TDA Certified Prescribed Burn Manager Course

So, what do you do during COVID?  Me, I go to a course for Prescribed Burn Managers that is put on by the Texas A&M Forest Service.  Our instructor was Andy McCrady.  It was a very good course, I learned a lot.  The facilities were pretty cool as it was an outdoor classroom.  That's what you need during COVID, at least that's what the talking heads say.

Day one of our Burn Manager Course

Here's a wide shot of the outdoor classroom

This area has been regularly burned for many, many years, but the sweetgum keeps coming back.

My Certificate of Completion, yep I passed!

Mr. and Mrs. Chainsaw

His and Hers

 

Some before and after

Brenda and I have been working on at area between the cottage and the "master bath" and towards the west. Here are some before and after pictures. It shows a pretty dramatic improvement. Hope you like it.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

A little bit of Fall Color

 

Fall Colors

Mulch

 This is what we do with the brush we clear. Mulch, mulch, mulch and more mulch.

Lots of mulch

Pig Disturbance

A couple of weeks ago, we setup a game camera near the sawmill. We have seen a lot of wild pig sign in the area and I was hoping to catch them on the game cam. I'd like to see how many, how big, etc. Here's some examples of the kinds of things we see from the wild pigs.

As you can see, they create a lot of disturbance in the forest. I'm not sure what they are looking for, but I'm not opposed to these guys turning the compost!

The first picture is of an area that Brenda and I discharged the wood chips from our wood chipper. It is a low laying area that is often wet and muddy. We put the wood chips there to start building up the area. We put these wood chips down back in late September, so they haven’t been down very long.

The second picture is an area that is very near the first. It is also a low laying area and subject to ponding. We haven’t put any wood chips there recently, but I did spread some there about six to eight months ago.

I’m getting the impression that wild pigs really like turning up mulched wood chips. So far, I don't mind the pig's disturbance. It seems to me that it might be beneficial to the forest. Now if it was my garden or pasture, I'd be pretty upset with the pigs.

Now for the game camera. Nope we didn't see any pigs, but I still like what I see.

One of our goals is to improve our forest to make it friendly for deer. Maybe we are getting it right.

Brush Grubber broke

Pulled, cut, chipped more underbrush, but then the brush grubber broke and we couldn't pull up any more yaupon.  Dang.

I got one stump up before the grubber broke.  I was very pleased with the stump I pulled, just wish I could have pulled more.  For perspective, the bar on the chain saw is 18".

As you can see from the photo, I cut the yaupon about two and a half to three feet up.  I wanted to leave a nice bit of trunk to use for pulling up the stumps.  I guess it will have to wait until.  Dang.

The part that came off the grubber is a spring that holds the jaws tight on the tree trunk.  You can see on the picture, I've drawn in where the spring goes.  Unfortunately, the manufacturer is out of the spring.  It's on a two week back ordered.  Yep, I ordered two.  I don't want to be caught short, again!  Dang!