Flora and Fauna, March 2016
15.2-OakHouse from the southwest
This grove of oaks will become a house with a sharp edge where the power line goes by on the south side of it.
Sat and studied the little grove for a while today. Looking each tree from bottom to top, well, most of the trees. firguring out where I want it more open to walking through and where I want the oak to make a wall. Except for the entrance where the ladder is laing and the other entrnace over by the large persimmon, walls around the rest. The wall directly in front in this photo, the SW corner, already has some graftings that have taken, and there are also some along the right, the south wall and on around to the southeast. The south wall needs to be abrupt -- 10' clearance for the power lines easement. I did quite a bit of pruning and trimming inside and also identified several saplings that will need to be harvested. Then I looked at more grafting encouragement opportunities and this time instead of wire, am trying simply tying together with baling twine.
Doing a vertical panorama is challenging at best, and this close to the subject is impossible without major distortion of the vertical lines. I grafted these two together about 6 or 7 years ago when I had it in my mind that the branch would move higher up as the tree grew. Then I happened to be reading a source a couple years later that said they don't. Where the branch comes out, that's where it stays. So what I vaguely had in mind as a lintel or maybe a roof support or floor support now turns out to be a shelf at best, maybe a hanging bar.
opening up the interior of 15.2-OakHouse
These ratcheting pruners work well -- but the ratcheting action only works if you have the angle just right.
opening up the interior of 15.2-OakHouse
The smaller oaks in here will be harvested, today just pruned their side branches, and some from the larger that are low and inside.
opening up the interior of 15.2-OakHouse
Lookig east, this will be a ground floor room that looks out at the neighbour's house.
From inside 15.2-OakHouse looking north
There is a pathway directly north that comes out in the clearing around that huge persimmon in the middle.
transplants from path off west deck
creeping clover? Some kind of low growing plant I put in years ago that likes to grow between steps. Trying it out here where it will be shaded most of the day.