2017 – A cold and wet spring in Carlisle

Spring so far has been a bit disorganized for me – which has been mirrored on the weather front as well.  Since my last post, we had a least one late snow & ice storm and several cold fronts of rain blowing in.  But grass is growing, trees are budding and planting is going on.

In terms of planting, I have been working with John Bakewell of Carlislearboriculture to put in a traditional English hedge along my property line with the Kimball’s property.  See my prior post here

John arranged for Rototilling and in April I helped him plant the Hornbeam, Hawthorn and Arrowwood.  Yesterday I planted the Blueberries, Grapes and I also planted my four American Chestnut seeds.

1. Twenty Five seedlings of Hornbeam
2. Twenty Five seedlings of Hawthorn
3. Twenty Five seedlings of Arrowwood
4. Six seedlings of Concord Grape
5. Six seedlings of Frontenac Grape
6. Six potted Blue Berrys

I stumbled across the American Chestnut Foundation a few years ago somehow and I joined last year as a Chestnut Leaf Sponser, which as a benefit, allowed me to get 4 chestnuts for planting.  The ACF is attempting to get around Chestnut blight and re-establish the American Chestnut tree into the North American forest.  Before joining, I had never realized that Chestnuts made up 25% of all trees in the US forests and in some places, fallen chestnuts could be a foot deep or more.  When you think of today’s forests, they are out of balance from what they used to be – the calories inherent in the chestnuts are missing.

The four chestnuts that I have planted are the property of the ACF and I have to report back regularly on their progress – a neat way to participate in something that could be very transformative of the countryside in the coming decades!

Speaking of transforming, my Dad and I are working on reconstructing his workshop and decluttering it of equipment and stuff that he is not regularly using.  For his birthday, he received a new sander.  I am taking his old sander out of the shop.  We are also looking at getting the wiring re-done and a lot more lighting that is also task focused.  My birthday gift to him is building a customized workbench for the new sander.  In the picture below, you can see the shop at maximum clutter – now thankfully already being reduced

Plenty of projects still to go!