Hard 'en Steel

Hardened steel on the mount for the tree spade? I wonder if it was? Or maybe the hard terrain was too much for the spade...Either way, job security for the mechanics...
(Excuse the quality of the pic....)

Trial (and Error)

The tree spade seemed to work somewhat as expected. Only one problem...the soil is too hard under the top layers, we ended up breaking the rear mount for the spade. So..back to the drawing board~

New Machine

Today marks the arrival of a new machine at the nursery-a tree spade. This machine is supposed to make short work of digging a tree. The principle is that four blades are lowered into the soil, around the root ball. Once the blades are fully extended, the hydraulics work to bring the tree, rootball and all, out of the hole and it can then be transplanted into another location.

Our mechanics did an excellent job of "jerry-rigging" the equipment on to a sky-trak..now we will see how well it performs...

Continuation of Chicken House

It occurred to me this morning that there had been no follow up on the building of the chicken house. The work has been completed; the house is awaiting its occupants, and is now fully equipped with power, fences, and a run awaiting seed planting. I can only imagine how frustrated the large coyotes must be..having no access to the yard, which will soon be stocked with poultry.

Fall color

The color throughout the farm/nursery makes working somewhat difficult, as evident by the lack of postings lately. It is a case of walk here, click, click...dig there, click, click.... supervise here, click, click...and phone call there, click, click. But, how could anyone just not love this time of year, despite the constant overwhelm of colors surrounding one? This, and the abundance of wildlife makes one feel so fortunate to be working outside.... despite the cool crispness in the air.

Seeds

Seed collecting time.... We have a nice Acer circinatum on the property that is covered in seed. So, it is time for young Juana to put her climbing boots on and go gather...
These will be propagated at the Snohomish site, and grown on for 1 and 5 gallon container sizes... and then sold to landscapers or used for our own projects.