The REAL Frontierville

The REAL Frontierville (Facebook game) happens on my 1.5ish acres of property here in Virginia! I've been gathering wood daily in between rain fall for the past several days, it's difficult to have a fire outside with wet wood.......good for smoke signals, not for S'mores. So far I've collected 4 or 5 boxes full of starter wood. Today I worked on the area near the Rhododendron tree at the side of the house, lots of larger pine branches to break down. I kept wandering collecting branches when (oh, shiny!) I remembered the tree that was caught under a newly fallen tree. On a walk Dave and I saw that the newer, smaller tree's top branches got caught under the dead oak so I wandered over to see if I could free it some more. I cleared several smaller dead trunks out of the way, sort of like a large version of pick-up-sticks, until I could move the trapped branches better. I got the branches which were laying on the ground freed, but wanted to prop them up higher so the tree might have a better chance to grow UP instead of along the ground. I noticed an older snapped-off trunk that would work well for this, and the next step was to get these looooong branches to the other side of a tree to reach the dead trunk. After finagling the branches (and moving some more dead wood) I got them to the side I wanted. In order to reach the top of the trunk to place the branches (Dave, don't read this part!) I climbed on some downed trees (yes, I know they could break with all my weight) and could just about get the branches in the crook, but not quite. So I snapped of a piece of wood from yet another dead tree, climbed back on the log, and used it as an extension to place the branches. DONE! The photos are sorta backwards in order and I don't want to wait while I fix them so here are the propped branches (about 6 feet or so off the ground):

the bent part of the tree showing the branches I propped:

and finally the fallen tree which had trapped the branches:

Just for the heck of it (oh, shiny!) I took a photo of the Galax leaves in the same area as I was working today. Maggie had purchased some for me in downtown Galax this past weekend to see if I could make some art from them. Hers are much larger than these, but if I can use them, I will have my own supply when they get larger:

So, now that I've used up all of my "energy", I will need to eat a meal so I can work some more! LOL