MILLS TREES

We have used grass, heat, and sawdust/wood-chips for weed control in the past, but mostly we just perform 1-2 mowings a year and otherwise just let the trees succeed on their own.  This requires slightly more basal pruning when possible and at harvest time, but otherwise the trees do well on our land, as they have for hundreds of years.  We transplant a good number of wild ('volunteer') trees from fallow tracks of old tree farm that we still maintain as wildlife habitat, or delicately extracted from the mossy forest floor of our two maintained stands of mature fir trees.   

As far as pest control, we have used deer permits in the distant past (last twenty years) but mostly we maintain a few rows of firs along the wood-line to be nibbled/scraped by the deer, that we cut short every year and do not harvest.  When they get too big we will mulch them and plant some new ones. The deer do not seem to damage much further in than that.  In the past we did some heavy applications of lady bugs to combat spruce gall, but now the biggest percentage of the property is not densely planted spruce, and so gall is no longer much of a concern.  There is the occasional loss every year, but with a diverse planting of pine-spruce-fir, we never seem to be too heavily affected by any one year's ailments.  Late frost sometimes claims a year's growth from our fraser, but there is no herbicide or pesticide to combat that, just a dutifully maintained diverse crop of trees to guard against any single year's ailments.  

Timber products include Shagbark Hickory, Maple, Pine, and Oak for board timber.  Our timber is extracted to the most local of mills, usually only one mile away, chosen and harvested individually and extracted on frozen ground by horse or mini-tractor.

Though the crops of blackberries, black raspberries, Russet apples, and hickory nuts may at times be bountiful, these products are not marketed for sale and end with friends only!  We hope that maybe one day you will join those ranks.