It was a Lovely Way to Spend our Anniversary

 Yesterday, our garden club went out to "The Dog House."  The owner of Mulberry Plantation had this tenant house converted to his personal dog house.  Whenever he wanted to get away from "The Missus" this was where he went.  The tale goes that "Miss Mary" couldn't drive so he was out of reach.

Our friend, Randall Ewing, Sr., invited our garden club for lunch (Steaks!), a wagon ride, with a little forestry info thrown in on the side.

Several of our members own tracts of woods and Randall is quite knowledgeable about how to manage those lands so you make a profit and leave some trees for future generations.

These rattlesnakes and these turkeys were killed on the surrounding land. 

See the black spot in the tree ring; that shows that this tree was diseased in its 16th year; by the time it was cut another slab showed much more extensive damage.

The bricks on the left were hand made on the plantation.  One has the print of the entire thumb of the man who made the brick.  Those stones are actually indian tools.  Quite a few Indians lived in South Carolina originally.

These are some of the tools our forefathers would have used to till and plant the land before mechanization.

Our group gets ready to ride through the woods and see for ourselves the conservation practices that knowlegable forest owners use.

A happy ending to a beautiful, sunny, South Carolina March day.