This is our second year organizing a tree give away, and I think it went better this year. For one thing, last year we let people order smaller quantities of trees and we had to break up the bundles of 25. This year they had to take a whole bundle and deal with it. I hope they don't all decide they'll just plant 5 and throw the rest away.

We're supposed to get photos of the tree recipients to send to the Arbor Day Foundation, our donor, but were told not to have people's faces in the pictures. I told them since we simply handed out bundles of trees, we didn't see anyone in the act of planting them, so all the photo would show is someone being handed a bundle of sticks behind their back, with their face averted. Not very enticing. My neighbors down the road should be planting theirs sometime, and I'll get some pictures then if I find out about it.

My part of the delivery process involved only 7 deliveries, and I made sure the recipients gave me good directions to their homes because sometimes it's a challenge to locate houses in our rural area along rivers. It went well, and I planted my 50 trees today - Buffaloberry and Dogwood.

Today I finally got around to putting chicken wire around a fir tree that Bucky Beaver had started gnawing on. It's right next to another fir that Bucky neatly felled. Usually he goes after deciduous trees, but will work on evergreens if he feels like it. This is around the bend from my house; I don't think he's been over near my house this year because he doesn't like it much since the flood. I was in a hurry because he can destroy a good-sized tree overnight.