Cedar Row Farm is a family farm that was founded in 1919 on 160 acres in Columbia County along the Nehalem River just east of Birkenfeld, Oregon by Ellen and Joseph Lonnquist. Ellen grew up a mile down the road on a farm that her parents, immigrants from Denmark, homesteaded. Cedar Row Farm was inherited by their grandchildren in 1988.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Cedar and Fir Protection from Elk, Deer, and Beaver on 2/8/2108
This cedar tree in the upper field is big and beautiful due to Eve's work protecting it from elk and deer. She adds baskets to the trees when planted, then moves them up each year, eventually adding 5 ft wands to keep them above the elk. She also wraps blackberry vines around them, and that really does the trick. Here is a link to a video with Eve describing her cedar protection strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyhrP0C8jLI&.
This fir tree was eaten by beavers just after we started the CREP thinning. We had limbed some of the trees near the river, thinking that they were far enough away from the water that the beaver would not bother them. We had to add chicken wire around the trees, and also put up a low fence along the edge of the stand. That did the trick, and they haven't been back.
New Mailbox on 1/30/2018
A neighbor up Fishhawk was coming home from a trip to California and fell asleep just as he got to our mailbox. Knocked Jepson's well-fortified mailbox over, and totaled his car. He graciously put up a new mailbox for us.
Thinning the CREP Acres on 1/16/2018
We got the go ahead to thin our CREP acres this year. Our neighbor Forrest Shetler is cutting the trees. It is such tight spacing that the trees don't fall down, so we use the Jr Arch to pull them down, then limb and cut to firewood length. The trees are big for their age and not yet shutting down, so perfect timing for thinning. They were planted at 440 trees per acre and we have the OK to thin to 300 trees per acre. That should give them lots of room to grow. We just signed the new CREP contract. Old one for 15 years completed in 2016, which makes the trees 16 years in the ground. We did have a few planted by Boy Scouts a couple of years into the project, so some of these trees are a bit younger. The first stand that we are thinning is in the upper field. A beautiful stand of trees. The cedar are amazing due to Eve's diligence in protecting them from the elk.
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