We’ll get to the trees, but first:
“So which is harder,” I ask Larry. “All that work in the garden, locating and starting the tomato seeds, nurturing them, watering them, assembling the frames and planting them in the raised beds. Weeding, watering, waiting. Finally, harvesting the fruit and bringing it into the kitchen. Or, this?”
Larry loves his garden, loves to be out in the weather, and is proud of the produce he raises. We’re in the kitchen washing up from the hours-long process of turning San Marzano plum tomatoes into tomato sauce. Usually my job alone, but this time he has helped. Scoring the tomatoes, shocking them in boiling water, peeling them, chopping them and then simmering them for two hours. Next, putting the result through a food mill to separate the seeds from the pulp, and cooking the tomatoes another two hours. Finally, ladling the sauce into 6 to 8 oz jars, securing the lids, and waiting to hear the ping that tells us a jar has sealed.
“Well, the garden work occurs over weeks and months,” he says. “Not all in one exhausting day.”
Point well taken.
“Just please, please, plant JUST ONE tomato for eating next year?”
We’ve been watching a curious development in the floor of the laundry hall for a few weeks, and finally realized that we’d have to do something about the swollen, discolored boards. Water obviously leaking, but from where? With a tool borrowed from neighbor Ted, we established that it wasn’t our imagination and Something Must be Done. Something was, of course, to call a plumber. Who came and had to lower himself into the cobwebby crawl space under the house to find a leak in the water system jetting a nice spray up onto the boards above. Larry has the admirable belief that he can fix anything, and he’s usually correct. But even he respected the plumber’s skill in underground pipe welding, glad to have hired the expert. We noted that we’ve spent the first 8 years of so of building this life, and are apparently engaged in the next years of repairing what we built. Sigh.
But this is just the house. To broaden the focus, here are some quotes from the Viehl Oak Restoration Harvest Plan. This from Silva Saunterra, the forest management firm we’ve engaged:
“The overall goal is to enhance the resilience and maintain ecological function of an Oregon white oak stand adjacent to the home of Larry & Jane Viehl”
“There are two distinct age classes in the forest, one being scattered savanna-grown oaks that existed before Euro-American settlement, and the majority of stems a dense oak woodland that established around these older trees post-settlement in the absence of fire.”
“A ten-plot sample revealed an average of 528 trees per acre (TPA), which is severely overstocked for an oak woodland.”
“After the thinning simulation, 288 trees averaging 6.8″ in diameter were identified for removal, which would leave 240 trees per acre (TPA) with an average diameter of 11.25 inches. If enacted, this thinning would remove about 55% of the total trees, reducing stand density from 528 TPA to 240 TPA.”
Work on this is projected to begin this month. I have no way to imagine what this will look like, but I expect it to be exciting, noisy, long. The downed trees will be taken to the wetland adjoining Muddy Creek, still on our property. From there the company has plans for using the wood in a number of ways, the end of which will be a huge one-day burn pile. Well, we said we wanted to work on the rehabilitation of this One Hundred Acre Wood, and it has taken ten years to actually have a plan of action that is meaningful.
Work will resume on the land around the house, probably in October, but this with another operator. Won’t be so comprehensive or intrusive, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this plan as well. Then we can talk about water retention, check dams, invasive plant mitigation. And so on.
Meanwhile, the apples? It is harvest time, and we have a nice crop waiting. In years past, we’ve used a slick device that peels, cores and slices the apples, and have then frozen the resulting fruit. I’ve made mincemeat with some, but the largest amount gets used in a daily smoothie. This year, we got the idea from Larry’s haircut stylist, to consider a fruit dryer. Huh! What a good idea! Went on line and found a machine that looks right, and it is on the way. It’s to arrive Friday, so I’m not able to say anything about it just now. Wonder if we could make raisins out of the grapes that are now ripening? Probably, right? They’d be yellow raisins, but I’m willing to live with that. (Yes, Larry has a hair-cut stylist named Michelle instead of a barber named Bud — and he always looks very handsome, so never you mind.)
And just for fun, I’ve taken up golf again — a little — and the two of us try to spend a few days a week on the practice range. Not that I’m trying to catch up with daughter Jenny, who has been on a tear on her family’s Seattle course winning first place in the first four competitions she entered. She says she just chooses good partners. Maybe, but this former little gymnast does have some skills on the sports field. Not bragging, but hey. So no, I won’t be out there competing, but would be happy if I could find a way to hit a ball off the tee. Hoping to help, Larry tells me “just watch Jenny.” As if.
Dinner tonight will be roasted, stuffed Delicata squash — and we’re back in Larry’s garden!
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