Busy, busy, busy...

It has been a long day.

Quicksilver showed up at 6:30 a.m. I handed her off at 9:30 and started cutting fence wire and loading the back of the truck. 2-3/4 hours time-on-task in the Upper and Hill Orchards. I got back home and took an hour long nap. Then off to watch a sporting event with Southern Belle. On the way home I stopped at Walmart for dog food, oatmeal, raisins and whole-wheat tortilla wraps. I got it all unloaded and sat down in the official recliner of the ERJ blog at 8:30 p.m.

At 1000 seeds to the ounce and approximately 60 clay balls, that more than 15 seeds per ball.

One of the tasks was to try out the seed pellets. I used the following mix and am pretty happy with it:

• 1kg damp sand
• 400 grams clumping cat litter (bentonite)
• 100 grams masa (corn flour)
• 100 grams Burpee Organic Fertilizer
• 400 ml of water

The mix was a little bit dry and crumbly but it packed like a snowball. If you try the mix, realize that you will have to make adjustments to the amount of water because "damp sand" is an imprecise term.

The area where I was planting the Redbud seeds. Two dead Bigtooth Aspen trunks in the foreground. "How has your Aspen?"  "Frankly, dead and decaying."

 Since the Redbud that I have seen growing wild has always been on the slopes above the flood-plains, I surmised that the seeds want to land on mineral dirt and not leaf-litter or duff. So rather than pitching them willy-nilly, I scuffed through the leaf-litter, dropped the clay-ball on the mineral dirt that I exposed and then stepped on the ball to squish it into intimate contact with the dirt.

The Liberty is past full-bloom. Melrose is at full bloom. This picture is from the Upper Orchard.

Mostly I worked the cusp of the slope near the road and overlooking the valley that is east of the Hill Orchard and the Upper Orchard. 

I was very pleased that the ball showed no inclination to stick to the sole of my shoe.

Random photo

A nice looking seedling Sweet Cherry. I saw this on my commute to "the office" today. I am tempted to liberate some scion even though Mrs ERJ (mostly) broke me of that habit.

 

Drought monitor. Moisture in the top 40" of soil (root zone). Displayed as a "percentile" of historically observed values on a tract-by-tract basis.

 

I am pretty sure I have at least three readers in New Hampshire and a few in the Piedmont region. Do they have burn-bans and fire warnings in place?