Sunday Reading - A bit of scouting

 

Got a fairly busy day laid out for tomorrow so I decided to take care of my Sunday post this evening. 

I have spent the last two days mulling over my plans for the back 8 or so acres I mentioned leaving feral for the local wildlife. My original plan for that section was to turn it into my wood lot. Water and Wood are the two major downsides to the Small-Hold and has been for a number of years now. The water problem was actually kinda figured out long before my time but since about 2008 has been deteriorating fast. Most of this is from cistern decay, wells drying up and the collapse of the only small catchment pond we had. The water issues really began hitting harder while I was in the middle of the fence project and so I have just recently began working on it. I probably should have started sooner but I am pretty sure it is going to require a new equipment purchase to handle. More on that later.

 

 

Trees on the other hand have always been a bit scarce around here. Mostly due to hay production and pasture use. Years ago I began planting trees down in the back of the main pasture but the horses seemed to eat and kill them faster than they could grow. I have always known in a grid down situation wood was going to be a critical resource for the place but up until recently I had plenty of local areas nearby to cut from.

Well that too has changed with all the recent immigration of city folk to the semi-rural areas.

However it seems two years of growth free from grazing animals and about 5+ years of me ignoring the area has done more good than I ever dreamed of.

I still have a number of old and half grown Elm trees (like the one above) that are not only dying off but many still growing. I can thin the half dead ones and allow the others to keep surviving. 

 

I also have a large number of deformed/twisted small scrub Elms like the one above that might as well be culled. Using my wood furnace something this size would not be worth my while but since my new plan is to leave any electrical inputs behind and switch mostly to my smaller wood stove for the future even this little scraggly tree has some value.

 

Here we have a small stand of Maples. The one on the right has been down here for years but the little ones on the left are only 2 or 3 years of growth old. Since the horses have been reduced to only two or totally gone. 

 The picture above is just a part of a large stand of new growth Black Locust saplings. Again 2 to 3 years of growth. I say part because these Locust have spread all over as these pictures are of the West side of the area only. I have not crossed over the East side nor ventured far into what I am now calling the Wood Lot yet as I do not want to disturb the resident deer refugees until after firearms season is over next Month. 

Just beyond the Cedar you see behind these Locust there is a pretty deep gully that has been slowly expanding since the dam broke on the old pond. These Locust are almost specially designed to combat erosion of that type and grow like weeds around here. Of course they are also a tire hazard so this stand is going to need some special attention and have some borders it is going to have to follow going forward.

 

Little Maples like the one above are literally EVERYWHERE that one old Maple that has been hanging on for decades all by itself has been very busy since the four hooves animals of pasture destruction moved away. Of course many of them are in inconvenient spots so I may have to look into relocating a few of them.

 

For this last picture I thought I would show you the only success I have had after 20+ years of attempts to get trees growing in the area. That big kinda brown looking tree that is the tallest in the middle/back is a Bald Cypress tree I planted when my son was too young to do more than crawl. Ya it's a slow grower but I had always loved Bald Cypress trees so I planted that one and apparently they do not taste good so the critters have left it alone. In the more middle ground to the left you will see a tall green tree leaning over another shorter but still green one. The taller one is a Red Oak and the shorter one being leaned over is an Eastern Redbud. They are both the soul survivors of about one dozen of each type I planted down here that were eaten. Finding new Redbud seedlings will be easy but small Red Oaks are a bit harder to identify at that size.

The big tree that takes up the right side is an ancient Hickory that has always been there since I was as small as my son was. He is the knight of this are as only the old King Oak and Queen Oak (who is now gone) were larger. I will show them after Deer season as they have the East side of the area.

With the new growth and what remains of old specimens plus my reserves I might just have enough wood available to keep a smaller wood stove fed indefinitely and actually practice a bit of wood lot management in my old age. That and give the local wild life a natural refuge to escape the immigrant city folk and keep em at arms length. Maybe they will let me join em in harmony as we hide from the world too!!

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!