Apr 24-25, '10

Sally attended a class till 3 Saturday, so we were late arriving. It also rained (stormed) overnight and throughout the morning, but was clearing by the time we headed out.

Strangeness
The first thing we noticed was that the gate next to the cattle guard swung open as we drove across. I re-latched it with the chain, but who would have opened it? As soon as we arrived at the back of the house, we noticed that one of our adirondake chairs was missing. With the gate open, we immediately thought perhaps someone had stolen it. But who would carry a wooden chair all the way up the hill. Everything else looked okay. Not really thinking that someone would have taken it, I looked over the bluff. Sure enough it was crunched down by the barn -- apparently getting blown off the hill. That must have been some wind. I think I will be able to repair it with only having to replace one of the legs. (The next morning I found an old cedar fence board I was able to cut to size with a hand saw. The rest of the repair will occur on another trip.)

Rainbow
I thought the pond looked high, with the grass right at the water level. So I talked Sally into driving down with me. The culverts were clear, the pond was high from the earlier rain, and apparently the grass has gown in where it had died from the culverts being dammed up so much through the winter. On the way up the hill we noticed a double rainbow over Ben's. By the time I got my phone booted up and this picture it was down to just a single. By the time I got a shot without the barn in it there was just a short rainbow.

Garden
The garden looked great and Sally was eager to get in there. We harvested the last of the lettuce, radishes, collards, one broccoli, and even enough spinach for our eggs. Sally moved some bean plants that were crowded, planted more marigolds and some other seeds. There is all kinds of stuff coming up, much of what I think are wildflowers from the patch she planted last year.

Morning Walk
We walked to the pond in the morning, and would you believe it -- beaver had been there overnight though they hadn't done much damming. I can't figure them out.

For the second week, I threw out fish food but no catfish came to eat. We use to have over 20 that would come, down to about 9 last year, and now I wonder if they are all gone.

Spray Apples
Even though it was misty and some light rain fell, I went ahead and sprayed the apple trees for the second week. Here is a picture of how the apple-cedar rust looks on the cedars. There were still a few blooms, and there are tiny apples beginning to form. There are also nectarines and peaches on the Alberta. Unfortunately my New Haven peach is dying. It had buds, has a few leaves, but is obviously succumbing to some disease.

Mow
I did quite a bit of mowing, even in the wet conditions. But I hit a rock down on the dam in the area that had eroded badly when the beaver had it over topping. After that I couldn't keep from hitting more rocks and running aground even on the highest setting. I finally realized I had bent the blade (down). That was a brand new pair of blades I had just put on the mower. But after getting the blade off, I see that the steal is not as thick as the previous blades. I couldn't straighten it, so I sharpened an old blade and put it on.

Apr 17-18, '10

Tender and I were alone since Sally was in Denver. Before heading out I picked up 8 roles of R13 3.5 x 15 inch bats of insulation, which pretty much filled up the bed of the truck. More on that project later.

Garden
It hadn't rained all week, although it did sprinkle on me most of the way out. Everything in the garden was doing okay but it was bone dry. So as I was watering a light rain began to fall. That didn't stop me though.

Sally didn't trust me to plant the additional marigolds she had bought, so I had left them at home. The only other gardening I did was to weed the next morning and water again before I left Sunday afternoon.

Burn
Since it was raining I decided to burn the cedars I'd cut below the barn. I headed down with my newspaper, lighter, and a rake. But I didn't realize until I got down there that I had forgotten my hand saw (for cutting up the bigger trees). Got the fire going and was burning the smaller stuff when the rain quit. The fire was so hot the immediate area including dead grass around the burn quickly dried out. Then I was hesitant to pile on whole cedar trees, so I just ended up burning the smaller stuff I had collected in that area.

Insulation
By the time I got back to the house it was sprinkling again. (All in all I don't think we got a quarter of an inch of rain.) Given it was too wet to mow or weedeat, I decided I would tackle the insulation job.

The house was built without indoor plumbing, and sits on a very thick slab of concrete (Ben told me so). The well and plumbing were added by Kathy when she bought it from Ben circa 1995. Water lines were run to the north side (hot water closet) and south side (kitchen) of the house. Hot and cold water were run through the attic from the hot water closet to the bathroom and laundry closet, and the hot water runs all the way across the attic and down through the wall to the kitchen sink. (You can hear popping from the heat expansion when the hot water is turned on in the kitchen.) So I've always been paranoid about these lines in the attic freezing, especially after cold winters like this last one (we burned 250 gallons of propane, more than ever before). That's the basis of my concern about the pilots going out on the propane heaters while we are not there. So, I figured another layer of insulation in the attic (at least in these areas) would be a good thing.

The ceiling joist are just 2x4s, although they are from the 1970s and thus real 2x4s. So the depth of insulation in the attic is just 4 inches. Not much covering those pipes. It took me 2 and half hours to cover the area I intended, using 5 of the 8 roles. By that time I was done stooping and crawling around up there, plus it was pretty darn warm even though the outside temp was in the 60s. I'll look for an opportunity to spread the remaining insulation -- maybe next fall/winter (though I would like to get enough to add another layer to the whole house as I figure it will also help keep it cool in the summer).

Morning Walk
Tender and I walked down to the creek I've been trying to clean up. Look at this white foam bleeding from the wild grape where it was scraped. Further up I found this wild iris blooming -- first time I'd seen one of these actually in bloom. And then on the way back up the hill I checked this bluebird house. I didn't have to open it to check for a nest, because I could see the head and eyes looking back out at me. After the picture, I got up closer and noticed some blue on the tail feathers -- so I am sure it is a bluebird. No one has yet set up shop in the other two bluebird houses, one in the front yard and one out back.

Spray Apples
Last year the apple-cedar rust almost killed one of my apple trees. So I bought a sprayer and immunox, and doused all three trees good. There were still blooms on the trees, so this is the right time to start spraying. They are supposed to be sprayed every 7 to 10 days for about three months. This will be very difficult for me to do. I can already see the ugly balls forming on the cedars. Next, orange tentacles will emerge from them. Uck!

Crack Walnuts
I cracked the last of my walnuts. If I had had some already cracked, I would of sent them to Amanda via Sally. Amanda said that John grew up with a walnut tree in the front yard and had volunteered to help pick them out. I also owe Jackie some (cracked, not picked) which I will be delivering soon.

Northern Red Oak/Lopping
Seeing how good this red oak looked in the front yard made me want to go down to the pasture and check on the rest of the lot of 100 I planted in '08. So I got my loppers and Tender and drove to the pond. (Some very slight beaver activity -- I don't understand why, if they are there, they aren't trying to dam the culverts more.) The plot where I put the red oaks is up the creek from the pond and in a small clearing on the other side. I counted 35 of the 90 I had originally planted there. In '06 I had put 300 pines in there, but they had gotten brush hogged. Some of these have survived though -- I counted 35 of them as well.

From that area to up above the pond I wondered around lopping any trash I found. Mostly cedars, but also elm, briars, persimmon, and something that looked like some type of thistle. Another thousand down, but whose counting.

Mow/Weed Eat
The riding mower started without jumping the battery. I was figuring on having to replace the battery, but maybe it will hang on another season. Did a bit of mowing, and then got the brush whacker out. I mixed up some fresh gas for this monster (it uses a 16-1 ratio) and it fired right up. I got most of the hill cut back.

Dog Wood
Here is one of the dogwoods we put out in 2004. See how the deer cropped it during the long period when snow was on the ground. Good to see it coming back, even if it such a slow grower.

Short Cut
I drove home through Eureka, being tired of the dusty dirt road already. It turned out to be 19.9 miles (vs 8.5) and took 29 minutes (vs 25) -- no definitive reason to go one or the other. I'll probably pick and choose based upon how dry (dusty) the conditions are.

Apr 9-10, '10

It was a beautiful day with the red buds and dogwoods out in glory. Since we had called off canoeing (because it was supposed to have been cold -- freezing in the morning) we decided to hike to a waterfall off the short cut we had been taking.

Teakettle Falls
I had confirmed that it was a mile or so down the creek we would drive through. No trouble initially picking up the trail, or man way down one side of the creek. But it was very rough going with all the downed trees. There were numerous places where we had to go around, over, and under the timber. Even places where I had to carry Tender over stuff. Sally wanted to go down the creek, but it was mess and I didn't have water shoes -- a big mistake. We got to a section where a couple of creeks joined the main fork and there was this small fall on one of them, but I knew we needed to go further. We lost the trail, hiked around, found a place to cross the creek, and by that time Sally (and Tender) had had enough. I ran on down, but came to a point I would have the wade the creek. Not willing to do that in my Lowa trekking shoes, I turned around also. I'll be back some day and be better prepared. One thing I was amazed at was all the buckeye trees in the valley -- I don't remember ever seeing them out in the wild like this.

Garden
Sally jumped right into the garden. She had brought some marigolds and a couple of bell peppers. Everything looked good and the viola were really popping, though it was very dry. I'm a little worried because there is no rain forecast for another week. The volunteer summer spinach, and other spinach seeds Sally had planted, are coming up strong. She picked most of the lettuce that had survived the winter and we've been eating it. Even the garlic cloves I had her stick in the ground the week before were coming up.

Mowed
I jump started the riding mower and mowed to the pond, around the spring, in front of the barn, and in front of the house. Thank goodness, no sign of beaver at the pond!

Clear Downed Trees in Creek
I took my chainsaw and loppers back down to Plume creek. I lopped, cut, drug and stacked limbs trying to clear a path up the creek. And then there were the briars. There was not near the water flow this week, and the creek was a bit mucky in places. I hope that once the path is cleared much of the small stuff will wash out. I didn't finish, but I got up to where these large cedars are across it. Later, I talked Sally into walking up the part I had cleared. But it quickly became obvious that it needs much more work before its a place to which she will want to return. I'll also need to burn all the limbs I've piled up.

Firsts
Sally and I both got our first ticks of the season. They just come with the territory, literally.

Apr 2-3, '10

Sally had an appointment in Harrison, so we were meeting at the farm. Chris and Lyndsey had originally planned on coming out, but with a front to move through with heavy rain and hail Friday afternoon/evening they decided to reschedule.

Short Cut
I came the new short cut and got an exact mileage measurement of 8.5 miles, 5.5 of which was one lane dirt road. Returning that way was 24 minutes from the cattle guard driving aggressively. I'll next compare these to the route through Eureka. The service berry blooming through the forest was beautiful.

Pond Culverts
I was eager to see what damage the beaver had done during the week, so the first thing I did was head for the pond. I took my loppers and chainsaw and parked at the bottom of the hill not wanting to drive the low wet part of the road. I lopped 60 cedars just crossing the field to the pond. I was very surprised to find just a few limbs and mud clogging the culverts. The beaver had been there, but had not really done much. This long log is what I had pulled out the week before. I was pleased, but puzzled. It started raining as I began to scout around the pond for a den. As I ventured into the overgrown area on the north side, a 30 inch tan snake took off for the pond right in front of me. The first snake of the season, and the first of three we saw this weekend. He slithered into the water and disappeared, leaving my heart racing. With the rain picking up I decided the heck with going around the pond and headed back for the truck. I was pretty soaked by the time I reached it.

Burn
With it raining and me already wet, I thought I would burn the cedars I had cut in the pen below the barn. I couldn't find a small pack of matches so I took some strike anywhere kitchen matches and put them in a plastic bag (not wanting to take the whole box and get them wet). I also grabbed some newspaper (which I stuffed under my jacket), a file (thinking I could use it to strike the matches), and a hand saw, and headed down. But I couldn't get a match to light in the wet conditions. I was frustrated, but given the rain we got in the next hour I am glad I couldn't get a fire started.

Barn Culvert
The project I could do in the rain was right there at the barn. I hadn't thought of it until I walked right by it -- bury the culvert I had brought out the previous weekend. It was going between the enclosed concrete part of the barn and the open dirt side, both sides covered from the rain. So I went back to the garage and got my shovel and adz. Removing the old bridge and digging out the ditch I already had turned out to be pretty easy. Within about an hour I had the culvert buried and water from the continuing rain, sometime very heavy, was running through it. So good to have that done. To kill a little more time while waiting for Sally, I split some of the hickory limbs I had set aside there.

Garden
Sally was anxious to work in the garden, but it was too wet and continued to sprinkle off and on until dark. Overnight we received lots more rain (I'd wished I had put out the rain gauge), but it was done by morning. Saturday Sally planted some radishes and garlic and picked some of the lettuce that had survived the winter and was no longer bitter. Our other plantings were doing good with tiny beet sprouts and spinach already showing. The thick summer spinach which comes back volunteer every year was also beginning to sprout.

Morning Walk
There was lots of fog Saturday morning and the ground was soaked with lots of puddles. On the way back from the pond Sally found the tale, or rear end, of a snake. All I could figure is that I ran over it the day before -- but I couldn't find the other part. This one was obviously not poisonous and I regretted accidentally killing it.

Work
I removed and bagged the insulation from the top of the well house. Found one deceased mouse in the process. It was obvious there had been water in the bottom and that the sump pump had been working, but I went ahead and cleaned up the intakes and tested it.

I had noticed the cell phone antennae had slid down the roof, so I re-tapped it. In the process I noticed some of the screws in the sheet metal roof were lose, so I went up and tightened all I could find. In the process I noticed the caulk was all loose around the septic line vent pipe. So I re-caulked that even though the silicon caulk was partially dried up and I had to slit the side and putty it on with my knife. After coming down, I began to look for some leaves to clean my knife. Low and behold I almost stepped on another snake. This one hissed at me and flattened his head out. I thought it looked like a copper head. Being right next to the house and thinking it was poisonous, I went and got a shovel and killed it. Later consulting an Arkansas snake guide book I couldn't tell what kind any of the three snakes I had seen were.

After Sally left, I took my chainsaw and began cutting my way up plume creek. Its such a pretty creek, I've have dreams of cleaning up all the downed trees and making a trail up it. But what a mess. I almost made it all the way to our property line when a big cedar pinched the bar. After finally getting it lose, I was cutting the next and largest cedar. But when I got through it and it fell it somehow threw the chain. I'll have to come back to finish cutting, and then I will need to drag the limbs to the side -- ideally burning the cedars.

Lastly, before leaving I mixed a couple of gallons of herbicide and began spraying the knapweed which was beginning to grow. We have quite an infestation of this invasive weed, and since learning what it is last year, I've decided to go after it. I'll check back and see if the spray was effective and then slowly expand the attack.