April 15-16, 2011

Weather

The horrible front that spawned tornadoes and wrecked havoc throughout the south came through our area Thursday night. Lucky for us we just had wind and rain, and it brought much cooler temperatures. The rain gauge (which I remembered to put out the previous weekend) showed over 3 inches for the week (Thursday night plus Monday's storms). Friday was overcast and spitting a light drizzle with a high of 50 and howling winds well into the night. Sally barely got out of the house. Saturday started gray, damp, and cool (40 degrees) but later turned into a beautiful day.

Wet

I was glad we had gotten the rain since we have had a relatively dry year -- several inches below normal. There was water standing on the road north of the house and the tank below the spring was full (a rare site).

Garden/Trees

The garden and my little trees were thankful for the rain. Sally picked some radishes and spinach. It doesn't look like the basil plants (hit by a freeze) are going to make it, but bell pepper was putting out a green shoot.

All but two of the trees I brought out from town were beginning to leaf out. One, I can't even tell what kind it is. The well established Japanese maple and northern red oak looked great.

Morel Hunting

We'd never found any Morel mushrooms, but we had heard that this was the time of year they are growing. Apparently they are only around for a couple of weeks. I went out Friday with my loppers and hand saw and looked up the draw next to the road coming in, up into the pasture, and back across the woods above the house. I found no Morels, but pulled, lopped, or sawed 725 cedars and elms. I even climbed the dogwood by the road and cut out the big oak limbs that have been hanging in it since the January 2009 ice storm. (They had really been bugging me, but Sally didn't like the idea of me climbing and cutting -- no big deal though.)


For our Saturday morning walk, I talked Sally into going up Plume Creek. I really love this area, especially now that I have it somewhat cleared. Again we struck out on finding any Morels, but I really enjoyed the hike, the water, and all the new vegetation. We came across the wild iris in the creek bed, some pretty little yellow flowers, and the dog woods were still blooming. We also hiked up into the pasture to check under the big sycamore (a type of tree where you are suppose to be able to find Morels). Again no luck.


While at the sycamore, we could hear what sounded like a waterfall up by the bluff yet there is no creek or drainage from that area. So while Sally and Tender (wanting his breakfast) headed back to the house, I went up to investigate. It is amazing that no more water than this could create such a loud sound. And it just goes right into this karst ground and disappears (like the creek in dryer weather). This same bluff is where there were huge icicles just a few months back.

On the way back to the house, I decided to check on the large dog wood that is growing in the field. It is hidden from the house by the huge cedars on its north side, which seem to be trying to consume it. It was also ravaged by the ice storm, but is still alive and was blooming nicely. I'd love to clean it up and cut back the cedars -- oh for retirement and more time. When back at the house I noticed I could just make out the blooms right at the top of the tree peeking above the cedars.

Walnuts

Saturday morning while waiting for the grass to dry, I cracked another box full of black walnuts – almost finishing off my 4th bag. There is still a 5th bag, and I'm beginning to wonder if I am going to get through it. The meat is still very tasty.

Mow

The mower started again, though a little sluggishly. I cut the road to the pond, around the pond, in front and behind the barn, and the front yard. The algae at the pond didn't look bad, like a lot of it had washed out with the heavy rain. I decided not to treat it this week.

Spray Apple

With leaves on the apple now, I went ahead and sprayed fungicide on it to attempt to ward off the apple-cedar rust. (I was successful last year.)

More Lopping

Just before leaving I lopped another 125 cedars back of the barn. I worked my way up the bluff getting many growing on the little shelf there, and ended up in the back yard.

April 8-9, 2011

Weather/Garden

It was windy, warm (80+) and dry both days. The garden needed watering bad and the basil and pepper plants put out last weekend had gotten zapped by the Tuesday freeze (while the cilantro held up just fine). Actually, there is one tiny green leaf at the base of both of the basil plants, so we are going to wait and see. The onions and garlic are looking great. A couple of spinach plants are looking good and the tiny sprouts from the summer spinach are showing up everywhere. The other tiny plants are still, well, tiny. Sally poked a few bush green been seeds in the ground just to see if they would come up (don't recall when they should be planted, we've just been saving seeds year-to-year). I did some more weeding Saturday. Now we just need a decent rain.

The apple tree and the lilac were blooming. The lilac smelled heavenly. Unfortunately we forgot to take a cutting home. The dogwoods were also blooming and pretty to look at across the valley, while the redbuds are now done.

Birds

Two weeks earlier there were birds all over the feeders -- mostly gold finch. This weekend (and the previous) there were very few birds around. The thistle feeder didn't even need filling (its usually empty). Very strange.

However, on our walk to the pond Saturday morning, we did notice a blue bird leave the house that is half way down the hill! The other two houses are still vacant though.

Haul Cedar Poles

With just a bit of time available Friday, I barely shouldered these cedar poles I had left in the woods up the hill, and carried them down behind the house. (Actually one of them I had to drag.) Later I will take them to the barn (in the truck) to add to my collection. (I really need to find something to do with all the poles in the barn.) I still have more scattered through the woods up the hill. I've left them there partly to let them dry out so they will be lighter and easier to carry.

Sharpen Saws

Also on Friday, I sharpened the Stihl and the Poulan so they will be ready to go to work when needed.

Pond Scum

On Saturday morning we found a great reflection in the water on the pond, but also found these heavy mats of algae. This is what I had feared. Plus, you could see weeds beginning to grow on the bottom.

I brought some fish food down, but no fish came to eat. It was the catfish that would come. I hope they aren't all gone.

Later in the morning I came back with copper sulfate in my backpack sprayer and treated the north side of the pond. Later I read that colorant can be added to block the sunlight to stop the growth, but that it needs to be done much earlier in the year. Someday I hope I can learn how to manage the pond -- preferably without chemicals.

Cut Pine/Cedars

Since I was driving to the pond and looking for morning projects I brought my recently tuned Poulan and decided to clean up the ice storm damage under this field pine. Since Larry hasn't been able to get close to the tree due to the debris, there are lots of volunteer trees coming up under it. I suspect many are walnuts. If so, I will let them grow and eventually cut the scraggly pine.

While in the area, I cut some of the cedars growing up around the rocks and trimmed some lower limbs from the big cedars. The saw ran fine, but twice the chain got thrown off the bar (even though it wasn't loose). I remember having this problem before with the Poulan while cutting cedars, but need to figure out why.

Mow/Drag Cedars

I went out later in the day to lop cedars, but when I saw the mower I realized I needed to see if the battery had held a charge from the previous weekend. It had, so I mowed instead -- down to the pond and back. I'll be doing plenty of this soon enough, and I guess my battery is good for another year.

To finish out the day I went back up the hill and dragged more cedar limbs to the burn area. I hauled three more sleds of limbs (built by laying a big wide limb down and then piling others on top).

April 2-3, 2011

Sally and Tender stayed back in town, so I made this trip solo. It was 68 degrees outside and 58 inside when I arrived about noon. Sunday was very windy (out of the southwest) and it was 83 when I left.

Hydrangea and Garden Plants

Cindy had given me half a hydrangea (should be blue) she had Ken dig up (and split) from their old home site. (It had been her grandmothers and she had moved it at least three times.) To make room for it on the north side of the house in town I had to dig up a little sucker that was growing from one of our own three established hydrangeas. So I decided to bring that little one out to the farm – not having anyplace for it in town. At the farm I planted it south of the house down the hill between the bird feeder and the buckeye I have started. I'm hoping the pines will provide enough shelter from the hot afternoon summer sun. Along with its new leaves it already has tiny green blooms (that will turn white).

We needed bird seed, so on the way out of town I stopped at the Farmer's COOP. They had lots of garden plants for sale and I couldn't resist. I bought a bell pepper, a cilantro, and a sweet basil. After planting the hydrangea, I put these in the garden. There were three basil plants in the one peat pot and I was able to separate them into two without doing much root damage. I watered them all Saturday and Sunday and they stayed perky. (I hope they made it through the freeze we got Tuesday night.) Notice that the violas Eddie and Virginia left us are still doing great.

Next I spent about an hour weeding the garden, trying to stay ahead of them. There are still pockets where I didn't do a very thorough job earlier, and the back corner needs a shovel to cut out all the mint and Bermuda roots.

Spray Knapweed

I hit it again since the previous week's spraying seemed to be effective. This time I covered the area in front of the barn and along the road to the spring. I've read about a special insect you can buy that will attack it and think I will look into that option.

Mow

I had jump started the mower a couple of weeks back and run it down the hill and back. But it wouldn't start last weekend, so I figured I would try it again before deciding to replace the battery. It worked! After mowing down to the pond and back Saturday it started up again Sunday. We'll see about next week. I also changed the oil. (I had cleaned the filter a few weeks back.) Next I need to check the blades -- and pick up all the rocks that grew over the winter.

Pond Weeds

While at the pond I saw many fish -- good. About 7 of them were the now huge grass carp that hang out together. I also saw grass beginning to grow in the shallow areas. Do I need more carp, need to spray, some additive to color the pond and block the sun light reaching the bottom, or will it clear up on its own? Stay tuned.

Poulan Chainsaw

Its been a looong time since this saw was running good, over a year I'm sure. I knew it was a carburetor adjustment issue, but I lack experience in this area. I got out the instructions I had printed from the web and tackled this task again. I probably started and tested it 20 to 30 times, but I finally got it running and cutting and idling (well, most of the time it held an idle). It turned out the high side was way to rich. I tested it on long pieces in my wood pile and the remaining cedar limbs I have yet to burn but stashed back of the rabbit hutch. I felt good to get this accomplished.

Crack Walnuts

I still have a lot of nuts cracked but not picked, but they are in town. So I cracked a big bowl full to pick during the evening. I didn't get that far, and ended up using all those in the waffles I made in the morning -- first time I had used walnuts rather than pecans. They were good. I still have part of two bags to crack and one completely full bag. Since it warming up, I figure they will stay cooler in the house than in the rabbit hutch -- so I moved them inside.

Lop Cedars

It wasn't quite dark, so I took my loppers and cut cedars above the road to the spring. It was very steep and the area is full of briars and small elms. I counted 275 cedars down.

Sunday

I moved the cilantro to the side of the garden, figuring it didn't need much room, and watered the garden. I then fertilized the fruit trees and the maple out front.
The maple's bark split this winter and I tried cutting it back to some live/green tissue but I couldn't find any. It looks bad and I won't be surprised if I lose it, but it is about to leaf out. Next I started the mower and mowed the front (mostly to charge the battery). Then I took the truck over by the swing. First hand pulled 55 small cedars in that area, and then hauled three large cedar poles down to the barn. It was all I could do to shoulder these and get them to the truck -- I was panting. While at the barn I split the rest of the white oak logs I had -- all except the one where the trunk forked, which I gave up on after getting a few pieces off. My last activity for the farm was to drag cedar limbs from up the hill (those I cut a couple of weeks back) to a burn area. It is really hard on that steep slope with so much loose rock. I didn't get all the limbs, but ended with maybe 6 piles with 2 or 3 more remaining.

Logs from the WMA

I took my Stihl and returned by the short cut through the wild life management area because I wanted to get one more load of firewood. I first cut 10 logs from this 12 inch black oak. The truck wasn't full, so next I found an 18 inch red oak which was beginning to rot on the outside and which already had 3 cuts. It was all I could do to role three of these to the truck and lift them in (being wet, they were very heavy). That filled the bed, but there was still room to stack some smaller logs on top. Nearby was a much greener 10 inch red oak, so I cut 4 pieces from it and I was done. (I still have to split it of course.)