Douglas Fir - all done

My boy, Andrew, and I finished planting the last 20 Douglas firs.  It's been two weeks since they arrived, so I was concerned that they might not be in good shape.  But all was well, they looked good, and the roots weren't dried out.

Andrew insisted that we plant them all, even a couple that were about 2 inches tall.

Look at this little guy - we may end up with a lot of Charlie Brown Christmas trees!

New wood and old wood

Quite a weekend.  The seedlings, 25 black walnut and 50 Douglas fir, arrived Wednesday afternoon.  They are magnificent, with great roots.  They are supposedly 1 year seedlings, but the roots are better than the 3 and 4 year trees I got from the Georgia grower.  And the state of Maryland sells them for 50 or 75 cents per  -- can't beat that!

So far I've gotten 20 of the black walnut planted, and about 20 of the firs.   I watered them well, and it's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow;  should be a good start for them.  

I would have gotten more planted, but I got distracted.  They are tearing down the condemned house in the neighborhood, and I saw a number of boards going into the dumpster that could be used for my "barn-board" siding on the shed.   The wood appears to be a mix of pine and oak, maybe red oak, all rough sawn.  From what I hear, the wood was sawn on site back in the 40's from the trees they felled on the lot.  Could explain the odd sizes (like 2.25" x 4"), and why some of the pieces have bark on them.  They all look incredibly straight.  So I spent a few hours selecting pieces and pulling nails.  In the end, all the 1x's were too split and broken from the demolition to use, but I got some nice 2x4's and 2x6's.  The bigger boards are nearly 12 feet long, and with the rough, circular buzz-saw pattern on the faces, they might make some nice inside beams in the shed.

Like the color choices?

The odd thing is that the county requires that they leave two walls standing from the original house and use them to build the new house.  And the two walls they left are rotting and temite-ridden.  It will be a challenge for the builder.