Tag Archives: pine

Frozen cypress swamp with dogs 2025-01-23

Cold enough the dogs did not want to go into the cypress swamp, after the January 22, 2025, sleet and snow storm.

[Gretchen pokes it with a stick as Blondie, River, and Sky stay high and dry]
Gretchen pokes it with a stick as Blondie, River, and Sky stay high and dry

Honeybun did not even come down to the frozen water’s edge. River, Sky, and Blondie stayed out of the water. Continue reading →

Deadfalls after Hurricane Helene 2024-12-07

Every path through my woods looks like this. Hurricane Helene was ten times worse than Idalia for south Georgia and north Florida. Forestry is Georgia’s top industry, and it is hurting bad, along with pecan trees and other agriculture.

[Fallen oak and pine trees after Hurricane Helene]
Fallen oak and pine trees after Hurricane Helene

-jsq

Longleaf candling after burn 2023-03-06

Two months after a January burn, these 21 acres of planted longleaf pine in the Conservation Reserve Program look like most of them are dead.

[Longleaf candling]
Longleaf candling

But look closely: almost all of them are candling. New growth rising up in inch-thick white candles. Continue reading →

Good burn, west side 2023-01-11

Update 2023-03-07: Longleaf candling after burn 2023-03-06.

Fastest burn ever!

We lit the one and only match no earlier than 11AM, and the fire was completely burned by 2PM. So three hours to burn 20 acres of planted longleaf pines.

[Fastest burn ever: 20 acres in 3 hours 2023-01-11]
Fastest burn ever: 20 acres in 3 hours 2023-01-11

Thanks to both the Lowndes County and Moody AFB Fire Departments for coming out, although they both determined we had firebreaks and backfires, water, rakes, and water.

I had called Lowndes County Fire Rescue before we started, leaving a message with our burn permit. But that had not percolated to the man in charge of fires in the north of Lowndes County.

Thanks to new neighbor Landen Ryan for helping Gretchen and me.

Some of the subdivision neighbors wondered what was going on. The phenomenon of prescribed burns in fire forests is something unfamiliar to most suburbanites, and is yet another reason counties should not rezone to permit subdivisions in agriculture and forestry areas. Continue reading →

Turpentine cup on fallen cat face 2022-01-06

Update 2022-03-20: McCoy turpentine cup 2022-03-20.

It’s been 80 or 90 years since turpentining paid off the farm during the Great Depression. Yet we still find turpentine cups, and sometimes cat faces.

[Downed catface with Carolina dog, closeup of turpentine cup]
Downed catface with Carolina dog, closeup of turpentine cup

Blondie is a Carolina Dog, which is a native landrace breed, as in they bred themselves. Carolina Dogs were discovered in South Carolina in the 1970s, thus the name. They were living in longleaf pine forests and cypress swamps, just like where Blondie and Arrow (and Honeybun) live now in Georgia. Continue reading →

Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, Mars 2020-12-18

Surprisingly clear shortly after dark, with only a phone: three planets and a moon.

[Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars]
Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars

The famous alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, off the starboard bow of Earth’s moon.

[Planets in a row]
Planets in a row

And, towards the east and way up, the red planet, framed in longleaf pine trees.

[Barsoom]
Barsoom

-jsq