From solar electric fences to selling solar power for profit,
John S. Quarterman will talk about
solar opportunities for farmers and some legal hurdles,
at
South Georgia Growing Local 2014:
Why solar power is the fastest growing industry in the world and how to apply it to agriculture. Financing is the main obstacle. Some ways to get financing, and at least one law that could be changed to help with that.
His conference bio: Continue reading
We had to take down one dead tree, but there are others for the woodpeckers. Well, people keeping telling me this oak is dead, but I say it's only been a few years, and it's going to sprout out again any time now:
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 June 2012.
Dead pine:
Continue readingThese are the same longleaf planted in 2008, blogged 10 October 2010, burned a second time 
16 December 2011, and greening and candling again February 2012.
Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman with the planted longleaf (Pinus palustris)
by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 April 2012.
Almost all of them survived the prescribed burn, and many of them are quite tall. The planted little bluestem and big bluestem are also thriving, along with native verbena, and some less savory invasive exotics, including trash along the road. Plus Gretchen’s favorite: dog fennel! And along the fence row cedars, pecans, plums, grapes, wild cherry, and a gopher tortoise. Here’s a flickr slideshow:
We didn’t know there were any longleaf at the bottom of the pond, but the white candles are unmistakable:
Pictures of Longleaf pine (Pinus Palustris) by Gretchen Quarterman
for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 April 2012.
The needles are also longer than on the nearby slash pines:
Continue readingBrown Dog and Yellow Dog in some red pine needles:
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 April 2012.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms.
And the reason why they’re red:
Continue reading
Pictures by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 September 2011.
-jsq
And on electric fence wire: Continue reading
We have lots of these, but not many with limbs like this so close to the ground. This one is in a cemetary with no close competitors, so it spread out more than up.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman, 27 April 2011, in the Revolutionary War Cemetery in Louisville, Georgia.
-jsq
The surprising thing is so few people have heard of Leon Neel.
Here’s a very interesting biography of this very influential
pioneer in southeastern forestry and agriculture, including
many interesting stories of south Georgia and north Florida
life and politics:
The Art of Managing Longleaf:Leon Neel was a atudent, apprentice, and successor of Herbert Stoddard, who was originally hired by quail plantation owners around Thomasville to figure out why their quail populations were decreasing. The answer included a need to thin and especially to burn their longleaf pine tree forests. Stoddard and Neel studied and practiced for almost a century between them on how to preserve and increase the amount of standing timber and species diversity while also selectively harvesting trees to pay for the whole thing. Their Stoddard-Neel Approach is written up in textbooks. In this book we learn how it came about, and how it is basically different from the clearcut-thin-thin-clearcut “efficient” timbering cycle that is the current fad among pine tree growers in the southeast.
A Personal History of the Stoddard-Neel Approach,
by Leon Neel, with Paul S. Sutter and Albert G. Way.
It starts back in the old days of Leon Neel’s youth when his daddy taught him to hunt quail: Continue reading
Pictures by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 20 May 2010.