Forestry

A few pictures from the woods.

Black Locust.  I took these pictures the next day.  They had dried out, so I coated the cut ends with vegetable oil to attempt to recapture the look of the fresh cut.  The location of the sun did not help me on this shot.

English Oak.  I should have pruned these off five years ago.  They make an interesting pattern as the base of the limb swelled as it joined the trunk.

Close up of one of the cut ends of the English Oak.  It is almost like jewelry.  I like working on oak.  It saws well, does not peel a strip of bark at the bottom and is quite predictable.  Oh, and it is pretty.

Some of the tools of the trade.  The snow is almost as stiff as styrofoam.  That makes it easy to stick your tools in if for easy storage.  It is advisable to plant sharps where you are unlikely to fall on them.

Another English Oak.  You can see the pile of cut branches scattered about the base.  Trimming up trees makes a mess of the forest floor.  If you look to the right of the tree in the foreground you will see a tree that is being managed as pollard. 

Some scionwood saved from one of my "elite" English Oak.  I have two English Oak with good tree structure.  I will be grafting my smaller English Oak over to these two selections.  One selection is named "South" and the other is named "North".