In summer, floodplain forests burned around our city, and great damage was done to nature. When he heard about the opportunity to participate in the restoration of nature, he agreed to help free of charge in this noble cause. Saplings of young trees have already been paid for, a tractor has been allocated, and a "Chashkin seeder", or, as the foresters say, a "planter" have been given for planting the forest.
On Saturday morning, they came for me at 9.20 and took me to the plant growing center, where we loaded 70 bundles of seedlings into a truck, each bundle of 15 pieces of young elm, ash and Christmas trees. While they were loading, two more sleepy volunteers came.
A Sadko truck with a crane loaded the Chashkin seeder, terribly old, produced in the 1950s, but still quite working. We arrived 40 kilometers from the city, to the Blagoslovenskoe forestry, to a place designated for planting a new forest.
For an hour and a half, we assembled the seeder and the tractor, and finally got down to work.
Professionals planted seedlings from the seeder, I walked behind the tractor and trampled down.
The sowing field was cleared and plowed, but not cultivated, so the roots of bushes and trees soon damaged the planter. We ourselves had to look for a welding machine, tools, cables ...
Finally they repaired, but one worker was injured, and I was put to work on the seeder instead. I quickly mastered a new profession, it was not difficult.
On the photo is Chashkin's forest planting machine. Two are planting, the one who follows tramples the seedlings.
photo from here
photo from here https://mpr.orb.ru/presscenter/news/19618/
At lunchtime, we ate food taken at home, drank tea from a thermos.
Until they were clean, they did not guess to take a picture, and when they got dirty in the rain, it was too late ...
With great difficulty, but in the end, by nightfall, they sowed the entire field, all two hectares. The tractor "Belarus" in the pitch darkness drove across the field with the headlights on, the front bucket was constantly dropping, apparently there was not enough oil in the hydraulics. An inexperienced tractor driver periodically confused the lifting and lowering levers of the tractor hitch, which made the seeder swing like on a swing, it was unforgettable ...
On Monday, a story about noble volunteers was shown on television and on the Internet, but they were not us, but beautiful, smiling people. And we were digging in the ground, tired, dressed in ugly work clothes, our view was not picturesque. The journalists drove past, to a neighboring site, where dear guests from Moscow and even some American posed, politicians, regional authorities, the press were celebrated, and where the volunteers were twice fed a hot lunch. I do not envy at all, because we honestly planted trees, and thanks to us, in 15 years a forest will grow on the field. Perhaps I will come there with my grandchildren and tell them proudly: - "This forest was planted by your grandfather ..."
