Creating shallow drainage ditch

[blakesfav]

Update - another inch of rain today, and water is flowing! I spent an hour this evening connecting the ruts with a shovel, and I've got a fairly brisk current running down the ditch and into the drain pipe I placed last week. It's still too muddy to work with the tractor, but now I can't wait to finish the project knowing it might acutally work. I'll try to post pictures later -

 

[Typhoon]

Hey, I noticed in the background what I think to be loblolly pine trees. Just curious but, how old are they? I just planted 1,300 of them and they are growing like weeds. Also, what do you do to keep the deer off of them? I just built a cage around every single tree to keep them off. Man what a project that was!!
-Brad

 

[Glenn9643]

Brad,
I'm not sure of the type the pines are, but they are an "improved" variety that's supposedly fast growing. They were planted in January 2001 and I think those pictures were taken last December. We planted about 600 and some are about six feet high now. However, some are about three feet. Deer haven't been a big problem with our trees. In addition to the pines we planted about 300 shumardi oaks along with a few bald cypress, sawtooth oak. mulberry, and other varieties. The hardwoods are on 50' squares. The pines are 8' apart on rows 10' apart. The only problem we've had so far with the deer is using one or two of our cedars for a "rub".