Harvesting Oaks & Maples

    One of the last things we knew we had to get done was harvest some oaks and maples from the forest. Every year we like to find a couple int he woods and transplant them into the front and side yard where we're trying to nurture a tree line to block us from the neighbor's view. It doesn't cost us anything and most of the trees have survived.

    It makes you feel like a true hunter-gatherer when you're out harvesting trees at this time of year because, without leaves on the trees you have two things to go of:

     1.) The bark - which is easier to tell on a larger tree

     2.) The leaves around the tree - which is easier for big tree because they drop more leaves. 

Still, it's possible, and my brothers and their friend -- are pretty observant so they don't have too much trouble finding all the trees we need. 

Here's a little maple that they found. 

It's the perfect size, any bigger and the root-ball would have been too big to transplant.

    We have to be careful digging up these baby trees because their root systems are fragile and if they're hurt they won't grow no matter how much sunlight, water and fertilizer they get.

Each tree is placed in it's own bucket int the wagon, 

ready to be hauled up to the house and replanted.

    We love our friends, they make the work so much easier and the fun so much better. Everyone needs a set of friends they can count on for both a day of fun and a day of work.

    Dogs help to make the work more enjoyable too :)

    After we've found all the trees that we need we wheel the wagon to the house and transplant them. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that part. But -- that means that there's going to be a future follow-up post next year when we do this again.