May 21-22, '10

Sally was still in New Mexico, so this was a solo trip. It was hot (mid 80s) and the ticks were bad.

Short Cut
I came and went via the short cut through the WMA. After crossing this beautiful clear creek, I cought up with a tractor just as he was pushing a downed tree trunk out of the road. Later he pulled over and let me pass. That was before I got to this tree still hanging over the road -- all damage from storms about 10 days earlier. Hopefully they will do more maintenance on this road, though I doubt I will be taking it once it gets dry and dusty.

Garden
The rain gauge showed 1.75 inches -- that meant we got almost 7 inches over 7 or 8 days. (The road north of the house still had a little standing water.) But the last rain had been Wednesday, and the garden was already dry on the surface. I brought a basil plant out to add to the mix. I picked two more broccoli, another big bag of spinach, a few more radishes, and some more collards. But little green worms were getting to the collards and broccoli leaves. I doubt we will get any more collards. Before leaving, I did go ahead and water.

Mow/Weedeat
This time of year, it seems like this is all I get done. It looks great by the time I leave, only to return the next weekend and start over. Had to bring out another 5 gallons of gas for the equipment.

Weeding
I bought a new tool to use for weeding. Its sort of like an ice axe. Real heavy duty. I worked around some of the berries and apples. Got into an aunt bed under one of the apples and had to leave it. Also spread all the newspaper I had around a few blackberries.

Found this walnut sprouting under one of the pear trees. Normally I'd let them grow, or even transplant them, but it was too close. Felt bad pulling it up.

Sprayed
I sprayed the apples with fungacide, and 12 gallons of herbacide mostly applied to knapweed. I did take one tank up to the hill where I was disappointed to find quite a bit of summac still growing -- but far far better than 3 years ago. I mixed some diesel in this time, so will be interested in seeing if it improves the effectiveness.

Knapweed
I pulled up another 450 plants. But much of these were more firmly planted, and my hand grip began to fail. This is such a massive problem, but I am persistent.

May 15-16, '10

Sally left for New Mexico Thursday morning, so Tender and I had our choice for farm dates. Unfortunately the weather forecast was for off and on rain from Thursday through Sunday. Nothing severe forecast, but flash flood warnings due to additional rain on top of what we had already received earlier in the week. (Cindy measured 2 inches.) We chose Sat./Sun. because that always gives me a few more hours out there.

As it turned out, we got two heavy showers Friday morning, but the afternoon was clear and I got a lot of yard work done. Saturday it rained on us all the way out and until about 1:30. The rain gauge at the farm had 4.75 inches, and there was water standing in the drive and the yard out back. Very messy. It continued to rain off and on until about 4pm Sunday. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the rain gauge before leaving to see what we had received since I arrived.

Well House
The first thing I did, before turning on the well pump breaker, was check the well house. It was wet, but I didn't notice any significant standing water. I didn't think much about it after that until Sunday while weeding around the black berries. Suddenly I heard the sump pump kick on. This was the first time I had ever observed it actually running -- outside of testing it. It ran for about three minutes and created a pool of water east of the garden (where it drains) large enough to begin to run down the hill. Nice to have that piece of equipment. Before I left Sunday, I glanced in the well house again and there was about 5 inches standing in the bottom. It takes about 10 inches to trigger the sump pump switch.

Garden
I missed having Sally to do the garden work. It took a lot of time to pick and clean spinach, radishes, and collards. Those collards and the spinach were beautiful. That picture of the spinach bed is after I thinned out enough to fill a huge bag. There were two broccoli I cut and two more small ones that I hope will be ready the next weekend. I planted a pepper I brought out, not a jalapino but something (can't remember and had never heard of the name) not as hot but recommended for salsa. A few of the beans were blooming, so Sally will be happy. The wild flowers are taking over the far corner, and the dahlias (?) next to the garage are beginning to sprout. I also did some weeding.

Mow/Weedeat
The grass at the cattle guard and upper road was really high, so I walked up the hill with the brush whacker to beat it back. With wet grass and no guard on that monster my jeans end up green. I also did some weed eating with the Poulan, but after changing out the fixed line I couldn't get it restarted. Sunday it fired right up and I got some more done down by the barn.

There was a period early Sunday afternoon when the rain temporarily stopped that I jumped on the riding mower. I barely got the spring area cut, and the upper area opposite the house and over by the swing, and it started raining. (These were the two areas I had not cut the weekend before, so it had been three weeks and the grass was really high.) With rain falling I went ahead and sharpened the one odd mower blade I have (since I bent one of my new ones). Its probably futile, but I hope to keep them semi sharp this year.

Water Bars
Driving in and weed eating up the road I noticed that the water bars on the road need some maintenance. I took Tender and the adz up and we did minor patch work. I'll need to harvest some mud and rock to have any real impact -- when its dryer.

Fruit
I pulled weeds around some of the black berries and the apple and pear trees. In the process I noticed there is 1 pear on the 3 in 1! Lots of the little nectarines and peaches are on the ground, but there are still lots on the trees. I suppose this is normal. To attempt to keep the weeds down around the berries I think I will try using newspaper again this year. I need to bring a bunch out for that job.

Knapweed
The wet weather was good for something. With the groung saturated I found that in many areas I could just pull up these vile plants. I only counted during a short period, but suspect I yanked over 500 out of the ground. It really was the best use of my time, and so much more effective than spraying the stuff. Unfortunately there are thousands more scattered all over.

Gutter
I did some minor maintenance to the gutter in front of the garage. It needs to be totally replaced and I'd love to put in a rain barrel. For now at least its not pouring water down right in the center. It got beat up pretty good by the melting heavy snow early in the year.

Sprayed
Once I could tell the rain was done, around 4pm Sunday, I went ahead and sprayed the apples for rust. Only observed a few yellow spots on the leaves.

Pond
Very unusual, but I never got to the pond. I didn't even get below the barn/spring level. Water was coming through the culverts, so I wasn't too worried about them being dammed.

Short Cut
I drove back the short cut. On the way over I was worried the creek might have been too high to ford, so I drove through Eureka. The creek isn't what I should have been worried about though. I drove over limbs in the road, around limbs and trees partially in the road (only had to get out and move one), and actually had to drive under a tree that was leaning across the road but propped up by another tree. Saw one parked car along the road, which was a little strange. The creek was higher than I had ever seen it, but I had no problem driving through it.

May 6-8, '10

We were in Texas the previous week-end, Atlanta and Dangerfield (so we had to get out) and Lindsey was graduating Saturday. So we came out Thursday night, arriving at dusk, and returned Saturday morning.

Garden
There was a half inch in the rain gauge, but it had come the weekend before. The garden looked good but was bone dry, so we did some watering in the dark. The summer spinach was doing really well, and we had some with our eggs and Sally brought enough home for a quiche. She also picked collards, radishes, and 1 broccoli. Another broccoli had gone to flower, but the others hadn't formed heads? Sally showed me how it is best to get the radishes before they get too big, but they were still good. One of the bell peppers had fruit, but not the other. There were some volunteer tomatoes coming up, and Sally brought four heritage ones out that she planted. The onions still have not grown much and may need fertilizing. The wild flowers are certainly doing well, and we may need to take some control measures.

Fruit
The black berries are blooming and there is lots of fruit on the nectarine, the Alberta peach, the big volunteer peach down the track to the barn, and one of the apples. Now to figure out how to convince the coons to save some for us.

Sprayed
There were no yellow spots on the apple leaves (yet), which was great. So I sprayed them again (3rd application) for apple-cedar rust. I also used my back sprayer and attacked more of the knapweed down the road. It really is bad, and is beginning to shoot up the stalks for the blooms.

Mow
The grass was really high. I mowed almost everything with the riding mower. I also got the Poulan weed eater running enough to burn a tank of gas. I believe the head I put on it last year is too heavy and bogs it down. Its some kind of fixed line contraption that you can put 4 double lines on at a time. I only use 2, but it wasn't until they were worn down that it began to run good. Probably needs a carb adjustment as well (wish I knew what I was doing in that area). I also ran through a tank of gas on the brush whacker -- getting most of the hill in the front and the back done. (It's getting tough on me to do too much of this.) The brush whacker has been dying when the gas gets low, another equipment issue I've got to figure out.

Repaired Chair
I got the adirondak that had blown over the bluff put back together. We'll see if it holds, since some of the screw holes had been abused in the fall. I only cut one new piece, the front left leg you see in this picture. That was piece of cedar fence left over from our backyard fencing on Coleridge in 1975. (Of course it had been stored out of the weather.)