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.