Weekly Update 3/20

We mocked up our tree row spacing in the fields. We marked out the existing contour lines the old school way – tube, sticks and water. This is Eli’s 3rd week here and at this point we have the general system for our silvopasture layout and now we have a lot of work to do to mock it up, confirm it and then the ground work to ready for 2,000 trees!

We fine tuned our parking lot design. While taking the architecture licensing exams I never though I would use all the parking lot information I memorized… now I wish I knew more. It would be great to know how to make parking lots that are actually beautiful and enjoyable. I wish I knew more about all the pavement / non- pavement options and how to beautifully integrate wildlife and water management with parking lot. Currently learning about trees for the parking lot, pavement options, and rain gardens.

Our friend QJ set up a highline between some grand trees. It is neat to go visit him up there and the the site from another perspective. It is also great to have someone else around when there is so much isolation going on right now and awesome to hear how he is getting better and better at highlining everyday because of all his practice. Glen is also sharpening his skills… our little hound is finding all sorts of dead animals bits an bringing them back to us. This week we have also doe quite a bit of stable fixing because the bloody groundhogs !

This week our fields got a visit form hundreds of grackle birds! The picture included might not read the best but all those black specs in the field are grackles… it was so crackley loud like the whole farm had rickety metal moving around! Listen to its sound on allaboutbirds.com this tell me it doesn’t sound like a metal fence.