Planting begins anew

Seven planters, atop a hill, surveying the work to be done.

And the planting season has begun in earnest. Today was the ceremonial first day of planting, and I’d say it went well. Sure the weather was dismal, and we all grumble about something or other, not least that it ran to a twelve hour day, but I liked it.

I’ve been looking forward to the rhythm of the planting again. Once all the introductions, inductions, tailgates, prescriptions, questions, procedures, and other paraphernalia were out the way it was already 10am, despite having set off at 5.30am. Target for the block, once we’re all back up to speed, is 700 trees per man, per day. 500 was my goal for the day. Planted from 10am to 3pm, so 100 trees an hour. Want to try and get that down to 40 minutes over then next week or two. If I can hit that stride I should be able knock out 900 trees a day and make up a tidy pay packet.

There was 27 of us on site, a small army in planting terms. That won’t be the norm, we’ll splinter off as the planting calendar takes shape, but it’s good to have the whole crew together for a time.