As we walked through the forest, we heard the crows and the hawk calling often. It was a warmer day and it smelled of fresh earth and moisture even up top in the clearing.

We looked through the woods and found multiple individual Laccaria up near the front gate. These are edible although we’ve not foraged any as of yet. Animals or insects have been eating them as quickly as they grow.

We can see through the forest better now that it’s winter. We can see the contours of the landscape since the trees have lost their leaves. While we walk through, we plan and think about how to improve the health of the forest. Lately we have been noting the black cherry trees which have succumbed to black knot fungus. We read that this needs to be cut out and if it’s the whole tree, it cannot be saved. We are planning how to get these trees down and removed from the area. Rain, wind and cool weather assist the spores of the black knot fungus. Black knot fungus impacts cherry and plum trees. Until we have managed this, we will not plant trees susceptible to this fungus.

For weeks, we have been building our shed. It will be our camp until we have more structures. We are pleased with how it has come together. The doors and windows are on and roof is sealed with a protective membrane. Yesterday, we added drip edge to seal down the roof membrane. As we worked, we heard the woodpecker in the forest laughing. We still have lots of details, trim and the metal roof to put on the shed but are pleased with the progress and could begin to use it as a camp soon. We were prepared for this weekend but our plans were rained out so we are going to use the extra time to get the inside insulated and fitted out a bit.

We’re finding interesting mushrooms and plants on our walks through the forest. Yesterday, we started our trail from front off of the driveway and walked down along the waterway and connected to South Trail. We passed by Chanterelle Trail, not wanting to disturb the fox family and headed to the bottom trail. We followed our trail around to where SAFF meets the back road and walked along our side of the property line. We passed through where we saw the black bear months back and saw no evidence of him. We have found trees in multiple spots with bark scratched pecked or bitten off.

It has been dry in Virginia. We’ve had forest fires in the National Forest and a month long drought. Hunting season is in full swing. We are careful to always wear blaze orange shirts. We hear rifles and shotguns and dogs. This weekend we finally got a good long soaking rain. This was a great relief.