Stump Lord

Have been stump lording a 7 man crew of good planters just down the road from home.  Times are hard and I had envisioned the contractor showing up with ten, twelve or even more planters.  Dolores had decided to employ 7 and make it last two weeks  for them.  The soil at the 193 acre unit we started, while covered with slash, is what we refer to as "gravy."  No rocks, deep rich brown clay with no bottom.  The planters plunge their new 12 inch shovels into the wet ground as far as they will go every time.  This crew, while all experienced, hasn't been planting this year, so the men are slow.  Dolores Torres had a hard time finding the tree cooler yesterday so we got a later start than necessary.  The Skipper had given him a strip map from I-5 to the cold storage place on Seneca which somebody left in another rig.  Thank God for cell phones.  The Skipper was able to talk him in on final approach.  7,020 trees were waiting for the crew in heavily waxed cardboard boxes, moved by forklift out in front of the cold storage place.  Years ago, there used to be traffic jams during tree planting season in the parking lot in front of Eugene Cold Storage.  Now the joint is deserted at O dark 30.  I waited for the gang in front of the Lorane Family Store.  There is no real reason for me to be there for tree issuance.  Kyle led the crew out.  He is gaining valuable experience to become a tree planting inspector.  He is also a term who is likely not to be picked up after May so the silviculture group is going to be looking around next year for young inspectors.  We arrived on the 193 acre unit known as Trivial Tempest.  Dolores brought a big van and a big four door pickup, all with dark windows, so when they rolled into Lorane, I immediately thought that they had brought more than 7 planters.  They are all related to D through blood or marriage.  This is a good thing as nobody is likely to bring shame on the family by fucking up on my unit.  The six pack towed a small covered trailer packed with boxes of trees.  It had ten 5 gallon jugs of water for dipping trees in the back.  Dolores had come loaded for bear until he figured out the exact requirements for the gig.  Probably the van towing the trailer will work just fine.  A tree planting foreman wants to take just the right number of trees so that they are all planted by the end of the day.  If you have leftovers or "prisoners," then they must be driven back to the cooler and subtracted from the DI-105 we use for an issuance sheet.  The crew grasped the concept of 17 by 17 foot spacing by the end of the first bag up.  We have so many trees for a unit so you need to make them fit.  I have learned from experience that it is best to go wide the beginning of the job as you can always close it up when you reach the end of the unit.  Variable spacing is good for underplanting shows like Trivial Tempest where we plant shade tolerant minor species.  The planters planted out the steepest parts of the unit and were wearing down by the afternoon.  There were four boxes left with 800 hemlocks left at 1500.  No Prisoners!  They bagged up the last of the trees and Dolores lit off the boxes.  The weather was perfect for planting.  Cool, Dry with only a very few sprinkles.  The soil was very moist from the downpour a couple weeks ago.  We left the unit a few minutes before 1700.  It is raining heavily this morning.  The trees love it.  N