Category Archives: Longleaf

Trees, lightning, hurricane, chainsaw 2022-11-10

Some weeks ago, lightning struck a bunch of trees and killed them.

During Hurricane Nicole, two of them fell across the front driveway.

A little chainsaw work cleared the driveway.

[Lightning, Hurricane, Chainsaw]
Lightning, Hurricane, Chainsaw

Before

These two pictures are from November 5, 2022. Notice how the dead trees are in a line. Continue reading →

Dogs, dog fennel, longleaf, beggarticks, chiggers 2022-09-18

Ah, fall flowers, dogs frolicking in the dog fennel, and mysterious molds, all on a morning walk.

And chiggers. Most likely Trombicula alfreddugesi, aka Eutrombicula alfreddugesi, in the genus Trombicula, family Trombiculidae.

Whichever species of arachnids, cousins of ticks and spiders, these ones will make you itch for days. They can raise red welts and send you to the doctor seeking steroids. You don’t want to see pictures of that.

[Common sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale]
Common sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale

Continue reading →

House burn 2022-03-28

If you want a southern pine forest, you have to burn every few years to keep the other trees back, and to keep the vines from climbing to the top as ladder fuels.

[Start, spread, finish]
Start, spread, finish

This was a burn around the house, also to reduce the likelihood of wildfires or our other burns getting to the house.

Might be prudent to do it in less than five years, since there was a lot of raking to be done this time. That’s why we took two days to do this five acres.

But we did it with one match. No gasoline or diesel to spread the fire. Just flaming pine straw on rakes. Continue reading →

McCoy turpentine cup 2022-03-20

Update 2023-12-29: Turpentine Afterburn 2023-12-22.

This is a McCoy turpentine cup collected some time back from my property.

[Top and side]
Top and side

As you can see, it is folded metal, so far as I know galvanized steel, although quite rusted.

Another of those is what you see the remains of on the fallen catface. Continue reading →

Starlink dish 2021-12-27

Update 2022-01-12: Starlink Router inside 2022-01-10.

Turns out Starlink doesn’t work too well during thunderstorms. Other than that, so far so good.

[Longleaf, solar panels, roof mount]
Longleaf, solar panels, roof mount

Also looks good against longleaf pine. Continue reading →

Bee tree down, bees still up 2021-07-14

Fortunately, when the bee tree snapped off, it broke above the bee hive. So our pollinating native bees are still humming in and out of there. Their exit used to be on the other side of the tree, but they’re using this new entrance now.

[Bee hive in bee tree stob]
Bee hive in bee tree stob

I guess they will relocate, but at least they did not get suddenly evicted.

The bee tree was far from the largest of the fourteen big trees down we’ve counted so far. Two more were less than a hundred feet away towards the cypress swamp. Continue reading →

Turkey Eggs 2021-07-14

Below the longleaf pines, in a thicket: ten turkey eggs. Mama turkey flew up in a tree. Turkeys lay one egg a day, so it took her ten days to deposit those.

[Landscape]
Landscape

The dogs found them. Honeybun made off with another egg in her mouth. Blondie covered the getaway. Continue reading →

Pine pollen and yellow jessamine 2021-03-06

Spring has sprung, with yellow jessamine in full bloom, and the pines producing plenty of pollen.

[Yellow jessamine, loblolly, longleaf]
Yellow jessamine, loblolly, longleaf

It was 35 degrees this morning, but freezes seem to be over. Continue reading →