Woodchip Pile

Summer - it seems like spring was just arriving and now summer has already started moving into fall. The air seemed to snap this morning like leaves underfoot. The trees are holding onto their green leaves though, even if many flowers are fading by the pond.

Today was all about working with the woodchip pile. Why don't bees live in woodchip piles? Why do they like to live in trees? Well, old dead trees have nice solid walls. That makes a nice home for bees, or perhaps hornets. An old dead tree is one big piece of wood with a nice hole in the middle, while a woodchip pile has lots of little pieces of wood but no holes to make a bee's door. The woodchip pile looks like one big object, but it is really lots of little objects. That is why a woodchip pile comes apart easily with a pitchfork, while a dead tree does not want to budge, even if a tractor tries to move it. And if a tractor bumps or tries to move a dead tree with bees or hornets in it - Watch Out! They can sting. Remember how they chased Uncle Phil? Don't drink the mug of juice that we left outside yesterday - there's a bee in it! Bees like to eat things that are sweet. But that bee did not realize that she would fall into the juice. Poor bee.

Today and yesterday we used wheelbarrows, pitchforks, shovels and rakes to transfer woodchips from the pile to the path. The path looks so beautiful now with new woodchips spread all over it. Soon we will have a much easier time taking out the compost.