I found a Craig's List sale of Tree Tubes - the ones offered to me were 30 Inch TreePro Tubes (marketed as the first "vented" tree tubes)... and I was given 40 of them for $30.... actually we lost count and I had planned to take $30 since the asking price was $1 a tube. The listed price is $2.87 per tube plus shipping cost - and they feature reusable zip ties! So I got a real deal but I also spent probably an extra $30 in gas money - taking an enjoyable scenic tour of Minnesota!
He wanted to get rid of the tree tubes and said he needed to clear out more from the woods - he had planted 600 trees. The trees in the woods in the tubes did not get enough sunlight and his taller tree tubes caused the trees to be too spindly - so the trees fell over once they grew out of the six foot tree tubes.
hmmm.... I think I will plant them w/o the tree tubes at first since the sun will be lower in the fall - and just have the poultry fencing - that should deter rabbits also as well as deer. Then for the late fall put in the tree tubes for the winter. We'll see how it goes...
So after I loaded up the tree tubes I kept heading north and ended up driving around Lake Mille Laacs!
You can barely see the other side of the lake - way in the distance. It's a huge circle.
Minnesota's second-largest inland lake.
I think Lake Vermillion is bigger - that's the lake we used to rent a cabin on when I was a kid. My dad was born on a kitchen table in Cook Minnesota on one end of that even bigger lake while my grandfather preached at Cook and the other end of the lake (on the same Sundays!)...
Mille Lacs National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1915 and is the smallest refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System at 0.57 acres. The refuge consists of two islands, Hennepin and Spirit, in Mille Lacs Lake that are covered with jumbled rock, boulders and gravel. Both islands are used by colonial nesting species, including ring-billed gulls, herring gulls, double-crested cormorants, American white pelicans and the state-threatened common tern.
Wow Mille Lacs is really shallow for its size!!
Mille Lacs 42 feet deep
Red Lake (both "Upper" and "Lower") - 288,800 acres Mille Lacs Lake - 132,516 acres Leech Lake - 111,527 acres
OK Vermillion is 40,557 acres so not even in the top three...
So that means Mille Lacs is the single largest lake because they put Red Lake together even though it's two lakes....
Also I spread 280 gallons of wood chips on newspaper and this new two rows of tree spots are spaced father apart - some over 8 feet. There's two trees at five feet apart but most are at least eight feet apart.
I harvested about 70 pounds of Shiitake this year - thanks for the CSA support! So I got my production costs covered - mainly gas money. Northern Minnesota is much better for forest mushroom farming since it's cooler! But for how long? It is heating up at a faster rate than the rest of Minnesota - due to loss of albedo effect and more jet stream dynamics from the Arctic Amplification effect (the air conditioner of the planet is breaking down fast!).
thanks,
drew hempel
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