Pictures From Jeffers Tree Farm

Today was my last day of work at Jeffers Tree Farm this year. I took my digital camera with me, both so I could show Vicki pictures of Vickie (the ones in the "Vickie the cow" thread) and so I could take some pictures of the Christmas tree farm. I took these pictures there:

some cut fir trees waiting to be baled (after being dragged to where they would be baled:
(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_cutfirtrees-DSCF0295.jpg)

some fir trees growing in a Christmas tree field:
(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_firtrees-DSCF0294.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_bigfirtree-DSCF0293.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_bigfirtree-DSCF0292.jpg)

baled fir trees:
(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_baledChristmastrees-DSCF0291.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_baledChristmastrees-DSCF0290.jpg)

a Christmas tree baler:
(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_Christmastreebaler-DSCF0289.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_Christmastreebaler-DSCF0288.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Jeffers%20Tree%20Farm/th_Christmastreebaler-DSCF0287.jpg)

The orange, yellow, blue, purple, and pink areas on the tree baler are for measuring the height of the trees. The sawed end of the tree is painted orange, yellow, blue, purple, or pink (the same color as the one of those painted areas on the tree baler the top of the tree reaches when the sawed end is against a certain other part of the tree baler -- orange is the shortest and pink is the tallest) so that the trees can be sorted by color and all of them painted the same color will be about the same height.

Vickie The Cow

These are two new pictures of Vickie I took so I could show them to Vicki, who works at Jeffers Tree Farm.

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Cows/th_Vickie-DSCF0283.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Cows/th_Vickie-DSCF0282.jpg)

My First Day At Work

Today was the first day of my first job, at Jeffers Tree Farm. First, I was dragging fir trees (to be sold as Christmas trees) from where they were cut to where they would be baled. (The tree baler wraps a piece of string, which is first tied to the tree, around the tree several times.) Then, for a while, I was picking up trees and putting them in a tree baler. After that, I was tying the strings on trees when they were baled with another tree baler. When all of those trees were baled, I was taken to another field where there were some more trees to be dragged, but none of those trees were baled today.

My brother David worked at Jeffers tree farm this past spring, planting trees. He was there today, doing the same things I was doing. For a while, David was at one tree baler while I was at the other one. David did not go to the second field with me.

I don't think I had ever seen a fir tree up close before, but I saw a lot of them today. Our last 22 Christmas trees have been hemlocks (wild ones -- not from a tree farm), and before that we had a wild pine tree for a Christmas tree.

New Rinsieagain Pictures

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Cows/th_Rinsieagain-DSCF0251.jpg)

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Cows/th_Rinsieagain-DSCF0252.jpg)

Yesterday was Rinsieagain's second birthday. She seems to have fully recovered from what she went through in March and April.

Clarice

Clarice died yesterday. My father buried her next to Calf. (Calf was Clarice's great-grandmother; she died on February 15 this year.) We don't really know what Clarice's problem was, but she hadn't been able to get up since some time in April (around the time Rinsieagain left the corral), and she was near a big rock and some hemlock trees. My father said he thought she might have been standing on the rock to reach some hemlock needles to eat them and fallen off the rock. Clarice was a bit less than five years old; she was born on August 1, 2002 (about a month before I first joined Martinaville). Rinsieagain, by the way, has rejoined the other cows.

This is the most recent picture of Clarice, also showing her calf:
(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/william_ransom/Cows/th_Clariceandhercalf2007-DSCF0190.jpg)