The Tree Farm

It's been raining all day. No opportunity to work on the cabin except for a quick trip to empty the tarp of water and brace it up so the water flows off better.

The good news is that rain means I don't have to haul water over for the new trees. The real purpose of the land is to plant trees -- there's about a half acre of open space with room for a few hundred trees. I'm planting walnut trees with the goal of providing for my children's (or grandchildren's!) retirement. So far I've planted 8 trees, mostly in order to learn the basics of tree farming. In the spring, I'll plant lots more; more walnut trees, plus little Christmas trees in between.

Note the green "tree shelters" (harvested from the discards from the state park riparian buffer efforts of several years ago). The shelters protect the little trees from being eaten by the dear, or voles, or whatever. Hard to believe, but trees can thrive inside the shelters, and somehow get plenty of sunlight. I'm sure the leaves feel a bit cramped. (!)

Back to the rain. I love the rain. Otherwise, each week I have to haul over lots of water to keep the little treelets going. So, if I'm lucky, it will rain once a week all winter.