I Love to Write Day!

Tuesday, November 15th was national I Love to Write Day!  My students and I took some time out on the trail to listen, observe, smell and touch.  We tried to be very quiet and very still.  Good writers take time to be still and to observe.  We had our journals along, and we took notes as we took time to observe.  When we came back to the classroom we looked over our notes, circle some of our favorite ideas and put them together into poems.  I shared my notes and the making of my poem (previous post) with the students.  Some of their poems are written below. 

Outside

by Genevieve

I see a chipmunk in the bushes

the bushes have no leaves

when you breathe you see your breath

the moon is beautiful

in the beautiful blue sky

dew drops on leaves

the leaves are on the ground

this is outside

Nature

By Sydnee

Big tall trees

Berries on bushes

Birds chirping

Mud on the ground

It's cold

sun is bright

Liberty Hyde Bailey Trail

A Fall Morning

By Phillip

Crunching leaves

Foggy and misty

Cold bird cries

Dry leaves drifting down

A bare tree

A still tree

Kids crunching leaves

The brown dry leaves

The Trail

By Makaelee

Life all around me

I see my breath

in the cold crisp air

Moss in the crevices and cracks

Healthy but yet groggy

Quiet but a mystery to humankind

Dew Drops

By Zander

Wet and slippery beneath my feet

It makes the leaves look shiny

It makes the air moist

I Love to Write Day continued when two guest writers from South Haven (middle school student, Iza and her grandma Elaine Stephens) came and read some of their writing to us.  Elaine is writing a book for children about the life of Liberty Hyde Bailey.  We had a wonderful I Love to Write Day!  This Monday, my son John will be town and he will be sharing some of his poetry with us and we will share some of our poetry with him!  I Love to Write Day continues . . .  

Trees

"Of every tree, whether pear tree or elm or sassafras, the seasons make a harbinger.  I knew two oak trees intimately for some years, seeing them practically every day.  I knew their blooming in relation to each other and the shedding of their leaves.  Their autumn colors were peculiar shades and every year of the same quality each of itself. . ."  --Liberty Hyde Bailey

Liberty Hyde Bailey often wrote about his love of trees.  Our path meanders through a wooded area with a diversity of beautiful trees.  I think Liberty would enjoy our path through the woods.  We've added more trees in our opened area, thanks to Ann and Ralph's generous donation of several trees!  Last Saturday, we planted those trees and look forward to watching them grow.  Thanks Ann and Ralph!  

"I often wonder what must have been the loss of the child that had no fruit-tree to shelter it.  There are no memories like the days under an old apple tree.  Every bird of the field comes to it sooner or later.  Perhaps a humming-bird once built on the top of a limb, and the marks of the old nest are still there.  Strange insects are in its knots and wrinkles.  The shades are very deep and cool under it.  The sweet smells of spring are sweetest there.  And the mystery of the fruit that comes out of a blossom is beyond all reckoning, the magic growing week by week until the green young balls show themselves gladly among the leaves.  And who has not watched for the first red that comes on the side that hangs to the sun, and waited for the first fruit that was soft enough to yield to the thumb!"  --Liberty Hyde Bailey

If you would like to be a part of this project, join us on Wednesday, November 16th, 7:00 p.m. for a meeting at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum.  I will update you on all our progress and we can dream about more ways to bring the spirit and heart of Liberty Hyde Bailey to life here at North Shore Elementary! 

What is Nature Study?

"Nature-study, as a process, is seeing the things that one looks at, and the drawing of proper conclusions from what one sees.  Its purpose is to educate the child in terms of his environment, to the end that his life may be fuller and richer.  Nature-study is not the study of a science, as of botany, entomology, geology, and the like.  That is, it takes the things at hand and endeavors to understand them, without reference primarily to the systematic order or relationships of the objects.  It is informal, as are the objects which one sees.  It is entirely divorced from mere definitions, or from formal explanations in books.  It is therefore supremely natural.  It trains the eye and the mind to see and to comprehend the common things of life; and the result is not directly the acquiring of science but the establishing of a living sympathy with everything that is . . .The proper objects of nature-study are the things that one oftenest meets.  Stones, flowers, twigs, birds, insects, are good and common subjects."  --Liberty Hyde Bailey, 1897 

Letting Go

Freed Frog

Free at Last!  My students and I let our found frogs and toads free today.  We took the terrarium to our little pond in the woods, tipped it on its side, and let our friends make their escape in peace as we headed back to class.  We hope that they find a great place to hibernate through the upcoming winter!  Maybe in the spring we will meet some of them again. 

While we were out on the trail and on our way back, we took some time to collect leaves.  We sorted them by shape in the classroom and graphed our leaf finds.  We even found the mode, median and mean.  We weren't sure from what tree every leaf came, but it was a fun way to practice graphing and looking at cool leaves in the process. 

Path Pond

Liberty Hyde Bailey sailing with his daughter Ethel

"The backgrounds are important.  The life of every one of us is relative.  We miss our destiny when we miss or forget our backgrounds.  We lose ourselves. . . The backgrounds are the great unoccupied spaces.  They are the large environments in which we live but which we do not make.  The backgrounds are the sky with its limitless reaches; the silences of the sea; the tundra in pallid arctic nights; the deserts with their prismatic colors; the shores that gird the planet; the vast mountains that are beyond reach; the winds, which are the universal voice in nature; the sacredness of night; the elemental simplicity of the open fields; and the solitude of the forest.  These are the facts and situations that stand at our backs, to which we adjust our civilization, and by which we measure ourselves. . . I hope that we may always say "The forest primeval."  I hope that some reaches of the sea may never be sailed, that some swamps may never be drained, that some mountain peaks may never be scaled, that some forests may never be harvested.  I hope that some knowledge may never be revealed." 
--Liberty Hyde Bailey (The Holy Earth, 1943)

Scouts Help Move Boulders

Fern Garden Progress!

Rock Pile at Ed and Dorothy Heinze's Farm

It takes concentration and energy to move mountain parts

At the Fern Garden

On Sunday, the Cub Scouts helped us create a rock border for our fern garden. Fourth and fifth grade boys, under the leadership of Pastor Jeff Dick and Mike Nelson, loaded a flatbed truck with rocks from the farm of Ed and Dorothy Heinze. Ed and Dorothy are rock collectors of sorts (many farmers are). Cool rocks are found naturally and farmers are often the ones that find them as they prepare the soil for planting! Ed and Dorothy were very generous to share some of their rock finds with us! A huge thank you to Ed and Dorothy!  The Cub Scouts, along with Representative Aric Nesbitt and other helpful parents, helped move the rocks from the farm to our fern garden. The ferns have died back, but next year they will find themselves surrounded by cool rocks and a mulched trail. Today, my students toured the trail and we found evidence of ferns and fern spores.  The rock border was awesome!

A big thank you to Carolyn for taking pictures!  Another big thank you to Cindy for videotaping the project!  And to all those who helped move rocks, thank you!!!!  The Liberty Hyde Bailey Interpretive Garden Path is alive and well!  We have lots of hopes and dreams and we know that together we can make our gardens grow!   

I Am

We released our butterflies and hope that they are surviving their long trip to Mexico.   As a class, we have been writing I Am poems.  Each line of their poems begins with "I."  Students practice personification with this poem as they imagine that they are the thing that they write about.  Based on themes from our backyard we have written I Am Autumn, I Am Leaf and I Am Butterfly.  Students chose their favorite poem and I have written them for you below.

I Am Autumn

By Cameron

I see kids play on the ground

I see them playing all around

I hear kids laughing a lot

I wonder where the kids are . . . are they at home or at school?

I feel the wind going through my leaves

I smell my leaves here and there

I think kinds are coming back

I am Autumn

I Am Butterfly

By Genevieve

I dream of what it is like in Mexico

I taste the pollen in flowers

I feel the cool breeze that flows on me

I think of all of my cousin butterflies that are going to Mexico

I wonder what would happen if I were the last of my kind

I am Butterfly

I Am Butterfly

By Emily

I wonder what kind of journey I will go on today

I taste the morning breeze

I imagine that it's sunny not storming

I touch the leaves when I fly by

I smell apple pie

I dream of being a superhero someday

I wonder what it would be like as a person

I am Butterfly

I Am Butterfly

By Jeremiah

I feel the wind on my wings

I like the nectar in the flowers

 I smell the sweet nectar in the flowers

I imagine if I went into the forest and almost eaten

I hear the birds chirping in the sky

I am Butterfly

I Am Leaf

By Kaiden

I am leaf lying down on a birch tree's branches

I imagine the kids playing on my branches that hold me

I love to dance in the wind when I blow away

I hope the kids never grow bigger

I am Leaf!

I Am Leaf

By Zander

I hear the kids crunching on me

I feel the beautiful autumn breeze

I smell the apple pie in the window

I dream of being a human

I see the kids outside

I see other kids on my tree friends

I wonder how nice the kids are

I am Leaf

I Am Butterfly

By Mikayla

I don't like people touching my wings

I fly to Mexico

I dance in the wind as it starts to get cold

I am a Monarch

I am in my chrysalis in a ball

I am ready for my new life

I am Butterfly

I Am Fish

By Amelia

I am fish swimming in the sea

I wonder if you can see me

I see frogs swimming right next to me

I wave to them with lots of glee

I do not know their history

I see them swimming right away from me

I don't know why this always happens to me

I have to go find my mommy

bye-bye

I am Fish

I Am Butterfly

By Sydnee

I dream about pretty flowers

I feel free

I hear the sound of music

I imagine me as a peaceful butterfly

I see a new born butterfly

I smell the flowers and oranges

I taste the wind

I think about me when I was a caterpillar

I touch the sky

I wonder what Mexico looks like

I Am Butterfly

I Am Autumn

By Zayne

I am the geese that the wind brushes against me

I am the grass that wonders why I'm dry

I am the trees that smell the wind

I am the leaves that think, when will I fall off?

I am the crickets that see the trees moving

I am the flowers that hear winter coming

I am Autumn

I Am Autumn

By Aliya

I feel the cold wind right in my face.

I wonder when the kids are going to come and play

I smell grass all around me

I think all my leaves are changing colors right now

I see lots of pumpkins and bugs and trees

I hear a lot of crickets

I am Autumn!

I Am Leaf

By Mayson

I am the thing that you see when you look up in the air when a tree is standing there

I hear all the leaves saying "bye-bye"

I see the children playing

I feel the breeze . . . ahhh . . . I am falling

I am Leaf

I Am Butterfly

By Juliana

I am the butterfly that goes to Mexico

I am the butterfly that you see sometimes

I am the butterfly that lands on tulips and daisies

I am the butterfly that lands on kids' fingers

I am the Monarch butterfly

I am the one who tastes nectar on flowers

I am Butterfly

I Am Autumn

By Seth

I feel the warmth going through me

I wonder when the kids will come out to play

I smell the grass

I see geese flying South

I hear it's Autumn

I am Autumn

I Am Butterfly

By Lyndsee

I smell the food in the country of Mexico

I see my friends flying close to me

I feel the cool breeze through my wings

I hear the birds chirping

I taste the flowers in Mexico

I am Butterfly

I Am Butterfly

By Gary

I smell bunches of nectar

I feel the flower touching my tongue

I touch other animals

I imagine how I can fly

I think of other butterflies

I taste other nectar and food

I dream of going to Mexico in the winter

I wonder what it would be like being a person

I am Butterfly

I am Autumn

By Faith

I see children playing

I hear them laughing and talking

I wonder when they will come back and play

I think soon

I feel cold and happy

I smell the leaves of autumn

I am Autumn

I Am Butterfly

By Zackary

I smell sweet nectar

I taste the nectar

I touch a flower

I imagine flowers with nectar all over me

I think winter's coming

I wonder where are my brothers and sisters?

I feel a new life coming

I am Butterfly

I Am Autumn

By Shyann

I hear birds

I see trees

I think water is ice cold

I smell flowers

I feel food

I am Autumn

I Am Butterfly

By Makaelee

I am butterfly

I shimmer with colors of the rainbow

I feel the sun beating down on my beautiful wings

I see the bees working hard

I dream of what the prettiest butterfly would look like

I am Butterfly

I Am Butterfly

By Makenzie

I wonder when I can see my new life

I see my friend has hatched out of the chrysalis

I smell wonderful nectar coming off a butterfly bush

I dream that i will see a new world out there

I taste really good nectar

I touched a person's finger

I am a Monarch butterfly

I feel the wind hiding me

I think my friend is going to hatch soon

I imagine that I will be good to each and every butterfly when I get out of the chrysalis

I see a new life coming

I like to fly to Mexico because when it gets cold at Michigan I go to Mexico

I am Butterfly

I Am Leaf

By Abigail

I am leaf

I am blown around so many ways it makes me dizzy

I wish I was a kid then I would not bet blown around

I am stuck up in this old wrinkled tree

I am an old Leaf

I Am Butterfly

By Phillip

I fly south for the winter

I drink nectar from plants

I see pollen on my leg

I have a tube as a mouth

I have poison in me

I have colored wings

I am Butterfly

 

A Backyard Gift

Meet my newly hatched monarch friend!  Last Saturday, I stopped by the classroom to feed our frogs and toads (all gifts from our backyard).  We also had three monarch chrysalises (given to us by a friend of the class).  They had all turned dark and translucent and I knew they would be out soon.  I stopped back on Sunday and found three amazing butterflies.  We missed the coming out, but it was great to see them all healthy and flying.  We brought in all sorts of flowering plants from our backyard and made large bouquets, hoping that they would find nourishment.  (I also set out sponges with hummingbird nectar although I never saw them feed on them.)  We let them fly about our room for three days before freeing them.  We have so many questions . . . Where are they going?  What do they eat? (They did seem to like our ragweed bouquet, although I wasn't nearly as fond of it.)  Do they sleep?   How long does it take to go from a caterpillar to a butterfly?  We hope to find out more about these insects in the days ahead.  But one thing we all learned is that monarchs are amazing.  And since their release, students have kept a keen eye out for monarchs in the wild and on the soccer fields.  I do believe that, after watching them flutter through our room this week, we all hold a special place in our hearts for thess creatures of beauty and grace. 

The First Week of School and the Coming of Autumn

Liberty Hyde Bailey believed that building a connection to nature is the first step to understanding and learning about nature.  He  thought that students needed to be learning, working and observing outside in the fields and woods of their own communities.  He knew that hands-on experience was critically important to developing knowledge.  Teachers today talk about "multiple intelligences" and "developmentally appropriate" curriculum.  Liberty Hyde Bailey used different vocabulary but he was saying the very same thing, a hundred years ago.  I guess anyone who loves to teach and loves to learn, knows that the first step to learning is developing an interest and a connection.  It's all about making things meaningful.  As we work on developing the Liberty Hyde Bailey Interpretive Garden Path, we hope to make a place for students to learn about and experience nature in our own backyard.  


Last Thursday, my class and I went outside for our daily run around the soccer field.  A large flock of geese had taken over the field and were grazing on the lawn.  As we ran our morning lap, we listened and watched as the flock took flight.  Later, we went outside, sat down and listened to and observed the field in our backyard.  It was filled with the chattering of insects and birds.  There was a cool breeze reminding us that fall was on its way.  Students wrote words to help describe the feelings and sounds of their surroundings and came inside and wrote poems about autumn.  The following is a poem from Zayne. 

I Am Autumn

By Zayne

I am the geese that the wind brushes against me

I am the grass that wonders why I'm dry

I am the trees that smell the wind

I am the leaves that think they will fall off

I am the crickets that see the trees moving

I am flowers that hear winter coming

I am Autumn       



One of the many grasses growing on our path



Back To School Updates . . .

Many a caterpillar has emerged (or is in the process of emerging) into a butterfly right about now in South Haven.  I caught this beautiful one enjoying the "pinks" at the base of our sign.  Butterflies have always inspired me.  I think, in part, I'm inspired by their seemingly endless patience.  They spin their magic chrysalis and let time and life transform them, in what seems like an eternity to anyone who has captured a caterpillar and watched the process unfold.   But once that transformation happens, it's hard to imagine a more beautiful creature than a butterfly. 

Several years ago, a student brought in a monarch caterpillar that spun her chrysalis in our classroom over the first few days of school.  My students checked on her endlessly. . . before school, during recess, and various times throughout the day.  As the weeks progressed the chrysalis became clearer and we started to actually see the orange wings through its tight hanging home.  And then one day it happened.  Right in the middle of a math lesson, someone yelled out, "It moved!!  The chrysalis moved!!!"  We all turned our eyes on the magic and slowly, really very slowly we watched the butterfly emerge.  It was amazing.  My students watched with the utmost attention.  (For as much work as I'd put into my math lesson, I have no memory of the subject matter or objective for that day but the emergence of the butterfly will always be etched into my mind.)  We had housed the chrysalis in a large mason jar.  As a group, we decided to take the lid off so that the butterfly could get as much fresh air as possible.  It appeared that she was tired from the experience and it took her awhile to dry off and start moving her wings.  We returned to our work and checked in on her from time to time that day.  Eventually she gathered strength and flew out of the jar.  We decided to let her be free in our room.  We brought in bouquets of flowers and we were all extra careful where we stepped and how loud we talked.  And then, after a week or so of living with our friend, we captured her once more and took her out to our front lawn and released her. 

Funny, I miss her still to this day.  She brought us all a simple wonder, awe and joy.  She taught me that sometimes it takes abundant patience and perseverance to grow.  In the end, if we are true to who we are and patient with ourselves, there is beauty and transformation underway within each of us.  We don't undergo a physical metamorphosis, but there are always times in our lives that invite true transformation and beauty.  Each student that I will meet in the days ahead is somewhere along the way to becoming the beauty that has always been there, the beauty that they are and the beauty that they will become.  I hope that I can find the patience, simple wonder and joy in them as we learn, grow and transform this school year.  That's life. 

--Becky Linstrom

Gifts from the Path

We have blackberries!  There are several blackberry bushes on the edge of the wooded area.  I plan on bringing some to the Brunch at Bailey's tomorrow morning!

Garden of Pinks

"From earliest boyhood the pinks have been my companions.  Mounds and rings of Grass pinks were in the front yard, left there by my mother, so different in their delicacy from the weeds and brush and deep smells of the forest from which the farm was cut that they seemed like tokens from another and remoter earth.  Their fresh colors and spicy fragrance were of a different order of things, and they led me out to hopes of far countries.  To this late day the memory of them lingers." 
--Liberty Hyde Bailey, Garden of Pinks, 1938

In honor of L.H. Bailey's mom, I planted some "pinks" by our entry sign.  Pinks are Dianthus flowers.  There are many, many different species of Dianthus.  This species of Dianthus is late blooming with varying shades of pink blossoms and thin grassy leaves.  I hope to add a variety of pinks to this small garden beneath the sign.  If there is anyone out there that would like to donate some pinks, let me know and we will add additional species of this pretty perennial to the bed beneath our sign.  I think Liberty Hyde Bailey would be happy to know that his mother's interest in pinks has not been forgotten!

"the background of the day"

"There are two parts to the common day, -- the performance of the day, and the background of the day.  Many of us are so submerged in the work we do and in the pride of life that the real day slips by unnoted and unknown.  But there are some who part the hours now and then and let the background show through.  There are others who keep the sentiments alive as an undertone and who hang all the hours of work on a golden cord, connecting everything and losing none; theirs is the full life; their backgrounds are never forgotten; and the backgrounds are the realities."
--Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Garden Lover

John Stempien, Museum Director, shared passages from the Liberty Hyde Bailey book entitled The Garden Lover with us this morning in the Brunch at Bailey's event.  The above quote was one of my favorites.  It had me thinking back into some of the background of my days as a child.  My parents owned a small cabin on Lake Superior.  We would drive there for the weekend after spending the week in the city of Minneapolis.  My parents refused to build a road into the cabin, so as not to disturb the plants and animals but also to leave the sight and sound of any car in the distance.  Walking the quarter mile or so to the cabin, the path took us right through a huge stand of ferns.  My brothers and I called that stretch of the path "The Land of the Giants," because by mid-summer the ferns were easily as tall as my head (I was 8 or 9 at the time).  It felt like we were walking through a jungle as we brushed back the tall fronds and made our way to our little escape on the lake.  And now, as I wonder through the backyard of our school on our garden path and look at the beautiful ferns beneath the trees, it brings me back to that magical land of the giants in my childhood and into the background of my days.  What a gift those woods and water were to me.

I wonder . . . what background do we give to our students?  How can we frame their days of education in beauty?  And wouldn't it be wonderful if we took the time to "part the hours now and then and let the background show through?"  And then maybe someday they will grow to "hang all the hours of work on a golden cord, connecting everything and losing none. . . "  That would be my dream for every student.

"The joy of flowers is of the backgrounds.  It lies deeper even than the colors, the fair fragrances, and the graces of shape.  It is the joy of things growing because they must, of the essence of winds woven into a thousand forms, of a prophetic earth, and of wonderful delicateness in part and substance.  The appeal is the deeper because we cannot analyze it, nor measure it by money, nor contain it in anything that we make with our hands.  It is too fragile for analysis."  --Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Garden Lover  

Summer Thoughts

"I live and love as seasons fly

And then, O Teacher, here am I.
I stand within the cosmic sea
And dreadless wait my destiny--
I stand with bird and beast and tree
And all the things unbond and free,
For they and I and all together
Pass on in space and time and weather."
--Liberty Hyde Bailey (Taken from his poem entitled Outlook)


Greetings from the Liberty Hyde Bailey Interpretive Garden Path!
The ferns have started without us!  And right they should, for many of us have been vacationing and enjoying this fleeting summer season.   Wouldn't it be lovely if we simply added a rock boarder around these amazing plants and a path surrounding it?

If you have (or know where to find) large rocks that you would be willing to donate to this project, please drop them off under our sign and we will build a beautiful rock boarder for this amazing fern haven beneath the trees. 

Curriculum work is underway!  We had an initial meeting for anyone interested in working on curriculum last week.  Seven of us brainstormed and developed a loosely organized, brilliant (if we do say so ourselves) plan.  The goal will be to develop notebooks for each teacher that suggest garden path learning activities, sorted by seasons.  We're talking math, science, writing, music, art, social studies, health science . . .  If you have ideas to share with us, please join us for our next meeting, August 18th at 10:00 a.m. at North Shore.  If you have suggestions, but are unable to attend the meeting, email me at:  liberty.hyde.gardens@gmail.com  We love suggestions and ideas. . . the more the better!

A special thank you to everyone who donated plants for our Sun Garden.  Cindy, from HuntTree, did an awesome job designing this bed of flowers.  She is also taking really good care of it.  Thanks Cindy!

Carolyn has been caretaker of our blueberry bushes and helped with the flower bed.  Thanks D~!

 Our Edible Wild Plant Garden was taken over by a vast array of weeds (as you can see by the picture below)!  I turned my back for a few weeks (as I headed into the mountains and to a family reunion) only to find our beautiful dandelions were overtaken by weeds!  After a few hours of weeding the other day we are back to dandelions!  It's an interesting feeling to be pulling weeds and hunting for our precious dandelions.  It felt somehow very satisfying to be saving a plant that has so often been treated with such disdain.  I went back today and fertilized them.  I hope to mulch them in the days ahead to protect them from further invasions.  I feel like I've made a new friend out of an old enemy.    

This is a community project.  We want your voice to make these gardens blossom for the students of South Haven.  Join us as we venture into our backyard and discover, learn and grow!  

Peace,  Becky Linstrom

Students checking out the future site of our understory gardens

T-Shirts Turned Out Great

Be sure to buy a t-shirt to support this great student project.  

Call Becky Linstrom at (269) 637-0506  ext 3527

Developing the Liberty Hyde Bailey Interpretive Garden Path Video

This video will be shown at an assembly with all the 4th and 5th graders at North Shore Elementary School.  It explains the developing project.

Groundbreaking May 28, 1:00, North Shore Elementary School

Mark your calendars for the groundbreaking celebration for The Liberty Hyde Bailey Interpretive Garden Path.  Saturday May 28, 1:00 

North Shore Elementary School, South Haven, Michigan.

Next meeting, Thursday, May 5th, at 7:00 p.m. LHB Museum

Updates and Agenda:

• My students made invitations and we need help distributing them
• Tee-shirts are underway, we need some help with distribution and sales
• Bob McGinness and Cindy made a cool video, walking the path and talking about the upcoming gardens (to be used as an all school assembly) 
• Arthur Thomas, a local blueberry farmer, has donated blueberry bushes
• The mayor, Bob Burr, will be on site for the groundbreaking and reading a proclamation
• Aric Nesbitt, our State Representative will also be there (I think we'll let him plant a dandelion)
• We will need to set a couple of work dates to prepare the trail and first gardens

It's coming together!  We have lots of support and we've had loads of April showers, so that must mean May flowers are right around the corner!  If you can join us Thursday, we would love to see you!!!

Exterior Site Services clears the Path

The trail was cleared and the branches hauled and chipped for use on the path.