July 24-25, 2009

David vs Beaver
I did some research and it appears the beaver may win this without some drastic measure: cut all the trees, dynamite their den, trap 'em. There is the Clemeson pond leveler which I'd like to try, but its a lot of work too. After busting up their work again, Sally and I drove down at dusk and parked up on the tepee flat area. We sat in the back of the truck with a bottle of wine thinking they would at least provide us with some entertainment, but they didn't show. We did get to see a nice crescent moonset. Next day though, they had stopped up the culverts again, and again I undid their handy work.

David vs Coons
This is another long on-going battle.


I put the 5 gallon plastic water jug with bottom cut out (Papa had given me) on the green metal feeder -- replacing the ineffective $50 racoon baffle. That seemed to work for 1 night. I replaced the post and added a second baffle to the wooden feeder. We heard them make attempts Friday night and I scared Papa coon, Mama coon, and three little ones off at one point. But the next day I could tell they had gotten around my obstacles some how.

Garden
Still no pole beans so we pulled up the last of those plants. The bush beans provided us with a couple of servings, one tomato, a bell peper, and several jalapenos.

Yard Hydrant
I finished excivating the hydrant back of the barn in preparation for its replacement. The hole is a good three feet deep. I'm a bit nervous about this task because the line is sitting right on top of a big flat rock, and if I don't see how I can saw the PVC off. I'm hoping I can cleanly break the weld and re-glue in the same joint. Since this is the end and bottom of the line we will have to let all the water drain out of the system and then dry up the connection. And of course no water during this time. Maybe I will put it off until a time when Sally isn't out there with me.

July 17-18, '09

Garden
The pole beans went crazy with their vegitation. Only problem is that there are few if any beans. There are blooms, but no beans. Sally grew tired of them and ordered most of them pulled up.

Pond
The beavers were busy, damming up the culverts again this week. I would guess they had the pond backed up a good 8 inches. I unclogged both culverts on our walk Saturday morning and the wate started pouring through. The interesting thing was that we beat the water to where it flows under the road. We could hear it coming down the creek and got to see the surge come through.

Weather
Had 1.8 inches in the gage -- nice given the oppresive heat we had been and the fact that we got nothing in town. But what a cool down for the weekend setting record lows in the 50s and highs in the low 80s. Got some quality hammock time in.

Work
Mowed everything on the upper level. Got the Stihl started without a problem and cut hickory and oak ice storm limbs above the well house. Dug down to the bottom of the Yard Hydrant behind the barn -- which has had a broken handle for a couple of years. Still more excavation needed. I'll replace it with parts Ben gave me. Hopefully it won't be too much of a PITA. Sprayed more sumac in the upper pasture. Still much more to go, but finally feeling like it is possible to get it under control.

History prior to July 2009

I decided to start this blog to chronicle our Serenity Farm activities and provide a history of what we have done there (and to learn about and experiment with blogging). Since we bought the farm in October 2003, I've missed almost six years of activity. And since blogs seem to be posted in inverse chronological order, I thought I would create this entry which I could edit and add the most significant historical farm activities to over time. This should have been my first post. Anyway, I hope to revise this entry -- ha, like I will have time to do so!

Trees Planted

• 2006 Approximately 1300 hybrid loblolly pines in the small field behind the pond and behind the ridge extending up the hill from the pond. Most were mowed down in the all due to a mis communication with my brush hogger, Larry Hodge.
• 2007 100 black walnut in various locations that hopefully wouldn't get mowed and 100 native pecans along the streams and the fence row above the road paralleling the stream.
• 2008 100 northern red oaks in the small field across the creek above the pond, and one at the house.
• 2009 500 hybrid loblolly pines trying to fill in where the originals got mowed.
• 
  
  May '09 Planted an oak (unknown type) behind the house to one day provide shade there. It was provided bare root by the Forestry Commission during the city's tree give away.
  

July 11-12 '09

Sally was getting over flu like symptoms, so stayed home with Tender.

Weather
Hot and dry -- mid to upper 90's. Had .6" in the rain gage from storms 7/3 and 7/4. A few leaves were falling from the Walnut trees and being blown about.

Garden
Looked good but little produce: 2 tomatoes, 2 jalapenos, 1 radish that had been missed, the remaining bock chow (6-8), and a handful of green beans mostly too big or too small. The pole beans are going crazy and have blooms but only 3 beans. Sally says we should pull them up. Spent lots of time watering and weeding both Sat. and Sun. Thinking about bringing a sprinkler out.

Work

• Mowed to the pond, around the barn, and around the spring.
• Cut up the downed ice storm limbs from white oak in the pasture on the way down the hill. That was 1/3 of a truck load. Then went to the big red oak beyond the pond (first time it has been dry enough to drive past the seep on the south side of pond) and cut up two more large limbs that had fallen since my first cleanup there. Some of these were splitting size. Loaded up the rest of the truck and still left limbs. Had trouble re-starting my Stihl MS250, and couldn't re-start it at the next stop. Got to get that figured out.
• Raked the algae and dead weeds around the edge of the pond. I can still see the weeds growing in the deeper portions of the pond, but only a few were reaching the surface. I was out of copper sulfate or would have applied more.
• Sprayed more sumac in the upper pasture. There is lots more, but I finally feel like I am making progress.
  

Bluebirds
Cleaned out both bird houses near the house. The back one had three dead babies. Don't know what happened there. Both houses had to hatchings this year.

Orchard
I watered the apples, though all three look pitiful. There were web worms on one pear (and the lilac by the house), and one branch of the 3in1 was stressed and leaves were browning out. I did get almost 2 quats of blackberries, but they are relatively small and not the plump juicy ones I would prefer.

Firsts

• Live armadillo on the road to the pond.
• Live scorpion in the house (dead now).
• The dam was leaking again around both culverts, which I could only tell before because the water level had dropped. This week the beavers had built a dam in front of both culverts with smooth mud -- I suspect plugging the leaks plus backing up water in the pond. I opened up a channel through the mud in front of one culvert on Sat., but it was plugged back up on Sun. Want to see what they have done next week, and what happens after a heavy rain.