Spring

Spring seems to have arrived here. Although many things here have remained green throughout winter, it is getting much greener now.  Here are a few pictures of some of the typical roads here that I travel around on during the day.

A little bridge in the distance.

The view from the bridge.  This is near the end of the big swamp here.

One of the projects here that another volunteer and I have been working on is a small property that the station has recently purchased to gain access to a highway from a remote corner of the station. It was a small greenhouse/nursery operation with a home in the middle of it. The previous owner had planted a lot of bamboo on the property and it was out of control. Most of it was 10 to 20 feet high and growing too thick to walk through.  We have been cutting it with loppers and a saw blade equipped weed eater and stacking it.  When we started, you couldn't see any buildings, only a road through it to the highway.  We are almost done now. This is the house that was originally completely hidden. About a week of work went into being able to see a part of it.

On the right is the road to the highway, the rest of this ground was all bamboo.

We found this nice gazebo after a little cutting

A nice little tiki hut with a covered stage in the background.

There is a nice office in the middle of  the grounds. The other volunteer and I have had a great time discovering new things as we uncover them

A small strip of bamboo left to cut.

A clump of bamboo stumps left. These will have to be dug out to keep them from re-sprouting.

With the rain and warm weather the last few days, it is starting to grow back. All of the green spikes in this picture are new bamboo shoots.

This is the last vine covered green house wall.

Here are a couple of pictures of the bamboo pile, I should have had someone stand next to it to show its size. I had the tractor loader all the way up to stack the top layer. It's about 10 feet high and 20 feet across.

Another project here is an invasive plant called ardisia crenata. It grows in damp areas like the swamp here and crowds out the other plants. All of the green plants in these pictures are ardisia.  

Right now the berries that it produces are ripe. Each one contains a seed and the seeds have a 99% germination rate. Therefore it is important to remove as many berries as possible.  After the berries are gone, we try to pull the plants also.  A full day's work will produce about four gallons of berries. They are trying to avoid using weed killers as much as possible in this swamp area.

The squirrels here love to eat the pine cones and leave the core.  Janice and I thought that it makes them look like a little palm tree.

Tomorrow morning we are going to try to pick up a rental car to use while the Jeep is repaired. The other party's insurance company is moving very slowly on taking care of things.