Some pictures from Salamander's Farm taken early November

This is a gneiss rock.

I schist you not.

The trees in the background are 90% ash.  They have been killed by the Emerald Ash Borer.  In farm country, most trees exist where the ground is too wet to plow or too steep to drive an International M tractor.  In this case it is because the ground is too wet to plow.

The small trees with leaves are Swamp White Oak seedlings that were "released" when light started hitting the forest floor.

As far as wildlife goes, Swamp White Oak is a major plus.

I have been moving persimmon seedlings into these areas and a few of them survived the summer drought.  This is one of them.  My plan is to graft female varieties with known qualities on top of them once they are established.

This persimmon seedling had a seed cluster from a Jack-in-the-Pulpit at its base.

Scattered through the woods were some magnificent puffballs.  The pen is included in the photo for scale.  Young puffballs are said to be edible and the preferred method is to fry them in butter. 

A Cricket Bat Willow that was planted beneath a dead ash tree.  It is doing well as are all of its sisters.

An acorn the deer, turkeys and squirrels missed...for now.

Cone scales and cores.  Evidence of Red Squirrels.

Clover that has been browsed by deer.

Shagbark Hickory husks so think on the ground it looks like it has been paved.

A deer scrape beneath an Autumn Olive.

A Bur Oak that a buck rubbed.  This is a bit unusual.  Bucks around here prefer White Pine, Aspen, Willow, Silver Maple in about that order.  The preferred species share the characteristic that they are flexible and the lower portions of the stems are not twiggy.

Another buck scrape.  This one is under Chinese Chestnut and White Pine.

 A few apples still hanging on.

Same apples but picture taken looking up at the apples.  This is an unnamed seedling.  Based on the taste and their ability to hang when ripe I am pretty sure they are seedlings of Keepsake.

This is what the ground beneath the tree looks like.

Another random seedling.  This one is very sour until November.  And then it is tolerably good eating.  It is a big apple.