Whats happening with Dan in Pike?
Our Pike Property manager Dan Guyer has spent most of his efforts, dealing with the dead pine trees that were caused by the western pine beetle infestation. The mortality there has been severe and we have lost probably thousands of trees. Up until last year, Dan was trying to keep up with cleaning them up by himself, but as it got worse, it became overwhelming. We hired Sindt’s Tree Service to come up for multiple days to help Dan with cutting and chipping dead trees. We have created some large clearings where groups of 30-50 trees had died. There are still enough healthy trees though that it still looks like a forest and we are really happy about that. Dan has been sowing native grass seed in the bigger open areas such as Idaho fescue, blue wildrye, and California melic.
Mark and Sage have been going up to Pike regularly to help Dan salvaged as much good wood as they could to mill into lumber for the Petaluma barn project. Last year they milled up about 20,000 board feet of siding, flooring, and timbers, which have been stored in the big arena at the ranch, and are now starting to be used. This summer they milled up probably another 10,000 bf. It has actually made some very nice lumber. Dan is excited to share that they have improved their skills at getting the lumber to dry flat, and he is pretty proud of that. Everyone is really looking forward to seeing the big barn re-skinned with Pike lumber and looking good for a long time to come.
