Tending your little piece of earth

SwampDonkey · April 09, 2015, 05:42:48 PM

Not up here. It's ok to dream, but nope. :D These will be for my use only. Then if I switch gears by then, I'll just stand and look at'm. :D

Banjo picker · April 09, 2015, 08:27:03 PM

Nice thread SD keep it going....nice variety of trees you got on that piece of ground....Banjo

SwampDonkey · April 22, 2016, 01:29:01 PM

This attached Google Earth .KMZ file takes you to the woodlot.

petefrom bearswamp · April 22, 2016, 06:00:05 PM

No experience with softwoods but planted 750 Red oak in tubes interspersed with Scotch pine and Norway spruce for competition 1995 and 96.
Was busy with consulting for the first 10 yrs so neglected the plantation on about 11 acres.
I hired a young fellow with a Husky pole pruner 3 summers ago to prune and he did a fair job as some scars were 2 3 inches in dia,
The larger ones are now about 3/4 closed.
If I knew then what i know now all would have been Norway as these are taller than the oak as are the worthless Scotch pine.

SwampDonkey · April 22, 2016, 07:38:54 PM

I have found red oak even to be slow compared to yellow birch. I planted both species, oak from acorns and birch from seedlings (had nursery grow from seed I collected) about the same time. The oak have lots of light in the open and the birch are 3 times their size, canopy over the top to walk in under like a park. Both on soil like in a garden. But I also have 4 or 5 red spruce I planted near by, and they are very slow compared to white spruce that are 3 times as big, same soil. ;D

SwampDonkey · February 01, 2018, 04:01:37 AM

Although I have planted over 50 acres on my woodlot, I also encourage the natural regen present when I make decisions with my brush saw. I give native hardwood, balsam fir and white cedar a place. They all have a strong market and aesthetic value (especially hardwood fall colors) in this region. Moose, monkey bears and rabbits make other decisions I have no control over. ;D :D :D

moose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmpxa8vVe2Y

white throated sparrow, blackbirds, butternut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbFhdzu_b1A

chickadees and butternut and tamarack (both planted)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5-blgmFdb0

monkey bears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSMpYGacCw

aesthetics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTdd38mDRwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnwq_aOEIM4

WDH · February 01, 2018, 06:53:17 AM

You are connected to your land. There are so many people, especially in the big cities, who don't even have a clue what land is. Everything is given to them or produced for them. The only thing that they know is the phone in their face. I appreciate that you are tending that little piece of earth. The creatures appreciate it too, in their own way. Sometimes moose probably don't act thankful :D.

SwampDonkey · June 24, 2019, 03:23:54 AM

Yesterday I found some yellow and some white lady slippers, not in patches but in ones and twos in areas I never saw them before. And I never saw white ones on my land before. Never found any pink ones, but I think they are the same species as the white ones. Across the road from the house is a patch of yellow ones, and some are with double flowers. Never seen that before. My brother's girlfriend is sketching/painting them on canvas for mother.

thecfarm · June 24, 2019, 05:18:17 AM

Yellow? Nice!! White and pink are no big deal on my land. We had alot and I mean alot growing among some pines. My Father and me went in and cut the pine,the lady slippers never came back. :( Somewheres I have a picture of a clump of Lady Slaippers. Was not on my land. Seem like there was a dozen in about a foot of space. Never saw them grow like that.

Mooseherder · June 24, 2019, 07:43:35 AM

I came across them for the first time also.
My BIL is the one who spotted them out.
Had no idea what they were. On the bank of the stream.

SwampDonkey · June 24, 2019, 09:56:54 AM

This is an older photo of the ones across the road. There are at least 4 of them with double flowers there.

thecfarm · June 24, 2019, 03:01:49 PM

Nice picture of the clump!!!

Mooseherder · June 24, 2019, 08:51:37 PM

That is a Whack of Lady Slippers. ;)

Klunker · June 25, 2019, 12:20:52 AM

Quote from: SwampDonkey on June 24, 2019, 09:56:54 AM
This is an older photo of the ones across the road. There are at least 4 of them with double flowers there.

Hows your deer population?
Lady Slippers are an Orchid. Around here any member of the orchid family or lily family get constantly chewed by deer.
I have notice in my work on my land that the deer love White Oaks. They will rarely browse on a Sugar Maple or a White Pine. Sugar Maples carpet sections of my woods as seedlings. All left alone by the deer. Red Maples are not so lucky.
Deer are funny, they have their preferred foods and it changes as the seasons progress.
In May they will chew every flower bud of Golden Alexanders but in June they leave them alone.
They will occasionally chew the White Oak buds/new shoots till winter hits then its mass destruction for White Oaks. Not a one in reach of a deer will make it thru the winter.

SwampDonkey · June 25, 2019, 02:17:16 AM

Maybe 3 deer in 10 square miles here. ;) The deer love the lily beds in flower gardens, but not enough deer at my place to worry about. The coyotes yip here most every night, and of course the neighborhood dogs have to answer back. :D

Klunker · June 25, 2019, 09:45:06 PM

Quote from: SwampDonkey on June 25, 2019, 02:17:16 AM
Maybe 3 deer in 10 square miles here. ;) The deer love the lily beds in flower gardens, but not enough deer at my place to worry about. The coyotes yip here most every night, and of course the neighborhood dogs have to answer back. :D

Your lucky, we have around 25/sq mile.

Banjo picker · June 29, 2019, 04:41:09 PM

Those are cool. Don't recall ever seeing any. Are they a northern thing...? If deer love them that might be the reason I don't see them. I will be on the look out though. thanks Banjo

SwampDonkey · June 29, 2019, 05:12:23 PM

Banjo,

I think there are subspecies all over the continent, info from searching Google.

SwampDonkey · July 11, 2019, 04:32:58 AM

Things to take notice of in the wood pile. ;)

Here are a fir and a tamarack. Both taken from managed forest (ie the woodlot), but specifically trees were spaced some time ago.

Fir........... Notice two rings to the width of my index finger, still respectable growth.

tamarack ......... double the growth of the fir, if not a little more.

Definitely can grow 2 or 3 times the wood in the same time frame when you thin. Trees are much healthier to. Too bad tamarack wasn't 'the' money tree. :D I only planted them for firewood, they are dandy firewood to. But, I wouldn't want them too big, I hate splitting them. The old Collins just wants to bounce. Fir in comparison isn't even work to split. :D

dustyhoosier78 · January 03, 2020, 08:35:24 PM

I have read this entire post a few times I enjoy hearing about the different species of trees. I have 43 acres in Indiana and love managing my piece of earth. I am mostly thinning maples and oaks, keep up the post.

wisconsitom · January 13, 2020, 10:53:34 AM

We're currently thinning young stands (6 years from establishment from seedlings/plug stock) of Norway spruce, white pine, red pine, and hybrid larch. We're going up to just past head-height at this stage and will eventually prune up to approx. 16 feet on all softwood species. We're not looking to necessarily harvest all of this stuff, but we do want to thin it properly as it grows. In particular, we're going to have the opportunity to do significant thinning in the larch blocks within the next 5 to 10-year time-frame. At some point in the near future, we may wish to take out every other row! But that's not where we are now. We're just raising up lower limbs and culling any small trees that have been overtopped, etc.

I must say, I simply love the look of our blocks after we raise up/thin. We're also having to un- bury small spruce and pine plastered down to the ground by heavy, wet snow.

SwampDonkey · June 07, 2020, 02:55:14 PM

A little video of what has been going on at the woodlot this spring. Right now, the firewood is just from trail cutting. Then I'll have 3 or 4 years to thin out more firewood. I'm working on a ~5 acre section. I may have to cut 2 more cords, that will also come from trail cutting.

Thin 4 firewood ranger - YouTube

thecfarm · June 07, 2020, 08:53:49 PM

Nice video. You have some wood to pick up. I did notice the lack of eastern white pine. I have a lot of old fields too. But mine have big rocks in it. Your land looks level, nice piece to get around on.

SwampDonkey · June 08, 2020, 03:28:01 AM

I have a few pine that I planted, but sparcely. The moose, bugs and rust kill most of them or make them junk. :D

Yes, flat ground and very few stones on the surface. But
any digging will pull a few up. Course, on this old farm they picked them off the top already and dumped them in piles at the edge of the old field. The piles are small because this field was not a large one. One of them fields I like to call a small patch. :D

I will be going up this morning and cutting some more trail wood. Probably that 2 cords. Nice and cool and overcast, gotta wear the bug armour. :D

thecfarm · June 08, 2020, 03:46:33 AM

Really no moose to do damage here, just the deer. I have at least 2 good size piles of rock around here. I have been hauling that up into the bogs, as needed. Hauled off 2 stone walls into the bog all ready. These are not boundary walls. I am working on a truck road now. Trying to level one part up now. A good layer of rock and a layer of gravel will make it better. Like to see the low stumps too. Easier on tires too. Hard on bar and chains.