The obsession

Button · December 17, 2005, 03:58:59 AM

In 1991 just after we bought the farm my wife told me her beloved horses needed something called "pasture". I figured how hard could it be cutting down a few trees? What started with a 30$ used mccollouch bought at a yardsale peaked three years ago with the purchase of a $13k timberjack. Now I look in retrospect at my manicured 7 acres, and realize I have 48 to go. I wrote this poem one day and was wondering what you guys think of it.Some say politely that I should keep working at my night job, some have no idea what I am talking about. my mom likes it, even though it doesn't ryme , but I suppose that is her job. Ait least it shows my passion..... I think. anyway here goes

MY days of woe

It is now we start the season of my hell.Throughout the winter and spring I have been slaving to cut those wretched twisting hairs of mother's nature so I could see out to the land to enjoy its splendid beauty. Now like a curse from the gods those evil growths have begun their swan song exploding into an array of green. Every shade is present as the view of the precious land is obscured by their merciless expansion. It is now that the blood in my soul boils with the hate I have for this time of year. My saw runs hot as I feveriously cut down into pieces the stands that block my view. I will never be done forever tortured by their consistant menacing presence. To the stove with the pieces, give them the taste of hell from which their fathers came. Soon it too will fall cold as the season progresses. Over taken with green the world falls against me. I have but one consolement, the days of today will slowly turn into the days of tommorrow and before long the growths will begin to shrivel and die before me as I rejoice with the season of my birth. The season of winter will again be among us and the stoves will burn the fires once more.

At least I still have my night job. Enjoy the day. Peter

Ernie_Edwards · December 17, 2005, 05:13:56 AM

Peter,

That makes perfectly good sense to me. We have a little over 7 ac in "pasture". Between the clearing, 3 years of plowing 2 crops a year back under to build up the soil, fertilizer, lime, a 3 rail oak fence lag bolted to rr ties hand dug on 10' spacing and then when the pasture mix was planted the rains all came at the wrong times, I am not a farmer wanna be. With what we have invested we could have fed those critters for 30 years with bought feed. But we do love oue wives, don't we. Must, cause this makes no sense to me at all.

Ernie Edwards

crtreedude · December 17, 2005, 06:47:45 AM

Guys, guys - just tell the wives that you will not contribute to deforestation and call it a day... ;D

Cedarman · December 17, 2005, 07:09:29 AM

Sounds like the ranchers of Oklahoma looking at those cedar trees that seem to sprout overnight and take over the land and making it sterile for most wildlife. But here in Indiana, it is plant more trees.

thecfarm · December 17, 2005, 09:52:50 PM

How true it is.We have pastures,but I'm clearing land to see the lower end of the field.A very slow process.The more I clear,the more I have to keep clear.I just keep mowing it.Too many rocks around here to dig out the stumps.

Onthesauk · December 18, 2005, 11:21:41 AM

I've got 40 acres I've been working on for 10 years now. In the NW if you ease up for a few years the blackberries and alders will take over again. You can watch the cycle when someone moves in, clears ground, cuts brush, mowes grass, keeps moving the edges back a little bit each year. Then they start getting older, moving slower, cutting less and those edges start creeping back in again.

crtreedude · December 18, 2005, 11:28:36 AM

This is something I don't think the general public knows very well - it isn't deforestation unless you put something there that KEEPS the trees away.

Cutting down a forest is a temporary thing - and then you are trying to stop it from coming back from now until forever - at least in the north.

Logging is not deforestation in reality - because those trees will come back. Only if you turn it into pasture and keep cows there, and keep the brush cutdown.... etc.

mike_van · December 18, 2005, 12:20:40 PM

Imagine how hard our forefathers worked, some with oxen or mules, some with nothing other than a pick & prybar - Gives you a whole new perspective on things - There's walls here my grandfather built, some stone the size of tables in them, I know for a fact all he had were 2 work horses.

Ernie_Edwards · December 18, 2005, 12:35:36 PM

Our small pasture has a big majestic maple in the middle of it. The way I understand it, this was once a farmers field that was uriginally cleared over 80 years ago. When the trees were cut the stumps had to be cleared. One way was to use an existing tree as an anchor point to chain to and pull the other stumps out. There would always be one left as there were no trees to pull that one out with. Always puts a little smile on my face when in my travels around the country I see a single tree in a field where it makes no sense to be. You know there was a lot of effort put into that field by some long gone farmer.

Flyboy · December 18, 2005, 05:36:22 PM

;D Peter, Try Boer Goats and Pigs. The goats will stip the brush to nothin, the pigs will excavate below and fertilize to boot.
I had an old hemlock stump bout 30" dia. took a bar drove some holes in around the roots. dribbled some corn down the holes, poured some "treated" milk from one of the cows over it. come fall I hooked the tractor to the stump and just pulled it away. Was so proud of the pigs, I shot them. Seriously tho, you'd be surprised what 6 pigs will do in a small rotating pen made of electric fence. ;D ;D

crtreedude · December 18, 2005, 05:46:35 PM

The only problem will be if your wife decides to make pets of the porkers... :

Greg · December 20, 2005, 05:22:41 PM

Quote from: Onthesauk on December 18, 2005, 11:21:41 AM
I've got 40 acres I've been working on for 10 years now. In the NW if you ease up for a few years the blackberries and alders will take over again. You can watch the cycle when someone moves in, clears ground, cuts brush, mowes grass, keeps moving the edges back a little bit each year. Then they start getting older, moving slower, cutting less and those edges start creeping back in again.

How large are the trees generally on your 40 acres?

I'm curious if you think your blackberry/alder problem will diminish once a more solid canopy is in tact. I suppose this is one clear example of letting the land just "go natural" would not allow for a healthy forest regeneration, at least for quite a long time.

My big problem with pioneer brush plants is multiflora rose. After a large elm died out on my wood lot about 5 years back. Within a couple years, sitting in the sun now, I had basically an entire hilliside engulfed with thorns. Maybe given enough time, new tree growth would shade it back out again.

But I aint waitin... so every year its a battle to keep the area somewhat contained until the tulip poplars race to make some shade. :-\

I definitely like the idea of goats, but needs lots of fence repairs first.
Greg

Onthesauk · December 20, 2005, 09:06:08 PM

I've got a little bit of everything on the property. Some old "seed tree" fir and cedar that are 5 foot in diameter, a nice stand of marketable fir and hemlock, (although tough to get to,) about 12 acres of replant maybe 14 years old, and the rest is alder and maple anywhere from seedling to mature. What I mow and maintain is about 3 acres of meadow where I garden and all the skid roads. Keep trying to move the brush farther away from the house for fire protection. Here in the NW as the trees begin to canopy a lot of the brush will die back but it never really opens up like it might farther south or east. I've got a couple of acres of red cedar above the house that are probably 80 to 100 years old and there the brush and blackberries are finally pretty much gone. In the replant, the blackberries are mostly dead but a lot of the other brush still thrives. And not unusual to get 4 to 5 feet of growth on a tree in a year here.