Hello Everyone!
Extra rest, Tree trunk wrangling, Establishing a black locust grove & Meandering on about tree strains!
Alright, I let myself sleep in a little late this morning... so that I would not be fatigued by the afternoon. Now I am in a sort of 'race' to get this entry written, edited and posted before the sun rises... which considering how little I like to rush... might not be an attainable or even all that reasonable of a goal.
Seriously though, it would be nice to stay on track with my routines... and not let the time-frames to get skewed too much considering how well that they have been working out of late. It is incredibly difficult to convey what a profound shift getting my routines 'dialed in' has made for me... and I guess that (fatigue dodging aside) I simply do not want to bugger them up.
Anyways, I got outdoors rather early yesterday in an effort to make the most of the fair weather... and although I would not call it a 'super productive' day I did get in a good bit of hiking... and got a few things done that have been nagging at me lately. The most ornery of those tasks, was getting that big mimosa trunk out of the middle of the meadow where it was in the way of my gardening efforts.
I will spare you all the tedious details... but whoa that trunk was still super heavy... even after having been sitting 'blocked up' off the ground for the last few months. Basically, I used the small logs that the trunk was laying on to slide and pivot the trunk repeatedly... until I managed to wrangle it out of the field, up the hill and 'out of the way' near one of the vine trellises.
Go figure, that the very first day that my back was feeling better that I would take on a task like that... but thankfully I was super cautious to 'lift with my legs' and do everything that I was doing with lots of micro-movements. There were a few times when I walked away from moving the trunk altogether... and took a small break because it was that arduous of an endeavor.
It is kind of funny, but previous to having the idea to move the trunk I decided to go ahead and get more black locust saplings out of their pots and planted in the meadow... which of course meant that I had to not harm them while moving the trunk. All total I only added three more saplings to the row that I started working on the other day... and although the spacing is not 'ideal' I am still sticking with keeping them about two meters apart.
Over the coming days, I am going to try to get as many of the saplings planted as I can... because the fenced garden area is not getting much sun now that the seasons are progressing. I am also worried about them getting rootbound and/or stunted altogether... due to how small the 'half gallon' flower pots are that I have them in... which are half the size of what they need to be.
Honestly, a few days ago when I planted that first sapling in the meadow... I had such a mix of feelings wash over me while doing it that days later I am still trying to parse it all out. In short, it was this profound since of accomplishment that I felt whilst taking a tree that I started from seed here late last year, having it survive the winter... and then using it to help start a black locust grove... at my own farm... on my own land.
I mean what a frigging journey it has been holding onto the goal of farming black locust trees for all these years (a little over a decade actually) and regardless of the odds of failure... actually succeeding instead. It just boggles my mind to no end... but at the same time... I never let go of my desire to grow the trees... and grew plenty of them sans having my own land... so it also all 'makes perfect sense' working out as it has.
Now I am entering a new phase of things with the tree growing... because at long last I can look at establishing some groves with the strains that I have, get some juvenile trees growing... and start tinkering with their genetics. Of course, there is also a 'wildcard' strain that was already growing here before my arrival... but thankfully it holds the characteristics that I want in the trees like small infrequent thorns, a straight trunk and few lower branches.
At least those features are the ones that I want for building material purposes (especially milling lumber) but I also want to develop a strain that can be used for fodder purposes. I am really unsure on how that will work out, given that it would essentially need to be a thornless strain, one with thorns that never fully harden or something similar.
Such a 'fodder' strain would also need to grow to about a meter high as more of a 'bush' than a tree... which would require more lower branches than what I want the 'building material' strain to have. In the end, I might wind up having to just do root cloning for the fodder strain (given that I find a strain that would work for it in the first place) and that way I can avoid it ever flowering... and possibly altering the other strain(s).
On a related note, I think that I am going to plant all the remaining black locust seeds that I currently have... even though it is a bit late in the year to be doing so. Initially, I had no intention of doing that this year... but there has been so much rain that a good half (or more) of my seedlings (that I planted a few months ago) did not make it... but hey... that is farming after all!
Well, the sun is up over the horizon and I have to get a lot done this morning... so I best call this 'good enough' and get on with the tedious editing and posting. I hope that folks are doing well. Ta ta and ciao for now.
Good to hear you have started your black locust grove. I hope the rest of the seeds do well.
Sending you Ecency curation votes.😉
