Fall Tree Planting

I'm looking forward to my fall tree planting. After the National Arbor Day Foundation receives my annual membership dues, they'll send me ten small (6 to 12-inch tall) River Birch trees, I'm guessing the Heritage River Birch variety, which grows in my zone. This tree (rather than the white peeling trunk, as with the common birch) has reddish brown bark that also peels off. It's an extremely fast grower, and I'm eager to get started so I can post photos of their progress.

I plan to plant seven of the trees in a small forest on the east side of my house, where I also have one large Raywood Ash and half a dozen Redbuds. I'll plant three on the west side where I also have a smaller Raywood Ash, one Hybrid Poplar, and two "mystery" trees that just popped up in a flower bed and are now about five feet tall. (I think they might be mulberries, a popular tree in the area, that a bird brought in.)

So far, my Arbor Day hazelnut bushes are struggling. They seem to be very sensitive to water....too much or too little, and I haven't yet acquired the secret to the right amount. Two of them are still alive (I think) and one looks as though it might be ready to send out a leaf.....I've been waiting since spring for a leaf. Let's hope I see signs of life and a leaf before it's time for them to go dormant for the winter. I talk to them every day, encouraging them, nay, actually daring them to show me a leaf. We'll see if they're listening.

The Cat's Meow (and his teeth)

Took both cats to the Vet this morning. I'd been concerned about all the sneezing the little girl, Marmalade, was doing......she's always been a sometimes cougher and sneezer, but the incidents seemed to be increasing. Figured it was time for a physical checkup. We almost didn't take Puddy Tat along, since it meant scrunching the big boy in the too-small cat carrier, toting him out to the truck in 100-degree temps, then having him to put up with the prodding and poking at the Vet's.

Well, good thing we took both of them. Turned out Marmalade got a clean bill of health, A+ on the "how's she doing?" scale. The sneezing is normal for a long-hair, and nothing else showed up in the exam. Puddy, on the other hand, who also was perfectly healthy, appears to have gingivitis, and has to go back in October to have his teeth cleaned. How do you like that?

They were both glad to be back home and out of those little carriers, which are fine for short trips, but if I had to go any distance, I'd buy a larger carrier for each of them. Then, of course, I'd have to buy a larger pickup truck, one with full back seats. Oh, what a life we pet-owners lead......catering to Rover and Jock-o and Sally and Kitty.

Crape Myrtle

The growth habit of this Crape Myrtle is sloooooooooooooow. I don't know if this is normal for a C.M. in my neck of the woods, but it's normal for this little guy. He's more than 7 years old (was in the yard when I purchased this property). Two years ago, I pruned all the lower branches and I staked him up because he's in the path of most of the high winds. He receives morning sun, then at around noon, he's in shade for the rest of the day because he sits underneath the branches of a huge (90-foot-tall) spruce tree.

This is the first year the C.M. has shown more than a couple of flowers. He's covered with light pink blossoms, and I've seen at least one hummingbird collecting nectar in the past couple of days. I have changed his watering this year, and that might account for the extreme increase in blossoms.

Up close, the blossoms are quite lovely.

From Blue to Brown . . . A Sky in Distress

Yesterday just before sundown the blue sky over our valley had disappeared under this pall of smoke from a wildfire 188 miles southwest (by car, possibly 150 miles as the crow flies...but I couldn't get any crows to tell me the exact mileage) in Santa Barbara.

And the California fire season has barely begun . . .

About Price Gouging . . .

This has nothing to do with my private forest, except when I'm the Price Gougee it means I have less money to buy more trees for my forest and to water and care for those that I already have.

Price Gouging goes something like this. As a propane customer, I have the option of pre-buying my estimated gallon usage for the year every July. I've done so in the past because I can lock in a set price (in case prices go up . . . gee, do you think they might?) for the whole year. This year, I was offered a pre-buy price of $2.799/gallon of propane. Now that's higher than the current price of $2.439 from the same company. Problem is, I can't buy all that I'd need for this winter now at the current price. Anyway, back to *gouging*. This year, the company headquarters decided to tack on a $25.00 fee on top of the cost of fuel, the fee being, I assume, for the honor of pre-paying a winter's supply of propane.

So, I did what any red-blooded American would do.....I changed propane companies. Tomorrow the new company is going to unhook the current tank and set one of their tanks in its place, fill it with however much propane I want, and have me as a new customer.

Oh, yeah, back to the *gouging*. The company I'm leaving is going to charge me a $30 fee for 'removing their tank.' Now, that's what I call gouging at it's very best.

So, Amerigas, you get the 2007 prize for the most inventive gouging.

Swamp Coolers -- My Learning Curve

I was ready to buy a second swamp (evaporative) cooler to supplement the one I currently run in my living room window because the cool air would not reach the back (master) bedroom. What air did enter that room seemed hot and humid.

Then I learned today, thanks to the website of the company that manufactured my Brisa window swamp cooler, that for an evaporative cooler to work satisfactorily (efficiently, cooling-wise), the homeowner had to work out a mathematical solution. For every 1,000 CFM (air blowing power) of the cooler, 2 square feet of open window or door space had to exist to handle the air exhaust. Since my cooler is 4000CFM, I needed to have 8 square feet of open window or open door space.

Amazingly, when I opened my back bathroom window fully and also opened a master bedroom window fully (providing between 8 and 9 square feet of open window space) and have the cooler on high speed, cool air pulls all the way into that back bedroom and the bathroom (the farthest rooms from the window where the cooler is installed). And the air being pulled and exhausted out the open windows is not humid air.

I'm blown away .... no pun intended .... at how well the cooler works, once I learned how it's supposed to work.

So, now I'll wait to see how well it cools the whole house on a *really* hot day.

Holy Hot Days of Summer!!!

My porch thermometer registered a broiling 105 today and the old swamp cooler gave up the ghost. Well, not actually gave up the ghost, more like couldn't keep the house cool. When the inside temp reached 80, I had to crank up the a/c. Too bad, since my power bill this month was the lowest I've ever paid up here in the high country. It took a couple of hours to bring the temp down into the mid 70's, after which I shut down the a/c and turned the swamp cooler back on.

So, now I know what the swamp cooler is capable of. If outside temps don't go over the mid-90's, we're in good shape because the highest the inside temp will get is around 77, which is livable if you don't move around a lot. But when we hit triple digits, it's either everybody, including the cats, gets inside a cold shower, or we use the a/c for the hottest part of the day.

Looking forward to another scorcher tomorrow, then we're headed for a cooling trend, and back down into the 90's.

I heard on the telly this evening that our area has only had one triple-digit week this year, and the norm is to have experienced at least 5 triple-digit periods by the first of July. So, we're lucky.

I did a quick look around the yard this morning while it was still cool (80 or so) outside. The lilac bushes do an interesting thing when it gets this hot. The leaves close up like little pita breads. I guess it allows them to not expose as much of their surface to the sun and that keeps the bush from wilting. Not a bad thing to do.

Yesterday, I dug up all my hazelnut plants and replanted them in pots. I'll be able to keep a closer eye on them for their water needs, and the soil is much looser so their little feet won't stay wet. I'm not sure if all of them are goners, but as I carried each one in a shovel full of dirt around to the big pots for replanting, I had a long talk with them. I told them that I was giving my all to them, and I expected them to give their all right back to me. It was a kind of plant pep talk, and I think they will respond to my request. They just need to work a bit harder, put out more effort, and they'll come around. I'm expecting to see some leaves within the week. This hot weather will be good for them. And I can watch them from my window as I work at my computer.

All the other trees are doing well in the hot weather.

And now I'm beginning to think about what kind of trees I'll plant this fall on the east side of the house. I need more morning and mid-morning shade to help cool the house. I'm thinking maybe a couple of sycamores. Or maybe sweetgum. They are fast growers, and this fall they could get a good start in setting down a good root system with the help of some fall and winter rain.

A couple of Hybrid Poplars are sprouting approximately 3 feet from the base of my single Poplar. I built a wider water basin around the foot of the tree so the sprouts will benefit from the watering schedule. This fall I'll probably dig the shoots up and plant them a few feet from the existing tree. They're definitely fast growers, if well watered, and they'll help to shade the south side of the house. Actually, I might plant them between the house and the garage on the west side, which is in dire need of shade trees.