Paul Young

Sounds like a job well done, Thelka. I'm aware of the flocculation of clay to precipitate it from water but not aware of how I might use it. I'll have to research it here. Grasses are great for putting down deep, fibrous roots that, in the long run, add organic material, create air channels as those roots die, and moving nutrients. The clay, seemingly potter's quality, is soggy wet in Winter, and almost concrete hard and dry in Summer leaving little opportunity for roots to penetrate. The saying around here is: "If you want to make concrete, just add sand to the clay soil.".
I can add organic matter to the clay soil's surface, but, short of digging or tilling, I have no way of getting it actually into the soil. Digging a hole for a tree just makes a water holding pot for the roots to drown in in the Winter and Spring, and a dry pit in the Summer. So, I avoid planting trees in the clay unless I break up the clay soil with a shovel for a large diameter beyond the planting hole and keep it watered in Summer.

Just for the record, Cristo, I've dumped organic matter by tractor load on top of some of those undisturbed clay domes for a number of years. Makes beautiful surface dwelling organic soil and plants grow really well for a while. By the way, I am quite aware of the capillarity of clay soils and their nutrient exchange capacities. Oh, surprise, I even know how Fungi grow whether they are Zygomycetes, Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes, or Fungi Imperfecti. I was employed as a biologist for 30 years in my earlier life. For certain, there is a whole world of things I don't know, but I've been around the block a few times, and I have learned a little bit during the journey.
What I've found to be true by experience with this property is that the minute I stop dumping organic
matter onto a clay site, it quickly, in a year or two, returns to its original clay dome condition. Like I had never touched it. So, in the long run, have I really changed the soil composition?
I could put a raised bed on top the clay, but if I removed it, I have a feeling that the soil underneath would still just be clay you would be poking your finger into. One may make compost in a few weeks, but that's not soil building. I don't think soil building happens in a few weeks, or even a few months. Permaculture takes years to truly amend the soil.The organic matter needs to get down into the soil, not just sit on top of it, and it takes decades for the worms and soil borrowers to mix it in naturally. Also, even with soil building plantings in place, it takes years for enough plant roots and other organic matter to permeate the soil and form a deep, rich soil even with burrowing organisms doing the mixing.
"dude" Really???

Ahh, but the real pay, though not bankable, makes it all MORE than worthwhile. And, I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.

On this property, the clay domes - where the compacted clay base is at or very near the surface - have, I'm sure, existed for thousands of years. The workshop of Nature has had a long, long time to convert these areas into rich soil. This hasn't happened, and there is no reason to think it is going to happen without intervention by an outside influence.
In my, perhaps misconstrued way of thinking, adding rich soil building materials on top of undisturbed, compacted, water-shedding clay domes and letting the worms, microbes, etc. do their work is still going to require at least several decades of continual amendment to even modify an inch or two of the clay soil.
I may cut the H--- out of worms, fungal hyphae, and other soil denizens and destroy compacted clay soil structure if I TILL once, or even a few times, and thereby mix all of the added amendments into the upper 6" of the compacted clay, but I'm guessing that all these critters and the aeration channels and water channels they leave will be back in place in the tilled, modified soil long before amendments sitting on top of the compacted clay soil have made a dent in the compacted clay itself - which has a low population of soil critters to start with. I think tilling can give the soil critters and soil modification a bit of a boost in the long run. IMHO tilling has a place in soil building, just not a continual year after year place.
Off topic?

Cristo, isn't going to take several decades or even several hundred years...or thousands of years for the worms, microbes, etc. to develop a rich soil that is incorporated into the clay base? Or, are you talking of building a rich soil on top of the clay base?

Like you, Stacy, I would not use a 55° angled fence - too many cons, including all those you mentioned. I spend a lot of time removing blackberries without having to deal with a 55° fence. For the elk, people tell me to get a dog or shoot them. I won't do either because 1) they were here before me, and 2) I enjoy watching them. I chose to take the effort required to protect (not always successfully) individual trees and other plants scattered across the property. For most, protection from elk is only until the trees is big enough, except for 6' of the trunk they like to debark with their antlers - and then there are the beavers, too. The elk, standing on their back legs, can readily reach, and break, branches up to 8' to 10' so a fruit tree needs fairly long term protection.
Back to the original topic - you can't go wrong by planting trees as soon as you can, lots of them.

Like you Cristo, my tractor's tiller attachment and BCS, Gravely, and Bradley walk behind tillers have all seen little use in recent years. Most of this property has not been tilled for over 15 years, BUT we have a mix of soils here. There is a large amount of beautiful, loamy soil that supports 6' tall grass, AND some very clayey soil where the grass struggles to grow to 8". Most of the clay domes are left intact because they support an interesting array of plants. But, the tiller use is really the only reasonable way for me to add amendments to clay areas I want to convert to "better" soil. The only other area that gets some tiller use is the fenced garden where added soil amendments are mixed into the existing soil with a tiller to save my back.

Hi Lynne,
I read the fence research some time back, but I'm pretty sure it was angled outwards. I'll try to find it again.

OK, John, point taken, a tractor does require a certain amount of working room and a walk behind requires less. I just have the 725 BCS - nice machine that is good for tight spaces, but at my age, it is becoming quite a wrestle.