"Today I cut down 2 trees, but planted 100" ... a Tree Farm

On the morning of Tuesday April 20th I left Toronto and came out towards Eastern Ontario to Golden Bough Tree Farm in Marlbank (near Tween and Napanee).After taking the GO train from Union to Oshawa I biked 90+ km, stayed overnight with a friend in Colborne, and then Wednesday biked another 90-ish-km to get where I am now.

This is an 80 acre property owned by a 70-something man named Joseph for 30-something years. Most of the space is "natural" mixed-wood forest with pines, firs, spruces, hemlocks, maples, oaks, ashes, cedars, beeches, and so on; with two rocky moraines running east-west through the area, and the space in-between being a lowland with some swampy swaths. The landscape also hosts some pasture, hay fields, wild/natural meadows; some orchards and a veggie garden; and then the "Tree 'Farm'".

The nursery consists of a couple of acres of fenced in, shaded (by larger trees) raised beds. Trees are germinated and first raised in protective cages on seed flats, or in cans/pots, and then eventually transplant out into full sized beds where they live for 1-3 years. Every spring (and to a lesser exten in the fall) when trees are relatively dormant, a crew here at Golden Bough digs up thousands of young trees (maybe 1/5th or 1/6th of the stock...?) of dozens (close to 100 I think) of species and many varieties therein; they transport those trees bare-root to another patch of soil to "heel them in," give them a temporary home for a couple of weeks; in those weeks they put together orders for customers, and then the trees are either mailed or picked up.

As a business, as farm... it only supports paid work during this busy spring season (which ended a few days ago really), and a little bit in the fall; and the farm only really makes money at these times too of course.

This creates an interesting sort of community: other than Johanna and Joe who have lived here for years, an apprentice who has been here for many months and will be for unknown-time to come, and J&J's niece and her family (=young couple + two young kids), no one else resides here during the non-busy season. But when theres work... well... when it rains it pours. I showed up here to a full house, being one of four other short-term worker/interns living on site; and then there are a few other folks who work a few hours (or a couple of dozen) a week, commuting here from nearby.
It makes for a dynamic atmosphere; Golden Bough is an interesting community/homestead as far as 'farms' go.

I've been having a good time these two weeks. I pretty much missed "The Spring Dig," consideriung that trees out here (like those in Toronto) 'woke up' nice and early this spring. Thus Golden Bough had no choice but to get their mojo on, get the ball rolling, start digging... while I was still worrying about my last exams/essays of the winter school semester.
In lieu of digging up trees instead I have been working on: restoring the empty now-treeless nursery beds (meaning giving the beds manure, peat moss, ash, and sand and lots of digging/tilling); helping a bit with putting together "order" by packing the trees (plastic bags with wet shredded paper around root balls, as multiple young trees are ties together around a sturdy bamboo stick); helping with other homestead tasks like clearing brush, gathering firewood for next winter already; weeding and mulching; watering; recently, some replanting of unsold trees; I think I've engaged in some other tasks/jobs, but they don't come to mind considering all other fun things I've done while out here (learning to juggle, use a chainsaw, going biking hiking and swimming, bonfires, hanging out in the woods and doing other hippy/hill-billy things).

Another week or so and I'll be on my way back to the greater golden horseshoe; sure am going to miss the quiet "oh yeah I'm out in the sticks" aura of this place, with it's non-light-polluted night sky and empty rural roads. Simple Thyme will be awesome; sure it fills a necessary niche by being an near-urban C.S.A., but, it also can be cumbersome to BE on a farm right beside a busy 4 lane rural highway, with the night sky in all four directions being purple with city lights.

Now to dash 100m through the rain to my tent.