Perfect fall day
Found a dandy – all the dark area under the foliage is the trunk of this Mt Hemlock
With a bit struggling I got the tree home – that is all trunk that is showing in the sunlight
One more last collecting
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Final Collecting for the Year
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A tree that called out to be collected – I had to cut off all of the lower branches – almost slipped off the cliff doing it. It was a ways down to the bottom
All the branches cut away dug loose and ready to haul back to my truck.
It is a double trunk but I might try a ground layer on the smaller trunk instead of cutting it off right away.
I got lucky and found a smaller tree with a very large base trunk
I decided to collect this large tree after seeing it for the last 15 years. I swear I heard a voice saying – please take me please. So I took the tree home.
At home heeled in fish compost
A double trunk I collected
October Collecting
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A group of us got together to go collecting for Pinus contorta contorta (Shore PIne) Left to right Mark Patterson, Peter Woodland, Teague (Victoria) Gordon Cowen (Nanaimo) Peter Wilson and myself on the end (Campbell River). A very fun day for all of us. All pictures courtesy of Mark Patterson
Me checking out the roots of a nice Pine – Teague was watching but posed for the shot.
Tree was growing in a pocket in the rocks, I exposed the edges of the roots and then found the best leverage point to pop the tree out of the pocket.
Done got the tree out with plenty of small surface roots.
Rootball tightly wrapped in shrink wrap and with bunji cords strapped to my very old Trapper Nelson back pack. My roll of shrink wrap slides nicely over my digging shovel. What you see is all have for collecting secatuers and a small folding Silky Saw in my pocket. Stanfields wool overshirt Nylon pants if they get wet they dry out quickly jeans stay wet all day. Good pair of MEC boots and a wool toque.
Peter Woodland pulling out a nice pine.
Fall Yamadori hunting in October presents a few problems I went out yesterday collecting in the sub-alpine. A week ago there was 4 inches of snow which melted when we had a change in weather. I left home on a sunny no cloud morning but upon reaching the higher elevations was fog and wind.
The wind was so cold that all the trees had ice on the foliage on the windward side.
I cut back some branches on this one so I can the trunk
Flat sprawled out Mt Hemlock, something I would ignore in the past but….
View from the side
Secatuers showing some scale
There is a decent sized trunk in there somewhere. This tree in a few years will make fairly decent Shohin after cutting back a lot of the branches.
Here is the tree dug out and a lot of small branches taken away. As you can see it has a nice thick trunk. It was growing over a rock so the root mass is spread out and in the future (2 to 3 years) I will be able to expose the nebari and have a decent Shohin tree ( less than 12″ tall) 
If you look closely you can see Sam sitting on the rock on guard watching over me. We did run into a black bear earlier he was foraging on the remaining blueberries
Pine and Hemlock collecting
Here is Peter Wislon on the edge of a cliff checking out a tree in the pouring rain. It’s a 1500 foot drop staight down
A few trees that were collected on the weekend these were the larger ones
Sometimes you can get a great view when out searching for new areas to collect trees from.
Sam and Ernie checking out the view. Steep steep straight down it is.
Nice Pinus contorta contorta
Whew got it in the truck nice base I will heel it in at home and wait a year or two for the tree to recover.
Panorama shot of Buttle Lake
Just resting and watching me dig a tree
A few collected
A few in the truck at home
One large one I collected
My methods of heeling in newly collected trees
The following is how I prepare newly collected trees to succeed in survival and regrow new roots
I use a layer of fish compost (fir bark composted with fish offal) which has an NPK of 1-1-1 but is always at 1-1-1 due to aerobic bacteria breaking down the carbon in the mulch. The mulch also contains available iron, calcium and other micro elements. I put down a ground cloth that is permeable first and then add the compost then place the newly collected tree on top of the mulch.
I carefully cut away the shrink wrapping from the root ball trying to keep all the soil intact as much as possible
I twist the rootball into the mulch to help remove any air pockets.
Filling in under neath – no air pockets
Adding mulch along the sides and placing 2 to 3 inches on the top of the trees.
All done – these trees will be left alone all of this year and all of 2014. What happens now is that roots will start to grow into the fish compost mostly fine feeder roots. Depending on where I collected the trees my survival rates is 100% on bedrock collected trees and 75% or more on bog collected trees (bog trees have a limited root system)
First time
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James out for the first time
Pines
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Ernie and Manny resting by a nice pine
Building my Studio
New floor boards added to floor joists
I started on my studio – I started a tad too late in the season and hope that monsoon season does not come early this year. My pooches are sitting in the warm sun. I decided that the most economical size would be a 16 ft by 20 ft studio and this would fit nicely behind our house.
Floor and one wall is up and one wall ready to prop up.
All the lumber I will be using is custom cut by CFC Lumber in Campbell River – I should of taken a picture of the logs they used. The structural pieces of lumber are all rough cut Douglas Fir, studs, joists trusses are Doug Fir 2×6 rough cut the flooring shown here is 20 foot long 1″by 6″ Doug Fir boards – rough cut also.
All 4 walls are up and braced. I went to our local Habitat for Humanity Restore and purchased 4 used sliding glass doors for a heck of a deal.
Finally got all my roof trusses cut just need to assemble them and put them up. It looked easier than I thought – the trusses were very heavy and had to get a couple of youths to help me put them up.
Trusses are up, 1 sliding glass door is in and I started with the Red Cedar board and batten on the backside of the studio.
View of the backside of studio no windows just board and batten
Got my roof on, window and sliding doors in. Got a great deal from Nelson Roofing, they had a garage sale on surplus roofing tin. For $300 they cut the tin made me a roof cap and gave me a bag of roofing bolts.
With the roof on I can now start on finishing the outside board and batten. Nelson Roofing had a sale on fiberglass insulation at $10 a bag $100 did my entire studio.
Insulating the walls and ceiling
I decided to put up drywall on the ceiling and walls I did not like the feeling of looking at the poly and insulation.
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Drywalled and being painted – left over paint not my choice of colors but cheap.
A jumble of wires from fluorescent lighting the lights came out of a local boxstore that got sold to Target I got all these lights ( electronic ballasts) for $70
Almost finished just need a little trim.
Gable end done with trim and all Geared Up
Inside done now I can start working on my trees.
Moving to a New House!!!
Well we are moving to a new house and we have a lot of trees to move. We have been renting the past 10 years and decided to buy. With buying I decided to start a blog now that I can organize my trees, take pictures and display the trees I intend to keep. I hope to keep this blog going at least every 2 weeks.
Anton Nijhuis
Well we are finally in our new house, lots of work to do here. #1 is to remove a huge Sequoia on the property diameter 6 feet at breast height. The stump will make a nice bonsai bench. Still have a lot of trees to move but I got my favorite ones moved. Good thing a friend of mine moved into our old place and I can keep my growing stock there for awhile.
I do Bonsai not giant Sequoias
Anton
Lots of sorting out to do but I managed to get a few trees to our new home
Front yard – a before picture. After I remove the Sequoia this garden bed is next to be removed. The trees in the half barrels are going to be planted in berms, rocks etc. I need to make a proper pathway, fence to keep my unruly dogs in and benches to display my good trees.
