Morning quartet

These ladies showed up on the camera this past week just before sunrise

Early morning quartet

Spring planting 2020, April update

If the weather holds, we should have a good couple of days planting this coming weekend. Popcorn for our cash crop and we'll have the ground ready for beans in mid-May.

We've already planted some hazelnut trees, peach, apricot and a couple of variety of sweet cherries. So far, so good as they are all caged to keep rabbits and deer away.

Our hickory nuts and both red and white oak acorns that we collected last fall are set in planter "tubes" and we'll keep those protected until planting next year.

We have some pin and white oak ready to plant this year along with sugar maple seedlings and a larger sugar maple that will be planted near the cabin.

After last year's spring of rain from March to July, this year is hopeful.

Morning daffodil

Keep your spirits up with a morning daffodil growing at the homestead.

From a single acorn, a forest

As the acorn sprouts to open sky
one of many to be planted on the hill.
Some day this one will be added
with a chance to reach towards heaven.

Red oak in the makeshift greenhouse

 Last fall we had a good harvest from my sources of acorns of white and red oak. The neighbor's pin oak was not short of it's yield and squirrels had their fill and more. I'm sure I'll find acorns sprouting throughout the yard as a result of their hard labor.

But this is a red oak - and that means it's special. Among the oak species, the red oak was the one most prized by my father for his carpentry work and our kitchen table he made was from red oak.

Also, this seedling is a cousin to the Stranded Tree.

Red oak seedling a few inches tall

This year, we continue to experiment in our planting times, fertilizer, etc. to collect additional data for future plantings.

I also have something special planned for this year (if only spring will cooperate) and I hope to reveal it soon.

In the mean time, I'd like to share from a song from David Gray, The Sapling:

Gonna lay down in the grass
And watch that acorn
Split in two
Slowly take root

Linked at Poets and Storytellers United:Weekly Scribblings #13: All The Small Things