Part 2 of Week 4: EcoEcho Forest Cultivation

I bought the lower Paving Stone or whatever it is called and - I just saw it as an Impulse Purchase - and it's as heavy as that cinder block that was left in the forest by the previous owners. So you put the two together - and the paving stone is much wider, obviously, thereby holding more logs down. So I can get ten logs in this bigger soak tank now - at a time - by double-decking them. If I tried to triple deck them then I would need a lot more weight.

Besides a concrete block - the Field and Forest people recommended using old tractor wheels as weights. I did have some old trailer wheels but they were so rusted - it did not look possible to "crack" them off. Instead I found this heavy part of an old tractor implement - some kind of tiller.

So those are "mini-logs" of Alder soaking.

Then the longer logs go into the Sheep stock tank. You can see my hand dug water hole to the left - or an excavation pit. It's not a well since there's no casing nor was it drilled. It's just Hand-carried water. That is allowed for primitive dwellings. So I used an extendable auger that went down 20 feet! I might have some photos left from that. I'll check.

Oh yeah!
That was a big job.
So even though now I am just using a big 12 ounce coffee mug - it's a lot faster to take out the water than it was to dig that hole.

 OK back to "current" time.

This tree nest in the big Tamarack - I'm not sure if it still being used. I think it might be "reused"? It's a big tree nest. I think I may have noticed it before last year? I didn't think the photo would turn out. But you can see the dimensions pretty well.

So now onto Part 3 of Week 4......