Winter 2009-2010

[Carl Russell]

Well I broke one of my cardinal rules.

Last week my mare had a bad wound on her foot from caulking herself with ice shoes, so I decided to leave the horses in the paddock and go into the stand with the saw to lay down a bunch of red pines. They aren’t very big trees, 12-16″ DBH and 35-45′ long. I’m clearing a plantation to make pasture so I just cut along the edge of the stand and layed down a couple of days worth of skidding. The nail came off the end of my tape somewhere along in the middle of the day, so I decided to just lay them down and save delimbing for when I came back to skid. The stand has a power line that runs along the side where I’m working so it seemed appealing considering the circumstances to get as much felling done as I could.

All the while I was thinking to myself… I learned years ago to clean up my wood as I fell it… but this open winter must have lulled me into a trance, because now I have two days worth of saw-work and skidding laying in relatively small trees buried by what is expected to be about 14-16 inches of heavy wet snow.

Live and learn….. again!!:(

Carl

[Donn Hewes]

My sympathies! I have a lot of good work waiting under the snow already! I just go start working somewhere else.

[Gabe Ayers]

Yep, I can empathize, we have two days skidding (cherry, red oak, locust) laying under two feet of baby glacial kind of snow ice, stratified miserable long laying winter precipitation #%*+… been there since well before Christmas.

Snow is quickly becoming a new four letter word in the higher elevation Appalachians.

Fortunately we have consulting work to do in the Piedmont and that will be fun and at least keep the bills paid for now.

An intriguing upcoming weekend consult is on the Red Hill Plantation, Patrick Henry’s homeplace. It should be very interesting. It is a national memorial and historic site. They supposedly have hundreds of acres of piedmont oak hickory yellow pine forest type. Most is 125 year age range. I will let DAP know what comes of it.

Hope the sap is running good for you all?

I’d hate to have to get around in our woods right now to collect it. The debris load from the three ice storms we have had among this worse winter in my life make walking around on anything other than snowshoes is dangerous.

Yall hang on out there. Just do what you can – safely.

~

[Carl Russell]

Did I say 14-16″? try 24-26″ heavy, and now with rain and possibly another foot.

I do have marking to do, and three plan updates to do during March, which will keep me busy, but I was on such a good roll. And I don’t want to take the sharp shoes off because I want to take advantage of the snow and ice before it turns to mud.

I want to have these trees cleaned up by mud season so that I can get a Brontosaurus in there to chip all the slash and grind down the stumps. It is my hybrid solution to keeping bio-mass and using machinery to jump start the pasture renovation.

After the Bront. I will put up a perimeter fence and leap frog my pigs 6-8 across it this summer. Hopefully they will bring enough soil to the surface so that we can get some good seed down. Using the Bront. will allow me to be able to drag the entire parcel, and also to brush-hog as soon as needed.

All I’ve been able to do for 36 hours now is shovel manure, carry water, and plow and shovel snow. Power out all over our area… off-grid here so we’re fine…. but I had to hook up my mother’s house to the generator.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

all rain here, carl. haven’t got a guage out but must be a coupleinches judging by the puddles. we hung about 300 sap buckets first of the week and sap was running, but now we can’t get to them cause the brook is up. snow’s gone and frost is coming out of the ground. some sugar year. may get colder, we still have lots of time, but my spirits are low.

[mink]

knee deep snow over here in chazy lake ny very wet and heavy . makes the woods across the road look like a wall of white……..mink

[Does’ Leap]

I’ve got 4 chords of wood down and limbed, but buried nonetheless. I spent the day before the storm drawing wood, but didn’t get it all. Melting fast now, but more is on the way.

[Carl Russell]

I agree. It is sinking fast…. getting really heavy… roads have 4 in slush and really hard to drive on. I can’t wait to see it next week. Two days ago we were in an early break-up condition… I bet it isn’t too long before we’re looking like Mitch.

Too heavy for the cows to go out. We went snow shoeing… OMG what a work out. My shoes were sinking in 18″ in 24″ of snow….and then again in some places under limbs it was packed and I didn’t sink at all. Really can’t even seriously consider harnessing for a few days.

Carl

[Gabe Ayers]

It sounds like a thousand mile long freight train driving by in between the house and barn. The wind is brutal, relentless. Snow drifts back everywhere again, especially the driveway into the place – deeper than ever. Drifts over my head in many places.

I’m gonna stop complaining, it seems the more I complain, the worse it gets.

Still feeding with the team every day. Have lots of protected areas out of the wind and where the hay stay where you throw it at least long enough for the horses to eat it.

~

[Mark Cowdrey]

Carl,

Does your grinder charge by the hour or the job? Can you give us some idea of the expense? Seems like a good compromise “jump start” solution.

Thanks,

Mark

[Carl Russell]

Mark Cowdrey;16119 wrote:

Carl,

Does your grinder charge by the hour or the job? Can you give us some idea of the expense? Seems like a good compromise “jump start” solution.

Thanks,

Mark

About $200/hr. . He says he can clean up logging slash at about 5 acres/day

Carl

[Scott G]

We use a lot of mastication equipment out here for fuel reduction work. It is often the cheapest way to go, especially if the timber type you’re in has negative value. I just administered a 175 acre mastication job in UGLY ponderosa pine for the County last summer. 40-45% scree covered slope, godawful nasty…

I would caution you when you put a lot of chipped/chunked material on the ground. The smaller processed material decomposes much more rapidly than natural coarse woody debris and can really suck the available nitrogen out of the ground. It can be an issue if you’re already dealing with poor soil.

[Carl Russell]

Scott G;16123 wrote:

…..
I would caution you when you put a lot of chipped/chunked material on the ground. The smaller processed material decomposes much more rapidly than natural coarse woody debris and can really suck the available nitrogen out of the ground. It can be an issue if you’re already dealing with poor soil.

Yes Scott we are aware of that. I have been removing the bulk of the woody debris in form of logs. Putting critters on it right away will help to break up the mycelial mats and add more nitrogen through manure. One way or another we will have to accommodate the shift from forest soil organisms to grassland soil organisms. I want the biomass in humus form though, and don’t want to spend the time burning. Anyway we look at it there is an energy issue. Some we have to pay for, some we can invest ourselves, some will be a reduction in available energy from the soil for a while. We plan to monitor the whole process the evaluate the effectiveness, and to try to develop associated management methods.

Carl

[Gabe Ayers]

Last year we did a similar transition on some low grade regenerating forests back to grassland/pasture. We used a bull hog, one of those grinder wheels on the front of a skid steer. Really grinds stuff up pretty good including grinding softwood stumps down to ground level.

The same issue of high carbon presence reducing nitrogen availability came up. We used a combo of hand labor to pile really course debris and burn piles all over the field which created some fertility increase from the ash, but the surface was pretty much covered with several inches of chips and woody debris. In this situation there wasn’t an option of running hogs or livestock on it immediately so we came up with a botanical response.

We planted the entire site with yellow blossom sweet clover. This is the number one nitrogen fixer and number one nectar honey producer. This stuff did amazing. He grew right up through the debris and covered the ground with a lush green carpet. In this particular situation the carpet was destroyed when the air exchange system of a thermal heating system was installed right in the middle or throughout the field we just created. The machinery guys were very sensitive about putting the soil profile back in place after burying the air lines and the top soil went back on top. Then we reseeded it again with YBSC and it will be interesting to see what it looks like if we ever see spring again.

The YBSC is a biennial and won’t last as a permanent legume but it is a cheap vigorous start to conversion back to grassland from low grade forested conditions. I have planted many bushel of YBSC seed on this place over the years as it was an entirely clear cut when I bought it in 83.
It is amazing stuff and will grow in very poor soil and doesn’t mind the nitrogen tie up from the high carbon load.

Another issue is the dragging of the ground to get it level. A problem there is the little doddles or stuff that gets rolled together to make a spun clump of woody debris that is hard to get to rot because it is concentrated and sets above the ground surface. We got around it on the setting planting by discing it first to incorporate it with the soil a bit before seeding over it.

Bringing the livestock into the picture may change all that. Just figured I’d brag on YBSC a bit since it definitely will grow in the debris better than anything else I know of. Always inoculate the legumes or buy pre inoculated seed.

There is an old saying about tearing something up like a new ground…it is work, but just imagine how much more work it was historically when the botanical over burden was larger and the mechanics were entirely animal powered, including human power….

I think a long term view should include concerns over erosion. Keep what topsoil you have there – there.

~

[Tim Harrigan]

Carl, that will be an interesting transition. It does not sound like much tillage is in your plans. Can you elaborate on what types of vegetation you expect to be there when you turn your animals in, when you expect to turn them in, if you plan to interseed any grasses or legumes, etc. Have you taken an soil test? How much chipped biomass do you expect to be on the surface or worked in? I agree N could be an issue that would affect both woody degradation and forage yield, but because this is long-time forest ground the soil may have a high level of organic matter and considerable N mineralization so I am not sure how significant that issue might be. From a soil perspective this in not a typical pasture restoration project.

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