Hey Treedoc

[Skinny Shooter]

How's the tree business? Figured there'd be lots to clean up after those storms have rolled thru.
Have you experienced any major flooding?
Allen

[TreeDoc]

What the hell is a tree? It's Duck/Goose Season here still! I just show up occasionally to cash some checks then I drive back up to Northern California where my Duck Club is located and hunker down in my trailer till the next legal shoot time!

Actually, we have been getting a lot of rain where I live but the flooding is talking part south of me by about 2 hours like that little beachy hamlet of La Conchita. Dang, I watched that hill devour 9 houses some 10 years ago, I thought they pretty much abandoned that place but I guess not! It's pretty amazing to watch a whole mountainside just start moving. Typical So. California story....what doesn't slide off in the mud this year will be burning next year or vice versa.

I've missed the majority of local bad weather and have been in the middle of it up in Nor Cal at my club. Lots of flooding and overflows of rivers into the bypasses and fields but that area is designed for it so nothing major or out of the ordinary. The biggest problem is that it has really screwed up the Duck Hunting. There is so much open watershed that the ducks can loaf all they want wherever they want, they're not hanging out in the rice fields during the day. So far this has been one of the crappiest seasons yet because of this situation in addition to the added 180,000 of cultivated rice. I understand rice futures are gaining too so I would expect more of the same next year as more area is planted and flooded with rot water.

Anyway, not a lot gained in my area by fallen trees but hey, February-March is when we get our worst winds! We need another full blown "El Nino", that will bring in the $$$$!!

[Skinny Shooter]

Good to hear that you're not in the thick of things.
Hey. What fertilizer do they use in those paddies Do they stink much?

[TreeDoc]

No fertilizers at this stage of the game though it does get a little bit stanky at times! The rice was harvested and then cut almost to the ground back in mid October. It used to be that the farmers would burn off the remnants but they can't do that now (thank you California Air Quality standards) so they flood the fields so the rice stalks and roots rot then they'll turn the soil in Spring and prep for the next years crop. The Ducks and Geese go nuts for all the rice that falls during the harvest. My pond would normally have thousands of feeding ducks all night long, it's amazing to listen to them out there!

[Skinny Shooter]

The fertilizer I was thinking about doesn't come from a tractor-powered sprayer.