Aforestation of the stickery kind

[Ed_K]

Liked the picts.reminded me of having to stick the equipment in the mornings in in northcenteral Tx.

[mesquite buckeye]

Back from the ranch. Got a few photos.





 
Fine timber, about 30" dbh.





  
Giant saguaros.





 
Hot lady roommate. She seems nice. Hope it works out.





 
Dooryard flowers.





 
Another view of greenhouses. A degree or two warmer up there.





 
Still having isssues with the neighbors.





 
The kids are almost grown. There are three.





 
Redtail hawk fluff.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Really great pics on this thread.
How does the saguaro saw?
I bet the slabs are not nice to handle.
TIC
pete

[Jay C. White Cloud]

I love the "nightshade and black widow" photos by each other, nice touch.  Both are beautiful, both can give you a really challenge if disturbed.

Regards,

jay

[SwampDonkey]

So how did the hawk taste? I see all that's left is the down. :D

[mesquite buckeye]

Thanks guys. Sometimes I feel like she would like to have me for lunch. She's really not too happy especially when I'm 20 feet from the nest taking pictures. I got one while she was screaming at me.



 
Just before I snapped this, she dropped her talons just to let me know she means business.

[mesquite buckeye]

Pete, we wait for them to die, when the succulent part rots away, there remains a ring of ribs. When they get this big, the ribs fuse. You could actually mill lumber from one like that. Nothing big, but looks like quarter sawn oak, weighs like balsa wood. ;D 8) 8) 8)

[enigmaT120]

I bet you don't use the "hug the tree" method to estimate diameter.  I wouldn't, anyway.

I don't anyway.  I haven't calibrated my arms.

[mesquite buckeye]

You are correct. Saguaros are better looked at than touched. That said you would be surprised at the number of animals that will climb them or build a house in or on one. ;D

[mesquite buckeye]

Back again from Rancho Saguaro. New pictures. ;D





 
Little soldiers all in a row, little soldiers just waiting to grow.





 
Getting new field ready for planting. About an acre here. Room for thousands.
edit: actually 0.4 acre. I checked it with an app I have.




 
Good saguaro dirt, but tough on equipment.




Update. Seems like that nice black widow has moved on to be replaced by conenose kissing bugs. After they suck your blood while you sleep, it itches like crazy for days. I'm all bit up and scratching. Had a herd of javelina come by the cabin night before last. They are stinky.

Out here in all this natural beauty, we sometimes forget what wild and dangerous country this can be. My rancher friend has been missing cattle since winter, losing little by little. They are missing like 80 head. That translates to an 80K loss, really tough when we are in the worst drought since the dust bowl and the prices of cattle are falling...  They thought it was rustlers, but come to start checking, seems like all the deer have disappeared too. Rustlers don't steal deer. Cowboys found 3 calves buried. Lions. Seems like their numbers are way up, they ate the deer and now they have turned to the cattle. Time for a little wildlife management. Got to watch your back at night, and especially worry about kids out here. They got a couple of big ranch dogs a year or so ago. They may be packing up.

A good friend of the rancher was out for Memorial Day weekend for a family outing riding quads on the back roads. Seems he took a curve too fast, slid out and hit a washout at the edge of the road and wiped out at pretty high speed. My friend had a bad feeling, looked back to see him flying headlong through the air. Got back to him, found him scalped front to back, but conscious. Pulled the scalp back over and wrapped him a damp shirt. No cell service there, had to find high ground to call 911. Had to helicopter him out. Turns out in addition to the scalping he has a broken collar bone, neck and back. He is lucky to be alive. Looks like he will have use of both his arms and legs, but a long recovery and who knows how good he will ever be again. He is in his 50's. Before this happened, he said, "I have to stop acting like I'm 18. I'm too old for that." Good thoughts.

Please send good thoughts for him and his family, and be careful out there. It is a dangerous business we do. A second's lapse in attention or judgement can maim or kill.

MB

[ancjr]

Great pictures!  How long-lived are those giant saguaro?

A good friend of mine in his retirement years had a similar accident.  He was legally blind and had a habit of driving 70 mph on one lane roads at night.  Met head-on with a Sycamore and landed in the woods.  Even after his accident still didn't learn... wasn't even healed up fully got out on his crutches in the mud and fell, re-broke his hip and leg and never walked again.   :-\

[thecfarm]

You could of left the scalping part out,  :(   YUK and OUCH to say the least. That is too bad.
When my father and me was cutting wood we had a small MaMa hawk that was trying to chase us away from her nest.She was not a happy camper.

[mesquite buckeye]

Great pictures!  How long-lived are those giant saguaro?

A good friend of mine in his retirement years had a similar accident.  He was legally blind and had a habit of driving 70 mph on one lane roads at night.  Met head-on with a Sycamore and landed in the woods.  Even after his accident still didn't learn... wasn't even healed up fully got out on his crutches in the mud and fell, re-broke his hip and leg and never walked again.   :-\

Nobody really knows for sure, since they live to be at least as old as most of us. There is research to suggest up to 250 years, but I don't buy it. They can grow really fast in good years and almost not at all in poor ones. If you study them during slow growth periods, you get big age numbers. I think it is a really old saguaro if it gets much over 100. There are some at the ranch HQ that are old and dying now that were 4 feet tall during the depression. That would make them in the 90-120 year old range.

[240b]

Why are some the saguaro's proped up with 2x4s does the wind tip them over? I saw a piece in the paper about
the black market for those things in PHX. The park service or blm was putting microchips in them to track them.  (Only 75 in flg today dusty-super windy)

[mesquite buckeye]

The 2 X 4 deals, or other stabilizing methods, help keep the saguaros from falling over until their roots regenerate, which can take up to a couple of years. Lots of saguaros get stolen off of govt. land. That's where they are chipping them, so they can document where they came from in the event of an arrest. Saguaros can only be dug on private land, unless something like a road or pipeline is being put in, and then only with the landowner's permission and a hefty tag fee to the state. Our propagated saguaros will be exempt from these legalities, as propagated material was exempted from the state plant protection law. ;D

Hope I live long enough to see some of the money.

[240b]

Whats prickly that would grow at 7500' need to plant something to keep people out of the yard.

[mesquite buckeye]

New Mexican locust. Very nasty until they get big and they spread underground to form thickets. Also pretty flowers in late spring/early summer.

[240b]

Were can that be had?  I'll look into it..  I was thinking Yucca too.

[mesquite buckeye]

They used to be grown by some state agency that I can't recall the name of at the moment. It is part of the Tree Farm Program. They are also available from nurseries, but you may have to search around on the internet to find them.

What is your elevation? Yuccas can only go up to about 7000, one to about 8000'. Yucca angustissima would be your best bet. The Arboretum at Flagstaff has a plant sale in the spring, don't know about the fall, and I think could be a good source of cool plants for you.

[240b]

I think the 7300' at the house.  I think the plant sale already happened. I see banana? yucca alot a few hundred feet lower. Those suckers are pointy!

[mesquite buckeye]

That would be pretty much all of them. The narrow leafed yucca is supposed to grow in Coconino County and up to around 7000. You would probably want to find a nice, south facing wall to plant next to.

[mesquite buckeye]

First hint of the coming monsoon. A thunderhead 100 miles to the SE last Thursday.


 


Getting pretty hot here. About 135 in the greenhouse, nice and cool 108 outside.

Mountain lion update. They got two of them last week. One was 130 lbs. and full of meat, as tall stretched out as my friend. Little scary to know these big ones are out there. They sneak up from behind and jump on the back and either break the neck or skull. Hard to get off once they jump you.


I'll post a photo if I can get one later.

[1270d]

Good stuff here mesquite buckeye.  I just returned from cave Creek again.  Nice weather as it was only 102 there.   

How big do you plan to grow the saguaro beforesselling them.  How much growth per year under optimal conditions.

Maybe I missed this info earlier in the thread.

I had family south of Tucson in a place called 3 point.  At least I think it was south of town.  Are you near there?

[mesquite buckeye]

We are aiming for the 4-6' range for landscape planting. We hope to have some three footers to generate some income in another 3-4 years under irrigation. I live in Tucson. The ranch is in the San Pedro Valley.

Big change from Tucson to da UP.

3 points is about 20 miles WSW of Tucson.

[mesquite buckeye]

Returned from the ranch again.




 
The monsoon has arrived early!





 
Soon it we be so wet we won't know what to do with all the water. ;D