Four rows that day, with Blondie and River helping Gretchen inspect.
Four rows the next day.
Should be enough.
And Sky and Honeybun were nearby.
-jsq
Four rows that day, with Blondie and River helping Gretchen inspect.
Four rows the next day.
Should be enough.
And Sky and Honeybun were nearby.
-jsq
Thanks to Max Barzallo and Mary Clement for helping burn five acres around the house. And of course thanks to Honeybun, Blondie, River, and Sky for helping.
Now if another fire gets loose, it won’t burn to the house.
Burning five acres, Pine fire forest 2026-01-06, With neighbor help, and dogs
Here’s some video:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1644259806439943/
For those who are not familiar with prescribed burns, we live in a longleaf fire forest. Southern pine trees are fire resistant, so burns don’t affect them much, but the fire does cut back on vines and other undergrowth, as well as competing oaks, sweetgum, and other trees.
Wildlife benefits. Continue reading
River likes to clean her sister’s ear.
Sky seems to like it.
Blondie just looks away.
River cleaning Sky’s ear while Blondie looks away
All three are Carolina Dogs, a little-known landrace breed that was here before the settlers.
-jsq
And they were tasty.
River, Sky, greens, Gretchen, 2025-12-25 –jsq for OPF
Gretchen cooked the greens, and we ate them.
-jsq
I think they’ve adapted to woods and farm life.
Here’s a video:
River Dog loves mud puddles, but Gretchen has a solution: vacuum the dog!
Blondie wonders, what are they doing to you? Continue reading
These young pines have survived multiple hurricanes.
Four volunteer bottlebrush longeaf, Gretchen, and her shadow, River
-jsq
There’s one thing River likes even better than mudholes: her very own bathtub.
The other dogs sometimes use it, but River goes in there almost every time she comes back from a walk.
-jsq
River really likes mud.
Sky and Blondie like to get their feet wet.
Honeybun cools off by sticking her head underwater. Continue reading
Twenty one species in a thousand feet down the Not-a-Driveway from piney woods through seepage slope to beaver pond.
Plus Canis familiaris and garden variety human. While we did not see any beaver, Castor canadensis, there was quite a bit of evidence of them.
Species identifications are by Seek by iNaturalist, which is usually pretty reliable. I do doubt a few of them.
For example, what seek identifies as Pineland hibiscus, Hibiscus aculeatus, sure looks to me like halberd-leaf rosemallow, Hibiscus laevis.
Far more species than these live in our subtropical paradise. These are just the plants (and fungi) I happened to focus on today.
Ten-angled pipewort or bog button, Eriocaulon decangulare, 2025:06:15 09:52:26