Well, I’m certainly glad I finished the outside stuff, yesterday! Especially wrapping up the post pounder. Continue reading
spruce
Pretty, but …
With autumn making itself felt for a little while now, the changes in the leafs is sometimes showing us things we couldn’t see when all was green.
Like this beautiful splash of red.
This spruce tree is probably 50-60 feet high, and entangled in the beautiful, horrible, invasive vine I’ve been digging up and tearing out all over the place. It looks so gorgeous, but from some of the trees I’ve found, is probably killing the spruce it is climbing. Whether or not it is why this spruce has branches only on the south and east sides of the trunk, I can’t say.
We’ve lost a lot of spruces in the spruce grove already. When I get to clearing in there next year, I will hopefully be able to cut the vine at its base – no chance of being able to get it off the tree without special equipment, but I’ll pull down as much as I can. Who knows. It might end up like the dead spruces on the north side of the house, and come right off as one giant triffid.
Once things are cleared and cleaned more in there, I will likely transplant new spruces into the spruce grove. Like the two my mom planted right against the chain link fence around the inner yard! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: spruce grove fence line, more progress, part two
After working my way through the first section, I realized the stuff I’d cleared away had hidden quite a bit. So here are some before photos of the next section. (click on them to see them better)
The little spruces were far enough from the fence that I found myself wondering, should I take them out, or should I just prune them clear of the fence? When I’m in that situation, I try to think ahead 10, 20 or more years. What will they be like if I leave them?
This was made easy today, by looking at the large spruce that’s already there, even closer to the fence.
What tree, you might be asking?
This one. In the during and after photos.
Yup, those little spruces were completely hiding a huge spruce, right at the fence.
Also, another little spruce that grew under the fence line and even wound its way back and forth around them.
Reaching that big spruce was my goal for the day. If all goes well, the next time I work here, I should reach the gate.
In that after photo, note the red Christmas light bulb. Look for it in these next photos.
The first of these three photos was taken from outside the fence line, where I went to clear some of the trees growing there. There are many more, closer to the ditch, that need to be cleared, but those will wait for now.
If you look closely, you can see that red Christmas light bulb in the first and third photos.
Did you notice something else in the after photos? Take another look at the top fence wire. What you can see of it, anyhow.
I found a temporary fix for the broken wire.
Once I cleared this area of the fence line, I found that when I pulled on the end with the loop in it (on the left of the above photo), it could almost touch the broken end (on the right in the photo, now with its own loop). I don’t know when I’ll be able to fix it properly, but I didn’t want to leave it broken and hanging, either. So I went to the garage and grabbed some zip ties, created a new loop on the broken wire end, and joined them by linking 4 zip ties loosely together. Once they were all linked, I tightened all the zip ties as much as I could, then trimmed the ends with the pruning shears. Now, the top line that was broken is tighter than the middle line, which got stretched when the tree fell on it, but didn’t break. :-)
While making my way to the garage, I found this.
Another bench, made out of logs with a board across the top. I’ve gone through here a few times, but had to practically step on it before I saw it! I tried to pick it up, to see if it was usable, but it is so rotten, it started to fall apart, so I left it for now. It will be cleared out when we get to taking out all the deadwood and continuing to clean up the spruce grove, next year. Though on this end, it’s not really a spruce grove any more. Closer to the garage, and the south fence line, it’s more poplar, elms and oak. The elms and oak are in rows, so those were planted deliberately. The poplar looks to have sown itself. There are even what might be some apple trees in here.
Once I’ve cleared the East fence line to the gate, I will work my way down the south fence line, along the driveway, just enough to clear it. There are poplars growing right at the wires, and while the south fence line has good posts, just like the East line does, many of them are falling over. Especially right next to the garage. It is along this fence line that the power cord from the garage runs. We might not get to straightening them out this year, but if there’s going to be electrical cord supported by this fence, I want it to be able to stay upright!
We shall see how far along there we will be able to get, before the weather turns.
Looking ahead to the future, I hope to have a number of seating areas scattered about – with seats made of materials that won’t rot or degrade as quickly as the wooden benches I’ve been finding. The goal is to clear this area enough to give it a park-like feel, plus I want to be able to see through the trees from the house to the driveway. At the same time, I do want to leave some of the undergrowth, too. Dogwood. Wild roses. False spirea. Junipers. I look forward to planting shade loving plants and flowers in areas where they can naturalize, and ground cover that can be walked on. Over time, I want this yard, including the spruce and maple groves, to be a sanctuary, not only for us humans, but to shelter some of the native wildlife, and to provide food and shelter for native pollinators as well.
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: spruce grove fence line, more progress, part one
The chilly weather we’ve had for the past few days has really got me wanting to finish this fence line along the spruce grove! As long as I can clear to the driveway gate before winter, anything else is gravy! :-)
I took a whole bunch of photos, so I’m splitting them into two posts again. Here is the first section I worked on. With how I was finding things, I decided to go with before, during and after photos.
This is where I left off, last time. I was able to leave the oaks, just pruning them a bit, for transplanting next year. They are really leaning towards the fence, where they would have been getting the most light, but once they are planted somewhere more open, they should start growing straight again.
Over the years, I could see that someone had trimmed branches back from the fence line. A lot of those have died, but are high enough and short enough that I will leave them for now. I pruned the undergrowth only as much as I needed to, to clear the fence and access things.
That meant cutting away some of the things growing in the juniper, as well as some of the dead juniper branches.
The ground cover (I am not 100% certain that they are juniper, but that’s what I’m calling them for now) stayed as well. I had to walk all over them, but they can handle it. They did make working in the area more treacherous, though!
I know these have been growing here for a long time, but seeing this stem really shows just how long.
It takes a lot of years for these to get such thick stems!
Clearing this first section revealed enough that I took before and after photos of the next section, too. Which will be in my next post. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Green
Our day started with thunder and much needed rain.
While going into the medical centre for my husband’s appointment this afternoon, I couldn’t resist getting pictures of the lush green spruces and their pine cones, along the parking lot. Such lovely, healthy, trees they have on the grounds. :-) It’s amazing how quickly everything perks up after a good rainfall.
While in the waiting room, we heard a massive peal of thunder! The storm didn’t hit directly, though. We just got some good rain. It would have been good to get it earlier in the year, but I’ll take what we can get!
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: Spruce grove perimeter, reaching the fence!
It’s been a while, but today I was able to continue working on the perimeter of the spruce grove. I started off at the little maple I had stopped at, last time, and made it to the fence line. :-D
The last time I went through the area, looking ahead to what needed to be done, it was still green. The leaves are completely yellow, now!
Here are the before and after pictures. (click on the images to see them better)
The cluster of trees is made of up 3 poplars and 2 spruces. One of the poplars has lost its top, and I’m pretty sure that’s what’s lying on the ground near the little dead spruces I took out. There is some dogwood at the bottom of this group of trees that I cleaned up a bit, but otherwise left to grow. It’s one of those things that will spread quite handily, given the opportunity.
The next section is an open, mossy area. I’ve been using it to turn around with the riding mower.
Most of the clean up here involved pruning shears instead of saws.
Once that was done, I was at the fence line and had to make some decisions. How far to the north did I want to go?
In the end, I decided I needed to at least clear out a dead tree that had fallen on the fence, so I could access it for repair.
Though the dead tree was a big poplar, the remains of two other trees had also fallen on it.
The poplar itself was growing on the outside of the fence line. There are a few larger trees on the outside that I will have to leave, but I will be taking out any smaller trees on that side, as soon as I am able. I’m not sure about the bylaws in regards to municipal land along the roads, as far as who is responsible for keeping it clear, but I don’t want it to become overgrown with trees like it has on the other side of our gate.
I didn’t do much more in this area, as I want to focus in the other direction, so this section is unfinished. There are a couple of trees that will be taken out, because they are too close to the fence line. Otherwise, it’s mostly undergrowth that will need clearing and cleaning. There seems to be some juniper in there that I intend to leave.
Moving southward, now.
There are some pretty massive spruces here! There isn’t really a lot that needs doing with the trees themselves; a few low hanging branches and dead branches to clear out. I could see that, at some point – long ago – someone had gone through and cleared the lower branches, so they were already pretty good. Again, I spent more time with the pruning shears! There are quite a few poplar on the outside of the fence that I will have to go back to, later.
If you look in the before picture, at the big spruce to the left of centre, you can almost see a potential problem. The top of this tree is broken off, and its top is still there, hanging upside down. I have no idea how long it’s been like this, but at some point, it’s going to fall. Ideally, we’d get it down before it falls on its own and potentially damages something, but for now, it will have to wait.
It’s starting to open up quite nicely.
Though my priority is clearing the fence line, so it can be accessed and repaired as needed, I might have to clear out some of the dead wood further into the grove. There is a large spruce that has come down in the area that I am leaving for next year, but I might have to cut away at least some of the branches, just so I can drag out some of the stuff I know I will be dealing with, further down.
And that is my progress for today! It might be another few days before I can work on it again, so I’m glad I was able to at least get this little corner done.
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: spruce grove, further down the line
Another lovely day for yard work!
The girls were awesome and hauled away what I took down yesterday, while I made a run into town to get the prescription refills that got missed yesterday. By the time I got back, they were just finishing, and I could get started! <3
Before I started on the next section of trees, I got the anvil sheers out and worked on the area that was under the overhanging branches. Here’s a look back at the area I cleared yesterday.
The wheel barrow is filled with all the little things I pruned out, and a few things dug out of the leaves, etc.
If you look in the wheelbarrow, there is a lighter coloured stem sticking out, to the right of the handle.
Notice it looks slightly… fuzzy?
That’s a wild rose. And the “fuzzy” is thorns.
Wild rose stems are basically all thorns. Little, skinny, vicious thorns.
The gloves we have are decent gloves. Not the highest end, by any means, but good, mid-range quality gloves.
Wild rose thorns can go right through them. I had to stop and get a daughter to use tweezers to pull one out of a finger, because I wasn’t able to do it one handed in the spot it pierced me!
When I start working further into the spruce grove next year, I plan to keep as much of the wild roses in the undergrowth as I can. What I’ve cut away here will likely grow back, since I just pruned them. The root stocks remain. I will make decisions about them next year, as they grow back.
Here are the before and after photos of today’s progress.
This is basically where I left off, yesterday. Once I took out the dead and dying tree next to the last tree I worked on yesterday, I was able to finish that one up, taking out more dead branches with the extended pruning saw.
My goal for today was to work my way down to a maple tree.
No, you can’t see it either of the photos above!
Nor the photos below.
Though I did thin out some smaller poplars, I’ve left the bigger ones. I am hoping, as they get more sunlight throughout the day, they will not lean quite so much as they grow larger.
The farther I worked down the line, the spruces seemed to get thinner, and more crowded. Quite a few were dead, but I was surprised by how many still had live growth happening. I still avoided working the inner row of trees, which is where most of these are. A few times, I did have to prune away dead branches and twigs, so I could access the trees in the outer row better. It should be interesting to see how they fare, next year. It is very typical for the lower branches of black spruce to be dead, and it’s not always a reflection on the health of the tree.
As I cleared away the low hanging branches, I found more and more wild roses and, among them, little dogwood bushes. I took out those that were large enough to be a tripping hazard, and will clear the rest out another day. When I work further into the grove, I intend to leave any dogwood I find. They make great underbrush. It will be interesting to find that balance between open space and undergrowth that I want to foster in here.
But that will wait.
The maple I was using as my goal post was something I was intending to keep, like I am with some of the poplars. Then I reached it and found that it was not the original tree, but growing out of the base of a rotten stump.
After removing the rotten bits, I found the rot extended quite low into the moss (all along the outer edge of this area, where the poplars and this maple are growing, the moss is several inches deep). I wasn’t sure if the tree had much support, so I basically yanked it back and forth. It seems to be holding its own, so I straightened it as much as I could and tamped the ground down to support it.
We shall see if it survives.
When I work on the next section, I should be able to reach the fence line. After that spruce you see in the background, there is an open space of moss that I’ve been using to turn around with the mower. :-D There won’t be a lot to clear, there.
There are a number of larger, downed trees around here, too. Once I reach the fence, I will start working towards the driveway. The goal is to make the fence accessible, so I’ll be leaving the downed trees unless they are at the fence line. I know there is at least one that had fallen on the fence itself, before we moved out here, that my older brother had cut loose. So I will also be examining the fence itself, as I go along, and see what repairs might need to be done.
I’m quite happy with the progress and how it is looking. The labour is not without it’s price, however!
Both arms, my lower legs, and even my abdomen, are covered in scratches!
It’s sweaty, dirty and sometimes bloody work.
And I’m loving every minute of it!
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: spruce grove perimeter, down the line
I got another hour or two or work along the north side of the spruce grove. I almost forgot to take a before picture, so the first one below was taken after I’d already removed one of the larger, low hanging branches in the first tree I worked on.
This northern row of spruce trees – at least the larger ones, that were deliberately planted – were planted by my oldest brother, probably before I was born.
There are smaller ones that are likely self sown. I am focusing on just that northernmost row of trees, though sometimes I’ve had to work farther in, just so I can access them.
The trees just inside this row my brother planted, have me perplexed. From their ages and sizes, I would guess they were self sown, and yet some of them are forming another straight line – or is it two straight lines? – parallel to the row I’m working on. So it may be that some were planted, and some were self sown?
Either way, most of them are either dead, or almost dead. I’ve taken some out, as needed, but the rest will wait until I start working farther into the spruce grove, next year.
While working, I saw evidence that, at some point, someone else had been clearing this area, too. In some places, I uncovered hidden cut stumps, and at one point, I even found a fairly large pile of cut branches, hidden by the overhanging branches of the spruces.
When looking through here in the winter, I saw a small harrow under the branches, so I knew I would reach it eventually. It turns out to be right after the pile of cut branches I had just cleaned out.
Also, a Bud Light can.
After finding it, I figured I would cut away some of the dead branches, so I could reach it better to pull it out. After cutting them, however, I found I wasn’t able to pull them out.
Whoever dumped the harrow there, dropped it on top of the branches.
So I had to pull the harrow out, to pull the branches out.
Which is when I discovered that it was dumped there, upside down.
That’s right. Those spikes were facing UP.
The cable would likely have been used as a handle; I am thinking it was pulled manually, when it was used. It’s so small, anything bigger than a lawn tractor to pull it would be overkill. But I am just guessing. I have no idea how long it’s been there, who put it there, or why it was left where it was.
Now I have to figure out what to do with it!
I continued on until I got close to one of the first self-sown poplars along the way.
Most of what is now uncovered will be trimmed and cleared until I can go over it with the weed trimmer and, eventually, the mower. I found some wild roses that I will likely take out; I want to keep the ones that are growing inside the spruce grove, but I don’t think I will keep the ones in this area.
I am waffling about keeping the poplars. They are growing at the very edge of the low hanging branches. Once the branches are clear, there will be quite a gap between the poplars and the spruces. Do I really want to leave them, that far into the garden area? Ultimately, that gap is just the right distance for both the spruces and the poplars to do well, so if I do want to keep them, they are in the best places for a new row of trees.
But do I want a new row of trees?
For now, I will leave them.
Next to the last tree I worked on before stopping for the day, there is a pair of trunks that make up one self-sown tree. One side – the larger one – is dead. I noticed something odd about the leaves on the smaller side.
This appears to be some sort of fuzzy infestation. Insect? Fungus? I don’t know. They are all over this one tree.
Whatever it is, the remains of this tree will be taken down.
Tomorrow. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up: spruce grove perimeter, start
I got a few hours work on the spruce grove this morning/afternoon, and plan to head out again, but here’s progress so far!
I’ve started at the north west corner, where the stone cross is.
This is more or less what we see out of our living room window. I went farther into the underbrush than I intend to, elsewhere. This is part of the reason why.
That’s the top of the dead tree we watched come down in a storm this past winter. The top alone is bigger than some of the dead trees I’ve taken down!
Here’s another view of the corner.
The topsoil here is decades of decayed spruce needles, so it’s quite loose. This meant a lot of the spirea I cleared out could be pulled right out of the ground. Every now and then, I’d find myself yanking out anywhere from 2 – 8 feet of rhizome!
After this, I started working my way down the north side of the trees.
After clearing the lower hanging branches from the first couple of trees, I found a whole crop of little dead spruces that I cleared out.
Of course, there is always going to be some unusual finds!
The first was what I think is the top of an oil drum that was half buried in the needles at the base of a dead spruce. I pulled it out, then took the photo of it right where I found it.
Then, as I was finishing up for the afternoon and bringing the wheel barrow over, I found the glass jar.
I expected it to be broken, but when I pulled it out, it was fine.
I have to say how much I appreciate my girls. While I was working in this, I left what I cut or pulled out, off to the side. My older daughter came out and started hauling it away for me – a much bigger job than the clean up! My younger daughter didn’t have a shift today, and between the two of them, they took care of the household stuff, like cooking, washing dishes, laundry, etc., freeing me up to do the yard work.
We’ve started a new wood pile outside the yard for this. It’s kinda in the middle of the outer yard, between house and barn. This pile shouldn’t need to be moved, when we are ready to burn it.
We do plan to rent a chipper, but there’s only so much we can chip! Plus, even the biggest ones only do up to 4 inches in diameter.
It’s going to be much bigger, before I’m done!
Now, back to see how much I can get done, before it gets too dark. :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Clean up; west fence area trees
We had another cooler day today; after this it’s supposed to heat up again, so I took advantage of it to continue in the west yard trees. I am so close to being finished here (I’ve decided not to do the rest of the fence line itself for now), I’m getting excited, because it means I can finally move on to the spruce grove perimeter. :-D I’d like to get as much as I can done there, before I have to stop for the year.
The first thing I did was finally take down the two dead trees by the smaller willow. (The before and after pictures are taken from opposite directions)
The one that was about midway between the two willows was a bit of a job. It was tall enough, and leaning enough, that it was well into the branches of the big willow. Which means that, after I cut the trunk, the base just swung over to the big willow, and there it hung. It did not want to come down!
The wood from these trees is going to be kept for the fire pit.
The tall stumps are being left until we get a full size chainsaw.
On to the next area…
There’s not a lot of visible difference here, since I worked in this area yesterday. I took down the dead half of the maple trees. After that, most of what I did was take down dead branches from above, except from the one mostly dead spruce that will be taken down entirely.
Next areas; the last of those rows of spruces!
Also, I found a third little tamarack hiding in them.
It really looked like a spindly, dead spruce. I honestly probably should have taken it out, but I really want to keep the tamarack. I also should probably have thinned the spruces out more, too, because of how close together they are, but they look strong and healthy enough to make it. So for now, they will stay. Next year, perhaps, we can transplant the tamarack, instead.
After this, I finally got to working among the beeches.
The before picture, I’d taken yesterday. If you look along the beeches, you can see a single trunk, slightly out of line.
It turned out not to be a trunk at all. It was a branch that had fallen straight, and was standing there, held up by the other branches! You can even see the broken bit it had come from.
I’ve been finding quite a lot of dead branches held up by others. One I pulled down earlier and moved out today, filled the wheelbarrow all on its own!
In the northernmost row, I found another Colorado Blue spruce, with an elm tree growing right next to it. Well. Two elms, really, right up against each other.
The spruce was planted deliberately; the elm would not have been. Because of how big a Colorado Blue can potentially get, I took out the elm and some small maples near it as well. I probably should have taken out the maple to the right of the foreground in the after photo too, but it seems to be doing okay. We’ll see how the spruce survives.
Here’s another view of the rows.
By this point, I didn’t really have the energy to keep breaking down the cut pieces and hauling them out of the yard, or dragging out entire trees. I opened the gate at this end, so I wouldn’t be weaving through trees to the gate by the fire pit, then around the pile. Instead, I was pushing my way through really tall grass, and wearing down a path. As I was taking down bigger and bigger dead branches, and thinning out more trees, I just started piling it all in the space that had been plowed. I will drag it out another day.
The row of trees closest to the beeches appears to be all crab apple trees. Most have no apples, and the one that does, has almost none on it. This is not a good place to plant fruit trees. :-/
Moving along the rows…
This area is not complete, though I might not do much more than this, this year. The elms in the north row needed to be thinned out; one was right up against another, and it turned out to be dead. The larger maple to the right in the photo will also be thinned down. The side branches would have been suckers that never got pruned back when they should have. The main trunk in the middle is suffering for it. I wasn’t able to get all the dead branches out of it, and won’t be able to reach a lot of them until the side trunks are cleared out.
Once that is done, it will allow more light to reach the apple trees, too.
Speaking of which…
This is where I was working when I stopped to take a phone call. Which was well timed. I was at the point of telling myself it was really time to stop for the day, but I kept doing just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit… and before I knew it, an hour had passed. :-D
I don’t know that I’ll be able to work in here again over the next few days, but when I do get back to it, I will continue thinning the crab apple trees out. There is a big one at the end, with large branches reaching towards the power pole. That part of it is covered with apples (it looks like another of the ornamental apples trees, they are so tiny), but only where the morning sun touches those leaning branches. The rest of the tree is struggling, with few leaves and many dead branches. It’s all just too crowded in there, with elm and maple tangled around each other in the canopy, blocking the light for most of the day.
The eastern end of this area of trees is where they are growing under the power line, and where the arborist will be trimming some of them back. They can do the tall stuff. I will do the short stuff! :-)
When I came out after my phone call to get the last after pictures, I got a couple of others of interest.
Last month, I decided to take down a small elm tree because it was growing directly under the power lines. As I have been doing in many other places, I left a tall stump to go back to later. You can see it here, next to the spruce tree I’d pruned the lower branches from.
This is what it looks like, now.
Maples and elms are very resilient trees. You can cut them back like this, and they will start growing back!
I could leave it to grow, and just keep pruning it short so it will never reach the power lines.
I don’t know if that’s a good idea, though.
A decision I can make another time. For now, I will leave it and see how it does.
Later, while visiting Beep Beep and her kittens by the old garden shed, I saw something I’ve been finding in a number of places around the yard.
A whole bunch of holes, dug into the ground.
I’ve found some in the open area between rows of trees behind the storage house. Now that I’ve cleared up so much of the trees, I’m starting to find them there, too. I am guessing it’s a small animal digging up insects or grubs? Some of the holes are quite deep.
Anyone know what might be making these holes?
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 