I become a bit stir crazy when the weather warms up even a little. When spring starts to roll around some people clean their houses....I clean the forest. Early spring is the prime time to trim, prune, cut, sculpt, whittle or any other thing that you can image doing with branches. It is also the project that I can do that allows me to be outside working, but doesn't entice me into digging in the dirt and planting seeds or plants that I know will not be able to withstand the frosts yet to come.
I start with the "twig" pile. This is a pile, or rather two piles, that I have maintained for almost four years now. When we moved onto the farm almost eight years ago, there were three rows of evergreens on the north side of the house. They had been planted as 
a wind break and were very useful as such, but unfortunately they had been attacked (and are still being attacked) by anthracnose - a fungal infection that attacks trees that are in close, crowded conditions. The trees were so congested that very little air could flow through them at all. All the dead limbs were cut down and most of them were bonfire foder. The ones that were not immediately torched were placed in very loose piles on the very eastern edge of the tree strip to avoid having the predominant western wind blow the fungal spores into the remaining trees. A few years ago I finally got around to sorting out some of these twigs.
a wind break and were very useful as such, but unfortunately they had been attacked (and are still being attacked) by anthracnose - a fungal infection that attacks trees that are in close, crowded conditions. The trees were so congested that very little air could flow through them at all. All the dead limbs were cut down and most of them were bonfire foder. The ones that were not immediately torched were placed in very loose piles on the very eastern edge of the tree strip to avoid having the predominant western wind blow the fungal spores into the remaining trees. A few years ago I finally got around to sorting out some of these twigs. My husband thinks I am crazy, but what he fails to realize is two things: 1) working in the woods and communing with the trees makes me very happy. The happier I am, the less likely I am to let my frustration at not being able to get in the garden yet drive me over the edge.... 2) and possibly more importantly, all the "twigs" that I bag up for the winter are the kindling that helps to make his split wood actually burn. His great big pile of beautifully split wood would take forever to get to burn without the help of hot little pine sticks.
Pine trees get a bad rap when it comes to being a good wood for fuel - they don't burn as cleanly, too much creosote produced so it clogs the chimney, and they really only have the central trunk that can be split into firewood so you don't get nearly as much from a pine tree as you would from a deciduous tree. All the branches are typically too small to be of much use as firewood....but they are stellar kindling branches. The sap in those small branches dries to become like solid kerosene and they can heat up a wood burner in short order on cold winter mornings.
So, armed with a loppers, a hand saw, a leaf rake, a garden rake, and a shovel I set out to clean up the woods. The piles that I maintain are essentially branches that I have taken down the year or two before and allowed to dry fully - I simply move them from one place to another and pare them down a bit in the process. I stack them up to form rudime
ntary "fences" in one corner of the tree strip and this will serve to catch any wayward soccer balls or pails that blow across the yard during one of many summer storms. By stacking the wood up, it also helps to dry it out so that it is that much better at starting a fire in the winter. As I move each piece of wood I test it to see how dry and breakable it is. Most branches, after drying out for 2 years, can be broken relatively easily with a well placed boot on the midshaft of the branch. If they still have "spring" in them, they are placed back on the twig wall for another year.
ntary "fences" in one corner of the tree strip and this will serve to catch any wayward soccer balls or pails that blow across the yard during one of many summer storms. By stacking the wood up, it also helps to dry it out so that it is that much better at starting a fire in the winter. As I move each piece of wood I test it to see how dry and breakable it is. Most branches, after drying out for 2 years, can be broken relatively easily with a well placed boot on the midshaft of the branch. If they still have "spring" in them, they are placed back on the twig wall for another year. After I move one pile, I dig up any of the rouge scrub trees that insist on spreading like wildfire using the shovel and all the leaves and dry grass get raked down into the ditch for eventual burning. The sticks that I have managed to break apart get loaded into the left over feed bags from the year and then they are stacked in the hog house for the summer to stay nice and dry.
Crazy, I know, but once again, it is a job that I can do outside on those beautiful spring days when you can almost believe that winter is completely finished, but you know in your heart that there will be at least one or two more snows before it completely gives up and heads south as the world rounds the sun again.
After I finish with the old wood, I start tackling the new dead branches. There are always more than I care to think about - branches that I have watched and tried to keep healthy, but they have finally given in to the canker that grows rampant in a tight knit bunch of trees. So, I wander around with the loppers on one shoulder and the saw on the other and I cut off what can be reached and then typically, I will find a ladder and go a little higher each year on a tree to cut off more and more of the dead branches. The amazing thing to me is how many new growth branches will emerge when you allow the tree to have a little light and air. The trees by our house were simply planted too close together and therefore spread their disease too easily. By cutting away the dead stuff I have allowed more airflow and sunlight into the forest and helped to reduce the spread of disease.....It works the same for trees as it does for people and animals.
The "newbie" branches are stripped of all the small stuff and then added to the twig fence to dry for a year or so. Hence, my supply continues and I don't see it ending any time too soon. We are always looking for a place to plant another tree and I have found that many small saplings take root in the forest below the mature trees - all I have to do is move them carefully to the place that I want them and then protect them from the lawn mowers.
One of my grandmother's favorite sayings was "Waste not, want not" and I have found this to be very sage advice because in the depth of winter, when the house is all of about 54 degrees and you really need to get a fire going quickly, nothing beats hot little kerosene sticks. So, I spend these first wonderfully warm days of spring outside playing with sticks and humming along in my head the childhood rhyme of "1, 2, buckel my shoe...3,4 shut the door....5, 6 pick up sticks....7, 8, lay them straight"....and I am happy in my thought that the fires of winter are, finally, a long way off.
