tricholabus mitchelli orchard

mom had a forestry assessment done. there were numerous suggestions such as removing vines, reviving old and making new trails, and creating brush piles, and installing bat and bird houses. i did some tree clearing that i did not think would diverge from the plan. getting fire wood ready for a couple seasons from now, we will call it.  i did take down a number of trees. that little Makita chainsaw does a great job. the batteries lasted a good bit longer than i had anticipated. if i had a double charger down there i would bet i could go all day cutting little stuff. maybe i would need a couple more with increased frequency of use. and if i were cutting logs i would need more batteries for sure. but it did a great job. a second bar and chain would be smart too, as my chainsawing technique needs work and i pinched the bar and chain a couple times. i also left a few things leaning. hope they don't fall on anybody. a couple of them didn't fall because they were vined to the tree nex...

the section of woods I was working to clear last week was chosen for a couple reasons. the time before, the section i cleared made sense to clear, but it was a little impulsive, mostly chosen because i was right there, checking, as i was, the paws i had planted earlier in spring. this time i was closer to the house. i reasoned that it would be easier to keep tabs on the regrowth in the coming months and years.  it is also is the area which may prove to be the part of the orchard with the most overt beauty. those massive beech and poplar are incredible. So I figured it was the best bang for my work buck.  this area might eventually have a view impressive enough for a deck like platform structure for hanging out. tiered perhaps. the possibility of this being a place where people might pay a few dollars to hang out byob style intrigues me. probably would not be a serious source of revenue, but who knows. I think I made pretty good progress last time I was down. I would like to se...

 Smoothie attempt #1 (not good) 1 banana (frozen) 2 cubes paw paw Milk + more paw paw made it worse.  This tasted too astringenty.  Smoothie attempt #2 (much better) Paw paw OJ Expired strawberry yogurt (frozen cube) The darker colored cubes were the source of the astringent flavor.  We talked a bit about the realisticness of a paw paw smoothie business. We decided step one was trying to make smoothies to test out. The first was so bad we dumped it out. It had a horribly astringent aftertaste. After a couple taste tests of frozen paw, we decided the darker cubes were the source of the bad flavor. We threw them away. We tried a recipe with orange juice, and that was rather good. We also made one with frozen cheap strawberry yogurt. It was also good.  Paw being best stored and transported pulped and frozen lends itself nicely to smoothie making. 

 Today, some pretty serious work was done. I got into the woods with some pruners, an axe, and a brush hook. I didn’t use the brush hook a whole lot, and only used the axe to remove some bigger trees. The focus was definitely the pruners. They worked really well, but sometimes don’t feel like the most efficient things. But, they get the job done, and cut closer to the ground than is easy with the brush hook. I pick a spot close to my moms house. Started down below the building. Part of why I chose this toot was ease of access. I could park at the house and walk down with tools. I also think it is going to be one of the cooler spots on the property, eventually. It has some very large beech trees, poplar, and oak. The beech are particularly impressive. I removed the small poplar trees. There was an ocean of them between 3 and 10 feet, but they came down quickly and easily with the pruners. Some areas where I was working had more paw paw than others. But the parts with less paw paw I ...

This was one of the first times I have been in the woods since last fall. Granted, I got down there and planted 100 seeds earlier in the spring, I recall that being a quick trip, with little to no exploration.                                                                                       I took my time getting down there, stopping at National Harbor to get some pictures of the hand and the wheel. Also, some candy for the girls. Including Denise, whom I got pralines. Near the building, I watched an antlion shake around a small beetle like it was nothing.  On to the actual orchard work.   

have not had much time for updating lately. a few weeks ago i was in contact with someone selling seeds. he seemed pretty confident that the seeds were true to their advertised variety. they broke down to less than a dollar a piece, so i bought ten seeds of ten varieties. the plan is to plant 10 3x3 patches. that will leave one of each that i will plant at home. i still don't have a real great idea of where they will go. i could cluster them for latter replanting, or i could put them in the woods for some of the forest fields.  including shipping, the seeds came to under 100 dollars. if i drop 100 dollars a year on seeds, in 10 years i will have 1,000 trees going. obviously it will be a few more yers before they are all fruit bearing, but thats a good start. if they do end up being what i hope they are, they could produce scion wood for future grafting.