Pardon me while I trim my fence

On my post of May 13 I noted that my rustic fence in the backyard made from fresh-cut hackberry trees was sprouting new growth. I thought it was a short-term situation.

Almost a month later the fence posts are still "alive." I think the growth is from all the rain we've had and vestigial capillary action in the bark, but I'm no arborist. There's no way a hardwood tree can live without roots. Is there?

I trimmed the green off of all the posts. Die, fence, die.

Beware of the 'devil's apple'

The most ubiquitous wild plant in Deerfield is the mayapple (podophyllum peltatum). The herbaceous perennial plant shows itself in March and grows madly until June.

We have several woodland patches of mayapples larger than the footprint of a small house.

The fruit of the mayapple (shown in photo) does resemble a small green apple, but don’t let it fool you. If ingested in quantity, the fruit is poisonous. The roots are highly poisonous.

Other names for the mayapple are hogapple, Indian apple, umbrella plant, wild mandrake and devil’s apple.

I’ll bushhog most of the mayapples in the next few weeks, but they will be back next spring in spades.

Day 4: Woodshed complete

Despite almost three inches of rain in the last 48 hours, I managed to put the roof on the woodshed. The roof is a composite metal which matches the garage roof. It's the first time I've ever worked with a metal roof, but it went up fairly quickly.

All the structure needs is stain, but I need to wait for the treated lumber to cure a little.

Oh, and I have to cut and split enough firewood to fill it.

Feeding time

We'll take a day off from woodshed construction to see more Deerfield wildlife.

Neighbor Larry submitted this photo of a quartet of baby birds that has taken up residence on a porch post near his front door. Larry put nail spikes around his porch soffit to keep birds from nesting, but it didn't stop this clan. Their nest is built on top of the nails, so Larry gave them a little Styrofoam for a cushion.

We don't know what kind of birds we have here, just that they're hungry.

Day 3: Woodshed construction

The roof trusses and lathe went on quicker than expected. I cheated and cut the trusses out of 2 X 8 lumber. That's much easier than building them with 2 X 4s.

I ordered the metal for the roof. It should be ready early next week. All that's left after the roof is to stain the wood. I'll let the treated lumber dry a little since it takes the stain much better if it's not wet.

TOMORROW: Rain

Day 2: Woodshed construction

The 2 X 8 rim joists were added today and the 1 X 6 flooring. Temperature hit 90 today, but there was a little breeze, so it felt cooler than yesterday.

TOMORROW: Rafters and lathe on which metal roof will be attached. This is where we get into angles, and I will start wishing I had paid more attention in geometry.

Day 1: Woodshed construction

Construction of the woodshed started with setting the 10 foundation posts. The 4 tall posts are set in 24 inches of concrete. The shorter posts are set in 15 inches. When digging post holes by hand, I never dig in the hard red clay any deeper than is necessary.

When finished, the shed will be 16-feet wide, 4-feet deep and about 8-feet high.

Of course, I had to start on the hottest day of the year so far.

TOMORROW: Rim joists and floor.