windfall

 

i didn't mean for the post i did recently regarding the mono wind event to sound like i was bemoaning some tragedy that had befallen us.  i only meant to relate an experience.  if anything, what came down in the mono wind was truly a windfall.

there will be a lot of work cutting up and clearing the fallen trees but we'll be getting a lot out of it...

 

those trees will provide us with firewood that will keep us warm for years.  

photo taken 11/20/2019

since the trees that came down were live we can use some of the wood to grow more shiitake mushrooms.  

a recent flush of our log grown shiitake mushrooms

our local fire safe council has a free chipping program.  they will come out and chip anything up to 3" diameter that is stacked appropriately and readily accessible to their equipment which means all the smaller branches can be made into wood chips and used to grow winecap mushrooms, mulch the gardens, and keep a clean, dry surface in the duck yard (which, after they "fertilize" it, gets composted and goes into the gardens to feed the fruits and vegetables that feed us).

bucket-o-winecaps harvested last september from a crop grown on wood chips that also serve as mulch for the raspberries

wood chips keep a clean, healthy environment in the duck run by catching manure and soaking up the water from all the splashing around the ducks do just being ducks

another benefit of fallen trees is that many of them, although living, were holding a lot of dead, dry wood that made for an inaccessible fire hazard while they were standing.  now that they're on the ground we can clean things up and take some of the fuel out of our immediate area.  

so, i don't see what happened due to the mono wind as a hardship or misfortune in any way.  i think it was a pretty good deal and i'm grateful.