What's New in the Woods I live on nine acres at the edge of the Adirondack Mountains where the forest begins . This is a mixed forest of tall pine trees and hardwoods, like maple. Many birds and animals live in these woods, and the ground is covered with beautiful small plants. On this page you and I will explore the woods together, watching the seasons change, and waiting quietly for those rare, magical moments when animals appear.

Books About Me School Programs Library Programs What's New in the Woods How-to-Draw Page  Home Page  Buy Bruce's Books	Spring, Summer, and Fall 2011 For most of 2011, I spent my days adding on to my house. This is something I had thought about for several years. The idea was to enlarge the living and dining space. That section, in the foreground below, was once my entire house of 300 square feet. I built it, using recycled windows, in 1980 before I had any books in print. I felt like Thoreau living in a tiny house in the woods. Ten years later, after I was published, I added a studio, the room past the blue door. My plan now was to double the original space. After drawing a careful set of plans, I began by digging the foundation by hand, and then lining this complex excavation with blue polystyrene insulation board and concrete reinforcing rod.  Next, with the help of friends and a truck full of concrete, the foundation and floor were poured and smoothed with a bull float. Once the concrete had cured, a retaining wall was built on the concrete slab. This wall embedded with stones forms the lower part of the dining room wall. Next the wooden walls were erected. They are built lying down, like this dining room wall, and then lifted into place and bolted to the concrete. When the walls were complete, the south half of the old roof was removed. I did this just after the remnants of Hurricane Irene dumped about 10 inches of rain on the new slab. This water kept seeping into the old house and I was constantly mopping it up to prevent the floor from becoming a wading pool. Fortunately the floors in this section are all concrete, so no damage was done. The living room was now open to the weather and large tarps were put up to keep the rain out. Next construction of the rafters was begun. I worked long hours at this, anxious to get a real roof on as the tarp sometimes acted like a huge sail in a high wind. More rafters were added, with 2 x 4s called purlins going across the rafters below. The plywood roof will be fastened to the purlins. It is already September in this picture, and I am thinking about the coming winter. Once the roof structure was complete, I put up the plywood and quickly covered it with tar paper and finally green shingles. The new addition soon had a waterproof roof. Given all the rain we had last year, this was a big, and very welcome, step. All through October and November I worked with friends, installing the windows, skylights, and a door. That made the building weather tight, although not finished. I spent a great deal of time right after Thanksgiving putting up the ceiling boards up before my annual Christmas party. Once the ceiling was in place, it was time to take a break, decorate the beams with greens, and invite my friends and helpers in to celebrate what had been accomplished so far. The walls were still only covered with insulation, but in January I will put up the drywall board. . Usually I explore the woods here on the edge of the Adirondacks at least every week, looking for animal signs and watching birds. But last year I was so busy and so anxious to get the addition up, that I had not been out walking in this beautiful forest for sometime. By December we generally have a fair amount of snow. However, in 2011 December was warmer than usual and very dry, with only the occasional dusting of white. This made walking easy, but not having snow is hard on the small animals and also the plants, for snow insulates the soil, prevents the frost from going too deep, and provides shelter for mice and voles. Starting out on the walk, the bridge I built across the stream for cross country skiing was bare as you can see. Up higher on the mountain, there was a little snow on the frozen beaver pond. Beavers don't care if it snows, as they store food in the form of bark covered sticks beneath the ice. They spend the winter in their lodge with its underwater entrance and swim out occasionally to bring back a tasty snack. Tasty, that is, if you like bark. The old meadow, first cleared by my neighbor's ancestors in 1796, was also covered lightly with snow. As you can see in this picture, the sun has melted the snow at the far end where there is no shade from the surrounding woods. It seems hard to believe that in a few months time the meadow will again be green and filled with wild strawberries, buttercups, and butterflies. On the way home I passed by the big rock. The dense stand of hemlock trees surrounding the rock prevents light snowfalls from reaching the forest floor, so there is practically no snow on the rock or ground. The big rock is in the woods just below the clearing where my house stands, and as I made my way home, I snapped this picture of the new addition. When summer returns, I will put in a patio of stone and bricks outside these windows, and also cover the exterior with cedar shingles. I do love to build and feel very fortunate to be able to do this kind of satisfying work myself. The walk reminded me how much I owe to nature and the surrounding lands. Now that my mind is not occupied with the constant detail of carpentry, I have begun writing again. I am working on chapters for a book about what it is like to live here with porcupines, beavers, coyotes, and all, as neighbors. I think I may call it The Edge of the Wild. Wishing you a very happy 2012 and hope you get outside to see what wild things live nearby, no matter where you live. Bruce