Logging!

  So here it is already November!!!  And we never did get a single row planted this year.  We did a lot of clearing, limbing, cutting, splitting of trees.  But we didn't get as much done as we would have liked.  Tractor issues slowed us down a little.  Turned out that our tractor had been assembled incorrectly, and as it was under warranty, they fixed the problem free of charge, except for the transportation to and from the shop.

  Somewhere along the line, though, we realised we could actually SELL some of our larger trees, and so we shopped around for a logger.  We eventually found Ron Ullman.  I think we signed the contract in September.  Today he has finally come!!!  He has already cut and stacked almost a logging truck full of logs, and he's only been here 2-3 hours!  It's so exciting!!! He has a huge skidder that he drove over early Sunday morning.  He actually drove on the freeway with it!  The skidder grabs the logs with claws on the back end and pulls them out to the stacking area. Then his logging truck has a hoist of some kind that pulls the logs up onto the truck.  My only complaint is that he started cutting the trees in the far left corner so I can't see the trees falling from the house.  Oh well!  :) In just a few days I should have a view of most of the field down there!!!  He will take whatever trees are valuable for timber, and leave the rest for us use for firewood, and he will give us a share of the profits.  I think he said around $1000 per load, and estimates 7 loads.  I hope he's right, because we'll need that money to pay our property taxes in April!!  Anyway, he is logging, and every tree he takes out is progress for us.  One more step towards the finished project.

  The only downside of the logging is that the trees that are logged are not fully removed but cut at chest height, so we will have to remove the stumps ourselves.  And we have found that it is much easier to use the weight of the tree to remove the stumps.  Our method is to dig around the root area with our tractor claw until we have broken most of the large roots and loosened the soil, and then to push over the trees with the tractor bucket.  Down goes the tree, up go the roots,  Voila!  In this way we have cleared probably 30 small to medium trees.  Luckily, most of the trees we have to clear for our first stage are smaller trees that we will be removing, so we will be able to remove them using the above described method which means they will be gone roots and all.  For stage 2, 3 and 4 there will be large stumps to contend with, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  At least we have a professional cutting them down, so we don't risk them falling on fences or neighbouring structures!  If our tractor is not strong enough to dig/push the big stumps out, we may just cut them down below ground level and work around them, leaving gaps in the rows of berries until the stump is rotted and then filling them in later.

  Last Saturday my brother came over and helped us locate the drain field area.  This was good to know so that the logger could avoid driving over or dropping trees on that area.  (Oh my goodness!  I just saw the top of a tree falling and felt the ground thump! So exciting!) We will need that drain field in future for the farm stand and bathroom area.

  We have also put in an order for our first 500 blueberry plants from Fall Creek Nursery in Oregon. The way it works is that you have to order in fall for spring shipment.  Or spring for fall shipment. We could not wait until our rows were ready or we'd be planting next fall, and we really need to get this show on the road, seeing as we will not be realising any profits for several years, until the plants are at full production.  Ordering these berries, though,  seems like such a huge leap of faith, considering that the area to be planted is still treed as I write! Those trees (smaller to medium)will have to be dug around, pushed over, cut up, moved, the ground prepared, trenches dug, etc. It seems that we might be biting off more than we can chew, as the plants will be here in 4 short months, and the weather is cold, mostly rainy and ugly until then.  We will have to work out there every spare moment we have when it is not raining.  Even at that, I worry we may not be ready when our little berry bushes arrive!  Eric feels sure we can do it.  I hope he's right!  A deadline can be a good thing for our motivation!

  The next step after clearing is to dig our trenches 12 inches deep, and 36-48" wide, by 50, 75 or 100 feet long (whatever we finally decide on.).  This will take so much preplanning and measuring!  We want the rows completely straight along the property lines, and completely even between rows.  This is really tedious work, I know!  Once we have the lines straight and trenches dug, we plan on filling the trenches with 10-12 " of rotting wood, branches, etc.  Here is another dilemma, because although we have a lot of rotting wood around, I seriously doubt we have THAT MUCH-- enough to fill 15 100 foot trenches! We may have to just use fresh logs for some of it.

  After filling the trenches with rotting wood, we have to backfill and add soil amendments.  I plan on using Purdy Prep, which is composted yard waste, mostly evergreen branches.  I plan on giving them a 4" layer of that, mixing in fertiliser,  and then spreading another 4-6 inch layer of wood chips on top of that for mulch.  The wood chips, I think we can produce ourselves, as we will have SO MANY branches to chip up after all this logging!!!  Wouldn't it be nice if each stage of clearing produced enough chips for the subsequent planting?  But we also have some chips periodically from an area tree company, and Asplundh whenever they are in the area,  so that will help.

  Speaking of chipping, we rented a chipper a couple of weeks ago.  It was the industrial kind that the power companies/contractors use when they trim along the lines: on wheels, with branches going in through the back and shooting out chips from a spout on the top.  It was pretty cool, compared to the rinky dink little yard size chippers you can use that take FOREVER and won't take anything larger than 2 inches diameter. This one would take up to 6' diameter trees with relative ease.  We only wished we had not stacked the branches willy nilly as we did, nor left them so long to lose needles and get wet and soggy.  It was a challenge to yank them out, and it was wet and icky, with clumps of half-decomposed needles that would sometimes clog the machine.  Some of the branches were fresh, and were much easier to work with.  I would rather not even stack them from here on out, as they're easily dragged if they are loose and not stacked.  I am sure the needles will stay on now, too, because it's cold out there.  So we can get to them at our leisure.  (Ooh, another big thump!  Yay!!! I can hear him limbing that one now.) Anyway, we chipped probably 15 yards worth of chips, which means that we pretty much paid for the rental cost of the chipper (considering that raw wood chips, or "hog fuel" which is just pure wood chips, like they would use for chipboard sell for about $20 a yard.) Our chips are superior because they also have the leaves and needles, meaning a balance of nitrogen and carbon for faster decomposition.   I won't say it was an easy job, but with all of us working, it was feasible.  I wish I could be out there doing it now!  It's a beautiful sunny day, and I'm itching to do something!! But I would only be in the way. I did sneak out a little earlier and get a couple of pictures, but I didn't get close enough to see much.  Tonight when Eric is home we will go down and see what we can see. :)