Picture taken on September 22nd.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Wednesday Wildlife, 10/16/13
From July, 2012:
This immature Eastern Meadowlark kept its eye on me while I cut weeds. The higher pitch song distinguishes it from the Western Meadowlark and plenty more of this guy's friends entertained me during my work this year.
This immature Eastern Meadowlark kept its eye on me while I cut weeds. The higher pitch song distinguishes it from the Western Meadowlark and plenty more of this guy's friends entertained me during my work this year.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Acorn and chestnut inventory, 10/08/13
Last week I received about 500 red oak acorns from Acorno.com. They're supposed to have come from Iowa, but I'll have to take them at their word. I still ended up with about 500 after floating them and at a price less than what they currently list. The reason for ordering was that my local trees had none. Not a single acorn from any of the red oak trees that I know of that are easily accessible.
About 300 swamp white oak acorns from a local college campus. Floating was about 80-90 percent successful. The four trees had a good crop this year and I've been battling the squirrels to get at them. A couple of the locals aren't too happy with me taking their food supply.
The black oak inventory nearly doubled to 39 acorns on Monday after I stopped to pick up #2 son on campus and I went to my source. This one tree sits very close to a linden and I picked up a few dozen of those seeds to try my hand with. Only about 5% of the acorns have been viable after floating. I've been checking this tree for the past month to try to increase my numbers and only getting a couple of good acorns on each visit.
I get some strange looks as I pick up acorns and seeds from around campus. I'm thinking of wearing a tuxedo while picking but someone is sure to call security and I'd rather not be chased about by net-carrying guys in white coats.
David aka True Blue Sam and his mom, Bea, stopped by and dropped off at least 2 gallons of Chinese chestnuts. With a very good flavor, some of them will not make it to the tree farm. But I have a planned spot where the chestnut grove will be and I'll be getting some in the ground this fall. With his generosity, I have several to experiment with to see what works best for my ground.
We have a good supply for this year's fall planting and for spring. An old fridge in the basement now holds our inventory and the "crisper" drawer is a little full.
About 300 swamp white oak acorns from a local college campus. Floating was about 80-90 percent successful. The four trees had a good crop this year and I've been battling the squirrels to get at them. A couple of the locals aren't too happy with me taking their food supply.
The black oak inventory nearly doubled to 39 acorns on Monday after I stopped to pick up #2 son on campus and I went to my source. This one tree sits very close to a linden and I picked up a few dozen of those seeds to try my hand with. Only about 5% of the acorns have been viable after floating. I've been checking this tree for the past month to try to increase my numbers and only getting a couple of good acorns on each visit.
I get some strange looks as I pick up acorns and seeds from around campus. I'm thinking of wearing a tuxedo while picking but someone is sure to call security and I'd rather not be chased about by net-carrying guys in white coats.
David aka True Blue Sam and his mom, Bea, stopped by and dropped off at least 2 gallons of Chinese chestnuts. With a very good flavor, some of them will not make it to the tree farm. But I have a planned spot where the chestnut grove will be and I'll be getting some in the ground this fall. With his generosity, I have several to experiment with to see what works best for my ground.
Here's the inventory:
From left to right - swamp white oak, Chinese chestnuts, red oak and black oak.
We have a good supply for this year's fall planting and for spring. An old fridge in the basement now holds our inventory and the "crisper" drawer is a little full.
Monday, October 7, 2013
The Reason for cages
In a word --- deer.
I mowed about a half acre of goldenrod and sawgrass to plant our aronia plants and we found several small elms and a couple of good sized cottonwood saplings. And more walnut trees. I decided to not mow them over with the intention of transplanting the elm and cottonwood elsewhere. With about 3000+ walnuts on the place, I wasn't worried about those. I ran out of time to transplant or cage them and decided that I would put them on the list for the following week's work.
With clearing off the weeds and grass, now the trees are visible and vulnerable to deer. They were hidden before mowing and now it was like I put a spotlight on them and a giant arrow to point the deer right at them. Below is a cottonwood sapling at about 8 feet tall:
And this is what was left of the walnut:
With the rut starting earlier this year compared to the past two years, the rubbings started in late September and are about a month ahead of last year. Repellents do nothing to discourage these giant rats, and with three trails that cross the property, hunters have not been able to keep the population down.
The trees should recover, but they are set back years. All because I waited a week.
I found that it isn't always necessary to wire the cages to posts but just having the woven wire cage surrounding the tree is sometimes aggravating enough to confuse the deer. Because of the numbers of walnuts we have there is no realistic opportunity to cage them all. But others, like the coffeetrees get caged up.
The best supplier of fence, wire and posts has been farm auctions with my latest acquisition of about 800ft of 30" woven wire and another 500ft of barbed wire. I loaded up two pickups and an 6x8 trailer with rolls of used and new wire for $70, disappointing an older farmer in the process. Earlier this summer I was able to get 90+ steel posts for $40 with a few wooden posts thrown in.
It's best to protect the trees and berries as much as I can
I mowed about a half acre of goldenrod and sawgrass to plant our aronia plants and we found several small elms and a couple of good sized cottonwood saplings. And more walnut trees. I decided to not mow them over with the intention of transplanting the elm and cottonwood elsewhere. With about 3000+ walnuts on the place, I wasn't worried about those. I ran out of time to transplant or cage them and decided that I would put them on the list for the following week's work.
With clearing off the weeds and grass, now the trees are visible and vulnerable to deer. They were hidden before mowing and now it was like I put a spotlight on them and a giant arrow to point the deer right at them. Below is a cottonwood sapling at about 8 feet tall:
And this is what was left of the walnut:
With the rut starting earlier this year compared to the past two years, the rubbings started in late September and are about a month ahead of last year. Repellents do nothing to discourage these giant rats, and with three trails that cross the property, hunters have not been able to keep the population down.
The trees should recover, but they are set back years. All because I waited a week.
I found that it isn't always necessary to wire the cages to posts but just having the woven wire cage surrounding the tree is sometimes aggravating enough to confuse the deer. Because of the numbers of walnuts we have there is no realistic opportunity to cage them all. But others, like the coffeetrees get caged up.
The best supplier of fence, wire and posts has been farm auctions with my latest acquisition of about 800ft of 30" woven wire and another 500ft of barbed wire. I loaded up two pickups and an 6x8 trailer with rolls of used and new wire for $70, disappointing an older farmer in the process. Earlier this summer I was able to get 90+ steel posts for $40 with a few wooden posts thrown in.
It's best to protect the trees and berries as much as I can
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