~Wings in Action~

[dapjwy]

Wow! So sorry to hear all that you lost--including the well!

I'll keep my ears open about a peaker plant (I had to look it up). Thanks for the warning.

[Equilibrium]

It was costly. We lost our pump too. I didn't realize the well was dry and kept trying to water ornamentals around my house and as many bareroot saplings as I could reach with my garden hoses and burned up the well pump. What's really sad is..... I did a count a while ago of what was left of over 1400 bare root woodies I'd planted by myself that year and only 25 survived. The 25 that were closest to the house that I could reach with a hose and.... that 1400 is not a typo.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

It was costly. We lost our pump too. I didn't realize the well was dry and kept trying to water ornamentals around my house and as many bareroot saplings as I could reach with my garden hoses and burned up the well pump. What's really sad is..... I did a count a while ago of what was left of over 1400 bare root woodies I'd planted by myself that year and only 25 survived. The 25 that were closest to the house that I could reach with a hose and.... that 1400 is not a typo.

I don't even know what to say. I can't imagine what you went through that year...not only the expense, but the loss and emotional toll as well.

As sad as it is that you lost SO MANY, I'm glad even some survived. I know how bummed I was about losing a lot of my 30 Malus coronaria seedlings...I've yet to even post about them either here or on my blog (and that happened early this spring). I was in a funk about that and some other things that happened with "the habitat" here.

[Equilibrium]

I'd researched throughly which species needed to get planted back and had a hand drawn map of where each 1 was going. I was ready to start revegetating after I'd spent quite a few years removing buckthorn and Japanese honeysuckle. I started soon as the ground thawed planting those woodies.... I worked in the early morning and late into the night and on weekends getting em in the ground. I'd bought them as bare roots in bundles of 25 but still.... I spent over 1k on them and that's not even including the "sweat" equity. Sometimes you gotta take 20 steps backwards to take 1 step forward I guess. It was still a major depression session. Pillsbury told me to order tankers of water to try saving em and..... I did but.... the drought lasted so long that I ended up in competition with folk filling swimming pools with tanked water and we just couldn't afford it after we had to re-drill.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

...I worked in the early morning and late into the night and on weekends getting em in the ground. I'd bought them as bare roots in bundles of 25 but still.... I spent over 1k on them and that's not even including the "sweat" equity. Sometimes you gotta take 20 steps backwards to take 1 step forward I guess. It was still a major depression session...

How long ago was this?

It really sucks that you did so much, spent so much, and dreamed so much about how this would improve your habitat and your homestead.

[Equilibrium]

Just a coupla years ago. Whenever we had that 500 year drought. I will NEVER buy that many bareroots again in my whole life!!! It looked like somebody planted dead pencils around here.... hundreds of them.

[dapjwy]

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

Just a coupla years ago. Whenever we had that 500 year drought. I will NEVER buy that many bareroots again in my whole life!!!

I think I do recall your mentioning it before...but I must not have known the detais...it really impacted me when I read it recently.

I can't IMAGINE that many bareroot seedlings at one time! I was overwhelmed by my 75 seedlings. Most are still in three huge pots for this growing season anyway. Only a few of them made it into the actual ground.

Originally Posted by Equilibrium

It looked like somebody planted dead pencils around here.... hundreds of them.

You really do retain your sense of humor even in this situation.

[Birding Bunch]

I hope you don't mind my hummie butting in.

When I took this photo, I had just learned that I could take 8 shots in a second. The sun helps a lot too. I use the Canon Power Shot sx40. It's a nice point and shoot with 35x zoom. I am not quite ready to move onto SLRs quite yet. I like that I can fiddle with some manual settings, but yet also have auto when I don't want to mess around. Especially with birds, they won't sit still!

[linrose]

That's just the kind of shot I'd like to get birding bunch! Can you enlarge it to get even better detail?

[dapjwy]

Great capture, Birding Bunch. It is not often one gets more than just a blur of wings (which can be nice too ).

Originally Posted by Birding Bunch

When I took this photo, I had just learned that I could take 8 shots in a second.

I'm sure that helped a lot...I don't think my camera has that ability, but I should check into it.