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Sherwood's Almanac

Week starting 26 April 2009

Monday: More thinning of the willow patch. The small chainsaw that my brother-in-law, Drew, gave me is turning into a boon. Had to pull about a million times to get it to start, but this is common in a saw that has been napping for a long time. And the chain oil filler cap is directly under the handle, which makes adding chain oil messy.

But that said, it's small, it's light, once warmed up it's easy to start. And for cutting out small brush it is easy to use. Definitely a keeper.

Thanks Drew!

Did a run to St. John's to fix their computers. Picked up a trailer load of pallets and buckets too. Talked to Blaine and made arrangements to harvest small spruce. (I've got two orders for a dozen 4-5 foot white spruce. None of mine are big enough.)

Tuesday: Harvested a bunch of golden willow. Mostly to get them ready to grow rods. Gave up on the Canadian Tire loppers. Ordered a new lopper from Lee Valley.

I've got an idea: What if I take 3 willow rods, and braid them. Then plant them. Can I get a more regular version of diamond willow? Gotta try this.

Went to pick up the truck to go to St. John's to harvest trees.
Oddest sight: A flock (they were on the ground. Herd?) of robins. Never saw that before.

Wednesday:

Bob Brown at CRS Brown called me today. He was browsing Kijiji and saw my ad wanting pots. I got a couple loads of pots from Bob two years ago, but last year when I called they didn't have any. And I forgot to call them in the fall. I figured they had sold them to someone else.

Anyway we had a good chat, and I'll be going there Friday to pick up pots.

Started out the morning by planting my 'ripped from the earth' spruce from SJSA. Planted them on 15' intervals more or less on the north side of the pond. I figure I can do an experiment: A: Do RFTE spruce survive B: What is the effect of carpet mulch. (I'll do half with mulch.) C: I'll put in another row of white spruce, babies from my latest batch, and see if they actually do catch up with the 4 and 5 footers I put in. Entertainment in slo-mo.

Went back to SJ for anaother load of spruce. This time got 26. Two root balls disintegrated when I lifted them. (Sandy...) I wrapped them in plastic and brought them home anyway, and added them to the east end of the row by the pond.

I really don't mind the hard work of lifting the trees. But those *(&(^!@^ wild roses...

Tired, back hurts. (26 trees at 60-80 lbs each equals pooped.)

Thursday: Meeting with the big power company again. Looks like we won't be turfed any time soon. Reading between the lines, while the boundary of the permit area is 800 meters north of us, the actual hill won't be removed -- just too much dirt. In effect this gives us a mile.

Eileen and John came down from Barrhead this evening, originally to buy spruce trees. Alas mine are natural spruce, not pruned, and so they aren't full enough. But they left with a load of birch, and they want info about the ornamental willows as they come on line.

Friday:

Went to Leduc to pick up pots from Bob Brown at CRS Brown. I was also going to pick up a roll of fence wire at Peavey Mart, fuel at UFA, an inner tube for the garden cart at Canadian Tire, and float money for the cash box.

Wasn't even in town when Laura called. Computer problems at Saint John's and two calls to return.

I loaded my pots. Takes about two hours, mostly because not all two gallon pots are the same size, and so there's a lot of cut and try to get them to nest well. But I came home with about nineteen hundred 2 gallon pots, five hundred 1 gallon pots, and a couple hundred 2 quart square pots. (good size for selling perennials.)

Derrick from Calmar came after lunch. Interested in Poplar. Spent some time looking, and talking. Went away with a price list. I think he'll be back.

Birgit came by after supper. We had done email correspondence for some time. They left with 14 trees, and said they would be back when the shrubs are in leaf.

Saturday: Gary from Tofield came. I said 20 each on the phone for the trees, and I stuck to that, even if he ended up getting about a foot more tree than we'd agreed to on the phone. Still, I'm trying to build a reputation for delivering more than asked.

Wow. Three sales in three days. Never happened before.