Tag Archives: pine

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

Cat face, beaver pond 2020-06-16

Back in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, my father and grandfather paid off the mortgage on the farm through income from turpentine. This is a catface, where the bark was scraped off a pine tree so its sap would ooze out, to be caught in a metal cup nailed below on the tree.

[Catface and beaver pond]
Catface and beaver pond

The rest of the tree long ago was logged.

Behind the pine tree stump and the adjoining oak tree, you can see a beaver pond. Continue reading →

Phoenix bird 2020-05-10

The firebird appears to be a Carolina wren.

[Carolina wren]
Carolina wren

This Thryothorus ludovicianus didn’t seem to mind that I was three feet from it. Continue reading →

Swamp boat burn 2020-03-02

Dogs like water more than fire.

[Yellow Dog and camouflaged Brown Dog]
Yellow Dog and camouflaged Brown Dog

And yes, Gretchen was putting out fires with a coffee cup and swamp water.

But she found something unexpected. Continue reading →

Gopher tortoise burrow in burned longleaf, with dogs 2019-01-27

After the prescribed burn, it’s a lot easier to see, and there are more gopher tortoise burrows than we thought.

With dogs, Gopher hole

Here’s another Gopherus polyphemus near the road. It’s good there are so many. Gophers are a keystone species, hosting Continue reading →

Prescribed burns

Gretchen and I burned some woods the last couple days. Here’s why we burn: longleaf pine unharmed, while small trees of other species (slash and loblolly pine, an especially oaks) are weeded out by the fire.

Why we burn: longleaf unharmed

Click on any picture for a bigger one. -jsq

Day 1: Planted pines

Continue reading →