Trees Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Heartland Safari

A large tree trunk goes away vertically and spreads into a green canopy high overhead. A portion of the author’s barn red house is visible nearby. Boxelder has stood on this old farmstead for more than 50 years.

River Maple or Boxelder Tree

Updated August 14, 2023

Half of Owl Acres is given over to a forest reserve for tax purposes, but more importantly, woods for habitat purposes. The woods run along the west and north sides of the property and make a good windbreak as well. There are several types of trees in the woods, including quite a number of boxelders. […]

Trees

A pair of bowls brimful with bright red fruits

It’s the pits: Cherries

Updated June 15, 2023

My favorite flavor in the whole world, more favorite than chocolate, or smoked porkchops, or pecans, is cherries. Those big dark Michigan cherries; those spotted Washington cherries, and yes, the sour cherries that grow here. I love to eat the sweet ones by the handful, reveling first in the beautiful shape of them, round and […]

Trees

Ripe purple fruits and foliage. Immature fruits white

The Fruit of Broken Dreams: Mulberries

Updated June 12, 2023

Our mulberry trees are about ready for picking. The fruit is beautiful—cone-shaped, about an inch long berries with stems still attached and full of seeds. It is soft, sweet and fragile, a purple that will stain anything it comes in contact with. The flavor is delicate as well. They make lovely pies and cobblers. […]

Trees

Pea-size purple berries hang individually from leafless twigs. Hackberry fruits.

Teeming with Life: Hackberry

Updated February 9, 2023

On a frigid evening in late winter, I love to sit in my favorite chair beside a blazing fire in the fireplace. Dave lies on my feet, and I revel in the warmth, and the popping, fizzing, roaring, chuckling, murmuring of the fire. The wood we’re burning is a mix of things gathered from downed […]

Eastern Red Cedar stands at the edge of an open field with a red barn in the background

Music in the Woods: Eastern Red Cedar

Updated December 12, 2022

I fell in love with the sound of the native American flute some years ago, so I bought one carved from a branch of red cedar and learned to play it. It has a lovely voice. The type of wood, I discovered, makes a big difference in the sound of the flute with cedar being […]

Trees

Maple with fire-red leaves stands in a green yard, in front of a red house and against a clear blue sky

Autumn Blaze

Updated October 20, 2022

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) It’s a perfect fall for color this year. The nights have been in the 30s and 40s, the days have been sunny, and it hasn’t rained much. These are ideal conditions for our Autumn Blaze red maple to give us a spectacular show. What makes the leaves turn red, though? Why […]

Trees

Grove of walnut trees; red farm shed; blue sky; green grass

The King of Nuts

Updated October 3, 2022

Black Walnuts Fall has arrived on this early October day. Standing in the yard I hear several walnuts tumbling through the branches and plopping softly in the duff of fallen leaves and grass beneath the tree. As I walk through the yard, they squish and squirm beneath my feet. Owl Acres is studded with black […]