Posted 12:38 PM by Tamarack
Our Christmas cookout was a little different this year. We all walked out--Diane too--through a complete absence of snow. It was delightful--no awkward trudging. The only disappointment lay in my having bought everyone new snowshoes for Christmas. Still, two or three days later there was enough snow to try them out, and we did. For the last few days, I have been trekking out in rubber boots; there is still a little snow, quite packed down, but nothing that really requires snowshoes or skis. Today there was a little snow; it does not look like much in Fredericton, but we'll see how it is in the woods.

All in all, this has been a wonderful year for the trees. I carefully clipped all the leaves off the red oak, but we really haven't had those dreadful ice storms--yet.

Posted 11:34 AM by Tamarack
On May 4 we had a definitive signal: at 5:30 PM the blackflies arrived; spring has officially begun. We mowed the lawn between swats. The next day, there were far fewer flies and more wind and cooler weather. Today it is blowing wildly and quite chilly. Still, May 4-5 for the first lawn mowing must be close to a record. We have had a wide variety of spring weather over the last 16 years (this April!), but this is one of the earliest so far as snow loss and grass growth. I do recall getting a bad sunburn in late April at Dave's cottage.

Most of the trees in the yard and grove are doing well, but the 5000 is now something like the 50--terrible losses, most due to deer foraging, I think. Meanwhile, drainage progresses steadily. Panama now has a respectable stream gurgling its way through some dramatic bends. We're filling in the old skidder tracks and widening and deepening the channel down the slope.

I notice I recorded the death of Loki before. I might add that we have three dogs in the ground now: Freya (2006), back in the grove; Loki (May, 2008), near the stream just below the workshop; and Milow (August, 2008, Lucy's spelling), next to the dead fruit tree. Freya was first--liver failure, it seemed. She spent the day lying in the sun, and the next morning Pam came. She had been panting hard all night, and just let out her breath. Loki struggled through a long undiagnosed cancer of the shoulder--rotten "homeopathic/chiropractic" veterinarian hospital frauds!--and struggled even when the needle went in. After that, Milow grew careless of his life. He was struck and killed by a car on the road as we returned from St. Mike's. Ollie, his replacement, is slightly more loveable than Milow, who was always a rather distant dog. He at least interacts more definitely. He is nothing like Freya and Loki, dogs who took their relationship to the family very seriously. Frey is a better match, but even he lacks the fierce, protective loyalty of the earlier dogs. Diane's Abbie, the latest addition, is a bit of a nut. A kennel breeder till the age of four, she had no idea of life beyond the pen and feared men, open spaces, and trees, in roughly that order. She has been here one year the day before yesterday.

We were busy on Sunday transplanting some quite large pine and spruce trees to make a border parallel to the road in front of Diane's. We cut a lot of roots; I hope they manage to thrive! None was as large as the cedar, which is still slowly recovering after lying dormant for about two years.

The grass over the new seepage bed (clover mix, really) is thick and well-integrated with the rest of the front yard. It no longer looks like a badly-concealed septic field. All the trees did better this year. There were fewer ice storms. We still lost some boughs, but far fewer than the year before. Now we are doing some culling.

The fellow with the tractor tilled the garden, expanding it in the process. I think we can eventually run it most of the way down toward the road. The soil seems deep and rich all  the way--an anomoly, considering how close the clay lies everywhere else.

Posted 2:06 PM by Tamarack
Boris and I--and even Lucy--extended the drainage ditches. This is the first big digging effort in years. The goal was to dry up the paintball field, but this was not really successful. Still, the new channels are still carrying lots of water away a week later (it seems like a year).

Posted 2:01 PM by Tamarack
The winter was hard, and not only on the trees. We buried Loki amidst the red pines yesterday evening. requiescat in pace, canis nobilissimus.

Posted 3:13 PM by Tamarack
The 5000 has largely been eaten by deer; I went out in early November and it was a sad sight. I think the trail groomer has run its path straight out to the Williamsburg road. Back when the trees still had a fighting chance this would have enraged me. (Now, only the deer have cause to complain. I maintain this log at about the same rate at which the trees grow.) Meanwhile, Johnny has put a seepage bed in the midst of what was once a half-acre of struggling (not very successfully) red spruce seedlings. Diane's mini-home sits on most of the rest of them. All that remains is a triple row of black spruce, most of which came from Sugar Bear's leftover stock, supplemented by transplanted natural regeneration. That part is starting to look like something; it has been in the ground for about seven years. Of all the trees we have planted, the larch have shown the most gratitude. They are very tall--about 20 feet--and flourishing. The red pine are beginning to make their presence felt, too. Only the red spruce were real failures. I have trouble finding any, and we planted about 800.

I should mention, while I remember it, that this summer past I sprayed the pines for a fungal infestation that was rotting off the needles about mid-way. Some were very badly affected. It seems to have developed because of the very cold weather late in the winter, coupled with a wet spring. I mixed up the powder in the sprayer and gave them several treatments. By late July there was hardly a sign of the fungus and everything looked healthy again--hope it lasts. I also dealt with a few aphids, though they did little harm this year.

Posted 1:23 PM by Tamarack
I can't believe I started this so long ago (and wrote so little). What a little time capsule.

The red pines next door are doing splendidly. The "5000" is a disaster, overgrown with dogwood, but all around the house the mechanically cleared areas are sprouting nicely. I will add pictures soon.

Posted 1:46 PM by Tamarack
Another season has come and gone. Apart from a little thinning and a lot of work on the banks of the ditch, I did little. I took a walk out to the Five Thousand this week, and it was a solid sea of red osier. The little pine seedlings were buried under the masses of dogwood; I hardly had the energy to curse when I saw that a four-wheeler had driven in and rammed its way through the plantation. While I was taking all this in, I lost track of the dogs, who had run into the bushes after something large, judging by the sounds. When I realized that Milo, the beagle-Alsatian pup, was missing, I started back, calling as I went. The crows circled above us, crying so raucously that I began to imagine they were feeding on poor Milo and jeering at our cries. By the time I reached the camp, I was quite worried; we pressed on to the Grove, and in my mind I was already organizing a search party, but at last we reached the house, and there was Milo, trembling on the deck. He had walked the kilometer-and-a-half back to the house alone--not bad for his first walk in the woodlot! He was trembling and filthy, and took a long time to settle down. I wonder if the dogs found a bear?

Closer to home, the trees are doing better. Some trees in the new lines around the house have died, but on the whole they look good. The larch in the grove continue their steady decline. I think it badly needs draining as well as replanting. I did manage (finally) to dig out the ditch along the trail for quite a piece; the trail has dried up nicely, and it's been piled high with clay and mud.

Posted 11:33 AM by Tamarack