mother of all poplar trees...and new trails

On the rear of our property we have a huge poplar tree, the mother of all the poplar trees in our area, they are all connected by a common root system to the mother tree. Here is Ron giving mom a big hug. The tree is so tall it had to be put on here in two photos and you still can't see the very top.

This tree is at the end of where we made our newest trail into the woods (to be able to cut dead ash trees for firewood and also to access an area for a new ponds and creek area to the property). Many years ago this area had been pulped off and the pulpers "tried" to get this tree but the soil wouldn't let them. There are huge ruts in the soil where they tried to get it, but failed. I'm glad they failed.

This is  almost as far as we got with our trail to the North, although Joel did manage to go to the left ..not visible...for another short stretch toward higher ground. In the very top center of this photo you can barely see the top of the BIG TREE above..The plan is to eventually extend the the trail to higher ground to the east or west around the big tree, where there is some beautiful land, and this low wet spot will become a pond when we can get our drain creek to the area..from our other pond. (the drain is now 500 feet long going past the pond in the back yard, but ends just to the east of the above photo, we own another nearly 500 feet back so the drain will eventually be about 1,000 feet long and hopefully with several ponds along it). The area to the right has a lot of aspen but also a lot of nice maples and canadian hemlocks as well as also some cedars and huckleberries. There is also a small meadow of wildflowers here which is very pretty. On the West (left) is another higher ground area with a lot of dying ash trees (firewood) as well as some aspens, cherries, maples, oaks and cedars.

Isn't this pretty, this is east of the big tree, lots of baby aspens and maples and the dark background is canadian hemlock trees, I just love this spot. Hemlocks and maples  in the photo below are east of the Big Tree, and there is a glimpse of the pretty little meadow where we would like to have a picnic table in the future. Just to the North of this area is a nice very dark shady grove of hemlocks and cedars, so cool and lovely.

A few large old cedar trees West of the Big Tree, a lovely area with some higher ground. We will likely have the trails wind near this spot so we can enjoy this beautiful area. This is also closer to our west property line which will make access to the other trails easier and more interesting. This will also lead us closer to more of the dying ash and other firewood trees.

This lovely spot was just about to the property line between us and the property to our west. They have trails along their side of the property line (which we found shortly after walking through here) and they said we can join our trails with theirs, so our new trails will take advantage of this lovely view as well.

Looking back toward our house here are a few glimpses of the new trails (about 6 new trails, didn't photograph them all)  we have been building this past month.This first one is a new trail Joel built to the apple tree area as the old trail was blocked by some fallen trees. There are some beautiful maple trees growing in this area  as well as a lot of ash trees dying (firewood).

The above is a firewood trail that joins in with 3 of our old trails farther down the line.

These trails are rough, but will help the tractor to bring us firewood from the dead ash trees this fall. Eventually we'll clean them up enough to mow with the riding mower to keep them open for walking on. This trail will lead through our woods to the West toward John and Jessica's trails eventually joining up with those just south of the Big Tree and the cedars in the photo above.

To the old horse barn (some dead branches still need to come down). This area is just south of the other trails above, there are two other trails that lead off of this area to the east and west by the barn and behind where i'm standing there are 3 trails that lead off toward the house and another that leads off to the east field through the alder trees.

This trail is a central trail leading around several dead ash trees and some dead aspens that need to be cut down and a  large fallen ash tree that has yet to be cut up.

Here we are back up by the food gardens again, the old trail went straight from here, a new trail makes a sharp right turn just past the large aspen tree there, and goes all the way back to the BIG TREE in the top photo. That is about 700' of new trails which will give us a lot of firewood access as well as walking access in the future. Hopefully some ponds, a picnic area and a creek will be added to the far end of this trail in a part of the woods that is beautiful but was previously unaccessable without a difficult hike through the woods. Now we can get there but it still needs a lot of work to make it useful and we still aren't done, we probably will put in another 200 to 300 feet of new trails yet this year if we have time to reach the farthest ends of the property and make a road for the backhoe to dig the ponds and the creek.