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It’s hog time.

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I woke up yesterday morning to fog in our neighbor’s field….

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And the distinct sound of rumbling…. which at this time of year could only mean one thing.

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Fall in the country means bush hogging and as the sun started to break through, the hog was hard at work.

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Our neighbor hires a local man every autumn to knock down the growth in her fields. This is necessary if you want to keep fields from becoming forests and since he’s right next door…. we piggyback on the opportunity and have him do our little parcel of back field as well.

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And as I looked out on our backyard pre hogging, I was pleased to see the maple trees we planted this spring had survived the awful summer drought and were beginning to turn color like their larger neighbors.

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It was touch and go for a while. Maine was hot and dry for months and we’re on a well. I had to stop dragging my 300 feet of hose out there to water them and I feared our nearly $1,000 investment would shrivel up and die. But they seem to have hung on and for that I’m grateful.

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Later on in the day it was our turn.

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And those trees sure do make a dramatic background for hogging.

🙂

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47 thoughts on “It’s hog time.”

      1. We did not lose our Amur maple, but we planted it in 2008, not knowing that 16 inches below the surface was an at least 4 ft. layer of clay, which I discovered about 8 years later. The maple lived, but it grew so slowly, maybe an inch a year, we wondered what was happening with it. When I discovered the clay layer in the mid teens, I knew, but by then it was too late to try digging it out and digging a hole under it, then replanting it. We had to let it sink or swim on its own. I guess the main root broke through the clay, in about 2019 or 2020 because now it is a tree, growing a foot or more a year. Maybe in 5 more years it will be a shade tree. Maples seem to have a strong will to survive.

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      3. If I had known that layer of clay was there, I would have tried to dig through it, as I did when I found out it was there, or I would have moved it to another spot. Weirdly, after digging through the clay and filling the hole with soil, the tree I planted there died in a long cruel winter, while the maple has survived the last 13 winters. I have not tried to plant anything else in the soil hole since.

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      1. I have to look hard to see colors changes here. They’re few and far between. But on Fri I noticed a jacaranda in full bloom (pretty sure it’s the wrong season) and the thorny tree down the street is full of big pink flowers.

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      2. I hope blooming at this time of year does not affect the tree. When I was living just north of Rg one year there was a freak warm spell in December, and all the trees started leafing, a few even flowered. But when winter returned with a vengeance, the temperatures falling well below freezing, many of the trees died, and none of the ones that leafed early grew new leaves that year. It was a very strange year. Coming from the prairies, where nothing like that ever happens, I had no idea what to expect.

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      3. Our weather is pretty consistent year round so the trees will be fine overall. I’m sure they flowered due to us finally getting some rain!

        Worldwide, climate change has caused ots of plants to flowering twice a year, causing their lifespans to shorten. I first heard about it happening in Brazil. My grapefruit tree is dying but still has fruit year round.

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      5. The grapefruit were fantastic – very swwet by grapefruit standards. Lots of people would pick them – I used to get abput 500 fruits, twice a year.

        Fruit trees must have been a planned thing way back when… I had grapefruit, neighbor on one side had lemons, the other has oranges, and avocados across the street.

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      11. Yep… people were taking them up till 2yrs ago, when the tree hot sick. About 10yrs ago, a community food group came and picked a couple hundred.

        When I went fruit picking, I’d usually pick a ton extra and leave them.out in boxes. It was a great way to meet people!

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      16. We should be having our first snowfall this weekend, according to the eeatherperson. But it diesn’t sound like it will be pretty. They are predicting up to 10″ and if that happens we will have sjow from now until May!
        If you come to visit, do not come the last week of January. Traditionally that week is the coldest week of the year, with temperatures below 40°, C or F, diesn’t matter.

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      18. I like when the first snowfall is light and fluffy,no shovelling, it melts as fast as it falls. Everything looks so pure and serene.
        If the weatherperson is correct, we will be stuck inside for days because neither of us can shovel much anymore: my heart and her knees. Luckily our freezer is full. We can ride it out, if it happens.

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      21. Big fat NOPE!!!
        I knew it gets cold there, but not THAT cold!

        Sometime last spring, the temp diff between me and a blogger in Canada was 139°F. I still insist that shouldn’tbe possible on the planet, let alone just a couple thousand miles apart!!

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      23. I love the fragrance of grapefruit. I’ve recently added some to my non-toxic cleaning solution, i.e. Peel the zest off a grapefruit and put into a large bottle of white vinegar. Let it sit for a few weeks and then have a whiff – vinegar never smelt so good.

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