Going Right By

Trips away from the farm are not always a quick run in to get a part and back home as is the case during harvest seasons. A broken piece of equipment can mean a complete work stoppage until that critical piece can be repaired or replaced. Most of the time though, a trip into town for any reason means stops along the way. It may be to pick up supplies of anything from printer paper to flywheels or bar oil to groceries that were missed on the last trip.

This road trip down to Klamath Falls took me close to our vendor for forest products. So, since I was within 20 miles of the business, it was as if I was going to be driving right by. We needed to purchase more of those mesh cages to dissuade deer and elk browse on the cedar seedlings. Our main order of seedlings will not be ready until February but I did not want to have to drive all the way to Springfield just to pick up the cages and bamboo stakes.

Because the business closes each day around 4 pm and I wasn’t sure how fast I would be able to get out of Klamath Falls at the end of the first session of REAL Oregon, I opted to pick up the cages and bamboo on the way down. I had to take everything out of the boxes in order to get everything into my little. The backseat was stacked full, the front passenger seat was tipped back and filled with cages. My suitcase for the trip was wedged tight in the trunk surrounded by cages, but fortunate for me I did not have to tie any on the top of the car.

The rest of the trip to the first session went smoothly with my car plum-full of bright yellow mesh. It’s a good thing that I didn’t try to carpool on this trip, the passenger would have been forced to run along outside.

Out of the cages I purchased, about half are a taller and bigger diameter than the average to replace some of the ones we used to protect trees on their first and second year of growth in the forest. These  bigger cages will let the tree have a little more growing room and will be easier to raise up as the tips of the seedlings grow above the mesh. We will keep lifting the mesh to protect the new top growth for several years so the seedlings have a chance to get above the browse height.

With tree planting just around the corner, I will be out in the riparian zone wearing my Chore series Muck boots. Click the picture to shop the affiliate. By shopping, I get credit for directing people to their site and may make a small commission without a cost to you. Prime and codes work as normal. Thank you for supporting my stories.