Underhill House is built on a site that was wooded when we first saw it. The southern-facing slope was covered with oaks on the upper part and a little patch of planted pine trees below them down to the pond. The oaks have fallen victim to oak wilt, which is […]
Last Sunday we woke to a clearing sky. We drank our morning tea in the sunshine while rechecking the weather report. We had expected Sunday to be the first of a string of rainy days, but the rain was postponed. This was a chance we had not expected to get. […]
Living in Underhill House is a many-faceted experience. Moving about among its unmilled, branching timbers never seems to lose its charm, and gradually working my way through all the finishing projects is very satisfying. But what we are loving best is that now we are living on our land and […]
It’s been cold and rainy in the Driftless Area the past few days, so during a brief hiatus in the building of Underhill House, I ‘d like to pull the camera back, take a big picture view and share a couple of cool blog sites about this amazing area. I […]
The Xerces Society has just released the report, Are Neonicotinoids Killing Bees? A Review of Research into the Effects of Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Bees, with Recommendations for Action. According to a report from Penn State, The neonicotinoids are a relatively new class of insecticides that impact the central nervous system […]
When you decide to build something, these days you have a choice of four primary building materials : Steel Concrete Processed Wood Wooden timbers Which one would you guess is the most sustainable? Unmilled timbers are what we using to build our house, which is currently a tiny subset of […]
We all know trees are essential to our survival. Trees produce oxygen. The big oak in my backyard is producing enough oxygen for 10 people to breath. Trees clean the soil. Phytoremediation –That’s a mouthful of sylables we depend on. Trees are carbon sinks, locking up carbon and keeping it […]
Here’s an article by Jill Saka that relates the incidence of deer ticks to the presence of honeysuckle — one of the most fierce and destructive invasives in our woodlands. I have only taken a casual swipe at the honeysuckle on my property yet, but this article is more than […]
Acoustic tomography. Ever heard of it? This is a nondestructive imaging technique to determine what’s going on inside a tree. According to “Evaluation of Acoustic Tomography for Tree Decay Detection,” internal decay is an ever-present possibility which seriously compromises lumber production. For every 100 million board feet of timber […]
We’ve been spending about half our time out on our land this summer fighting invasives, finishing the barn and preparing to build a house next year. On a rainy day last week, I opened the door to the greenhouse, which had some overgrown herbs I intended to clear out. I […]
Digging in the Driftless 