Category: Virginia forestry

I really did not have urgent work to do. I am kind of between projects. I planted all the seeds and trees I have. It will be useful for me to use my cutter to clean up brambles near my young longleaf, but there is not much sense in doing that now, since they are just now coming up and will grow back the day after I am done if I cut them now.  

I am stiffer today than usual, despite not much work done. I think I may be in danger of overdoing because I get much less exercise in my daily life, now with gyms closed and social distancing making keeping me at home, sitting around.  

My real reason for going down to the farms was just to be there. I am very socially isolated on the farms, so I can feel virtuous for distancing. Of course, no doubt I take a big risk with self-service gas  

It is a long drive, but I have audio books. I finished “Extreme Economics,” a very good book and started another “The Narrow Corridor.” It is a lot easier to drive now, since there is much less traffic and gas is a lot cheaper. I can usually just do cruise control the whole way. The only bad part, and maybe it is just my perception, is that trucks are driving faster and more like they always do on I-81. Maybe the lack other traffic enables and emboldens them.  

My first picture is me “working”. I have a nice lounge chair there these days. The cycle of life is interesting. Babies & old me look pretty much alike. Of course, most babies do not have beards. Next picture is the view from the chair. The other two pictures are from my cypress area. These were planted in 2012. I think this corridor is very pretty. They remind me of tamaracks back in Wisconsin. You have to wear muck boots, but besides that is is easy. going.  

Forestry folk invented social distancing, so it is easier for us to adapt to the steps needed to address the Covid-19 crisis. I am not an extrovert, but I miss the routine social interaction, having a beer with friends of just the serendipity of talking to strangers I meet.  This has made my tree farms even more important and I have been using work on them as a form of therapy during social distancing. And with the solitude, I have had more time to think about what I mean when I say I am “working on the farm.”
 
I enjoy the work although not ever minute doing it. Tree planting is a good example. Pushing through the brambles and the briars, carrying the seedlings, and just poking that dibble stick into the ground thousands of time is an experienced better remembered than lived. And it seems like the best way to make it rain is to go out and plant trees. Much of the work on tree farms is like that.  When I am out doing it, I cannot wait to get done; when I am done, I cannot wait to get out doing it again.

The joy of planting trees comes not from the tedious repetition. The joy is in our minds when we contemplate the past and imagine the future. Tapping into the majestic flow of nature helps with insights for us short-lived mortals about the unknown past to the unknowable future. It is a spiritual type of practical activity.

The American Tree Farm System was created in 1941 to help ensure the future wood supply, an important, practical and prosaic goal that the America forest industry has achieved. Kudos forestry USA. The USA has more timber growing today than at any other time in more than a century.

I think we now need to move beyond this “tree crop” idea. Trees are more than wood and forests are more than trees. When I go to my tree farms, I am pleased to see so much timber. If not for income from selling timber, pulp, and pellets, I could not afford to own my land, and I am glad that the products of my land support local jobs and contribute to the general welfare.  But if income was my only goal, I sure would not own a tree farm. I am typical of a Virginia tree farmer in that our surveys show that most of us are looking for something more than money from our land.

For me that something is being part of a community. My land’s biotic communities are the basics, but I also enjoy being part of the greater local community and the forest community worldwide I love the trees and I love the wood in buildings. This is our community too.
In this time of covid-19 isolation, I know that I am part of many communities, so I go alone into the woods and am reminded.

Doing the social isolation walks in Virginia’s beautiful spring weather. I have never seen so many people out walking. Everyone keeps their distance, but we still feel friendly. Most people smile and wave, as we yield the path to one another.

My picture is one of the big white oaks at Navy Federal grounds. There are maybe a dozen of them and they are at least 130 years old. I am reasonably sure of that estimate, since I counted the rings on the stump of one that they cut down in 2013 (although I think that the downed oak was a big red oak, not white, I figured the same generation.) I have included pictures from that sojourn seven years ago.

I like to come back to the same places to appreciate the changes. I recall that long walk back in 2013. I was still recovering from that peripheral artery problem and it hurt to walk. I am much better now. I stamp my memory on the land I walk on, even if only I know about it. It is a source of connections and joy for me. I have “relationships” with trees and landscape in Milwaukee that go back more than half a century.

Tomorrow I plan to socially isolate down on the farm, & I am going to camp out for the first time on my land. I don’t expect it to be comfortable, but I have been meaning to do it for a long time.

I do not like to camp. I used to do it a lot because I do like to be in nature. In those days, that was the only way for me. I had no car so was was not mobile nor could I afford a hotel. Both those things are changed now. I usually stay at Fairfield in about 20 miles from my land. But in this time of social isolation, I figured I might not.
Anyway, I will be in the Internet shadow tomorrow. I may check from my phone, but if you don’t hear from me, I am in the woods.

Espen and I were down on the farms. I did some cutting around the new longleaf, but mostly I wanted to show the latest developments. He and his brother and sister have helped a lot, since they were little. Espen remembered when he first walked on Diamond Grove. The trees you see in the picture #3 were so small that you could not be sure they were there, covered as they were by grass and brambles. He is getting a better perception of flowing time. Good.

The trees I love today take decades to mature; the ecosystems they help regenerate take even longer to develop. I hope to live a few more healthy years, but realistically we are talking a couple decades, tops.

I will never finish of what I started. It is important to me that Espen, Alex and Mariza carry on a multi-generational endeavor. I find beauty and great meaning in being part of what I cannot finish, to find my path and take it as long as I can. I want the kids tol carry on theirs, to develop theirs. This I cannot do for them, but I can make available the ingredients. It is a gift that I can give.

My first picture is social isolation. Next is Espen doing same. Picture #3 is our recently thinned trees on Diamond Grove with me as height comparison. Last is gas at Pilot at Exit 104. Gas is only $1.39. It has been a long time since gas was so cheap.

Practicing social distance down in the woods. Everything is starting to grow. I planted some wildflowers, but I busted my buster. Well, I only sheared off the bolt. Easy to fix, but I did not have a bolt, so that part of my work was done for the day I didn’t have too much other urgent work, so I had time to look around.  

The bald cypress have started to leaf out. My first picture shows some of them and the lacy pastels of April. The cypress were planted in 2012. They were suppressed by the loblolly, both by getting less light AND less water. We harvested the loblolly two years ago, and the cypress have responded. I expect a lot of growth this year.   Next picture is my ATV loaded with rocks. I needed to armor a stream bank. Our neighbor is Vulcan Quarry, and they dug the quarry there for good reason. I have lots of rocks laying around on Freeman, but they are scattered. They would be too heavy to carry, but the ATV can do it. I had to make a few trips, but I got enough to get the job done.  

Last three pictures are my 2012 longleaf pine. They are getting ready to grow. Some have already candled. The fire burned hotter in some places than it did in others and scorched some trees more, but I think that all the trees, or at least almost all have survived. Some have all the needles burned off, but they are sending out candles.

I practice social distancing w/o staying at home. Forestry invented social distance. Anyway, I talked to nobody all day, but got to go out.  

Mostly I was checking out what we did recently. It is good news. The logger are mostly done on Diamond Grove. I have not done much on Diamond Grove for the last couple years, since I anticipated this harvest and anything I did would be overtaken by events, like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Now there will be a lot of work, however.   Not sure what to do about the landing zones. My options would be just to do pollinator habitat or replant with longleaf pine. We can have the pollinator habitat under those. I asked the loggers to clear cut around 5 acres that is too wet for loblolly and was getting clogged up with invasive multiflora rose. I want to replant with bald cypress, swamp tupelo and swamp white oak, and consign that whole area to SMZ addition. I have a picture of the clear cut. I will recruit the boys to pile those sticks into windrows and we can burn before we plant next spring.   Brodnax is looking good. I used my new disc harrow to make grooves and planted Southeast wildflower mix. Some are already coming up. Should be very nice.   I had been a little depressed about the longleaf I planted in winter 2018. I thought we fried them in the last fire, but even the really burned ones seem not to have died. I included a picture. All the needles are burned but it is now sending up new green.  

Other pictures show the redbud trees along among my pines. The European version of this tree is called a Judas tree. The story goes that this was the tree where Judas hung himself after betraying Jesus. The tree was so embarrassed that it blushed red. Actually it is more purple despite the name. The tree is very pretty in springtime. It is kind of a nuisance in the pine forest, but I am unwilling to do the things I need to get rid to them, so I might as well enjoy.   I checked out the last group of pines I planted on Freeman. Looks good. It is fun to drive around on the ATV. Makes life a lot easier.

Community is important, even if we have to “social distance.”  

I didn’t properly secure my trailer and it came loose. I stopped on the little road on the way to the Freeman place & soon a hunt club member stopped by to help. This was great, since the trailer weighs a lot. We got it attached right and I continued on the the farm. A little while later Mike Raney drove up. Evidently word traveled fast. Mike used to build trailers and he wanted to be sure I was okay. Very nice of him. I am pretty sure that the mishap was human error, i.e. mine. I probably did not batten it down right. It is less than two miles from where I keep the four-wheeler to our Freeman place. Complacency. Mike could find nothing wrong and there was no trouble on the return trip. As I wrote yesterday, I got 385 longleaf seedlings that Dept of Forestry had surplus because Arbor Day activities were canceled. I had a few patches I missed, so was glad to fill in. The ATV is making life a lot easier. The places I needed to plant are not near the road. Absent the ATV, I would have had to carry everything on my back, probably make a few trips. Now I can just load it on the ATV.   My first picture shows my new equipment – trailer and ATV. Next is the fire break. I planted it in clover. I think it just looks good, the strip of green. I planted in my pre-ATV days. It was hard. The bag of clover was 50lbs. Although it go lighter as I progressed, I had to carry it by hand and then spread the seeds. Below is a video of a little stream in an SMZ. Flowing water is just beautiful and it is cool the way the moss and vegetation has grown first. After that are my Dibble sticks. The one is set up for the plugs and the other is a blade. I needed both. The plug is better for what I want to do, but sometimes I need the other to cut through roots and hard dirt. Unfortunately, I lost my bladed stick. I put it down in the woods and could not find it. I am sure it will turn up. I leaned it on the tree, but it no doubt fell down and it is hard to see.  

Everybody wants to be a farmer at 5pm, but nobody wants it at 5am. That is the saying. I don’t work nearly as hard as most farmers, and I did not get up that early, but it was a hard day of planting. I also planted pollinator habitat. My last picture is lunchtime rest. Chrissy made a little pavilion area with a nice recline folding chair. That is my selfie.

You cannot get much more socially distant than when you are out planting trees with nobody for acres. Dept of Forestry had an extra box of longleaf, since they cancelled Arbor Day plantings. I have some blank spaces for trees, so I was happy to get them. It is a little late to plant longleaf, but I expect most will do okay. It is supposed to rain tonight and then next week.

Forestry has been declared an essential industry (where do you think all that toilet paper and disposal masks are supposed to come from?) You cannot work from home. Virtual trees don’t really grow. Of course, what I am doing is for 20 years from now. Presumably, people will want toilet paper in those days too.

I am also planting pollinator habitat. There were lots of bubble bees flying around, no doubt looking for flowers. My flowers will not be of any immediate help to these guys, but they will come on line in a couple months.

Anyway, glad to be down on the farms.

I listened to “Man’s Search for Meaning” audio book while planting trees. It is by a guy called Viktor Frankl. He was a Jewish psychiatrist, who ended up in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. The book talks about that in some detail, but his main point is overcoming hardship, even the most extreme sort that he experienced.

Frankl explains that you cannot control what happens to you, but you have a choice of response. He reject the idea that people are determined. He says that people need to have meaning in their lives, but each person needs to search for it. If you search for happiness you will never find it. Happiness is a side effect of the search for meaning, the desire to do the right thing and then doing it.

It was well worth listening. I read the book back in the 1990s, while preparing for my posting to Krakow. I sure did not enjoy the tales of the camps, but I cannot but admire this man’s morality and resilience. His lessons are valuable. We have choices. We should take our search for meaning seriously, but most other little problems in life do not much matter.
He made a good point re collective guilt. He did not believe in it. Individuals can be guilty. They do not get it from group membership. Frankl gave an example of a woman who asked him how he could write in German after what he had been through. He asked her if she had knives in her kitchen. When she answered in the affirmative, he asked her how she could use knives when so many people had been killed by knives. She got the point.

My first picture is me out standing in my field, planting trees. Next is one of the little longleaf growing after the fire. I worried about them, but almost all seem to have survived. Last picture is a tree-eye view of me planting. I was actually trying to take the picture of the burned pine in picture #2, but the phone was still on selfie mode. I thought this was a good picture to balance. Two pictures do not look good on Facebook. Three is a better balance.