Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

We picked up 20 Frazer fir tree seedlings at the Cumberland County Conservation District annual tree sale and ended up planting them in a somewhat random pattern on the steep slope by the small pond.  They are still rather small and we put a lot of mulch around them so that we can “find” them and not accidentally mow them off.

We will have a portable saw mill coming in on Monday to finally get all our logs cut into boards.  We just had one more walnut tree (which was starting to get sick), that needed to get cut down.  Since the tree was leaning precariously close toward the garage – and it was just a little too big for our chain saw –  we decided to have someone come in and cut it down.  The tree feel safely away from the garage, and just touched the top row of blackberries with no damage at all.  Jeff and Zach finished the project by cutting the smaller pieces into firewood, while Lars stacked it all up. 

Our desert tortoise, Oliver, has figured out that he can push on the screen door and get it open (we never latched it until today). With temperatures in the 70’s, we have been leaving our kitchen door open, letting the screen door swing back – never thinking anything of it. So yesterday, a bicyclist stopped in the middle of the road and yelled for Sam, who was playing with the dogs across the street. He had seen this rather large turtle in the middle of the road and did not want it to get hit, so he stopped right in front of it and guarded it against possible cars. He was afraid to pick it up, not knowing what kind of turtle it was and I can’t blame him, with a large pond visible from the road, it may have been a snapping turtle. Sam met the turtle rescuer, thanked him and picked up the turtle, explaining that he was our pet…ugh, what kind of pet do you have running loose in your house?