May 14-19 , 2010 Visit – Plant seedlings, construct first floor
I drove down on Friday. After opening the cabin, I planted 100 sycamore seedlings in the pasture.
Chris and Sophia joined me later on Friday evening.
On Saturday, we began to construct the cabin subfloor. We needed to make two trips to transport the materials.
We finished this Sunday morning. I spent the early afternoon covering the subfloor with plastic sheeting. A good thing, as it started raining about 7:00 pm.
Monday morning: I started planting sycamore seedlings along Sharp’s Fork. A slow gentle rain continued from Sunday evening. I could see that Sharp’s Fork was rising, but I thought it would stay within its bank.
At one point, I stopped to watch the stream. A muskrat, or maybe a small beaver, came swimming along carried by the stream flow.
At this point, I noticed the seedlings I had just planted were underwater. By the time I walked out of the pasture, the water was above my boots.
On Tuesday morning, I took a number of pictures of the flooded pasture and began planting sycamores at a higher elevation on the western edge of the pasture.
Tuesday Afternoon: I began planting the White Swamp Oak seedlings at the western edge of the CRP area near our stream. These seedlings are quite large, with a big tap root. I had to make double or triple planting bar plunges to get a wide enough slit for many of these seedlings.
A very heavy downpour halted my planting. After this, there was substantial flooding near the bunkhouse.
On Wednesday, I planted another 100 Oak seedlings.
The weather forecast had been favorable for Wednesday, but it was still raining. I had enough. I went home.
