Waiting...

It sucks having to wait for the mini truck to do anything else in the woods. And to add to the suckiness we are having one beautiful sunny day after another. All the while my bamboos are getting roasted in the sun, and harden so I will probably have a harder time now shredding them.
In the garden signs of spring are popping up here and there. Here are some random pictures.

The plum tree. Last year it got struck hard by fungi, better luck this year?

Lots of tiny tiny buds all over. I will try and cover a couple of branches of the plum tree to see if it helps. The disease spores are carried by wind from the neighboring orchard. If there is no difference between covered and uncovered, then I will just leave it to chance.
The other saplings are also budding. The most growth is shown by the mulberry.

I had to twist the branches into circles to keep the sapling scope limited

Not only trees but vegetables are budding and blooming too.

Top: Chingensai. Bottom: Broccoli

And last but not least we have the strawberries.

Tiny flowers in strawberry patch

Not sure how well the strawberry did through the winter. I guess we have to wait and see.
I wasn't completely passive though. I did take a trip to the forest to do some more "flattening" until the news about the mini truck comes. Both neighbors have planted saplings in their lots. I am guessing persimmons because they were talking about it all the time. I could see 2 saplings with labels attached in Mr. O's lot, and maybe 7-8 in Mr. K's. Really big gap between the trees, like 7-10 meters. Maybe they are planning to put something in the middle later... like a dining table or something.
While I was cutting away at my bamboos I saw a couple I guess from city who were digging and looking for bamboo shoots in the upper hill, north of my lot. Hehe, I guess they came to dig out shoots from my lot as usual, and discovered that not only all the bamboo is gone, but that the ground is hard to walk on, and had to settle for the bamboo grove uphill. I had a chat with the guy and he pointed out to me that the bamboo roots in my lot will start rotting (in fact they have already) and I told him it was good to hear as I am no fan of growing bamboo (And I thought to myself, particularly not for folks like you to take). It's nice that they are deterred. I guess there will be more bamboo hunters along. Would be fun to see their reaction too when they see I have chopped down their dear free bamboo source. Muahaha. Actually it would be good if scavengers would dig out the remaining roots for a couple of years. That would kill the bamboo for sure.
Still there are unflattened bamboo to keep me busy while waiting.

My plot. The "uphill" is in the far side.

Mr. K's lot is in the back. Look close for new saplings