I was depressed this afternoon, tired, sore, stiff. The Biden Administration and its climate theater has monumentally depressed me. All these people I'd rather agree with think Meaningful Action is being taken, or blocked by Manchin, or whatever, and it's like, bandaid magic. 
I'd pissed away a bunch of the day scrolling Twitter and getting more and more depressed, so I didn't have enough time to harness up the girls and do anything. It takes almost half an hour to harness them.
Been real windy all day. Wind makes me tired.
Been real windy all day. Wind makes me tired.
So I got my bucket, and my sickle, my bottle of water, and my file (to touch up the sickle edge) and went over to the east savannah to see how many chestnuts had survived the brutal summer.
I've got some down on the edge of the riparian woods, but the hillsides are harder.
I've got some down on the edge of the riparian woods, but the hillsides are harder.
I've plowed water harvesting swales along parallel to the contour lines, and planted the chestnuts along the downhill edge of them, and some lived, but we had a miserably hot dry climate change Missouri summer.
5. I mow around them, but mowing with a machine, it's impossible to get real close. There are always clumps of grass around the stakes where the seeds or seedlings are planted by mid-summer. The chestnuts I started from seed; this was their second summer.
6. This spring, I went along the swales, and wherever the chestnut hadn't made it I planted an elderberry. They're native here, I was using native plants from the state nursery, and tolerate hard times better.
So today, I decided I'd walk the swales, cut down grass clumps,
So today, I decided I'd walk the swales, cut down grass clumps,
7. See how many chestnuts and other things had made it.
The highest swale, therefore dryest, fed by the least slope face, there weren't many chestnuts left, and they were puny. Elderberry doing OK.
The highest swale, therefore dryest, fed by the least slope face, there weren't many chestnuts left, and they were puny. Elderberry doing OK.
8. My hazelnuts, also native, had almost all survived. They'll be yielding in another year or two. Be a long time for the chestnuts. The elderberry will make a few berries in a couple or three years.
This is what one looks like after I clean up around it.
This is what one looks like after I clean up around it.
9. This is rose mallow. It's in a wet low spot and likes that. It'll feed bees and hummingbirds. I show off my sickle here.
I finished two swales of the main three. Walking work. If I didn't have work to do I'd never get well.
Suppertime. Later.
Suppertime. Later.
Some had already lost their leaves.
The faster you go the more you miss.
The faster you go the more you miss.
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