All stove-up

 

I've been trying to make up for lost time with the privet down in The Carey Woods.  I got a late start this winter and because of the unseasonably warm weather in February, I knew the sap was going to start rising, putting an end to the cut-stump treatments.

I feel that I made really good progress though. The section I started on last winter is almost entirely clear now with the exception of just a few trunks.

I wish I had kept count of how many trunks I cut and treated.  I do know that in the area between the downed trees shown in the top picture below, I cut and treated 25 trunks in a 15' section.  There was lots and lots and lots of privet down there...so much privet.

Privet thicket last winter.

Area shown above as it looked after more work this winter.

Looking up the hill through the same area now.  The privet has all been cut and the stumps treated.  With it gone, you can now see all the way up to the top of the hill.

RAF always worries when I go down there, and offers to go with me, but I tell him he doesn't need to go.  He then always tells me to be extra careful.  I always tell him I will be.

It really isn't an easy place to work.  I've slipped on rocks on the hillside, and stumbled climbing over things.  I've had privet limbs flip up and hit me in the lip.  I've had scratches from the stickers and bruises on my ribs from bracing the loppers while I cut.  Nothing serious though.

But a couple of weeks ago as I was tugging a privet limb out of the cedar top, one of its wispy long branches whipped across my face under my glasses.  It happened so fast that I didn't even have time to  blink.  The end of the limb raked right across the surface of my right eye.  I thought I was blinded!  It stung for a good while, but eventually I was able to open that eye and to my relief, my vision didn't seem to be affected at all.

Once my eye stopped watering, I got back to work because I was nearly finished with that section and I didn't want to quit until it was done.  But only a little while later as I was pulling another limb out, it got tangled up with a second limb.  I could tell there was quite a bit of pressure on that second one, which was about an inch and a half in diameter.  The thought had just entered my mind that I needed to stop tugging and untangle them, when suddenly that second limb snapped free and WHAM! hit me right in my left temple.  It knocked me sideways and my glasses went all wonky and almost fell off.  I think if I hadn't been wearing the glasses though it could have been much worse.  As it was, all I got was a big scratch and a really sore spot beside my left eye.  After a little bit of bending and straightening on the glasses, and a few choice words and phrases later, I was able to get back to work, and finish for the day.

Both of those accidents happened, I think, because I was tired and kept working when I should have stopped.  I'm just very lucky that my eyes weren't hurt.  (And yes, I intend to get some good eye protection that I can wear over my glasses before I start cutting again next winter.  Eyeglasses <> eye protection.)

When I got ready to go down to the woods this past Sunday, RAF looked at me and said, "Please be very careful," then frowned.   I told him I would be.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to cut and treat very much.  I was low on herbicide, and the privet had already started to green up.  I cut the last big privet bush at the top of the hill, treated it and just managed to squirt out enough herbicide to get all the way around the stump.

Since the herbicide was gone, I decided to just walk down the hill with Walter and start cutting out the tops of every privet tree I came across.  That didn't last long though...I made it to the bottom of the hill, cut a few limbs and Walter's battery died. I had found a nice privet stick that made a perfect walking stick, so the stick, Walter and I headed back up the hill through the newly cleared path.  

I don't know if I just wasn't paying attention, or if I'm just naturally clumsy (both?) but as I got almost back to the top of the hill, I snagged the toe of my right boot on the butt end of a privet trunk that I had left laying perpendicular with the pathway last year.  My momentum was forward, but because my toe was snagged on the stick, the movement of my foot was not.  I fell and landed HARD on a rock with my right knee.  Serious pain - for a few minutes I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up.  I sat there for a while, feeling all around on my kneecap and since nothing seemed to be broken or out of place, I carefully tried bending and straightening my knee.  It still worked.  So I picked up the stick that had tripped me, gave it a few choice words and phrases then threw it with some force onto one of the piles of limbs.  I then picked up Walter (I don't think he was injured in the fall) and my privet walking stick and limped up the hill to the cart and made my way back home.

I didn't tell RAF what had happened.  I just put some antibiotic ointment and a bandage over the cut on my knee and kept working on stuff for the rest of the day.  But when I got up the next morning, I knew the injury was a bit more serious than I had thought and I had to confess to RAF what had happened.  He was not pleased.

By Monday evening, my knee was quite swollen, red and hot to the touch.  I could barely bend it, and once bent, could barely straighten it back out.  I was, as the expression goes, all stove-up.

But it's now Thursday evening, and while my knee is still very sore, I can tell that it's better.  The swelling has gone down some, and it's not so red and hot anymore.  I can actually bend it going up and down the steps.  

I still have one more day before the weekend.  Lord willing, I'll be able to take Walter back down into the woods and continue on my mission.  I really did think I was being careful. So can I work down there without doing something else stupid?  That's the million dollar question isn't it....

More posts about my war on privet

Seeing the sky

It was last winter when I declared war on the privet that has taken over several sections of the woods in The Carey field.  And while I made some progress, I didn't get as far as I had hoped before the warmer temperatures caused the sap to start rising.

I had planned to get back to work this fall as soon as we started getting regular frosts, but one thing and then another got in the way and I only started back to work on the project in December.

But after (I think) five working sessions of about two hours each, I feel like I'm making progress.

Looking northwest toward the gully that runs east of the hay barn.

I started in the gully that runs down the hillside east of the hay barn.  Most of the privet growing there was small, with trunks less than 2" in diameter and it didn't take very long to clear them out.  I also cut and treated several invasive Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora) bushes.  The only things left are a few privet trees, rose bushes and some saw greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox) growing across the top edge of the gully.

Earlier in the fall, I had set out some little Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana) in the gully thinking they might do well in the dappled shade.  IF the Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) seeds that I collected last fall germinate, I plan to set some of them out in that area as well.  The spicebush should do well in the lower part of the gully where it's more shaded, while I think the dogwood will like the more sunny area near the top of the gully.  I'm still trying to decide where to plant the Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) seeds (if they germinate), and I'm thinking they might also like being down in the lower shaded part of the gully.

(There is a pretty good population of White Snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum) growing in and around the gully, and I think it might be wise this spring to go through and pull some of the plants up to keep it from spreading too much since it is so highly poisonous.  As for what could go back in its place?  I'm not sure at this point.)

Once the gully was mostly cleared, I moved to the south, back to the area where I stopped work last spring.  I had cut the tops out of lots of the privet trees, but wasn't able to treat them with they glyphosate because they were already starting to green up.   Every single one of them had sprouted back...it was very discouraging to look down into the woods and again see nothing but privet.

All of the privet I topped last spring put up lots of vigorous new growth over the summer.

So much privet....

But the one good thing is that by topping all of those trees, they didn't make berries.  So even though I'm going to quickly run out of time this winter, I now know that just cutting the tops out will knock them back enough that I won't have 10-gazillion privet berries just waiting for the birds to drop them back onto my newly cleared woods!

So Walter, the little Green Shoots foam dispenser, the loppers and I got back to work, and the four of us were able to clear and treat the stumps in that entire section.  

The area between the two large cedar trees is clear!

Yesterday Walter and I started on the privet growing to the north of the cedar trees...the stuff that is left between the trees and the gully.

Because the forecast was calling for rain all weekend, I didn't cut the trees off at ground level and treat them.  For now, I've just cut the tops off and piled them up in the woods.

But what a difference it made!

I can see the mountains to the north!

I know there's still lots of work to do to finish up that section...all of those trunks still have to be cut and treated; I still have a big pile of limbs between the cedar trees that needs to be moved (center left in the picture above); and there are hundreds of privet seedlings that need to be pulled before they have a chance to get any bigger.  But again...what a difference it makes once the privet is gone!!!  

As with the gully, I need to put some thought into what plants can go in to replace the privet.  I've ordered a Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)  and a Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) from Food Forest Nursery and if I can get those established here in my yard, I hope to be able to start some more from cuttings and plant those down in the woods.  I've also noticed a couple of Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) trees growing along the side of the road in Clarksville and if I can get up the nerve to stop next fall to search for some nuts, I'd love to try to grow some of those trees down there.  The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) trees I set out last spring didn't make it (so far as I know), so I'm going to try again with them this year.   I'll probably also try putting out some Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) and Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) just for grins.  Maybe they'll make it.

As for "forbs" I'm still trying to decide what to plant.  I did collect seeds from Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) that was growing in the ditch across from Hardees in Clarksville, so I'll probably just toss some of those out in a couple of places.  I might also try to throw some Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) seeds on the ground next winter.  

No matter what I decide to plant down there, the biggest problem I'll have to overcome will be the cattle (and possibly rabbits and deer?).  So while I'd love to keep all of the privet limbs in nice neat piles, I may end up having to create little piles here and there to protect young plants.  I suppose that's Ok though, so long as I can keep the invasive Perilla Mint (Perilla frutescens) and Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) from taking over those piles!

So what's next?

First priority is to cut and poison the privet and multiflora rose across the top of the gully, then cut and poison the privet trunks that I've left standing down by the cedar in the woods.

After that, I'll start on the privet shown on the right side of the last picture above.  That may take up the rest of my time this winter because there's quite a bit of it left.  But I'll do what I can, and then start cutting the tops out of the bigger privet trees when I run out of winter.  That's something I can do even into the summer (preferably before the trees bloom), and anything that keeps the trees from making berries is one more step in the right direction.  While there are thousands of tiny privet seedlings in the areas I've cleared, pulling those is another thing that I can work on during the summer months.

I just wish the pictures could convey how much better it looks in the areas where the privet has been removed.  It's so different from how I described that part of the woods in my January 29, 2023 post:

I find that part of the woods to be very dark and creepy, almost eerie, because the privet is so thick down there.

What a difference it makes to be able to see the sky!

Putting the new DeWalt chainsaw to work

This afternoon I took the new DeWalt chainsaw out for its first run.  And while I found that it was much different than my gas-powered 16" Shindaiwa chainsaw (which needs some work to get it running again), I'm satisfied that it's going to easily do the work I need it to do.  I absolutely love being able to pick it up, cut, and just set it back down...it goes when I say go, and stops when I say stop!

I started at the top of the hill and worked my way down.

The new saw, ready for its first cut.

Excited to get started, I pushed the trigger lock and pulled the trigger - nothing.  Maybe I didn't have the trigger lock pushed in enough.  I adjusted my grip on the handle, making sure I was able to completely push in the trigger lock with my thumb and pulled the trigger again...nothing.  "Oh, no!" I was thinking.  Was the battery not in right?  Had it not charged?  Was the saw a dud?

Turned out the problem wasn't the saw at all.  It was operator error (which is usually the case with me).  The brake was engaged.  

Once I figured that out and released the brake, the little saw buzzed to life!  It cut through that first privet trunk in no time.  It gave me great satisfaction to hear the trunk hit the ground with a "thud."

Cut and treated stump.

A ring of glyphosate herbicide from the Green Shoots foaming dispenser, and hopefully that one's as good as dead!

After that, I just worked my way down the hillside, cutting and treating the privet I had previously cut the limbs off of. The new saw made it really easy - just make sure the rocks and dirt were moved away from the cutting area, cut, set the saw down, grab the herbicide dispenser, circle the stump with the foam then pick up the saw and move on to the next one.

I had picked up 20 black walnuts from the yard, and as I cut down a privet tree, I dug a little hole and buried a walnut.  I piled up privet trunks around a couple of the buried nuts thinking that might help protect the young seedlings from being stepped on by the cattle.  Others, I just buried right beside the trunks of some of the downed trees, or in the hole where the roots were ripped out of the ground when the tree fell.

Privet trunks making a protective frame around a walnut.

Do cattle and deer eat walnut seedlings?  If any of the walnuts sprout, I guess I'll find out.

I started work at around 2:50 pm this afternoon.  The herbicide dispenser was only about half full, so I ran out and quit by 4:30 pm.  In just under two hours, I was able to cut and treat all but one of the privet trees I had already cut limbs from.  There were two privet trees I had started on, but they were really too big for my hand saw.  Using the new chainsaw, it was easy to cut those limbs off, cut them off at the ground and treat them too.  I think the biggest privet tree was around 6" to 7" in diameter at its widest point (it was an oval shaped trunk, so it wasn't that big all the way around!).  Happily, the little DeWalt cut through even that biggest privet tree with no problems!

The first section cleared of privet.

Altogether, I think I cut and treated 15 privet trees today.  I dragged most of the limbs up to the brush pile at the top of the woods and loaded the little cart with limbs to be taken back to the garden and shredded.  It's really amazing how much more open that one little section of the woods is.  

There are a few little Winged Elm (Ulmus alata) trees trying to grow in the shade of the privet.  As I dragged the last of the privet branches up the hill, I stopped by one of them, reached out and with great happiness in my heart touched its rough bark and said, "Now you'll be able to see the sun again."

 

An hour and a half in my war on privet...

Today started out dreary and gray but warm so I wanted to take advantage of the warmer temperature to cut back more of the invasive privet (probably Chinese Privet, Ligustrum sinense) that has taken over.

I decided to continue work on the area behind the barn where a severe storm in 2019 took out a wide swath of trees.  That entire area has been completely overrun by the privet in just three and a half years. 

As I started down the hillside, there was a small privet shrub growing under the edge of an Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana).  It was the first to go.

Privet growing under the edge of an Eastern Red Cedar.

Since most of these shrubs/small trees are too big for me to cut at the base using my limb saw, I've decided to just cut the limbs off, leaving the trunks for another day.  I'll come back later with a chainsaw.  I've decided I'm going to buy a DeWalt electric chainsaw for this because first, RAFs big Husqvarna is too heavy for me to easily lift and second, even if I could handle it, I don't want to have to repeatedly start and stop a gas-powered saw (cut, then treat, cut, then treat, repeat and repeat and repeat). 

Using the limb saw, I took off the larger branches.

Bigger limbs have been cut down with the limb saw.

I dragged those branches up the hill so they'd be out of the way, then took the loppers and cut off the smaller side shoots.  

Snip off all the smaller limbs with the loppers.

That first shrub/tree was now ready to be cut down and treated with herbicide.

I continued on down the hillside where the big oak tree lay rotting on the ground.  I find that part of the woods to be very dark and creepy, almost eerie, because the privet is so thick down there.

Standing at the edge of a big stand of privet in the woods.  The picture just doesn't capture how dark the woods are, and how much privet is growing.

The privet plants in this area are probably no more than four years old, but already have pretty good-sized trunks.  Most are probably four to five inches in diameter at the base, with numerous shoots coming up all around the base.  Again, they're too big for me to easily cut with my limb saw.  I can cut them, but it really wears me out and I end up not making much progress when I try to do that.  So again, my plan is to cut off all of the limbs and side shoots then come back with a chainsaw to finish the job.

Unfortunately for me, most of these privet plants have been very productive, and some are still absolutely loaded with berries.  But even worse are the millions of berries that have already dropped to the ground.  The woods are going to require constant vigilance over the next few years (probably for the rest of my life and even on after I'm gone), to keep the young seedlings pulled up or treated with herbicide.  Otherwise, it will end up worse than it is now!

Just a very small section of the ground (maybe 8" x 12"?) under one of the privet plants.  The ground is literally covered in some places with berries that have already dropped off.  

It's amazing how much it opens things up to just take out three of the privet plants.  You can get a better idea from this picture how dark it is deeper into the woods.

Limbs have been removed so these are ready for their cut stump treatment.

I don't know how it managed to get through the privet, but there was quite a bit of the foam insulation from the old chicken house here too.  I had brought a bucket to hold berries that I stripped off the limbs that were dragged up out of the woods, so I was also able to pick that up too.

Foam insulation from the old chicken house.

It didn't take very long to cut as many limbs as would fit on my little cart.  I think I worked down there maybe an hour to an hour and a half altogether.

Privet limbs loaded onto the cart.

So back to the house to unload these.  Little Joe has some work to do!

I think I cut limbs off five or six privet shrubs/trees today.  I only have about 10,000 more to go.

I'm declaring war

I've wanted a Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variegata) in my yard ever since I first saw one in the wild.  

I've tried to start some from seed but haven't had any success.  Some say these seeds have a low germination rate, and my guess is that because I didn't know what I was doing, I probably didn't cold/moist stratify them properly.  I thought I would give it another go, but "winter sow" the seeds in a milk jug this time.  I thought I had a good understanding of how to get them started.  All I needed were some seeds.

The plants in The Barber field didn't set any seeds again this summer (maybe too hot and dry?  maybe they didn't get pollinated?) and I never even saw the plants that used to grow in the woods at the top of that field.  I thought I'd try to see if the patch I had photographed back in 2014/2015 in The Carey woods had any.

The Redring Milkweed patch in The Carey woods.  Notice the two little cedar branches sticking up behind the plants, and the persimmon tree in the background.  Those were "markers" that I used to find the spot where the milkweed grew.

I hadn't gone walking much at all in the past few years, and I expected things to be as I remembered. But when I walked down into the woods to look for the milkweed, it was like I had walked into a place I had never been.  I didn't recognize anything anymore.  

When I started walking with my camera a few years ago, I remember being annoyed by the Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and what is probably Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) growing in the woods down by the creek.  My annoyance at the time was selfishness - those two plants were everywhere and that meant that I wasn't seeing any new and interesting plants!

But as my understanding has grown and my relationship with nature has evolved, I've come to understand that the reason for my annoyance - that those two plants were everywhere - is the very thing that makes them so devastating to our native plants and insects.  Where there is a privet shrub, there is no room/light for the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) seed to sprout and grow.  Where there is Japanese honeysuckle, the Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) is dragged down and smothered out by the vine's aggressive growth.

Simply put, because these plants evolved in another part of the world, there's nothing here that has co-evolved with them to keep them in check.  They're like misbehaving children turned loose in a candy store.  

In spring of 2019, a severe thunderstorm tore through The Carey woods, taking down a big swath of trees.  Many more came down in storms that rolled through the next summer.  And when the tree canopy was gone, the population of these invasives and the aggressive natives in The Carey woods exploded. 

Back to my search for the milkweed...between the tangled mess of tree limbs blown down by the storm, the privet that had been growing unchecked ever since then and the tangle of Saw Greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox) and Japanese Honeysuckle strangling the trees, I didn't even know where to look anymore.  I used to come into the woods on the east side, walk up the hill along the downed pine tree, and go straight to the little opening between the limbs of a dead cedar tree and find that little patch of milkweed every time, no matter what time of year it was.  But not anymore.  

Parts of The Carey woods are completely overtaken by privet, honeysuckle, brier and rose.  This is bad, but it's nothing compared to other areas.

I went back several times, wandering up and down the hillside, trying to find the little curved cedar branches and the persimmon tree that was in the background of the photos I had taken.  I even tried coming in on the east side like I used to, but I couldn't even find the dead pine log that used to lead me up the hill to the milkweed.  There is Chinese privet, Japanese honeysuckle, green brier and Supplejack (Berchemia scandens) everywhere.

I want the woods to be as I remember them before the storms came through.

My motivations were again selfish.  I wanted to be able to find the milkweed plants -- if they hadn't been smothered by a fallen tree.  I started researching ways to control Chinese privet, and all I can say is what I've learned has been disheartening and really quite scary.  I knew the problem was bad, but I really had no idea just how bad.

Dr. Don Steinkraus, professor with the University of Arkansas Entomology department, gave this sobering assessment of the problem to the Wild Ones - Ozark Chapter.

He closed his presentation with these words.

The war is on.  The battles are everywhere.  No place is safe, not even the Buffalo National River.

The warriors/workers are few.  Most people are blissfully asleep, unaware.

Our native plants, butterflies, moths, birds, bees, are depending on us.

Our tools: our labor, chainsaws, scythes, hands and knees, burns, education, herbicides. 

Herbicides.  As much as I hate the thought of using them, given the limited time I have, I'm not sure there's a way to get fight this battle without them.  And it is a battle I'm going to fight.  

I bought a pint of Killzall glyphosate concentrate from Amazon and a foam dispenser and dye from Green Shoots.  The dispenser and dye came in the mail today.  

My war on these invasives has started.