Dec 4-5, '09

Sally was at a retreat at Camp Mitchell, so it was just me and Tender on this beautiful winter weekend. Clear skies with highs in the low 40s and a low Saturday morning of 21. I do love working outdoors on such days.

Joe
On the way I followed a Ford 4x4 into and out of Eureka Springs, and then all the way to CR 511. He pulled into Kathy's drive and immediately approached me as I got to the chained cattle guard. I noticed a new lock on the chain with the key still in it -- and then he explained. He knew Kathy and she had given him permission to hunt on her land. He said he shot a buck on Tuesday, hitting it in the shoulder and not bringing it down. He tracked it to below our barn where he field dressed it, but he had to get his truck in to pack it out. So he cut the chain and put a new lock on. He asked if he could hunt on our place and I said no. Hunting season ends Sunday, and I'll be glad.

Lopped Cedars
I spent about 2.5 hours Friday and 2 more Saturday lopping cedars. Boy did Tender have fun running through the pastures smelling everything as I worked. Friday I was south of the pond in the field and up to the fence line in a bit of woods. Saturday I was below the barn where I noticed I had let the trees get pretty big where the septic field line is (not that I know exactly where it is), even though I had cleared it out 3 or 4 years ago. I was also looking for the remains of the deer, but all I found were the two hind legs and a large area of hair. I figured I lopped 4,000 cedars, though its hard to keep focused on a count as I work.

Banana bread
Made some black walnut bran banana bread Friday evening. Um, um good.

Frost Flowers


Cindy had been talking about these and sent me a picture from the Carroll County newspaper. I started noticing them on the way out along Hwy 12. On Friday there were hundreds on that north facing slope where I was lopping cedars, in-spite of being in the sun. But I didn't have my phone/camera. So when Tender and I got out Saturday morning I got these pictures over by the spring, though there were far fewer on this dry south facing slope.

Annual Rye
I had picked up 50 lbs. of annual rye at the Farmer's Co-op, and spread it up the road. Hope we get enough moisture for it to germinate before March (which has happened before).

Cracked Walnuts
Cracked enough to keep me busy picking for a couple of weeks.

Chainsawed Cedars
Took my chainsaw back down below the barn and cut some of the larger cedars. One had grown up at the gate positioned half way down the far pen, and had it completely blocked. I really don't get down there often, and I could spend a year clearing cedars from there down to the old home site. This was the only time I had to leave Tender at the house.

Nov 20-21, '09

Thrift Shop
On the way we stopped at the new Thrift Shop that has moved into the old Yester Years Antique building in Eureka right at Rock House road. Got some great deals, including a nice pair of jeans for a $1.

Locked Out
The Corroll Electric meter reader had his pad lock through both ends of my end of the chain, and had me locked out. I'll make sure I never leave him enough chain to do that again. We carried much of our staff down, and my arms were aching by the time we got to the house. Later I took a hack saw back to the cattle guard and cut the link on the end and brought the truck down. Really didn't need to carry all that stuff down.

Great Weather
Sally and I had a beautiful weekend with mild temperatures and clear days. She got a few jalapenos and some spinach out of the garden, and the broccoli was beginning to look like it might provide some food. Sally soaked up sun while reading and relaxing I cut more cedars above the house, drug cedars to the burn area, cracked walnuts, and wrapped barbed wire around the wooden feeder (continuing my battle with the coons -- they were on top of the feeder Friday night).

Nov 14-15, '09

This was a solo trip, as I joined the Ozark Society and 40 participants for a hike into Dismal Hollow on Saturday. I'd heard of this spot and was anxious to see it. The time was well spent. (I'll be putting more pictures on my picasaweb site.) Dismal Hollow is northwest of Nail just off Hwy 16. Unfortunately I had a flat on the dirt road just after the hike, but with some help I had it changed in 20 minutes. From there it was 80 miles to the farm via highways 16, 21, 412, 127, 23, 62, 305, 221, and finally CR 511. I would have driven the dirt roads up through the Madison County Wildlife Management Area, but didn't want to try that without a spare tire. I arrived at the farm just at dusk.

Work

• Cleared one of the culverts as the pond was not backed up much.
  
• Mowed the front yard using the headlights of the riding mower.
  
• Made some melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin bread (yum).
  
• Pulled the back door off and patched the rotted out section on the inside lower corner. Its a metal door sandwiched over a wooden core (at least around the edge). The rot has been there since we bought the place, slowly getting worse. We will see how this epoxy wood patch works.
  
• Treated the picnic table, one of the adirondaks, and the well house with CFW preservative.
  
• Cut up ice storm limbs I had hauled down the hill and ones that recently fell from the two oaks left of the road heading down the hill. Also cut up the rest of the long camp fire limbs I had piled up.
  
• Sharpened the Stihl and the McCulloch.
  
• Cracked a few walnuts before it started spitting rain and I headed back.
  

Nov 6-7, '09

We had gone to Atlanta the previous weekend, so it had been two weeks since being out. I could immediately tell Larry Hodge had gotten the brush hogging done (apparently he had finished earlier that day -- more on that later). The second thing I noticed was the pond was real high. I knew we had probably gotten three inches of rain the week before last, but that it had been dry for over a week. Actually the weather was very nice -- warm and dry (in the upper 70s) both Friday and Saturday.

Pond

I knew I needed to mow down to the pond, so got right on the mower and headed down. I couldn't believe what I found. I could not drive across the dam because water was running over the top -- the beavers had both culverts 95% dammed up. I went back to the house for the camera, but couldn't talk Sally into coming down to see. More pictures are on my picasa web site. It was just unreal as I had never seen the pond this full. From the back looking across we had an 'endless pond'. And the water that poured through once I cleared all the limbs was impressive. It was espcially cool to look up the culverts and see the pond level near the top with water pouring in but only filling 25% of the volume of the culvert. It just could not enter fast enough.

Brush Hogging

Larry seemed to have three problems. Here he seemed to have some trouble turning and really cut up the road. He also snagged a part of the fence just to the right of this corner and drug it down the hill pulling up 3 for 4 steel posts and mangling a bunch of wire. Its a section I had partially taken down years ago in order to make the turn in my truck entering the pasture where the deer feeder is located. Its a mess and I will have spend some time cutting out and hauling off the wire. I'd like to take that section of fence down anyway.

The real disappointment was that he mowed behind the line of pine trees he had left three years before -- the same line he was not to mow behind then.
This is where Nicholas and I had planted 500 pines last January. He did a pretty good job going around the little volunteer walnuts I had flagged off the road to the pond, but we just had a another major miss communication here -- again. Oh, I would love to have my own tractor.

Miscellaneous
Deer had eaten the leaves of the new red maple I had just planted two weeks before. I hauled more limbs from the woods above the house and cut them up. Some of them splitting size. Brought the hammock stand in so water wouldn't freeze in the pipe and split it. Then just before leaving Sally wanted to spend some time laying in the hammock. We opted for the swing across the creek -- the one I had repaired the previous trip.

Oct. 23-24, '09

Garden
After a couple of frosts (one Saturday morning), the garden was pretty much shot. We did pick more green beans and black eyed peas before pulling up the plants. There were more cherry tomatoes but they didn't taste good. Tender actually got sick after eating some. Of course there was more summer spinach (had it with our eggs). We also got a few jalapenos (left that plant) and bell peppers (pulled it up).

Fall/Beaver

The trees were pretty, but many (including our sunset maple) had already dropped their leaves. We had gotten another 2.4 inches in the gauge, so the creeks were flowing and the spring was full Friday. Beaver had the culverts dammed way up, so I cleared those again when we walked down Saturday morning. The pond should have dropped a good 8 inches. Larry Hodges is looking for a dry period to get in and brush hog.

Work

• Repaired the swing on the other side of the spring. The vertical cross member between the seat and arm rest had broken and it was cracking the horizontal piece supporting the seat. Cut and drilled out a replacement.
  
• Sally had gotten two trees from the fall city give away that I planted. A red bud I put by the road on the way in where I have two volunteers coming up, and a red maple I put to the west of the house and just south of the sunset maple.
  
  
• Put the insulation back in the top of well house.
  
• Drug limbs big enough for fire wood out of the woods north of the house, and drug some cedars NE of the house for another burn (lots more to go up there).
  

Propane
Anderson's had filled the propane tank during the week, 205 gallons. Price is low now, $325.

Truck Stuck

This was the big event of the weekend. (I wish I had thought to get a picture of the truck, but instead only got the mess it left.) I had 6 bags of bentonite clay stacked on some boards in the garage. I had gotten them in the summer to plug the south culvert where the pond had started leaking. But when I got back out the beaver had solved that problem, and I hadn't had a need for the bentonite. But I noticed mice or something had chewed through the bottom two bags. So I decided to dump it in the pool below the spring because it has never held water (I've tried this before). I didn't want to carry the bags over there, so I drove them in the truck. Feeling like there wasn't room to turn around in there, I decided to back out (which I have done before). But just before getting back to the main road I didn't realize I was heading off the narrow lane and both left tires ended up down the hill. I'm really lucky I didn't roll the truck. I called a Berryville tow truck who hooked onto the side of the Tacoma (front and back) and winched it up to where it was almost on the road. It dug so much of the hill he wasn't comfortable trying that any further. So he tried to drive it out, but had no luck getting it to move. He then got behind the Tacoma in the drive going to the barn and pulled it backward with me inside holding the wheel straight. Sally said the right rear tire was several feet in the air at one point. Then, it was making a terrible screech when I drove it up the hill. The driver said it was gravel stuck in the disk brakes and I would need to pull the calipers. Later I realized that it only happened in 4WD and found a rock wedged between a housing and the drive shaft going to the front wheels. The tow was only $75. I'll probably spend more than that replacing the mud guard that got torn off the front left.

Oct. 10-11, '09

Sally was in Colorado seeing Amanda and soaking at Gleenwood Springs, so this was a boys weekend (Tender and me).

Walnuts
I had picked up about three bags of black walnuts around Asbell earlier in the week. But I wanted more figuring this was the best chance to them hulled when I passed through Clifty. (Wouldn't be out the next weekend since Sarah and Dave were coming in.) So I stopped across Drake from the Agri Farm to pick up nuts in an old walnut grove. It took about an hour and a half, but I got another 3+ bags. For $7 I had them hulled by Clarence in Clifty -- ending up with 108 pounds. Chose to store them for drying in the work room at the house. (Sally's already complained about the smell.)



Weather
We had recieved over 5 inches of rain in town Thursday night/Friday morning, so I was a bit anxious about what I would find. The gauge was completely full, so 5.5 inches plus. The well house had a little water still standing, but the sump pump must have worked as there was no sign of high water. I have not completely filled the hole I dug replacing the yard hydrant behind the barn, and sure enough it was completely full of water (and mud). The pond was also full but there were no signs of it going over the main part of the dam -- just the lower part on the far side.

It was 62 degrees in the house, so I went ahead and lit a heater though I never used it. It was in the 30s over night and the high Sunday was only 50 with completely overcast skies.

Work
Did some mowing, some weed eating, and continued cutting, dragging and piling limbs in the pastures -- downed from the ice storm. I'm finally ready for the place to be brush hogged, but now its too wet.

Birds
There was still food in the green feeder, but very few birds around. The suet feeder had completely disappeared. Restocked the sunflower and thistle feeders hoping for some customers.

Burrs
The fields and non-mowed areas are full of begger lice and tiny burrs that stick to anything. I don't remember these in the past. Tender would get loaded up and I had to give him several thorough brushings. They were also difficult to remove from my clothes, especially the frayed areas of my jeans.

Oct. 2-3, '09

It had been three weeks since being at the farm due to my Lake City, CO trip with Brad and meeting up with Amanda. Need to get that written up for my website.

Garden

Sally got quite a few green beans from the one pole bean plant she didn't pull up, and was now upset about being impatient and pulling up the others. Also got more black eyed peas, but nearing the end of that crop. Picked one bell pepper and had stuffed peppers this week. Also got lots of jalapenos, but just a few tomatoes -- Sally wouldn't pick most of the cherry ones thinking they didn't look good.

Work

There was 4.1" in the rain gauge, so the grass was still growing and everything needed mowing. I got most of it, leaving the area behind the house and across the spring for the next weekend -- along with weed eating. Also, trying to get ready for the pastures to be brush hogged I continued cutting up ice storm limbs. (I got another truck load of firewood and had Sally call Lou to offer it to her since she would be in Tulsa Thursday, but Lou had just taken delivery of a load.) There are some huge walnut limbs which I wonder if could be salvaged. I'd love to make a table.

Leisure

Watched some 11 year old television when we found a video marked Donna's Baseball, but had a Sony Bono tribute and other old TV programs.