Wednesday, 3 August 2005
With club members having planted over 500 trees earlier this Spring, Mike Crawford and Cliff Hill decided that the recent shortage of rain was cause for watering the young plants. The first attempt by Ray Morgan, at 7:45 AM on Saturday, 30 July 2005, using a borrowed 300 gallon water trailer with no pump and a single hose bib was, through no fault of his own, less than successful. (Ray was providing manual labor and a truck to pull the trailer, not management decisions.) It took an hour to fill the tank from the club's well, and then another hour and a half to trickle water onto 25 trees. It was clear that some more efficient way of watering was needed if we were to get it done before we were too old to hold the hose.
New member Robin Winston, who runs a company that works in reforestation of land, loaned the club the use of his company's (C&R Reforestation, Inc.) tank truck, with a 1200 gallon tank and pump, and three hoses. Robin was joined by Mike Crawford and new members Chris Keyser and Ray Morgan at 3:30 PM today to water the trees. It only took them three hours, with Mike driving and providing unneeded supervision, and the others manning hoses, to dump 3600 gallons of water on the trees, including the time for two refills of the tank. (A fire hydrant can really put out the water.)
The rate at which the ground absorbed the water told us that we should probably do it again soon. We have another mini-work party scheduled for Wednesday, 10 August 2005, same time, same place. Any interested members are welcome to join the group, and man another hose.