Sunshine and warmer temperatures made for a great day to be out in the pecan orchard today. It was also a good time for Spring cleaning. Our first task was to burn all the piles of sticks we had raked up during harvest last fall (photo at right). Its best to get this mess cleaned up before the grass grows up and we lose tract of large chucks of wood in the tall grass. Hitting a heavy piece of pecan wood is hard on our orchard mowing equipment.
Over the last several weeks, we've had several wind storms that has littered the pecan grove with even more dropped branches. While we burned last fall's piles, we raked up even more sticks to add to the fire (photo at left). We use a Rouse hydraulic hay rake to rake up the sticks.
We weren't the only one cleaning up pecan groves. Our neighbors to the south were raking their groves and piling the brush with Stidsteer and attached grapple (photo at right). With all the brush piles burning, the entire river bottom was covered in a smoky haze. By morning, the smoke will be gone and our orchard will be tidy.
