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.)