Thanksgiving is great time at Dogwood. Besides having the long weekend, the weather is usually cool enough to enjoy the warmth of a campfire but not too cold to enjoy activates away from the fire. Some trees have shed all of their leaves, while others are in various states of changing color. The dogwood and rusty blackhaw trees display brilliant red foliage, almost as dramatic as the fall color of the poison ivy hanging high in the trees. The pasture was shred last week so the remnants of the snow-on-the-prairie, broomweed and stalks of the KR bluestem were mowed over and no longer hip high. Zipping through the pasture in the Ranger or on the ATV is much more fun than when the grass and weeds are cut down.
After a nice family Thanksgiving feast in Houston (actually Pearland this year) we headed out to Dogwood Friday morning. We mostly worked on the cedar bridge construction project on Friday, finishing the first truss late in the afternoon. We were so busy; we didn’t even get our usual afternoon nap in our lounge chairs under the trees. For lunch we roasted hotdogs over the campfire in our work area on the edge of the woods. Oak smoked campfire roasted hotdogs with yellow mustard and pickle relish may not strike most as a gourmet meal to savor, but after working hard in the woods and thinking about an afternoon of hard work ahead, those dogs were delicious!
On Saturday morning, after watching the sun come up and start shining through the trees while we had our morning coffee and breakfast around the campfire, we decided we needed a break from bridge construction. Instead of starting the second truss as we should, we decided on an impromptu project; clearing the last cedar trees growing along the fence line between Old Dogwood and New Dogwood. We started work about 9:00 a.m. using the chain saw to cut the trees so that they fell on the New Dogwood side of the fence. Using the umpf of the Ranger and a strong rope, we dragged the trees into the pasture far enough from the woods to safety burn the cedar next year, and piled them up into a giant brush pile. We can’t burn them now as there is a burn ban in the county due the dry weather, plus, the trees don’t burn so well when they are green. Some of the trees were too heavy for the Ranger to pull so we cut those cedar in half to drag.
The main objective of this project was to remove the visual barrier created by the cedar so we can look up the hill at the magnificent oak trees we cleared a few weeks ago. It is a dramatic difference and gave us instant gratification in seeing results of hard work right away.
As we worked, we commented that on such a glorious, cloudless, cool fall day it was a shame no one else in the family was enjoying it with us. About 11:00 a.m. while clearing the fence, we got a call from Houston. Pat, Pete, Gail and Kevin decided to come out for a day at the ranch. We hurried the next two hours to complete the fence clearing and cedar dragging so that we would be ready to relax when the guests arrived. We cleared and dragged to the brush pile 13 cedar trees from the fence line by 1:00 p.m. when we declared the job a success.
Once everyone arrived and ate their picnic lunch, we gave tours of the property in the Ranger as none had seen New Dogwood. We tooled around in the pasture, around the mature oak trees that are cleared and those that are not, to the pond on the top of the hill and over by the barn. Kevin enjoyed tending the fire and throwing in sticks, just like the nephews and most little boys (including those like Kevin that are grown professional men!). Gail took photos and rest of us relaxed around the fire, with Pete and Ronnie taking breaks to check on the Arkansas v LSU football game.
It is fascinating to see how people gradually relax when they are outdoors on such a gorgeous day, in the trees and hanging around a campfire – being outdoors and away from the noise and hustle of the city, even for just a few hours, is just good for the spirit.
Showing posts with label Juniper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juniper. Show all posts
December 3, 2010
September 29, 2010
Invasive Brush Plants - Part 7 - Juniper or Cedar
Now that we have discussed why we want to clear the juniper, let’s chat about how we do it. Basically, there is one method we use to clear juniper – cut it down. Unlike yaupon, it will not come up from the roots. The small saplings we whack down with the machete. For the trees, the chainsaw is the only way. The problem with the juniper is what to do with the tree after it is chopped down. If it is in the woods, sometimes we will just let it lay where it fell and become cover for birds and small mammals and eventually rot. If we don’t want to leave it, we use the chain saw to cut the limbs and drag them to the burn area.
You have to be careful working with it because the leaves or nettles are pokey and itchy, especially when they fall down your shirt or get in your breaches. Wearing gloves is a good idea. Because the trees have sticky sap, don’t sit on a freshly cut stump or you will have a sticky backside! The cedar does smell nice when cut.
Burning juniper is pretty much a mess. There is so much moisture in the leaves when green that they create a lot of white smoke and if piled on too high, will snuff out the fire. It’s best to let it dry out a few weeks before burning. Even then it is a mess. When the sap heats in the fire it pops, sometimes shooting small burning pieces out of the fire ring. The foliage initially goes up in huge flares and the burned needles can float on the smoke carrying a spark. We don’t burn juniper if the area is dry or if there is burn ban in the county as it is too dangerous.
We are experimenting this year with a twist on the “just cut it down” method by ringing the tree and letting it die in place. We used the chain saw to make a cut about an inch deep through the bark all the way around the tree. On some, we then used a paint brush to put Remedy in the cut and some we did not use Remedy. In a few weeks the leaves starting turning brown on all of the ringed trees. We are hoping the advantage of this method will prove to be that the tree dies, the thick leaves fall off and let light in to the grass. Once the leaves are gone, we can chop down the tree with much less mess and less burning. We ringed four or five large trees last spring and are monitoring their “progress”. I will report back on how this process works.
Even though we strive to eliminate most of the juniper, it does have some useful purposes. We use the limbs for replacement fence posts. The fences around Dogwood Ranch are about 60 years old and many of the old cedar fence posts have rotted and are falling down. In some areas, only brush is holding up the barbed wire. We are also in the process of building a bridge over the creek with boards we cut from the large cedar trunks. It has taken about 2 years to cut enough boards and beams but we plan to finally start building the bridge this fall. It needs to be strong enough to span 25 feet and hold a John Deer mower and one adult. I will report on bridge building progress later this fall.
You have to be careful working with it because the leaves or nettles are pokey and itchy, especially when they fall down your shirt or get in your breaches. Wearing gloves is a good idea. Because the trees have sticky sap, don’t sit on a freshly cut stump or you will have a sticky backside! The cedar does smell nice when cut.
Burning juniper is pretty much a mess. There is so much moisture in the leaves when green that they create a lot of white smoke and if piled on too high, will snuff out the fire. It’s best to let it dry out a few weeks before burning. Even then it is a mess. When the sap heats in the fire it pops, sometimes shooting small burning pieces out of the fire ring. The foliage initially goes up in huge flares and the burned needles can float on the smoke carrying a spark. We don’t burn juniper if the area is dry or if there is burn ban in the county as it is too dangerous.
We are experimenting this year with a twist on the “just cut it down” method by ringing the tree and letting it die in place. We used the chain saw to make a cut about an inch deep through the bark all the way around the tree. On some, we then used a paint brush to put Remedy in the cut and some we did not use Remedy. In a few weeks the leaves starting turning brown on all of the ringed trees. We are hoping the advantage of this method will prove to be that the tree dies, the thick leaves fall off and let light in to the grass. Once the leaves are gone, we can chop down the tree with much less mess and less burning. We ringed four or five large trees last spring and are monitoring their “progress”. I will report back on how this process works.
Even though we strive to eliminate most of the juniper, it does have some useful purposes. We use the limbs for replacement fence posts. The fences around Dogwood Ranch are about 60 years old and many of the old cedar fence posts have rotted and are falling down. In some areas, only brush is holding up the barbed wire. We are also in the process of building a bridge over the creek with boards we cut from the large cedar trunks. It has taken about 2 years to cut enough boards and beams but we plan to finally start building the bridge this fall. It needs to be strong enough to span 25 feet and hold a John Deer mower and one adult. I will report on bridge building progress later this fall.
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