.
This is the North trail from beside the brushpile in photo # 2. Just before you get to the brushpile in the center of the photograph, there is a trail that goes off to the north and one that goes off to the south and meets up with the southern trail. Then this trail also continues on farther through the woods and eventually comes out at the photo just before this one. I also at one time had another two trails that came off of this one farther east, but they were overgrown when I was recovering from surgery. Some day I will re make those trails.
This is farther down the trail north of the carpathian walnut and butternut trees, after the other two trails separated off to the east. This trail goes northwest.
another small trail going east off of the northbound trail, this one comes back around to the brushpile in the picture of the north eastbound trail. Here are more photos of this trail.
I leave standing dead trees for the many varieties of woodpecker and tree dwelling birds and animals that we have on the property. Just like the wood piles and brushpiles, they form habitats.
Here is some wooodpecker work.
This is the corner of an old delapatated horse barn that is in an area that used to be pasture, but is now woods. There is a tiny little clearing in the area east of the old barn shown, and there are some lovely baby maple trees in this area and some dogwoods. North of the old barn is an old apple tree that grew from people throwing apples out to attract deer using the old barn as a deer blind. The old apple needs to be limbed up and have the trees thinned out from around it. We leave the fruit for the wildlife.
This is the old craggy apple tree in the woods. The trail turns off to the east and to the west here, to the west it joins our neighbors trails through their woods and to the right it leads to an ancient aspen tree that is huge, no photos right now.
This is where the trails go east and west from the old barn.
Another view of the old horsebarn in what is now the woods. There is a clearing to the left of this area as well where our neighbors are growing grapevines. I have been plating baby trees and shrubs and perennials along the left side of this area to take advantage of the evening sun.
All of these trails are wide enough to support a tractor and a riding lawnmower. I try to keep them flat enough to handle handicapped visitors, however some are a bit rough, and probably wouldn't handle a wheelchair. I'm not getting any younger so the maintenance of them flat and even is also for my own safety.
The bear and deer and other critters use the trails, I'm not sure if any animals are using the brushpiles or old barn as dens or not. Here is a photo of some bear tracks from 2 years ago. We have a lot of bear visitors.
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