V-Man

Shhhh,....
A rare Snow Bengal is emerging from the undergrowth,...

Notice the lowered head,
of the vicious little Mink Bengal.

It looks like he has caught the scent of something,...

You can tell by the forward tail curvature,...

Silly little Bengal boy.

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Planting Trees

"Tanji and Friend"

One our our Christmas traditions is planting a new tree or two.

The boys are always ready to help.

Uschi inspects the potted pendulous blue spruce.

Some day it will have large climbable branches

When this little pine tree is older, it will turn bright yellow
in the winter, and return to green in the spring.

Here is an older cousin, golden-yellow for the holidays.

Trees provide the structure for the boys' outdoor adventures.

They are the borders of their yard, homes for birdies,

and golden opportunities for climbing.

The whole family loves the trees.

The bright-white bark of this birch tree

is beautiful on a frosty December day.

The lichens covering the branches are fungi with algae

inside and they give the trees green color, even in the winter.

Some of our conifers are now old enough to produce cones.

Uschi stares at a pine cone, it should be a fun toy,
but it is really fragrant and a bit sticky.

Vladi inspects a pile of cones, and seems to be
focused on the sugary sitka spruce cone.

"Licking Pine Cones"

Hopefully someday the boys will enjoy

the little trees we planted this year.

Tanji has a little tree of his own. Maybe he's
thinking of future tree-climbing adventures.

After a hard day of planting trees,
the boys snuggle for a rest.

"Home for the Holidays"

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Uschi Stretching

"Yeah, I'm out in the sun,... I'm Uschi,...
Uschi's outside,... Uschi, Uschi, Uschi."

(Uschi's just a little "talkative")

Aaaaa, this is a good tree for stretching.

What is that in the tree?
(metal label-tag)

That looks interesting,...

Well not that interesting,...

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Transplanting

Late fall, winter, and early spring are good times for
us to plant and transplant trees because our winter rains help
to establish the trees. In recent years I have moved some
pretty good sized trees to "better" places.

There was this ~8' tall sequoia that was growing too
close to the boys favorite large eucalyptus, eventually it was going
to over grow the area, so I decided to try to transplant it. I spent
a few days digging out a giant 5' wide by 2' deep root ball.

U & V found my handy work,...

V shot into the hole and ran around under the ball.

This caught U's attention.

The two

had a ball

chasing

each other around the hole.

U got Uber excited,...

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,...

"Matrix Uschi"

U took a page out of Tanji's play book
and ran on the vertical edge of the hole wall.

this caught V by surprise.

All of the play brought Tanji by to take a look,...

"Hey guys there's a big hole here,...
we should fill it in,..."

Okay, now a root ball of this size is HEAVY,...

I wrapped the root ball, dug a nice gradual "entrance"
slope, put a piece of plywood on the slope and
attached a 1.5Ton come along,...

The ball didn't move,...

My "Grizzly-Method" didn't work,...
more thinking/plotting required.

If the ball is 5' in diameter and 2' deep
and moist dirt weights 125lbs/ft³, then
the root ball weighs around 2.5 tons.

( π r² * d) * 125lbs
[(3.14*2.5² ) *2] * 125lbs = 4,900+lbs (2.5tons)

Ah Haaaa !!!
That is why I couldn't simply drag it out of the hole and
lift it into my little Elec-Trak trailer.

Time to call in the big guns!!!

An 8000lb lift capacity 4x4 forklift.

I drove the fork lift right in, lifted the tree
and backed out like it was nothing!!!

In place on the East side of the property.

Looking good.

Good job dad !!!

YEAH!!!!


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Uschi In Mom's Shade

Lesley was preparing some twigs for rooting,

Uschi had to help.

He quickly got underneath,

and was on hand to lend assistance.

Well that was fun, what next?

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Tree Delivery

A box of trees arrived and Uschi was quickly
on hand to "help" unpack them.

Hmmmm, what do we have in here?

I'll check the inventory,...

Helloo-oo-oo ?

Looking good down there,...

This Loblolly Bay Tree is unique.

Uschi does a final inspection, before

looking for a new adventure.


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