Thursday was a long day. Leo picked me up at the station at 6:15 and we headed north, through some occasional ground fog, to Kuopio where we picked up Risto. From there, we continued north to Kajaani under sunny skies, where we headed east to Sotkamo and "Katin Taimitarha" (the Katin Nursery) operated by Pohgah Taimi Company. We arrived about 9:15 and were met by the manager, Jaana Mannermaa and her assistant Esa Kovalainen. We toured their 10 million seedling operation (they were packing spruce seedlings for summer planting), had a bit of coffee and pastry, received some nice gifts, and by 11:30 we were heading north toward Ristijärvi and "machines." Somewhere in the hinterlands between Puolanka, Hyrynsalmi, and Ristijärvi, and after discussing the fungal disease that was turning the tops of all the spruce yellow, we found our first one. This machine was for "tending" young plantations. Essentially, it's a giant weed puller. The apparatus gets placed over the target tree, and then hydrolic clamps grab the tops of the offending vegetation. When it is lifted, it pulls the "weeds" out of the ground. The original prototype just cut the weeds, but they quickly sprouted back. This is deemed a more permanent solution. Given that most of the site was aspen suckers, it was probably prudent. We then zoomed off in search of the "M Planter". We found it up a really crummy road, after having first gone up an even crummier wrong road. We had to walk about 150 meters to where the machine was working. Instead of 5 minutes, it took about 20 minutes as we had to sample the blueberries along the way. The M Planter attaches to your basic tracked excavator and has two independent tree planters that hold about 100 seedlings each. The operator makes a scalp to remove big debris, then piles some mineral soil to discourage those pesky pine weevils, and finally plants a seedling in the middle, all from the comfort of his cab. On a good 8-hour day the machine can plant about 2000 seedlings. It was already mid afternoon when we started to head back, enjoying all of the blooming fireweed along the way. We picked up a sandwich (a fried egg, two thin pieces of ham, some cucumber, and mayo on thick, dark bread) and some coffee and then headed south toward Rautavaara. Timo Korhonen had called Risto about a "seedling problem" and because we were, more or less, heading that direction, we decided to stop by. We found the Timo Korhonen Taimitarha (Timo's Nursery) near Kangaslahti. After quite a bit of time on our hands and knees looking at his alive, dying, and dead miniplug spruce, we concluded it was probably heat injury and again started for home, back through Siilinjärvi to Kuopio to Suonenjoki. I walked back into my apartment at about 21:30. A long but good day.
I thought I'd do a quick check of my email. Mistake. When Rhoda and I go to Poland the end of August, we are spending the first night in Gdansk. It happens to be a favorite summer destination for Poles, so the person organizing our trip was more than a tad anxious that we still did not have accomodations. Fortunately, she sent me a great link and I felt compelled, after looking at all the hotels with "one room remaining" and "only two rooms remaining" and was able, eventually, to book some rooms. I also had promised to call Niklaas, and I kept that promise. It was good to hear his voice. I finally flopped into bed near midnight.
Today, Friday, I finally made it to my office just in time for the 9:00 coffee break. The big news was that the biochar pellets that Karl Englund at Washington State University made for me, for some collaborative research I have planned with the Finns, had arrived yesterday. Three packages in one week. Wow. Otherwise, same o same o. Tonight I ran my exercise circuit, did a bit more pressing work, and am ready to call it an early night.
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