A Quarter Mile of Swales Dug for Food Forest at Bloodfire Orchards

I love to learn and renting a commercial digging machine has been a fun education. In less than a week, I learned how to use a 6 ton excavator to dig just over a quarter of a mile or 7 on-contour swales.

Things I learned:

• You have to ask for a closed cab otherwise it’s open; the sales rep might not ask you even if you say you are new to farming and equipment like this and rent it for middle of January. Needless to say, I had to send it back when it arrived with an open cab in 20 degree weather.

• You also have to ask for a knuckle on the bucket which is the piece that can clamp around something. So much for thinking that that was a given.

• You have to specify the size of the bucket as there are multiple sizes to choose from like 18 inches and 24 inches

• It took a lot less time to dig the swells then it did to plan and measure out the strategy of where each tree would be planted.

• I was able to dig seven swells in four days no problem.

• The digging is the easy part.

• Planting 600 trees with 2 to 3 people over a matter of 12 hours was a lot faster and easier than I expected, especially when we got 8 inches of rain the day before we were to plant making it a soppy mess, but also super easy to dig and plant.

A very special thank you goes to Thomas Leonard of Contour Lines, a non-profit organization dedicated to reforesting and helping land owners harvest rain water while reducing erosion and building soil. Their program taught me how to observe the grade of the land and mark off on-contour lines with my homemade level as well as providing all of the fruit and nut trees, and nitrogen, fixing plants and trees for chop and drop.