Greetings Friends Of Pineolia, Fellow Cascadians, And Whoever Else,
Happy New Year! (This is probably the latest New Years greeting you'll get.)
2014 for me, was a year of getting familiar with the local area and getting my bearings.
It was also a year of mainly planting trees. A new friend, Matt, was a tremendous help as he clued me in on many details concerning the planting of tree seedlings. I ended up planting 160 trees in total, mostly evergreens. A lot of work but it was a labor of love. By the end of October, 80% had survived, which I have been told is a good score.
By August and September things were getting real, real, dry up at the Chesaw/Pineolia area. It got so I had to be up there every other day, hauling water and watering my trees. It's 65 miles round trip from Tonasket to Pineolia. The gas bill was bad. But had keep making those trips otherwise all the trees would die, and all my work would be down the drain.
So it became absolutely very clear that I need to live at Pineolia. This commuting is no good. I have decided to get a trailer to Pineolia and start living in it as soon as possible this year, live in it through next winter, and then build a natural house in 2016; a daunting task but it must be done. This year I shall concentrate on leveling the site where I want to build, getting a trailer there all hooked up and start living in it, putting in a drain field, and maybe installing a composting toilet. I also have ordered 30 more tree seedlings to plant and there are 30+ wild Chinese Elm seedlings I have out on the balcony of my Tonasket apartment that will need planting. I figure that's enough for this year.
The pictures in the attachments:
#3: View looking south at future windbreak along the eastern boundary; two staggered rows. Inside these tubes are all evergreens: Junipers, Ponderosas, Western White Pine, Blue Spruce, and Doug Fir. In the middle of the picture is an old army tent I pulled up that had been lying just below the surface of the dead grass. It was another nice day to plant trees.
#4: Looking down one of the tubes. Inside a seedling has sprouted. Most of what I planted are evergreens but this is Blue Elderberry, I think. These are Blue-X Tree Shelters. The film inside screens the sunlight providing the perfect environment for a seedling to thrive. The tubes also protect the plants from animals chewing them up.
#6: Looking south along the upper slope western boundary. This is a line of 20 Hackberrys, one Black Lucust, and one Chinese Elm, so far. I'm marking all the boundaries with trees in a line. This is the upper most part of the upper slope. Here I am planting whatever deciduous tree that grows best in this climate; very hot to very cold, and when its hot, very dry.
Down from the upper slope boundary area will be fruit and nut trees and vegetables. Basically, the upper half of the slope of the land I plan to have it be a food forest with fruit and nut trees and everything else growing in irregular lines along swales. Roughly, the lower half of the slope of the land I plan to have it be an evergreen forest with trees placed randomly to emulate a natural forest. Hey, if it's Pineolia, it's got to have a pine forest! A pine forest feeds the heart.
65 is the new 35!
Forward!
Ken
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