April 29-30, 2011

Weather

This was the conclusion of another brutal week of bad weather. Fayetteville received 10.5 inches of rain on the previous Sunday and Monday resulting in flooded streets, water in homes, and some deaths. The University even closed Monday afternoon -- the first time it has ever closed for rain. Sally and I were returning from Miami Monday afternoon and just suffered a canceled flight, resulting in the privilege of sleeping in the Dallas airport. (At least we were given a cot, blanket and mini-pillow.) Our house, luckily, only had water in the unfinished utility room.

I was anxious to get to the farm and check things out. It survived surprisingly well. I suspect it did not receive as much rain as Fayetteville. My 5 inch gauge had 4.8 inches still in it on Friday. This picture is down where the creeks merge and flow through a culvert under the road. You can see the height of the water by the debris. I've seen it at least this bad before. Once I witnessed water running over the road there. The pond had also over-topped the dam, but there didn't seem to be any damage.

The sump pump in the well house must have also worked well, as there were no signs of the pressure pump floating. The second picture is in the barn where the electrical service comes in. It is run down hill from the house through a flexible plastic water pipe. I'd always wondered why this corner always flooded, and then during a very wet period I observed water dripping out of the breaker box. (Not a very safe situation I am sure.) Since then I have kept a bucket propped underneath, and on a few occasions I have had to dump some water out. It was completely full this trip. (I dumped it before taking this picture.) This is another project, run the electricity straight from the pole and meter 20 yards away to the barn. The meter and service is closer to the barn now since our very first project was to remove the pole which was directly behind the house. (That involved digging a ditch and burying the service to the house).

The weather was great during our visit at the farm with a high of 70 both days. It did cloud over Saturday and turn misty, but very nice overall.

Spray

With Sally in Harrison, I went ahead and sprayed the apples with fungicide and sprayed buck brush and briars with herbicide and diesel (going down the hill from behind the barn). I've given up on spraying the knap weed and will likely buy some specially bread bugs that are suppose to attack it.

Weed Eat

With some tuning attempts, I got the Poulan 31cc weed eater running and had started on the hill behind the house. Then it just died for no obvious reason. I got it restarted a few times but it would just die again. Finally, I couldn't even get it restarted. With the monster weed whacker spark plug in town (meaning to replace it), that just left the little John Deere. It starts and runs good. I did finish the hill and around the house with it, but I really need one of the heavier machines working for this place. I am very tempted to just buy a new one -- after all the two that aren't working were purchased used in 2003, welded and duct taped together then.

Garden

It seemed we had received some hail, as the spring spinach was a bit beaten and torn. The garlic, onions, and cilantro are looking great. The sweet bell pepper may make it yet, and the summer spinach is big enough to start eating. Sally picked a few more radishes, and I did some weeding. We were surprised at how dry the dirt at the surface was, given all the rain earlier in the week.

Trees

All 10 of the little trees I had brought out from town are showing green. The largest walnut I transplanted from the garden ended up at the end of the line leading down from the house beside the road. Deer have munched much of its new tender leaves -- I hope it can recover. Unfortunately we have lost our autumn blaze maple that was just reaching a decent size. It was transplanted from Sunbridge, to Elm Street, and then out to the farm in 2004. The bark at the trunk had split over the winter and I new it was in trouble. Strange how it happened just as it was trying to leaf out.

Mow

I did the road to the pond, around the pond, the spring and barn on Friday. Saturday I finished all the upper level just as it began to mist.

Spring Blooms

The Peonies out here are the best. They struggle to survive late in the year, but they always come back with deep rich blooms. The snowball bush with its white blooms really made the peonies stand out. (It has sure grown.) Thanks to Eddie and Virginia for both.

Fighting Road Erosion

The upper road survived the heavy rain very well. But the stretch going down the hill from the house and at the second turn heading down both had deep (a couple inches) ruts cut in. To stop the bleeding, I filled 8 bucket with mud from behind the barn and built three small (one lane only) water bars on the stretch below the house. After I dump the mud I find a spot where the gravel has washed off the road and accumulated. I dig up some of it and work it into the mud by walking over it. All in all a very messy job when it is so wet.

At the second turn is where Carroll Electric had cut into the ditch with their equipment and I had tried to fix it a few weeks back. But the water had run off the hill, across the road, and just missed getting channeled into the ditch. So I re-worked this with my adz plus cleared more of the ditch further down. I didn't forget to take my ibuprofen this day!