Serenity Farm

February 3-4, 2012

2012-02-08T20:31:00.001-06:00

We spent the afternoon touring around Eureka, so did not arrive until after 5 (in a light drizzle). There was a good chance of rain all day, but the heavy stuff was forecast for 9pm - 2am. Sure enough, right at 9 there was lightening and heavy rain. It didn't last all that long, but later heard Eureka had recorded 1.25 inches (only 1 inch in Fayetteville).

Burn

With the ground good and wet I decided to burn the ice storm cedars (plus a few others I had trimmed) in the two large groves down past the pond. It was a perfect day for it, cool and wet.

I found these funny looking insets over-wintering in the crack of this large cedar limb. No idea what they were.

I surprised myself by getting all the piles taken care of within 3.5 hours. I am so pleased to get these eye sores out of the way, though there are still some standing trees that are so broken that they should be cut. Many if the limbs had to be drug a ways -- all in all a very good workout. It was easy sleeping Saturday night.

There are scads of little cedars coming up in the groves. While waiting for the pile to burn down I sat and hand pulled about 150. I'll be back.

Water Everywhere

With the over night rain, the creeks were really runing and the pond was full.

Walnuts

Before heading out I cracked some more walnuts, to be picked during the week. Sally has me now leaving them in a jar on the counter for snacking.

January 20-21, 2012

2012-01-25T13:26:00.008-06:00

This was another very pleasant mild winter weekend where we saw the mid 40s Friday and on up into the 50s Saturday (though it was a chilly 22 degrees Saturday morning). We also got to see a few eagles circling up above.

Transplanted Trees

I flagged all the volunteer trees coming up in the yard in town, and Sally is anxious for me to remove them. So I dug up 10 before coming out and planted a couple out back and the rest in the row next to the drive coming up to the house. They were all hickory and various oaks. I put this water oak (I believe) next to the oak Sally got free two years ago, but which has not done well -- I will be surprised if it survives. I filled in the row out front, but we'll have to see how many survive. The orange tags are the ones I planted this trip.

Lopped Cedars

With my little loppers, I finished Friday afternoon snipping 500+ cedars below and beyond the spring. Saturday morning I got another 1000+ above the spring. It was so cold I had to get my insulated gloves.

ODS Pilot

Friday evening the pilot on the main propane heater started misbehaving -- it was loud and the flame was standing far off the pilot itself. I tried cleaning it with compressed air Friday night, but that did not work and I left the heater off over night. In the morning I cleaned it with a cue tip and nail polish remover. Then it lit right up and was burning fine. Last year my pre-season cleaning lasted the whole winter. I'm not sure why this problem started so suddenly, but suspect something contaminated it.

Cut Ice Damaged Pines

I grew tired of looking at the dead and leaning pines to the left of the road coming in, so I took the Stihl to them. I also found a couple of larger cedars to cut.

Walk to Pond

We took Tender for an afternoon walk to the pond. The algae is looking awful. What to do, what to do.

We cut across the field on the way back so I could lop cedars along the way. I found this poor unfortunate bunny filleted and stuffed into this set of three little cedars. Coyote I presume. But it was a very clean job, and what would hide the carcass like this?

January 6-7, 2012

2012-01-11T23:58:00.000-06:00

Oh what a beautiful weekend -- early January and it was clear and 65 Friday and 60 Saturday. Unbelievable! It was 55 in the house, normal for winter, so we needed to open the windows to warm it up.

Cracked Walnuts

I did about half a box, my second cracking of the season. There were a lot more bad nuts this time around, nothing like the ratio last year but many more than the 2 or 3 I found in the first cracking.

Puller Bear

I took this tree puller up to the top of the hill to see what it would do with all the hardwood stumps left after years of brush hogging. Not so good. Most just broke off where it clamped onto them. With just a few I was able to get the roots. And then there were those that I couldn't get up and wouldn't break. It did well with the cedars (but its easier to lop them) and the pines. The pines just keep coming back with wide low spreading limbs, so its nice to get the roots and all. Next I'll try this tool on the buck brush. If it doesn't get those by the roots I've likely wasted my money.

Cedars

I pulled lots of the cedars in front of the spring tank. They are small on top because they have been getting mowed, but under the ground they have been growing deep roots. This one I could only get up by twisting it about 30 times, and then this huge tap root came up.

Rake Tank

I took the rake to the tank to rake out some of the leaves and debris – and algae that is already growing. I haven't given up on the bacteria to eat the muck, but figure I will need to help it out. We will need much warmer weather before I can put out more of the bacteria.

Front Gate

This gate was never hung correctly (2.5 inch screws were used but couldn't be driven all the way in) and one side was hanging by one screw. I had to hack saw off some of the screws, raised both sides, and got it where it opened and latched nicely.

While I had the tools out I fixed the swing, tightened the screws in the adirondacks, and got the two gate closures in the back to nest nicely (they had been bugging me).

Trim Hollies

The holly inside the fence was really out of control, so I removed quit a bit of it. The other 2 had gotten eaten by the deer last winter when we had lots of snow, so they didn't need too much. I also clipped the rest of the obedience (some of it was still green) and the peonies.

Walk to Pond

With Tender's tender feet (recent yeast infection), we weren't comfortable walking him all the way to the pond, so we locked him in the house as we took an afternoon hike. I was really on the look out for antler sheds, but found none (we walked some pasture on the way down and a different section back). We did find a patch of about 20 thistles growing flush to the ground. I kicked them out, but need to watch this area in the summer. The algae is already growing and it looks like it will be another challenging year of pond management. Also found an armadillo shell -- belly up just like along the road.

December 16-17, 2011

2011-12-21T13:28:00.008-06:00

Sally was in Harrison, so she met me at the farm. I came the shortcut, and for the first time since Spring the Warm Fork was running -- crystal clear as usual. (We'd gotten more heavy rain mid-week.) I wasn't in 4WD when I entered, got stuck and stalled the engine. I was a little concerned, but once I got 4WD engaged it pulled on out of all that loose gravel.

Puller Bear

I bought this tool back in the summer and pulled up some trees around the house in town with it before bringing it out. Not wanting to struggle with it in any heat or dry weather, this was the first time I used it at the farm. This is the largest version this Canadian firm makes, and it is suppose to handle trees up to 2.5 inches in diameter. The claw/clamp on it can get around that size tree, but after using it I am sure there is no way I could pull up anything that big.

I took it out back to tackle the scrubs along the top of the bluff. Most had been lopped (or cut) before and had just grown back. I bought this thing so I could get the roots and not have this problem, and because I didn't want to use herbicide. But with these re-growths and the bigger stuff, cutting and herbicide will have to be the solution. The ones I was able to pull up had some extensive root systems. Some were longer than the tree above ground and larger in diameter below ground than above. Others just broke off where it clamped on to them. I got about 50 or so along the bluff and just up the hill. It was quite a workout, and I was glad to quit once Sally showed up around 5pm.

Frost Flowers

It was in the mid 20s Saturday morning and there was a heavy frost in the valley. With all the rain we had received during the week I figured there would be some frost flowers out. Sure enough I found them down by the spring and in front and behind the barn – all below the bluff the house sits on.

Weed Garden

Saturday morning Sally was kicking herself for not picking the bock chow and chard she had seen the evening before, because now looked frozen. Later in the day though, it seemed okay.

I pulled up most of the dead spinach and then turned the soil in that bed with the shovel. The weeds are really really bad now. I suspect because we have had so much fall rain. I filled up a bucket back in the SW corner, and took the shovel to the bermuda grass and mint in the SE corner. Those roots are so deep. Sally also let me pull up some huge wild flowers that have survived in her wild flower mound. Still lots of weeding needed.

Crack Walnuts

I got out the cracker and started in on some of this years black walnuts. They are very dirty, me just using my boots to hull them. But, I cracked over half a box and only had 3 bad nuts. Last year I there were so many I would count them and keep the ratio of bad ones to good -- sometimes running 20 to almost 40%. And the flavor was good! This is the first year that my entire haul has been off our place.

Lop Cedars

I got out my loppers and tackled the cedars back of the barn -- at least those that were small enough for me to lop. I had gotten almost 300 when I broke the loppers on the tree pictured. I guess I'm a pretty strong dude to snap steel like that. I was disappointed that this Corona heavy duty lopper let me down this way -- after all, it did run me close to $45. I need to find out if the company will make right by me.

Sharpen McCulloch

Before leaving, I got out the McCulloch and tightened and sharpened the chain so that it will be ready to go next outing. It is hard to start, but it has been quite a work horse for me. Bought it in 1982.

December 2-3, 2011

2011-12-07T22:52:00.003-06:00

It was another gray and cloudy weekend. We drove through rain on the way out, but never say any at the farm. Friday it was up to near 60, but it only made it to 50 Saturday.

Mower Repair

I'd been searching the parts diagrams on the internet for the bracket that broke that supported the front of the mower deck, but could never see this particular piece identified. So on the way out we went by Ramos' to see if they could find it. The first fellow brought up the same diagrams I had been looking at and seemed to get a bit frustrated by my insistence that it wasn't identified there. But the second guy, after finishing with another customer, came over to help and knew exactly what I was talking about. He said that originally the bracket was welded to the front axle and thus part of the axle, but later they modified the design so that it could be replaced. However, you have to work the bracket up into the axle so that the two eyes hang down to receive the pin that connects the deck flange to this bracket. (I had wondered how I was going to get the replacement part inside.) He told me you had to bend the part of the axle where one of the slots was in order to work it up and inside – that little piece of advise was invaluable. He eventually found some reference that told him where to find the piece in his parts inventory and got it for me. (Strange that it was a Murray mower part that came in a Briggs and Straton box.) The piece is secured to the axle by two self tapping screws that go up through the axle and into the bracket. He sold me two of those as well since I couldn't remember if I had them. Everything cost me all of $11 with no charge for the advice. I love that place.

We didn't get to the farm until after three and it took me until after dark to get the axle bent/modified, the bracket inside the axle and hanging down, the self tapping screws threaded into the bracket (big mistake here, I should have tapped the threads before getting the bracket inside the axle since I then had to do it upside down with limited ability to apply pressure on the backside of the bracket), and the deck re-installed onto the mower.

More White Oak

Since it had been dry all week, I decided to go back into the pasture and continue working on these two huge white oaks. I first tackled the larger one, skipping the huge section where the trunk split. Using my McCulloch I cut three pieces off (working from both sides of the trunk with the little 16" bar) before getting to another big fork. These chunks were to big for me to lift into the truck but all three had a line dividing the two sides where it forked above, and I was able to split each along that line. This gave me essentially 6 big trunk pieces.

After those three cuts, I could tell the chain was already dulled, so I hit every tooth with the file. Being a bit tired and not feeling ambitious enough to go after the rest of that tree, I moved over to the other white oak and started on its trunk.

What a surprise when suddenly black liquid started spraying out everywhere. My first thought was that something had gone wrong with the saw and it was spewing oil. Then I realized it was stained water and sawdust. It just kept coming and coming. I had plenty of time to get my camera and take several pictures of this erupting log. This had to be one of the strangest things I've ever seen. The trunk was laying down hill with this hollow at its base facing up. There were no openings in the hollow trunk and the entire thing had filled up with stagnant water -- sitting there for years I presume.

The further down the trunk I got, the larger the hollow was. I think the wood will be fine once it dries out as it seems to be solid. All in all a very nice load of fire wood. I just dumped it in the barn to dry out and be split at a later date. I was a mess though with that brackish water and sawdust being thrown all over me. Sally said there was no way my clothes were going in to her washer. (I did throw out the jeans, which were ready for the trash anyway with numerous tears on both legs.)

Weeded the Garden

Amazingly, Sally was still able to pick some chard and lettuce. The garden's a mess though with weeds coming up everywhere. There is also a blanket of violas that have come back from seed. I leave them, but tackled the rest. However, I didn't get but half of it done.

November 26-27, 2011

2011-12-01T20:37:00.001-06:00

Being a cold and rainy day, Sally decided to stay in town with Tender. Being a cold and rainy day, I decided to do some burning.

Burning

I had three piles of limbs over past the swing, almost all a result of the ice storm. Some of it was chinquapin oak, but most was cedar. I always leave the hard wood to rot, but the cedar takes forever to break down. So I pulled the cedar limbs out, lopped them to burn pile size, and threw them on. It had stopped raining by the time I got to the farm, but I did get a little light rain later during the burn. After I finished the cedar from the three piles, there was still some daylight left so I cut two medium cedars that were crowding one of the big chinquapin's. It took a little time to get those green needles going, but they burned (and generated lots of smoke). By a little after 4pm I was bushed and amazed at how the dragging, lopping, and cutting had worn me out.

Cleaned Floors

I have to admit that I neglect inside work and prefer to spend my time at the farm outdoors. But the floors were in desperate need of a good cleaning. I only tackled the core of the house, leaving the addition and the ceramic tile there for another trip. It took me over an hour just to pick everything up (chairs and rugs) and sweep. I then mopped it all down with vinegar and water. Then I went over it all by hand with mop and glow using a large hand sponge. It was noon by the time I was done, but they do look so much better.

Burn Prep

Knowing what I went through to get the cedar limbs cut down to burning size, and the huge piles I have down in the cedar groves by the pond needing to be burned, I decided to go ahead and get them cut up – anticipating another good burn day this winter. I took the Poulan down and waded through the mess cutting anything of any size. Now, almost three years later, briars and underbrush have grown up amongst the piles. Its a mess. And the Poulan continues to be temper mental. It had thrown the chain once the day before, and did it twice more Sunday. I'm not sure what that's about – other than its a little toy saw. It would also just die on me, a tuning issue I know, but something I hate doing (because I don't know what I am doing).

While in the area, I also cut some low hanging limbs from the big cedars. At one time I am sure Ben had the area looking real nice. You can tell the cedars were trimmed up, because there are no low limbs at the trunk but over the past 16 years the higher limbs have grown down and now hang almost to the ground. I need to cut more, but need a ladder to do it.

Haul Walnut Limbs

While there with my truck, I decided to pick the pile of limbs under this one walnut and dump them in the eroding area past Kathy's tee pee pad above the pond. You can just see it, already full of limbs, just to the left of the tree and down the hill.

November 18-19, 2011

2011-11-23T21:19:00.001-06:00

Two very nice days, cool (in the 50s) Friday and a bit warmer Saturday. Sally went to Harrison for Reflexology, so I met her at the farm.

Brush Hogged

I believe I forgot to mention that Larry got the place brush hogged late October or early November. It looks nice. I also had the propane tank filled and got the heaters lite.

Eagles

Earlier than usual, but Sally saw two overhead Saturday. She also saw some on her drive out.

Road Work

I filled my buckets with mud and gravel Friday, loaded and spread it up the road Saturday, then got another load and spread it down the road. I'm probably done with this dirty task for the season.

Garden

We were able to pick enough bock chow and chard for a stir fry. Sally found a few more butternut squashes to keep, and I pulled up all the plants. I started in on the spinach, which looked scorched on the top from the frosts we'd had, and noticed nice large green leaves on the lower protected parts of the plants. So I picked a huge bowl full cutting the tops and bottoms off, rinsed it in salt water, and then picked the leaves. (We had a feta and mushroom quiche with it.)

Split Wood

Working on Friday and Saturday, I got through the load I had gotten two weeks earlier. Too bad much of it is to big for my stove -- I've got to learn to measure before I cut. I also split all but one piece of the short oak I had picked up off the shortcut earlier in the year. That one piece of red oak I'm leaving for Amanda to enjoy.

Sharpen McCulloch

Got it ready for another outing, including filling the depth gauges. The teeth on this chain are about gone, so I'll need to dig though my supply for another soon.

November 5-6, 2011

2011-11-09T21:48:00.001-06:00

Sally was in Chicago, so Tender and I were alone for the weekend – and what a beautiful weekend it was. The fall colors were just fabulous. Too bad my phone camera couldn't capture the true essence (though I certainly tried, taking dozens of pictures). This one is unaltered (I'll probably try adjusting the lighting on some of the others). Right in the center on the far hill is where the two big white oaks are down that I've been cutting on for three years now. (Blew down the fall before the ice storm when a tropical depression moved through.)

Insulate Well House

With freezing temperatures arriving, it was time to put the insulation back into the roof of the well house. I really need to buy some new pieces as the mice have these bats looking a bit ratty.

Wash/Treat Siding

Since the north side of the house came out looking so nice after a good scrubbing and new application of CWF (and since I was about to take in the hoses), I decided to do the same to the east side and under the porch. It was dry enough by the end of the day to start applying the Clear Wood Finish (picked up a new gallon at City Lumber). I just did the lowest 6 boards on the east, and did the porch Sunday (finished the porch, I got half of it done last spring I think).

Spread Rye Grass Seed

Buddy told me years ago to spread annual rye grass seed to help with road erosion, and I've been doing it ever since. I think I used three bags and even added fertilizer that first year. I've skimped down to just 50lbs recently. I haul a bucket full up spreading it in one track, come back and refill the bucket, and then go up the other track. There's enough left for steep areas around the house and out front of the barn. We'd had rain and more was forecast, so I'm hoping it will germinate before spring (which has been the case in very dry years).

Garden

I picked a bucket full of butternut squash and just left the greenish/yellowish ones. We certainly have plenty. I got enough jalapenos to can a jar (slice 'em and poor boiling vinegar over 'em is all). The chard and bock chow had grown enough for me to get a large bag of each to bring home, and our summer spinach has really thrived with the late summer/early fall rains – much of it new plants. I harvested, boiled, and froze some and brought a bag home, but even that didn't make a dent in it.

Mower Broke

I got the mower out and started out back. I had only done a small area when the front of the deck collapsed to the ground. The metal flange that held it up had broken off at both ends. (I suspect one side had broken earlier and I hadn't noticed other than the left seeming to cut lower.) I took the deck off and am sure I can get the part, but I can't see how to get it inside the square hollow piece of frame it has to sit within – with eye holes hanging down. I'm just glad it happened at the end of the season.

Walnuts

I was turning the truck around behind the barn and was amazed at the walnuts on the ground there. They were from the tree back of the house, part way up the bluff. I'd picked some up earlier, but had not noticed that there were that many left in the tree. Being so convenient, and even though I had said I had collected enough already, I went ahead and stomped, rolled, and picked up all there were.

Road Maintenance

I've been meaning to work on the road below the last turn going down the hill, eroded by the heavy spring rains. I got a load of mud and chirt on to it on Saturday and followed up with another load on Sunday.

Tighten Roof Screws

Jerry said that metal roofs need some ventilation space underneath to keep them from sweating. The moisture isn't good for the decking, and I think it contributes to the screws getting loose. This is the third time I've gone around tightening those that have backed out. It was only a dozen or two this time. I used my portable drill to back them out, applied a dab of roofing tar, and then drilled them back in. Its the first time I've used the tar and hope it helps them stay in place.

Cut Wood

I've been itching to get out and cut some more wood, this being the season. I didn't have much time, but in just over an hour I used the McCulloch to get a truck load from one of the big white oaks and a few pieces of hickory. Enough to dull the blade. Once I got it back to the barn I couldn't resist splitting a piece, which for white oak was much harder than I anticipated. The hickory is much smaller and even rotting around the edge, but solid underneath.

Tarantula

Tender pointed out the second one of these I've seen this fall. This one was in the garage. Too bad I couldn't get a better picture. Another brown one.

Oct. 21-23, 2011

2011-10-27T20:57:00.001-05:00

Seasons are changing -- we had a light freeze this week. It didn't seem to bother the jalapeno or the spinach, but the other established plants in the garden got nipped. Baby bock chow and chard were unaffected. I picked a bunch of jalapenos and few squash (most were still green, I hope they ripen even though there is less foliage). Those itty bitty tomatoes were all we got. We did have another inch in the rain gauge. I decided to go ahead and bring it in so it doesn't freeze and break.

Mow

We may be well into fall, but I still needed to mow. Went down around the pond, the spring, the barn, and the front yard. Saturday I got the high wheel trimmer out for the first time all year and cut the high grass around the pond and under the fence along the level stretches by the road. Handling it is a work out, but it wasn't bad. Just before dark, Tender and I went back to the pond and I raked what clippings I could out of the water. (There was just a trickle running through the north culvert.)

Walnuts

Friday I picked up two bags of nuts under the tree by the old home site. I brought them up to the drive and on Saturday stomped and rolled them under my boots to remove the hulls. I've got two bags which I left in the rabbit hutch to dry. We'll see how this method works out. I don't plan to pick up any to have commercially hulled -- I've still got lots from last year and there are no longer any hullers close by. I did make banana bread Friday night using a new recipe with buttermilk (and a good cup and half of walnuts). Mighty good.

Treat House

I also scrubbed down the north side of the house Friday. It cleaned up really nice. On Saturday, after it dried, I applied a coating of the Clear Wood Finish I use. I think I had 4 rows of boards to go at the top when this picture was taken. (It's kind of whitish before it dries.)

Oct. 14-15, 2011

2011-10-20T21:25:00.001-05:00

Weather

It was great -- sunny and low 70s both days. It was hard to leave. We also had 2.25 inches in the rain gauge, which was very nice since it had dried up again.

Hammock

The weekend before I had just gotten the hammock stand set-up -- first time all year. It wasn't dry enough in the spring and then it got so hot so fast. These last two weekends have been ideal for it.

Pulled Weeds

While Sally lounged I pulled many large weeds that had grown up around the black berries. I'm not sure there is much use though, as I will be surprised if many of the plants survive -- they just burned up in spite of my attempts to water. I also took the brush whacker to that area, the hill in the back, and around the barn. Still much more to do, but at least the growth should cease soon.

Garden

Sally picked lots of jalapenos, so Sunday we had Chris and Lindsey over for stuffed jalapenos (cream cheese inside and bacon out). They were good, but we couldn't finish off what we had made with 12 oz. of bacon. Sally also got a few more squash, but left many. Her fall seeds are showing a little progression, but not much. I think the rain will help. I weeded the garden.

Walnuts

There are an amazing number of walnuts considering the hot dry weather we suffered through. I found that I could step on them to break the hull, and then role them under my foot to remove most of the hull. I picked up what I could find around the house Friday -- without gloves. That was a mistake as my right hand is very stained. They were very wet and yellow/green, but everything turns black later.

Saturday I went down around the pond, but found most under the tree by the creeks confluence and the one near the old home site. I think I have a full bag which I left in the rabbit hutch to dry (20% of what I had last year). I used gloves, but my left hand still ended up with some stain.

I took this picture in the office after charging my phone. Apparently I left the radio on Friday night and it drained the battery constantly searching for a signal (which doesn't exist at the house without the external antennae).

Other than some sudoku challenges and relaxed reading, that was it for our farm time.

Oct. 7-8, 2011

2011-10-12T20:43:00.001-05:00

Wow, another 4 week period without getting out here. That's too long. Sally did come out during that period to tend the garden, but I was out of town 3 weekends in a row.

Weather/Garden

The first week I was gone there was heavy rain, 5+ inches. But then it dried up again and you could tell it. The garden needed watering badly and my baby trees had only a few leaves left. (I believe deer were responsible for most of that.) The burn ban was off -- good news. The temperature was also nice, about 80 and sunny each day. The walnut and ash trees were turning, so the hills were pretty (haven't seen any change in town yet).

Sally picked more butternut squash, and the plants continue to put on fruit. They were stretching out into the yard and I had to move them to mow. A few of her fall garden seeds had just barely sprouted. The jalapeno continues to be prolific, but the bell pepper is barely hanging on. The summer spinach has survived and we had some with our eggs, and new baby spinach is sprouting.

Tarantula

We usually see one of these guys this time of the year, though I don't recall any last fall. This fellow was moving fast across the road down by the pond when I was mowing. Luckily I had brought my phone camera and was able to get some snap shots. I just put my boot in front of him and he climbed right up -- I wanted to get a picture with some perspective. I've hear the males move out of the nest in the fall and venture out on their own. They always seem to be traveling like this guy was. The others we've seen have all been right behind the house.

Mow/Weed-eat

The grass was heavy and high in the normal spots, elsewhere the weeds had to be cut. Some areas, like across the spring and around the swing, had been mowed in 8 weeks. I also took the brush whacker up the road, around the cattle guard, back down the other side, and did the hill south of the house. More is needed, but there is no rush this time of year.

Flag Trees

I'm getting ready for brush hogging and so walked the creeks trying to find the pecans I put out years back so I could flag them. I found 3 along Plume Creek and 5 along Gum. Many of those had leaves coming up from the root, so they aren't getting any bigger. I'm surprised anything survived this summer. I also flagged along the line of pines back and above the pond. Found many deer scrapes like shown here on a young pine. Maybe I should take up hunting.

Thistle

While mowing I had noticed some thistle by Plume Creek, but when I went down to flag the trees I forgot to get a shovel and a bag. I ended up pulling up several patches and just laid them in the back of the truck to take to the house and bag. This was a mistake because I was bouncing up the road I could see the seeds flying out the back. Oh well.

September 9-10, 2011

2011-09-13T20:58:00.001-05:00

I missed the place, being gone the past 3 weekends. I didn't miss the weather -- it staid warm and dry.

Butternut Squash

The squash just keeps on growing and producing, even without rain. Sally counted over 45 more and picked many. The stuff is growing through the fence and out into the yard. Squash bugs have now shown up. I'm glad they held off as long as they did. Now we'll have to wait 2 or more years to plant squash again.

Mow

Mostly weeds had grown up in the road and needed to be cut. But the grass in the low area of the road and the other side of the pond was high and thick. A challenge to cut. Later I changed out the blades, though they were not as dull as I expected.

Bacteria Treatment

With temperatures certainly to cool soon, I wanted to treat the pond one more time with the bacteria that is supposed to eat the muck on the bottom, and hopefully reduce nutrients for weeds. I put two packets in the Ben Gay Spring tank and 20 into the pond. No water was coming in or going out of the pond -- it was as low as I have ever seen it.

Log in Pond

This tree trunk was lodged in the upper end of the pond. I was afraid that a big rain might wash into the pond, lodge it against the culverts, and block the water flow doing who knows what damage. I had tried before to move it, but couldn't lift up the end. With the water lower I was able to get a stick under the end. Then I went and got a rope and was able to pull it up the bank using the 4Runner and low 4WD. I was just able to swing it parallel to the inlet, but hopefully high enough to stay out of the water. Once it dries out I'll cut it up for fire wood.

Deer Scrape

I didn't see any deer this trip, but found two scrapes like the one shown here on a small sycamore. This was also down by the pond. The other was up closer to the house.

Thistle

I found two thistles blooming. I took a shovel, dug them up, and stuffed them head first into bird seed bag for later burning.

Gate

The gate between our place and Jeff's, down by where the creeks cross the road, has been barely hanging on since the April floods. They washed debris and even willow logs Carroll Electric left by the creeks. (They cut a big willow because the power line to Jeff's was overhead.) I cleaned out the debris and got the gate sitting back on the upper hinge.

August 12-13, 2011

2011-08-16T21:11:00.001-05:00

What a relief, our heat wave and drought has broken!

Timber Rattler

Sally was in Harrison and coming to the farm directly from there, so I came out the shortcut. I like coming this way because I never know what I'll see – and it is shorter (not time wise, just distance). I was right up on this rattlesnake before I noticed him, but I knew immediately what it was. He was directly in the middle of the track so my tires missed him. I backed up and got out so I could get a couple of pictures. I think this is the first time I've ever seen a rattlesnake in the wild.

Weather

What a nice change. The high pressure sitting over us for months backed off and we were under the jet stream's northwest flow. It brought us some nice rains (5 out of 7 days) and cooler temperatures (highs in the upper 80s and lows into the 60s). Three inches was in the gauge, and we got almost another inch overnight. What a delight and blessing. Since May, we'd received less than an inch of rain total and all the leaves on many trees are brown and falling. You can see the damage to the trees in the field to the right of the road coming down the hill. When we bought the property in 2003 we quit having this pasture brush hogged and decided to let it grow up. We'll just have to wait until next spring to see which ones survive.

Trees

Too bad the rain came too late to save my Red Buckeye, but maybe it will come back. All the other baby trees I've nursed along all summer (weekly waterings) have made it through the drought and heat wave. Something has been eating on the Pixie Delight apple, in spite of the fact that I have a large wire cage around it. I can't imagine deer getting their heads through there, but may be a small one can.

This picture is the Walnut that was completely defoliated a month ago by I don't know what – some kind of worms I presume. I was a bit surprised given the drought to see it putting on new leaves, but these are hearty trees. The babies I put out several years back often die off, but the next year put up a new sprout from the root. The problem is they never get any bigger. The same is true for the volunteers in the field next to the road, the ones I tag to keep from being brush hogged.

Road Work

I dug more mud from the bluff by the barn, scooped up lots of chirt to work into it, and patched more of the road just below the house and in front of the barn. The mud I'd put out to repair the water bars up the road (weeks past) was very soft due to the rain and did not contain enough rock – much of it just squished to the side when we drove down. I hauled some more rock up to work into it, but obviously need even more. Some of the mud I harvest has more clay and is heavier/denser/clumpier and thus better for the road. I couldn't tell the difference when it was so dry.

Garden

As you can see here, the butternut squash continues to thrive and soon will not only take over the entire garden but also the yard (its growing through the fence). We've already picked about 30 and I believe there are that many more if you count the little babies that are just now being put on. The jalapeno is also very proliferate, providing more than we can eat. The basil thrives, providing another 4 cups for another double batch of pesto. (Its a pain pinching off the blooms.) There are lots of small bell peppers, but we've only harvested one to date. We also picked a bit more chard – I'm hopeful it will do better with more moisture. Sally went ahead and put out some seeds for a fall garden, though it was hard to find spots not covered by the large squash leaves.

Bacteria

I thought the pond bottom, at least around the dam, did look better after spreading the Flush It bacteria packets the week before. Near the inlet and the shallow end however, I didn't really notice any change. I also couldn't tell any improvement in the Ben Gay Spring tank. I chunked another one in there. I hope it is warm enough for them to work (spring water being cold).

Mow

With some rain, I went ahead and mowed around the house, down to and around the pond, around the spring, and in front of the barn. The grass south of the pond where the seep is was so thick I barely got through it on the highest setting. It has staid green and growing throughout the summer in spite of no rain.

August 5-6, 2011

2011-08-09T23:27:00.000-05:00

Another weekend hotter and dryer than the last. Record highs and all time record highs were set throughout the state during the week. I thought it was hot, at 102, when we arrived Friday but this picture was taken when leaving Saturday afternoon. I moved the thermometer down so it wasn't close to the tin roof of the garage, but at 111 it was just 2 degrees higher than the one on the porch. Luckily, as I write this on Tuesday, we have gotten a break from the heat and a tiny bit of much needed rain – with more in the forecast. This has been the hottest and driest summer I have ever experienced, and I hope I never see another like it.

Garden

After the unbelievable heat of the week, and no rain, we were amazed to find the squash had survived. After a good watering it perked up, and it is still blooming and putting on new fruit. Sally picked over 20 of these butternuts, and found a couple that had split – I presume from getting watered after being dry all week. We peeled them, sliced them thin, and grilled them in a little olive oil. There were very tasty with a little sea salt.

The basil and the two peppers are also doing well, in spite of the heat. Sally picked 4 cups of basil and made a double batch of pesto. She froze most of it, but kept enough aside for us to have on toast with a fresh tomato we had been given but had left at home. She also picked half dozen or more jalapenos. Something had eaten all the leaves off the tomatoes, not that they were doing anything anyway. I never figured out what had eaten them as I never saw any hornworms. I actually thought deer might have gotten in and done the damage, but there were no prints. (I suspect deer are what has been eating the few blackberry canes that haven't died.)

Butterflies

There have been lots of butterflies around this summer. Sally found the one in the picture above (to the right of the squash) dead but complete. I saw several others like that. This orange one was in the garage and was briefly opening its wings and then closing them up. The picture is blurred as I could never catch it with its wings open. I suspect it was trying to keep cool. It was very pretty.

Flush It

Also in the picture of the squash, to the right, you can see the container of bacteria I purchased for $150 (contains 72 packets. This brand is sold primarily for septic systems and they had some amazing testimonials on their site. They also promote them for ponds to eat the muck – reduce the organic matter and thus the food source for algae. Other sites sold bacteria specifically for ponds, but I decided to try these guys. The packets are small and seem to be plastic, but they dissolve in water in a few minutes. They recommended 24 per 1 acre pond. I've estimated our pond at 2/3 acre, and I walked around the perimeter and chunked in 22. The inlet end is the shallowest and the most mucked up, so I put more there. In another month I am supposed to do it again, but the water temperature has to be up so they can't be used over the winter.

The pond was down 3-4 inches below the culverts, there was no water leaking through the dam (that I could tell), and there was absolutely no water running into the pond. I've never seen gum spring totally dry like this. The grass is still green and growing on the south side and I could just detect some water seeping into the pond in that area where there is a small spring/seep.

The tank that catches the water from the spring by the house (I've decided to name it Ben Gay spring since to my knowledge it never had a name) is also mucked up. It catches lots of leaves and limbs from the three big trees clinging to the bluff directly above it. I raked out some of the bigger stuff and then put 1 of these Flush It bacteria packets in that tank. I am very anxious to see how it does here since it should be real easy to monitor.

I also flushed one packet into our septic system since they are also supposed to help in the field lines. (I know our tank is okay since I had it unnecessarily pumped last summer, but how do you know the condition of your field lines?)

July 29-30, 2011

2011-08-03T21:04:00.000-05:00

Sally was off on a girls trip, so the boys went to the Farm. To make the trip bearable for Tender and I, we brought some cold watermelon for afternoon refreshment.

Damn Hot

Everyone is so tired of this miserable heat and dry weather. I just can't imagine what it is like for those poor Texans. We're setting record highs regularly, and even a record all time high for Ft. Smith of 115 (tied it in Fayetteville, 110). This picture was Saturday afternoon. I was using the mercury thermometer to verify that the two outdoor thermometers were actually correct. They were. But this one on the garage registers higher in the heat of the afternoon than the one on the porch (it was only showing 102 at the time), but lower in the morning. I think heat off the gutter and tin roof are affecting it, so I moved it lower on a different post. I think the concrete of the porch is keeping the overnight temperature a bit higher on the porch. That's my theory anyway.

Mulch

I had picked up a load of mulch from the city and brought it out to spread under the trees. Practically all of it went under the two pears and the two apples. The rest made small rings around my baby trees out front. I could easily use another load. I like it under the trees because it helps keep the soil cooler, retains moisture, and keeps it loose so that when the weeds do grow there they are easier to pull up. I also brought out two old soaker hoses with plans to cut them in two and bury them in the much under the pears and apples. But I didn't have the right hose end connectors, so that has to wait until next weekend.

Water

Other than spreading the mulch, the only other thing I got done was watering everything -- several hours Friday and several more Saturday (why I want to use soaker hoses). We desperately need rain, and you can tell it everywhere. The squash was really dropping when I arrived, so I put some water on it first thing. Then it was droppy again Saturday morning. I watered it heavily Saturday, thinking maybe I had rushed it the day before. It perked up. Then in the afternoon it was dropping again. That's when I looked at the thermometer and realized just how hot it was, and that no amount of water was going to help. On Sally's instruction I did pick three of the butternuts (I counted over 30 more), the orange bell pepper that had turned, and more chard (that stuff is amazing). Given the price of butternut squash at ONF of $2.59/lb and an average of 2 pounds per squash, we have over $150 worth of squash in the garden!

Roadrunner

While watering the garden, a roadrunner appeared on the other side of the fence. He was big and quite colorful with a cute crest on top of his head. I've rarely seen them this close. He ran back and forth a couple of times and then disappeared down the hill. (I really don't know if it was a he or she.)

Blue Birds

The babies were all gone. I am presuming they grew and flew off, and that nothing got them. Perhaps that is just wishful thinking. It was interesting to find this baby snake all dried up and stuck between the nest and the door. Another presumption would be that it was intended as food for the babies but got misplaced, or maybe was too big for them.

Apples

We only had three apples this year. Had! Now we only have 1. It looked to me like deer pulled two off and bit on them but decided they were too green. They also ate some of the leaves and broke some limbs. I decided to go ahead and prune out a couple of limbs that were still green and growing, but had severe damage (hail or scuffed badly some time back) and looked like would not survive long term. Partly because they were trying to put on new leaves -- let that energy go to part of the tree that has a better chance of long term survival.

July 22-23, 2011

2011-07-27T21:27:00.000-05:00

Sally joined me, although I can't say that she was very excited about spending another hot and dry weekend of this miserable summer at the farm. Actually we received a small rain shower as soon as we arrived. I just sat on the porch soaking in the experience. It lasted about 20 minutes, though most of that time it was just a drizzle. Too bad it didn't amount to more, not even a tenth of an inch in the gauge. Oh well, I'll just continue watering. The cloud cover was nice while it lasted, but man was it hot and humid once it cleared.

We've now had August weather in June and July. I just hope we don't have August in August. Surely this hellish summer will eventually end.

Temperatures

From my observation, it hit 97 Friday and 98 Saturday and the overnight low was only 80. In the house, I had left the living room closed off and it was 86 in there while only 82 in the core of the structure. After running the AC in the living room for 24 hours, it was 78 in there and 79 in the rest of the house when we left. Its amazing that that one window unit can keep the entire house comfortable in this, the hottest of, weather. (Drats, I forgot to close off the living room when we left, which I am now convinced should be the standard summer time procedure.)

Watering and Road Work

These activities once again accounted for most of my time. (With no rain there is no need to mow). I only got one load of mud up onto the road. This picture shows my buckets before loading into the truck. I think I am now done on the upper road, and need to continue my work down the road from the house.

Walking Stick

I showed a picture of a walking stick that had gotten into my truck last week. This one I noticed in my Northern Red Oak while out with Tender early Saturday morning. I believe he is the largest one I have ever observed. I didn't get this picture until Saturday afternoon just before leaving – he was still in the same tree. I wonder what he eats.

Garden

I did not find any more hornworms on the tomatoes. Good. But there are also no tomatoes. Apparently no one has tomatoes because the overnight temperatures are not cool enough to set the blooms. The jalapeno, basil, chard, summer spinach and butternut squash are all doing well. Sally thinks the squash will get even bigger. We did pick one but haven't tried it yet. We got enough basil for another double recipe of pesto, and more jalapenos and chard than we can eat in a week. The spinach is beginning to flower. The zinnias are doing poorly – hardly any worth cutting.

Baby Blue Birds

I had forgotten to check the weekend before to see if the blue bird eggs had hatched, and I was afraid the babies might have grown and left the nest already. But they were still there. I didn't see the mom (or dad), and this one in the front was the only one I saw move – just a bunch of feathers behind him. I hope they are all well and getting fed.

Sole Peach

While watering the blackberries, I looked up at the almost bare peach tree and was very surprised to see a single peach right at the top. I picked it and ate it later. A little green and a few signs of something nibbling on it, but it was good.

Autumn Blaze

The suckers coming off the stump of this tree had really grown – so much so that it was looking like a bush. It had also filled the wire cage I had put around it the weekend before to keep the deer off. So I trimmed off all but 3 branches and put a bigger cage around it. I can't believe how it is thriving now (especially after the initial suckers that came off just up and died, although I wasn't watering it at that time).

Worms on the Hickories

I was very pleasantly surprised to find no sign of the fuzzy little critters I had found the weekend before defoliating the little hickories. Of course I had squashed every one I could find, but I really figured more would have arrived. I hope they stay away. Webworms are showing up elsewhere, so I suppose that is what is getting the walnuts.

July 15-16, 2011

2011-07-19T23:02:00.001-05:00

Sally had a Zen retreat Saturday, so I came out alone via the short cut – thinking I would get some more wild berries. But it has been just too hot and too dry (in spite of a half inch in the rain gauge). The blackberry floricanes (second year, fruit bearing) are just burning up with berries on them. I found only a few edible ones to snack on, and nothing to collect. My cultivated thorn-less ones are not doing any better. I picked some, but most berries are dying on the vine (cane). The prima canes (which will produce next year) are practically the only ones left with any green leaves.

House and Temperatures

It was 96 degrees outside when I arrived, 83 in the living room (addition to the cinder block structure), and 80 in the core of the house. I find it amazing the internal temperature is not higher, especially considering that in town my AC will run all afternoon and sometimes only keep the temperature at 80. First thing I do is turn on the AC in the addition, and a little fan on the floor to blow cool air into the rest of the house.

So by Saturday afternoon when I was leaving the outside temperature was 97, it was 78 in the living room, and 77 in the main house – cooler than the room with the AC in it! As an experiment for the next weekend, I closed off the living room and will be anxious to see how I find the internal temperatures. (And the week's forecast is for many 100 degree days and lows of only 78 some nights).

Nut Trees being Eaten

I first noticed the 15 foot walnut tree growing just below the house had no leaves, just the stems from which the leaves grew. Then I noticed the tops of several of the smaller hickories I'm letting grow were also being eaten. I could see the worms on these just munching away. I don't think they are what got the walnut, because I found partial damage on many other walnuts but not the same worms.

Not knowing how to best attack the invaders, I just used a gloved hand to squash the pests. I was able to get most all of them on three different trees, but I am sure armies more will appear to finish the job. I suspect this invasion is related to the hot dry summer, and I hope the trees will recover. Luckily, there is no sign of damage (yet) on any of my babies I put out in the spring (and have been hand watering).

Water

Three hours Friday, 3 hours Saturday, trip justification, same as weeks past.

Mow

The grass that is not getting water is not growing and so there is very little mowing needed – I think it's been a month. But the road to the pond down by the big Sycamore has thick green grass (I know there is a little spring in that area, but there must be a broader seep as well), as does the south side of the pond (a spring there as well). So I mowed down and back.

Garden

I think I previously miss-identified the squash we are growing. Sally told me its Butternut, and it is taking over the garden. There were two plants originally in this mound, and its spreading like the tentacles of an octopus. There are another couple of plants on the far end doing the same. The summer spinach is to the far right and the tomatoes are just right and being squeezed out by the squash and zinnias (and still being eaten by hornworms). Behind the squash is the basil, bell pepper, and jalapeno. On the far side (and on the end to the left) is the chard. The green beans (to the left) are shot, though I did get enough for 1 serving for dinner. I brought chard, spinach, and 1 squash home.

Road Work

I got some road repair in, working up the hill this weekend. I got one load of buckets and rocks on Friday, harvesting the mud uphill from the East end of the barn (it was shaded in the afternoon). I thought I would have shade Saturday morning, but I didn't get out early enough. Saturday I took the mud from the lower edge of the bluff behind the barn – my traditional spot. After filling the buckets I split a few more of the red oak logs I picked up on the short-cut earlier in the summer. You can see the truck loaded, the harvest site, tools, and the split oak all in this picture.

Walking Stick

I saw one of these guys at the cattle guard when I arrived. He moved to the opposite side of the post so I couldn't get a picture. This one was sitting in the drivers seat when I was done with the road work and ready to come back down the hill. I carefully moved him back outside.

July 8-9, 2011

2011-07-13T20:48:00.001-05:00

Weather

The misery continues with more hot and dry weather. It was in the upper 90s both days, although the thermometer near the roof of the garage showed 102 Saturday (in the shade, but I suspect influenced by its proximity to the roof). Fayetteville set a record of 99 on Saturday (and 102 on Sunday). We had 8-10 drops in the rain gauge, so something fell but nothing significant. I'm somewhat surprised I have been able to keep things alive with only weekly waterings.

Berries/Short Cut

Sally wanted to see the blackberries I had been bragging about getting along the short cut, so we came out that way. I was a bit disappointed, and she was less than impressed. We did find many, ate most, and ended up with 1.5 to 2 cups. Many of the ones along the road, just like at the farm, are drying up on canes that are dying of thirst (no green leaves). I picked a few cups at the farm, but nothing close to what we had last year. I was worried about my new canes dying as well, so I spent an hour or so hand watering them along with everything else.

Watering

This is practically all I got done. I estimated that I spent 3 hours each day hand watering everything -- just trying to keep things alive. I dread what August might bring.

This is the Autumn Blaze maple whose bark split over the winter, it leafed out and immediately died, I cut it off, it sprouted on one side and died, and now has sprouts coming up from the other side. I hope it survives. It was put out on Sunbridge, moved to Elm St., and brought out here in '04. I put the cage around it to hopefully keep the deer from eating its new tender leaves.

Garden

We picked chard (surprisingly it doesn't seem to be affected by the lack of water), some green beans (they are really stressed), 4 cups of basil (what Sally is doing in this picture), and a couple of jalapenos.

The tomatoes are just not doing much. I've heard that others are having problems with them as well. (It started out too cool and wet, and now it is too hot and dry.) The hornworms have shown up as well, taking most of the top of our larger plant. I picked over a dozen off, and even found one on the bell pepper. We're just hoping we don't get the blasted squash beetles, since we are counting on a acorn squash crop.

Blue Bird Nest Out Back

I checked this house thinking I would find baby birds, because I had observed the eggs over the previous two weekends. I had thought there were only three, but as you can see there are four. The mother always leaves the house as I approach -- I guess she has keen hearing. I've never seen the male. Hopefully he will be there to help feed them when they hatch. I also hope no wild critter gets 'em.

July 1-2, 2011

2011-07-06T21:27:00.002-05:00

The Bloodmobile didn't show (had received a post card weeks before, but no phone call this week -- hmm), but it was still 4:00 by the time we arrived. Sally had a funeral to attend Saturday, so we came in two cars. Another hot and dry week, although there was about .1 inch in the gauge. It was 94 Friday and 95 Saturday.

Wasp

I thought I would see what was in the well house. Luckily I donned a glove before grabbing the lid and lifting it open, because this wasp nest was right next to where I take hold. I sprayed the ones that stayed around and squashed the nest. I always try to wear a glove (or look first), because once I was stung by a scorpion (really hurt). BTW, there was just one mouse taking shelter inside.

Watered Everything

Same as last week, though things didn't look quite as wilted. It sure eats up time doing it all by hand.

Garden

Sally picked green beans (many too big), chard, spinach for breakfast, 4 cups of basil, and two jalapenos. She's really excited about the acorn squash and has decided that this is going to be our main produce for the year. There are lots of squash growing and they are still flowering like crazy. (You can see some fruit and also drought damage on some of the leaves in this picture.) I didn't understand why, but she started pulling up the distressed looking green bean plants.

I picked 3 or 4 cups of blackberries over both days. I got another 2 cups on the shortcut on the way home.

Road Maintenance

I brought the wheel barrow out from town since I planned to start work on the erosion just below the house. I first filled it with some of the extra rocks around the house, and then wheeled it down to the work site. I spread the rocks into the ruts left by the heavy rains.

I then took the wheel barrow over to the bluff just upside of the barn. I decided to take mud from the front in order to minimize the distance I had to push it. (I usually harvest from the back by filling buckets and loading them into the truck, but with not far to go I thought I would try this.) Here is a picture of the borrow pit I created. Some of this needed to come out anyway because the hill keeps creeping toward the barn. This is the first time the side door to the barn has actually been able to be fully opened since we bought the place.

I say mud, but with our current conditions it is extremely hard, heavy, clumps of clay. Working a bit loose with the adz left me panting and soaked with sweat in the heat. I'd break some loose, take a breather, shovel it into the wheel barrow, and then do it again. Wheeling it over to work site was also difficult due to the weight – especially those loads I had to run up hill.

After getting the mud into the ruts and covering the rocks, I'd stomp it in and further break up any big clods using the shovel. I'd then dress it using some gravel from any nearby source (there are many) -- sprinkling the gravel over the top. Without the gravel, when it gets wet the mud will stick to the truck tires and get pulled out. Four loads was all I was good for. Many more are needed. This is a picture of the finished product in one area.

Brush Whacker

I made the mistake of filling the tank and then tackled the area in front of and behind the barn, and by the spring. Since I still had gas I did the hill by the house. Since I still had gas I started working on the hill behind the house. I was wiped out, but if you leave this beast sitting up right with gas in the tank it will just drain out somehow. I then realized I could just leave it on its side – which I did since I was ready to quit.

June 25-26, 2011

2011-06-28T20:41:00.002-05:00

This was a solo trip since Sally was getting settled following her (and Lindsey's) 225 mile Katy trail ride. This picture is of them coming into St. Charles at the end of the week.

Blackberries

I came out the shortcut and found a productive patch of ripe blackberries along the road. I ate many and still ended up with 2 cups. Some of my berries are turning, but there weren't a lot so I just ate them. Some of the branches are just dying and the berries are shriveling up on the vine. We really, really could use some rain.

Watering

This was the reason this trip was necessary -- another week without rain (well, there were 3 drops in the rain gauge). The squash, the disobedience and the dog woods were all wilting. Most of the leaves on one of the branches of the 3-in-1 pear had died. I couldn't find my little sprinkler so I had to water everything by hand. The following all got a drink Saturday and Sunday: the garden, the new little trees out front, the new snow ball bush, the 3 year old red buckeye, the 7 year old dog woods, the rose bush, the disobedience, the Japanese maple, the two peonies, and the cluster of quince, day lilies, iris and vinca minor.

As the hose dumped water on the pears and apples, I would attempt to pull the bermuda grass rooted around the base. I am not sure how much good I did, but they do look better. It took a toll though -- I ended up with cut hands and broken finger nails. I forgot to water the peach and apricot.

Garden

I picked a lot of green beans both days, but many were on the large and chewy side. (Sally doesn't like them, but I don't mind if you cut them small and cook them more.) I pulled up the two big garlic and one smaller one, and brought home quite a bit of chard and summer spinach.

The squash is going to town and would probably consume the entire garden if it could get enough water. There are lots of blooms and fruit. These came from seeds Sally saved from a squash we ate over the winter.

More blooms, but no tomatoes yet. It looked like something had cut off the stems where the babies should have been. I did see my first Japanese beetle in the garden, but I don't think they took the tomatoes.

I weeded an hour or more each day, so it was looking good when I left.

Spray/Thistle

I decided to roam the pastures looking for more thistle. Not knowing how much I might find, I decided to take my backpack sprayer rather than a shovel and bag. I actually drove into the back pasture, but thankfully didn't find anything but buck brush. Behind the pond there was no thistle, but quite a bit of sumac and elm. In the upper pasture I continue to find sumac and ran across two thistles that had already gone to seed. I later returned with my pruners and a bag and cut off the see heads.

Bird Eggs

The bird house at the pond was askew, and sure enough the blue bird eggs that were there the week before were gone -- something had snatched 'em. (I did see two blue birds down by the confluence of the creeks.) The bird house out back, that had had some other type of eggs earlier (and that I thought I should have cleaned out), now has 3 blue bird eggs. The house out front is still empty.

I went to check the propane level and found this nest under the hood with a single egg. I don't know how a bird can get under there, but I guess it is a safe place for a nest.

Pond

Good news here. The Cutrine Plus really knocked out the algae and the grass. The pond had that brackish look I remember from a couple of years ago after treating the grass. There was also no obvious leakage underneath the culverts -- water was trickling through the north culvert -- so the patch job with plastic bags was holding at least somewhat.

June 17-18, 2011

2011-06-21T23:08:00.001-05:00

I made this trip solo since Sally was preparing for her Katy ride. The temperature was in the 90s, high humidity, and with only a quarter inch in the rain gauge it was still very dry.

More Wood

I drove out the short cut, and low and behold right in the road is a nice green oak already cut (short lengths). I guess it had blown down and they had cut it up for me to take, so I loaded it up. I ran across two more trees that had been similarly cut. I picked up three more pieces, but they had been down awhile and were beginning to deteriorate (lighter, not as dense, not really good firewood). The green oak split nicely, but I can't tell what kind it is. (The other seems to be what I've called black oak.) More firewood for the kids.

Garden

I pulled up all the onions but one, the only one whose leaves (stalks, shoots, or whatever you call them) were still upright. I also picked green beans (had some with dinner) and one jalapeno. There were blooms on one of the tomatoes, lots of little squashes, and a little bell pepper. I think I watered three times and spent an hour or so before dark weeding (but didn't get around the whole garden).

Mow/Weed-eat

Everything needed mowing badly. I did most of it Friday and finished it up Saturday. I did just a little weed-eating to clean up right around the house. Lots of big stuff needs whacking around the barn, spring, and pond.

Thistle

I took a shovel and bag on my way to the pond planning to dig up the 1 thistle I had seen the weekend before. While getting it I noticed a few little ones that were not large enough to bloom. As I started digging them I noticed more and more and more. And then I found this huge patch of blooming giants on the other side of the creek. They were taller than me. It would have taken lots of time to dig them all up, so I decided to just spray them.

So on a second trip down I brought my backpack sprayer and hit them hard with clear pasture and diesel. That's when I realized many of them had already gone to seed. This is the reason they are here -- last summer I got to some in this area late and this is the consequence. I came back a third time with my hand pruners and a bag and cut the seed heads off and carefully placed them into the bag. That took awhile. The plants were already showing signs of distress from the spray. Now I need to check the back pasture for thistle, since I've found it there before -- and I'll pay the price if I let go to seed.

Bird Houses

The new bird house at the pond was put out two weeks before, was empty the week before, and now has a nest and blue bird eggs! The one down the road was still empty. The one in the front which had had baby birds the week before was now empty -- just a dirty nest with lots of bird poop, so I cleaned it out. I should have done the same with the house in the back.

Pond

On the way out I stopped at Tractor Supply and bought some Cutrine Plus, a copper based herbicide for the pond algae and grass. It said to break up the algae mats, so I tried raking first. The mats were not nearly as bad as 2 weeks before and I wasn't getting much up, so I decided to forget raking and just spray it. I tried to cover out about 6 feet along the dam, along the south shoreline, and the shallows up near the inlet. The grass looked worse with a few patches reaching the surface, though the center of the pond actually looked good.

I also brought to the pond 7 of the large heavy plastic bags they use when selling you live fish. There did not appear to be any leakage under the north culvert. (My patch job of two weeks early was still holding?) Water was clearly running under the south one. I cleared out the gaping hole under each and the water really began to flow right through the dam. I then stuffed the plastic bags in, alternating with clumps of mud and grass. While laying on my stomach on top of the culvert, I used a 4x4 to try and drive it all in and compact the mess. (My chest is still very sore from this task.) I'll just wait and see what happens from here. Obviously this is still just a patch job. I think I need some heavy equipment -- Maybe I can rent a back-hoe.

Lop

While at the pond, I wanted to venture into the area behind it where I had planted pines (got brush hogged), walnuts, and northern red oaks. The persimmon and elm compete with my trees for nutrients, so I took my loppers and attacked them. This doesn't kill them (you could tell most had been lopped before), but eventually the desired trees should capitalize on this advantage and out compete them. (My hope anyway.) You can see the size of the persimmons in this picture, with a line of the few pines that didn't get brush hogged in the background.

Japanese Beatles

They are back. I didn't see any in the garden, but in previous years I had noticed they seem to really like the willows that grow around the pond and along the creeks. These were on the big willow at the pond. (I wish they would eat the entire thing.)

Water Baby Trees

Thankfully no more of the baby trees I had put out in the spring had died. Though I was expecting some rain in the coming week, I went ahead and gave them a quick drink before heading back home.

June 11-12, 2011

2011-06-15T21:29:00.000-05:00

We did a 25 mile bike ride Saturday morning before coming out -- part of Sally's training for her Katy Trail ride across Missouri. It was 1:00 before we got off and in the haste I forgot my phone, so no pictures.

Lisa and CJ Float

Lisa, CJ, Savannah and Allen were came out -- we watched the kids while Lisa and CJ floated the Kings. I was very worried about the time, but it all worked out. They were using our canoe (Papa's), so the first thing was to load it up at the pond. I had talked them into letting me drop them off at Rock House and pick them up at Trigger Gap. The canoe hasn't been moved since it was brought out 7 years ago. I had two bumpers between it and the roof of the truck, but we did not do a good job of getting it tied down. The horrible steep rough dirt roads caused everything to shift around and we stopped twice to re-tie it. I ended up with scraps and even a dent in the roof. Oh well, its my farm truck.

It was 4:00 by the time they pushed off and I agreed to pick them up at 8:30. They actually got in at 7:45 and were able to get a text message to us (service was to poor for a call). It turned out they ran into Alex, CJ's brother, at the take out -- so there was no rush to pick them up. It was close to 9 by the time we got back to the house and a brief thunderstorm had just started to drop some heavy rain (for which I was very thankful).

Trees

Everything was bone dry and the remaining maple out front was withering. Sally put a drip on it and later I held Allen and watered all the baby trees out front and south of the house. The sprout on the trunk of the autumn blaze had dried up, but there is another sign of a green leaf on the opposite side. I don't know if it has a chance. The leaves on one of the oaks I had brought out in March had also died, and I'm not sure it will make another attempt. I should have watered them last weekend.

Garden

Its hard to get much done with two little ones to watch, but Savannah was very cute in the garden helping Sally and wearing one of her hats. They picked spinach, green beans, the last lettuce plant, some onions, another garlic, and weeds. I was able to do a little weeding while Allen watched and squirmed from his car seat.

Sally and I both spent some time watering before the evening rain came. It also rained over night, but the total was only .4" -- not nearly enough. Both days were hot (upper 80s) and humid.

Blue Birds

There were baby birds in the house out front, though I never saw the momma. The house out back that had 5 eggs the weekend before (not blue birds) was empty. Makes me think something got them. That house does not have a baffle protecting it like the one in the front. There were no signs of a nest in the new house by the pond.

Pond

The algae didn't look too bad, but I wish I had had time to rake it again. The grass seemed about the same as well. I have done some reading and learned that the algae grows on the bottom and then floats to the top. Apparently one key is to fertilize it in late winter. I also want to try the bacteria that eat the muck.

Water was flowing through the north culvert and under the south culvert (I am sure it was also flowing under the north one). No chance to try the trash bags or any other repairs this trip.

Pear

One of the large limbs was broken out of the 3-in-1 pear. I guess it just got too tall and top heavy. I sawed it off cleanly and then trimmed many of the other limbs that looked like they might also suffer the same fate. That limb was a majority of the growth for one of the three varieties grafted onto the trunk.

June 3-4, 2011

2011-06-08T21:11:00.001-05:00

We have gone immediately from extremely wet (and flooding) spring weather to dry (and hot) summer conditions. It is amazing how fast the ground can dry out around here. There was no rain and unseasonably warm weather for the week, and I believe record highs were recorded over the weekend. At the farm we experienced low 90s Friday and saw the thermometer hit 95 on Saturday. June used to be very pleasant in Arkansas.

Mow

The tire in the mower held air and I immediately went to work -- wanting to get the back cut since we would be hanging out there. I also did down the road to the pond and in front of the barn. Everything else would just have to wait another week.

Set Blue Bird House

Since I had drilled a mounting hole (and nail latch hole in the lid) before coming out, I wanted to get this restored house setup. I took my post hole digger, shovel, pick, a short cedar post I found up in the woods, a hammer, and a nail down to the pond. I was sweating pretty good by the time I got a hole deep enough to hold the post up -- those darn rocks. Hopefully the house looks inviting to its intended guests.

While mowing earlier at the pond I had noticed this giant thistle coming up. So I dug it up and before bagging it, I thought I would include it in the photo by hanging it from the post. (I also found two more thistles up in the woods while looking for the post. Its unusually early for them to be out.)

On the way back to the house I saw a blue bird along Plume Creek. I told him there was a new house waiting for him over by the pond.

When I got to the turn where the blue bird house sits below the house, I pulled right up beside it and took it down without getting out of the 4Runner. This house had a nest but was showing no signs of occupancy. It also smelled horrible inside. I cleaned out the debris, re-nailed the bottom which was about to fall off, scrubbed it out with a brush, let it dry in the sun, and re-hung it Saturday.

Garden

Sally watered, I watered, Sally watered, I watered, and so forth for the time we were out. She picked most all of the bock chow (which was spindly and trying to bloom), found a few more radishes, pulled up one of the two lettuce plants (we'll see if the other makes through another hot dry week), picked a bunch of summer spinach for another quiche, found a few green beans large enough to pick, and pulled up one garlic and several onions. The smell of the garlic is really strong (I think it may have been one of the hot cloves Nina gave us). I strung the onions and garlic up in the basement at home.

Weed Eat

Sally brought her bike out and took a ride Saturday morning while I cranked up the brush whacker and did the road up the hill and around the cattle guard. It takes an entire tank of gas to get this job done. It sure makes the road look better, and its less creepy getting out to unlock the chain at the cattle guard.

Dam Leaking

When setting the bird house, I immediately noticed that there was no water coming out of the culverts but water was pouring through the dam underneath the culverts. I thought I had fixed this problem several years back when I dug up both sides of the north culvert. And then the beaver moved in and they did a good job of stopping the flow -- too good a job. Now its back to leaking badly.

I used the shovel and dug up some clumps of mud and grass and stuffed them under the mouth of both culverts where the water was flowing under. I then used a 4x4 to drive them in a bit. I was pretty sure the flow had slowed by the time I finished setting the bird house, and I was certain of it when I returned on Saturday -- the water level had risen and was now flowing through both culverts.

I know this is just temporary and that water will wash out my patch within days. Nicholas (who helped me break up the concrete poured around the mouths of the culvert, which I think caused the problem) said they used plastic trash bags in Guatemala to stop/slow leaks like this. I think I am going to try this, stuff plastic down the hole and follow it up with clumps of mud and grass. I'm sure I will have to follow that up by digging down both sides further down and repeating the process including adding bentonite clay.

Pond Scum

The filamentous algae is really bad. Most of it was blown up against the dam by the southwest winds. It extended out some 20 feet and was fairly thick. Not knowing what else to do at the time (and resisting my impulse to spray it with copper sulfate) I raked it Saturday. I would scoop it up with the rake using it like a shovel and then throw it back onto the dam -- reaching out as far as I could. I worked back and forth along the dam about 4 times. By the time I would get to one end the wind would have blown more back toward the dam. This picture is after I spent 1.5 to 2 hours raking. I doubt repeating this process will bring control, and suspect that chemicals will be required.

The grass is also still growing along the bottom, but none has reached the surface. In some areas I could actually see patches of bare ground, so I am hoping the grass carp are making progress on it. I saw 7 big carp cruising around (they seem to like to hang out together).

Pond management is a tricky process that I have yet to master.

Weed Black Berries

I spent more time pulling weeds around a few more of the black berries. I followed this up by spreading newspapers held down with cedar limbs. I also pinched the new canes coming out to get them to branch out. There are lots of little berries on the old canes and there are still lots of blooms.

Wild Raspberries

I saw a few ripe wild black raspberries and ate them. Not many, and they aren't too big. It looks like the wildlife find them first.

May 28-30, 2011

2011-06-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

Sally went to Denver for a wedding shower and to visit Amanda, leaving the farm to Tender and I for the holiday weekend and a rare two night stay.

Shortcut

I had not been out via the forest road for a while, so I wanted to check it out. After the heavy rains of April and May it was mess making for slow going. The Warm Fork was higher than I had ever seen it, but not deep and I had no problem driving through it. I did run up on a turkey. He trotted right down the road ahead of me, but disappeared around a corner before I could get my camera ready.

Brood XIX

As soon as I got out of my truck I knew something was different. It was loud, the insects were louder than normal. Then it hit me, brood XIX, the 13 year periodical cicada, has emerged. We've been hearing that they were coming, but I've yet to notice them in town. This picture is of a few on a sycamore tree down by the pond. I drove the mower past and it startled me when they scattered. A few more left when I approached with my camera -- there were 10 times this many before I disturbed them. In the mornings it was quiet, but as the days warmed up they would slowly get louder and louder. I remember them from 1998. Not from Arkansas but from driving across Kansas to Amanda's graduation. On I70 when passing a low forested area they were deafening.

Weather

I am pretty sure we have had record rainfall for spring. There was 4.75" in the gauge, but that was probably only half of what we got over the past two weeks. We did not come out the weekend before because the forecast was for rain all weekend. In town we got approximately 3 inches Friday, 1 inch Sunday (the day the devastating tornado hit Joplin), 4 inches Monday, and another 1 inch Tuesday. The pond had over-topped the dam again and the spring was still full. This weekend it was warm (upper 80s) and windy.

Brush Whacker

Friday I went by JCs and picked up a used weed eater handle for $5 from some of the junk he had. I had some difficulty getting the allen head screws loose, but with the help of liquid wrench and two different allen wrenches I persevered . I was very pleased to get it mounted and once again have a firm handle on this beast. I used it on the hill in front and behind the house. I then loaded it up with a new spool of .105 line. I planned on doing the road, but never got around to it.

Blue Bird/Bat Houses

I brought these from town. The bird house has been sitting out back for years with a broken top and rotten back. With some scrap wood, a hand saw, and hammer and nails I got it back into good shape. I had left my drill in town though, so I couldn't hang it without a nail hole in the back. The front door swings up to open it, like the house out back. Previously it was screwed down and you had to unscrew it to open it -- presumably just for annual cleaning. I'm going to make a diagonal drill hole through the side and into the door so that I can drop a nail in to lock it, but easily remove it to open the door (like the house down the hill). I plan to use one of my many cedar poles and put this house down by the pond.

This is an official Harry Harnesh bat house. He built it at a demonstration during one of the annual Devil's Den Bat-o-ramas probably 20 years ago. Its been hanging on one of our oaks in town, but just barely. I decided we needed it more at the farm. I cleaned it up, tapped down the nails, and put it up the big oak behind the house. Bats will only use it during the summer, but that is when I want them out and feeding. (I bet if I put it next to the ground in the fall lady bugs would use it to over-winter -- better than them coming in the house.)

Garden

I brought out a marigold, a jalapeno, another sweet bell pepper (first one froze), and another basil (first one froze). I got these right into the ground and watered them good. I was surprised at how dry the surface soil was given the amount of rain we had received, but we had had several warm and windy days. There were lots of weeds, so addressing them took quite a bit of time. The picture is of the lettuce, chard, bock chow, spinach, and cilantro I picked. I also got a couple more radishes which I just ate out at the garden. I made a salad for dinner with most of the above. Sunday morning I spread more straw and watered the entire garden, as I did again Monday.

Autumn Blaze/Dead Apple

I decided I would pull up these two deceased trees and see what the root system looked like. As I was about to tie the tow strap around the maple, I noticed a sprout coming from the root. I thought it was a goner, but no! So I cut off the dead trunk with a hand saw and cleared out around the sprout. Hopefully it will live again, and someday shade the west side of the house.

The apple popped right out of the ground. It had no roots and just a rotting stump. No wonder it died.

Blue Bird Houses

The nest out front has these 5 eggs. The mom didn't leave the house until I opened the door -- hopefully she returned to resume her task. The house out back also has 5 eggs, but I could tell they are not blue bird eggs since they are off white. The house down the hill has a nest but no eggs and I didn't see any birds entering/leaving. I'm wondering if I should clean it out and hope they start over.

Mower

When I rolled the mower out, I noticed the left rear wheel was very low. I aired it up and mowed everything on the house level Saturday. The blade started hitting the deck on the left side, so I had to use a pipe wrench and bend the deck out. This happens because there is a roller on the front right but none on the left (to lift the deck over ostacles). I've hit so many rocks with the front left corner the lower part of the deck is a bent, cut and sharp mess of steel.

I also changed the blades and sharpened the old ones with the bench grinder -- there was no edge left at all. Sunday I mowed almost everything below the house level. During the process I noticed that the rear wheel was low again. And then I hit a rock while working around the spring and had to shut it down because the deck was bent such that the blade was hitting hard. I drove it back to the house and used the pipe wrench again.

In 2007 I had ordered two tubes from some e-bay site (they only sold them in pairs) for the rear tires. At the time the right rear tire wouldn't hold air, and so I had put one tube in it then. So I dug out the other tube and put it in the tubeless left rear tire. Hopefully it will still be aired up next week.

I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this Murray running. It is burning oil, the engine has a knock, the right drive bearing is loose and going out, and the back tires are nearly bald (which scares me more than anything on these hills). I think I need to start shopping for a replacement.

Walking the Fields

I went up into the field above the pond to check for sumac. I hadn't gone far when suddenly a turkey jumped up about 10 feet in front of me and flew off. Those wings flapping were loud and it gave me quite a start. It was hen sitting on this clutch of 8 eggs. The nest was well hidden and I doubt I would have seen it if she hadn't jumped. (Amanda and I had this same experience about 3 years ago, but it was in April and there were no eggs in the nest.)

This next picture if of the farm as viewed from the SE corner (darn, forgot my GPS to set a way-point here). You can see just a tad of the pond between the trees; the power cut coming down the hill; the house, garage, and barn; and the bluff back of the house. I don't think Sally has ever been up here.

From the corner I decided to check on my Northern Red Oaks across the creek above the pond. On the way I noticed water running down the drainage from the cave, so I decided to hike up and check it out. Getting there is difficult because of all the downed timber from the ice storm. The cave was full of water, but not completely full. Once I saw it running right out of the mouth. And to think that Chris and I tied a rope to a tree outside and dropped down about 10 feet into a hollow back to the left.

It was hard to find many red oaks. I planted 90 back in this small clearing after the pines I had planted there were brush hogged. More pines (and elms) seem to be there now than the oaks.

I did see lots of wild black berries through out this whole area – from the SE corner down I've planted pines and finally gotten Larry to stop brush hogging. I'll have to come back in a month with a pale.

Fruit

I could not find a single pear on either tree, in spite of seeing some earlier in the year. I only found 3 apples on the gold rush, which I sprayed again for apple-cedar rust. The black berries are blooming nicely, though several of the plants have just up and died. Almost all of the raspberries have also died.

I spent an hour or more pulling weeds from around some of the black berries and then laying down newspaper held in place with cedar limbs. I didn't get a quarter of them done though.

Black Snake

Monday I was exiting the garden to get the hose for watering when I noticed this 3 foot black snake going through the gate to the house. The first live snake I've seen this season. He slid under the ivy there by the garage, and I only got this fragment of him before he slid under the siding and into the garage -- taking shelter behind some boards I had leaning up the wall on the inside. I was glad Tender didn't see him. I don't mind having a non-poisonous snake around as he will help with the mice (there were 2 in the well house when I arrived). Sally probably has a different opinion.

May 14-15, 2011

2011-05-18T20:59:00.000-05:00

Sally stayed home to catch up. The rain gauge showed 1.75 inches, and the weather had turned very cool -- overcast in the lower 50s Saturday and partly cloudy and 50s Sunday.

Dunn's Fish Truck

I went out Saturday because the fish truck was in town at 9am. I mainly wanted more grass carp thinking they could address my pond problem, but the only ones they had were already promised. They did tell me that the grass carp would continue to eat even after they got big (contrary to what I had heard some time back). Well, I've got some big ones so I hope they go to work soon.

They didn't recommend minnows if you had over an hour drive, but I got 2 pounds anyway. They packed them light, putting them in two bags. (There is just a little water in the bag, but they pump oxygen into the top part of the bag.) I also got 50 catfish also packed in two bags. I had two ice chest with water and frozen water bottles floating in them -- you have to keep the fish cool or they will die as well. I drove fast directly to the pond. At first I thought most of them were goners. But after I added a bit of pond water they livened up, and after I released them I didn't see any corpses floating. I hope the minnows can find a place to take shelter, or they will be goners. (They are intended to be food for the bass, but you want a reproducing population.)

Burn

Given the grass is nice and green and it was wet and cool, I decided to burn. I had three limb piles beside Plume creek (ice storm damage I've cleared over the past two springs) and ended up with two burn piles. I decided to leave the hard wood and only burn the cedar. The hardwood will rot, but the cedar stays around for years and years.

One of the huge cedar trunks that I had cut (because the tree was laid over the creek) had washed down stream a good 200 feet. I was able to work it up out of the creek bed by lifting one end at a time and walking it up.

Sprayed

I sprayed buck brush, briars, and elm below the house Saturday, and buck brush, sumac, and persimmon up on top on Sunday. I also doused the apple trees with fungicide, although I have not noticed the apple-cedar rust galls in the cedars this year. (I'm sure its there though.)

Garden

I made a salad from lettuce, spinach, radishes, and bock chow I picked from the garden, plus some onion and olives I had. The tomatoes haven't done anything, but at least they are still alive. The cilantro has really taken off – now to find something to do with it. I did some weeding Sunday morning.

Walnuts

I cracked the bag of walnuts I had in the freezer, and then moved the last of the last bag to the freezer (put the whole mesh bag inside one of the fish bags). I used a cup and half of nuts to make banana bread that evening (good, but not the best I've ever made).

Blue Birds

This picture is of the nest in the bird house out front. It's the fancy one with the plexiglass viewing side. I am pleased to report that there is also a nest in the house out back. (When I went out to check it, what looked like two females started flying high circles over me. I got dizzy trying to follow them.) So we now have three houses and three nests!

Mow/Weed Eat

I mowed everything Sunday – boring and time consuming (and the season has just started). Before leaving I re-strung and fired up the John Deere to clean up around the house and down by the spring.

May 7-8, 2011

2011-05-15T11:10:00.001-05:00

There was a lot going on in town due to the Dalai Lama's upcoming visit. We attended a traditional Tibetan dance demonstration Friday night and Sally volunteered at the Tibetan booth at the Farmers market Saturday morning, so this was an unusual Saturday-Sunday visit to the farm. It was very warm for this time of year, lower 80s Saturday and upper 80s Sunday, with a heavy fog in the morning. We had 2.4 inches in the rain gauge.

Build Screens

With Friday afternoon off in town, I went by Johnson Hardware and got the materials to build screens for our bedroom windows. This project has been on the list since the beginning, and I've had a scrap of paper with the dimensions sitting on the desk for years. Rather than have them build the screens, I just purchased enough material and tackled this job first thing.

I needed 2 screens just under 2' x 4', so I had 4 6' channels. I immediately screwed up the project by cutting two short pieces for the top and bottom from one piece. Rather, I should have cut the four short pieces from each of the four 6' sections. This meant I either had to wait and purchase another piece or splice one of the long sides.

Sally wanted to participate (or watch me screw up), but she spent most of her time battling the wasps that were nesting in the area. One got in the house and that really panicked her. She was going around swatting at them with a piece of the screen channel. I finally stood on my saw horse and knocked it down from the ceiling fam with a fly swatter. But when I got to the point of building the splice (used a sliver of wood I chiseled down and fit into the ends and then screwed in place) for the last side, I only found short pieces and ended up having to make two splices. After I was all done and picking up, I look around in the house and there is a long piece of channel, which Sally had used to swat at the wasps, sitting on the ottoman. I really did only need to make one splice! Oh well, they are up and we slept with the windows open for the first time.

Brush Whacker

Also on Friday afternoon, I went by The Hardware Store and got a replacement spark plug for the Brush Whacker (which hasn't run since last fall). While there I looked at their Stihl weed eaters, and even told them I would be back to buy one if I couldn't get the brush whacker running. I was actually a little disappointed when it did fire up. On Saturday I did the road all the way up to and around the cattle guard and back. On Sunday I did around the barn and some of the hill in the back. It ran fine and even re-started a few times, but I've really got to do something about the handle which is broken and held together with wire and duct tape. You can't really see it, but I'm totally splattered with the juice of the wet spring weeds in this photo (there is no guard on this beast).

Garden

Sally picked spinach, bok chow (we had it raw with dressing for dinner), radishes (also eaten raw), and some summer spinach for a quiche. These pictures are the garlic and onions. I wish we had planted more garlic now. We also brought out two tomatoes that Sally planted. We were kicking ourselves for not getting another basil to put in the ground. The bell pepper I planted before the last freeze also died (along with the basil). The green beans were coming up but appeared to have caught some hail, leaving holes in their little leaves.

Walnuts for Jackie

With only one bag left, I am determined to get through all the walnuts I picked up and had hulled. I couldn't tempt Amanda into another shipment, but Jackie said she would never turn down black walnuts. So I cracked another box full while the fire was burning down for a buffalo burger cook out. Back in town I picked out most of the large shell-only pieces, packed them into a flat rate box, and Sally took it to the post office. Now I've got maybe one more box full to crack. (I put a Wal-Mart bag full of un-cracked nuts into the freezer a few weeks back, being unsure as to when I would get to them, but wanting to preserve them.)

Pond Walk

I used my new GPS to create a track to the pond from the house. Its a little further than I thought, .53 miles by the road. I took way points at the mid-section of our eastern property line and the pond. I forgot to check the elevation change or the distance as the crow flies.

This pretty blue wildflower, covered in dew, was blooming near the pond. The only one of this unknown type that we saw.

Pond Weeds/Algae

The grass was several inches high on the bottom of the pond, and the algae was all along the shore line with a few patches floating out. I decided to rake out what algae I could, and so worked on that Sunday morning. I bungy corded the rake to the mower to save a trip down -- I just stopped mowing when I got to the pond and switched tasks. It took an hour and half or two and left me pretty sore. I'm thinking of trying these bacteria pellets you spread that eat up the muck on the bottom and thus deprive the vegetation of its nutrients. Now to talk Sally into this approach.

Birds

We were delighted to see a rose breasted grosbeak, which seem to only be around this time of year. And finally, a blue bird pair is building a nest in the house out front. We love watching them. The humming birds and indigo buntings are also back. I even saw a king bird on the fence down toward the pond. And when at the pond on our morning walk a great blue heron flew up to the top of the big oak there. (That explains why I found half a fish under the tree while mowing a few weeks back. It may also explain the absence of our catfish.)

April 29-30, 2011

2011-05-05T21:01:00.001-05:00

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!

April 15-16, 2011

2011-04-26T19:09:00.000-05:00

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

2011-04-13T20:10:00.015-05:00

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

2011-04-06T21:30:00.002-05:00

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.)

March 24-26, 2011

2011-03-29T19:41:00.006-05:00

Spring Break

I had Friday off for Spring break, so we came out Thursday -- which turned out to be the nicest day. Unfortunately we didn't arrive until 5pm. Just time to fill the bird feeders and water the little trees I had transplanted out front. I was glad to see this Buckeye I brought out 3 or 4 years ago leafing out. I strive to just keep them alive – assuming that eventually they will thrive.

The nectarine and peach seemed to be almost done blooming, and it doesn't appear there will be much fruit from either of these (unlike last year when they were loaded). This picture is of a beautiful nectarine bloom.

I was really glad to see blooms on the pear trees – since I only got 1 pear last year. Two arms of the 3 in 1 were leafed out and blooming (the third was still bare) and the Magnesse was also leafing out and blooming. I'm hoping the pears will do better than the apples. (There were no blooms on the gold rush apple and the pixie delight is too young to bloom. So there will probably be no apples this year since my other apple up and died at the end of last year, and it takes two to cross-pollinate.)

Dining

We ate really well this trip. Thursday night we used the last of the pesto I had frozen last summer and made a delicious pizza. Sally had picked up a crust from ONF and we added onion, black olives, mushrooms, pepperoni, bell pepper, garlic, spinach, and cheese.

I bought some buttermilk on the way out and made bran, black walnut, raisin, coconut muffins for breakfast Friday. Sally had only 1 and half while I had 3 and half (with honey).

And for dinner Friday night we had black bean burgers which Sally mixed up -- cooked on the grill with pepper jack cheese.

Rain

Early Thursday morning, while we were still in bed, we got a very brief shower. Maybe 5 minutes. You could hardly tell it rained. But early Saturday morning we had a hard rain with thunder and even some hail. The rest of the day was drizzly and gray, but we needed the rain. I don't think it got out of the 30s Saturday. (Sunday turned out to be the same, when Fayetteville set a record low high temperature.)

Lopping

Friday morning I took Tender up the hill to the upper pasture and lopped 360 cedars (while Sally made the black bean burgers). Saturday morning I went down the hill, up plume creek, back up into the back pasture (near the downed white oak), and back the track I use to drive back there. I lopped another 570 cedars, and could have gotten many more if I hadn't grown tired (and tired of the task).

Knap Weed

Sally had an appointment in Harrison Friday, so was gone much of the day. The knap weed is already growing and is everywhere. So I decided I would see what an early dose of clear pasture would do it. I was only able to cover the area back of the house and back of the barn.

Black Jack, Oak, Cedars

I then took the Stihl and cut these black jack logs from a tree that had died and I had felled a couple of years ago. Its not good fire wood, but now that I've had one blow log fire I want to get some hollow logs on hand for more fires. Unfortunately I had to carry these down since they are pretty rotten and fragile. (The log on the right is the red oak I had cut on the short cut, taken into town, and brought back out once I realized how hollow it was.)

I then started cutting and trimming cedars on the slope above the house. I didn't bother dragging the limbs into a burn pile, but that will have to be done. In the same area there was an 8 inch hard oak (not black jack, probably red) that had been blown over, so I cut it up as well. I got six decent split-able logs from it, which I threw down the hill in stages.

Birds

When I went onto the porch to remove my boots for lunch on Friday, I swear there were 50 birds that scattered from the feeders. I think most were gold finches. There continued to be swarms like this around the feeders, which was nice to see.

Split Logs

I split the last of the black oak and all the other shorter logs. This is the stack for Denver and Chicago. Saturday I split about 6 of the large white oak logs I have stashed at the barn. One large one where the tree split into two trunks I'll probably have to give up on – at least I did this weekend. That leaves me with only about 6 more white oaks to split.

Bike ride, Weedeat, Walnuts

Sally brought her bike out and after getting back from Harrison Friday, she took it up to the top of the hill and road 221 past where it turns to dirt and down the shortcut road a ways – I think it came to 5 miles or so. While she was gone I got the John Deere weedeater started for the season and cleaned up the high weeds around the back and front doors. I then got a fire started for the black bean burgers and cracked one more box of black walnuts (I'm behind on picking them though, still with another box of cracked nuts at the house).

Blow Log

I kept the fire going as we cooked the burgers (I have a keyholepit and move coals with a shovel to the cooking side). Then I put this black jack log on for fun. In preparation I had put three large rocks in the pit to stand the log up on. But once the fire got good and hot it started popping like crazy and throwing out pieces of hot rock. The limestone rock seemed to do fine, but the large piece of chirt turned into a bomb. I'll not use it again.

Garden

Sally brought out about a dozen plants she had started in peat pots at the house. (I don't even know what they are.) We'd put a couple these in the ground two weeks earlier and they were doing fine, but these we had at the house were spendly and it looked to me like they had gotten to dry at some point. She put about half of them in the garden, and then talked me into doing the rest due to the cold damp conditions Saturday.

Cleared Ditch

The road from the house down the hill is really in bad shape. I've rarely had to do maintenance on this section, but it is needing it now. The December 31st storm cut into the road opposite the barn and created a gravel wash a h

At the sharp turn heading down the hill the Carroll Electric equipment had taken the corner a bit sharp and driven in the ditch. This changed the course of the runoff to be across the road. I took my adz and straightened this back out, plus cleared the ditch from there down to the sole culvert on this section of road.

March 19-20, 2011

2011-03-23T19:23:00.002-05:00

I forgot my phone, so no camera and no pictures this week – you can tell I'm not tethered to the thing. Saturday was overcast and in the 60s (there was a chance of rain but unfortunately we didn't get any) and Sunday was clear and in the upper 70s (Fayetteville set a record high of 79).

Logs

I brought 8 logs to the farm from the house: 1 long hollow red oak blow log, 3 short red oak logs for Denver/Chicago, 3 short black oak logs for D/C, and one short walnut log I've had at the house for several years (I suppose I thought I was going to make something from it). Other than the walnut, these were cut on the shortcut on the way home the previous two trips out. I cleaned out the inside of the blow log with a shovel and split all but the black oak.

Garden

The onions and other sprouts had all survived, and some seeds Sally had planted were coming up (spinach and bok chow I think). She tended those and watered (I broke out the hoses) while I continued weeding, and worked one more bag of compost brought from the house in. After lunch I just started using the shovel to scrape up the weeds – the roots were so matted into the packed earth between the rows it was very difficult to get them up. Basically the garden is now good to go.

Well House Insulation

I bagged this up, and hung it in the garage. It is getting pretty ratty looking (it actually does look like rats or something nest in it), but figure I can use it at least one more year.

Afternoon Walk

I talked Sally and Tender into driving to the pond and walking the fields behind the pond and up the hill. I wanted to check on my trees there. The pines are doing good, but I couldn't tell much about the red oaks and walnuts since they hadn't started leafing out. I took my loppers and got 240 cedars on the walk.

We tried to get to the cave, but there was so much downed timber Sally couldn't/didn't want to make it. I guess I haven't been in there since the ice storm. Just one more area to clean up.

Some algae is growing around the edge of the pond. I read a pond management article that talked about an algae bloom being good for the fish. I don't know if that is what we have or not, but I don't like the looks of it.

Prune

I pruned the two pears, the last of the fruit trees needing this. Their leaves were beginning to show but I couldn't see any signs of blooms. I'm hoping for more than 1 pear this year. The nectarine was covered in its beautiful pink/white blooms, and there were a few blooms on the elberta peach. I also pruned the three hollies on the west side of the house – they really needed a hair cut.

Fajita Cookout

Even though there was a fire ban on, we had a cook out. Beef fajitas with grilled onions and bell pepper. Very tasty.

Sunday Morning Walk

We went down the hill, and at Plume creek I tried to get Sally to walk with me up the creek (I've been working on getting it cleared). It was too uneven for her in tennis shoes, so it was a no go. I did bring my loppers along again, and got another 60 cedars. On the way back I noticed a blue feather in the bottom of blue bird house that sits half way down the hill. I opened it up to find a dead blue bird. No nest or anything else. We guessed it was maybe seeking shelter in the cold weather and died of natural causes.

Cell Phone Antennae

Sally was having trouble getting reception, so I got the ladder and repositioned the antennae on the roof. It had slid down 8-10 inches due to the snow on the roof. I tapped it back with duct tape.

March 4-5, 2011

2011-03-08T20:42:00.032-06:00

Garden/Compost

I gave blood (my 100th Red Cross donation), so we were a little late getting off. I was anxious to get out and get the garden weeded before it rained (thunderstorms were due to role through about dusk), since its difficult to get their roots to let loose of mud.

I had a truck load of city compost and was going to work it into the garden. Sally had bought a bunch (about 40) Georgia Sweet onions, and wanted them planted first thing. So I worked the compost into the mound next to the fence and she proceeded to plant, then she spread pine straw over them to help with the weeds and erosion. I frantically weeded while she was planting. I worked until dark and only got about 75% of the weeds. It sprinkled a bit, but the heavy rain held off till after dark.

Sally was fretting about her onions during the storm -- thinking they were going to be washed away. She wanted me to go out and check on them before bed, but I refused insisting they would be fine. And of course they were, as proven by this picture.

Cedars

I pulled 290 little cedars while getting Tender out Saturday morning. This was over by the swing where they tend to come up thick under some of the big oak trees there. (Birds poop the seeds out.) Most were tiny, but some were 1-2'. When the ground is saturated they can be easy to pull up (roots included), though you do have to wear gloves. I could have gotten lots more if Tender hadn't been so anxious to get his breakfast.

Rye Grass

Now that we've finally been getting some rain, the rye seed I spread on the road back in the fall has finally germinated and begun to grow. Hopefully it will help a bit with erosion. The road is needing some work.

Turning the Garden

I spent most of the rest of the day turning the compost (and some wood ashes) into the garden. It was hard work but not too bad (made this a 4 ibuprofen day). I was afraid the rain was going to make it too muddy, but other than getting it caked on the bottom of my boots it wasn't a problem.

I did turn up about a dozen of these tomato horn worms in their cocoon stage. I only found one last year, so this may be a bad omen since they can devastate a tomato plant.

Sharpen Stihl/Oak Logs

I was planning to return by the short-cut again this week and get another load of logs, so I sharpened the saw. We had no trouble finding another down tree cut into long sections. I think I made 7 or 8 cuts and ended up with 10 logs. I could tell it was some kind of oak, but not red or white.

Once I got to splitting it at the house I found these broad patches of black on the inside. Maybe its black oak? The bark matches the description I found for black oak, but I couldn't find any references to the internal grain. There has to be some reason they call it black oak.

Its good solid heavy wood, but it has these 1" limbs that go deep into the trunk and tend to bind it together -- making it difficult to split. I wish I had had my wedges at the house.

February 25-26, 2011

2011-03-02T19:03:00.005-06:00

Shortcut

Sally was in Harrison and meeting me at the farm, so I came the shortcut. First, Warm Fork Cr was flowing. It was the first time I had seen that since maybe July. (We had received almost an inch of rain Thursday.)

I had seen this tree that had been hit by lightening before, but this time I stopped to get a picture. I think it occurred during the storms that came through December 31st. Note the bark peeled down the pine that is adjacent. This must have been one heck of an explosion to completely splinter a large hardwood like this.

I had seen before these downed trees adjacent to the road that had been cut into long sections, maybe 4' each. Once I even stopped and tried to pick up a section, but it was too heavy. So I decided then I would come back this way with my chain saw and get a load of free wood. (See the last section.)

Tree Transplanting

Before I left town I dug up 10 volunteer oak and hickory trees I had tagged in 2009. (Meant to do this last year.) With the ground good and wet I figured this was the best to transplant them. We also had 4 volunteer walnuts that had come up in the garden, so I dug them up as well. I planted most of them in front of the house along the road, and a few along the lane to the spring. Digging in this chirty soil is a real chore. I hope half of them survive.

Mulch Leaves

I brought my leaf blower out from town and hooked up the mulcher tube to the intake. I then opened the garage doors to pick up all the leaves that blow in there and send them in pieces out into the yard. I also got the ones that had blown up next to the garden and the house. This is much easier than raking.

Weed Garden

Everything was really wet. Too wet. I tried to do some weeding in the garden but the thick mat of roots on many of the weeds and the wet soil made it very difficult. I decided to try again Saturday -- and it was easier then. There are lots of weeds since I had neglected this task all winter, plus the violas that must come up from seed. The violas I will leave, but I want to get the mounds cleared so I can work in a load of mulch the next weekend.

The garlic I planted in November had come up, and there are a few onions that were missed last fall and have survived the winter. Sally even saw some spinach coming up.

Crack Pecans

I've had a bag of tiny native pecans I picked up last November from Dwight's. I brought them out and used my walnut cracker to crack them. I've found that picking them out is harder than picking walnuts. And they are so tiny the yield is extremely low.

Clear Ditch

I'd noticed that the ditch on the left coming in was getting clogged with debris. So Saturday I took my hoe and spent a little time clearing it up. I need to do the same along the road down to the pond.

Drag Cedars

I'd cut lots of ice storm downed cedars at the bluff past the swing, and just left them there. So I spent an hour or so dragging them into a couple of piles. It was wet enough, I should have burned some of the many piles I have -- but I didn't have time. I'm thinking of getting a chipper/shredder to deal with some of these. At least then I would get some mulch out of it.

Prune

I used my new professional bypass pruners on the peach, the nectarine, and the blackberries. I had just started on the apple when it was time for lunch. The pruners worked okay, but I don't know that they were worth what I paid for them. (Used by Lowe's rebate card that I had received from the insulation purchase last fall.

Garden Gate

The garden gate was barely holding together, so I rounded up some wood scraps and rebuilt it. One of the long sides is a strip of plywood siding (couldn't find a second solid piece of 1 by) -- I hope it holds up to the weather.

Red Oak

As I planned, I left early, took my Stihl chain saw, and went the short cut. There were at least 6 other trees like the one I stopped at -- and I only got half of it. As soon as I started cutting I could tell it was red oak. I had to use one log to help me step it up into the truck bed. I also had to sharpen the blade to finish getting my 10 pieces, and I was only having to most pieces once to have two pieces.

I went ahead and split a couple of pieces at the house, and they split very nice. Three of the logs are short enough for Denver and Chicago, so they will come back to the farm for splitting and storage. The base piece is hollow enough I think I am going to save it for a blow log.

February 12-13, 2011

2011-02-16T11:42:00.003-06:00

Weather

The previous two weeks were brutal. In Fayetteville on the 1st we got a quarter inch of freezing rain followed by a half inch of sleet and 4 inches of snow. The University closed Tuesday through Thursday. Thursday morning we set a record low of -5. On Friday we received another 4 inches of snow and the University closed at 4pm. Though it did get above freezing Saturday and Sunday and we had a lot of melting, I deemed it unsafe to try and get to the farm.

Another system passed through on the 9th bringing more bitterly cold weather and dumping 18 inches of light powder. The state record for a 24 hour snowfall was broken when Siloam Springs recorded 24.5 inches. Clifty and Harrison were reported to have received 24. And then there was the cold -- several new record lows were set including a -18 at Drake field which was an all time low temperature for that location. The University was closed Wednesday through Friday. Fortunately, after the front came through we had clear skies and sun so many of the roads (especially those that got plowed) began melting early.

Saturday's high was forecast to be in the upper 40s and Sunday's in the upper 50s, so I decided to make the trek out. I brought my snow shovel because I anticipated shoveling the road down to the house and barn. (I wanted to get out to check on things, but also needed to get a load of wood for our President's Day weekend trip to Chicago.) Sally and Tender stayed home due to the conditions.

All the roads were great -- they had plowed everything including Rock House and even our county road. (I could tell they used a grader on the county road due to the tractor tire tracks.) From the cattle guard down, however, there was still lots of wet heavy snow. Having seen 4WD vehicles slip in these conditions I decided to go ahead and shovel two tracks. It took less than an hour each way -- down and then back up. It was hard on my back though.

The house was fine (glad I had added the extra insulation last year) and the snow was melted on the south facing slopes that were not shaded. But there was lots of snow on the north side of the house and garage and any place shaded. The road was practically completely clear by the time I left Sunday afternoon -- due to the SE facing slope. I really wanted to get down and see the pond since it looked like the ice was really thick, but I didn't care to wade through deep wet snow to get there.

Loaded Wood

I drove the truck straight to the barn and loaded it up. This wood is suppose to be 18 inches. If it were I could get 4 rows in the 6' bed. Knowing my cutting is not that precise, I put the longer pieces in the first row and the shorter ones in the last row and ended up with 4 complete rows -- wanting to make the most of the trip.

Walnuts

In the hour and half or so before dark I cracked a box full of my black walnuts. I decided I would send these to Amanda, so that evening I picked out the largest pieces of shell only (no need to ship them) and bagged up the rest.

Sunday, last thing before leaving, I cracked another box full for me to pick out. I've still got a little over two bags to crack and pick -- close to 100 pounds.

Burn Cedars

Sunday morning I decided to burn the cedar limbs from the 4+ trees I had cut in December. I had drug these out back and down the hill, now I had to drag them to the fire pit. With the wind strong out of the west I was afraid of scorching my peach tree, so I had to go slow and ended up with the fire east of the actual fire ring. Some of the limbs I threw on the fire were still clinging to snow and ice. They still burned. I didn't finish the job since I was anxious to get on to log splitting, but I did get most of them burned.

Split Wood

I spent the next couple of hours in the barn splitting the large white oak logs I had cut. It went pretty good, but many did have joints that made it difficult. I got about half of these done -- you can see them stacked behind the truck load of wood we are taking to Chicago. These are dense and heavy, and so will make great stove wood.

Eagle/Hawk?

I saw another bald eagle right overhead soon after getting to the house! And Sunday a huge hawk was soaring low (less than 50') right overhead. It's coloring was unusual and it was huge, which made me wonder if it was an immature bald eagle.

January 28-29, 2011

2011-02-03T10:02:00.000-06:00

Eagles

We saw two eagles on the way out, one near Clifty and another along Hwy 23. When we got to the cattle guard there was one soaring directly over the farm. I saw a fourth flying over our valley Saturday morning when I had driven down to lop cedars. And then we spotted a fifth over head while laying out on the warm ground Saturday afternoon.

Very Pleasant Weather

It was 60 Friday afternoon and hit 70 Saturday -- amazing for January. After working Saturday I joined Sally and Tender just laying on the ground soaking up some rays.

Fayetteville set a record high of 74 Saturday. 5 days later we would set a record low high temperature of 16 and a record low of -3 Thursday morning!

Fence Repair

My first project Friday was to repair the section of fence that had blown down a few weeks earlier. I ended up having to rip a 2x2 at an angle using my rusty hand saw (held in place by my vice) in order to build an anchor at the post. It sits higher than we wanted since the post stopped at the porch concrete, but with rocks underneath it doesn't look to bad.

Walnuts

After the fence repair I cracked another box of walnuts -- starting in on my 3rd bag. These were smaller than the previous ones and had about a 80% ratio of good nuts to bad. Sally was asking why I bother with all the work when I can just go buy them. It did get me wondering the same question. I figured it takes me over an hour to pick out a cup of nut meat, and I get about a quart of meat per box, and it takes about a hour and half to crack that many. How does Hammons do it for a profit?

Lop Cedars

Saturday morning I went back down into the valley worked the area across Plume creek -- going all the way up to the woods and back down. After that I did a few more on the north slope. I cut 985 and was glad to clean that area up.

Clear Creek

After lunch I went back down to Plume creek with my Stihl to see if I could finish clearing the ice storm damage -- a project started last spring and continued a few weeks back. These are some before and after pictures.

I cut everything all the way to where the fence crosses the creek (approximately where our property line is). I drug most of the limbs out of the creek and piled them to the side. There is one section needing more dragging, but it is close to being able to walk up un-impeded.

January 14-15, 2011

2011-01-19T21:56:00.001-06:00

Cold Week

Friday and Saturday were really very nice with highs in the upper 40s and dropping only to the upper 20s overnight. But during the week we had the coldest weather of the season with several sub-freezing days and single digit nights. We also received a dusting of snow in town Sunday-Monday, but I'm sure the farm got several inches – it was still on the ground in many spots.

Walnuts

We arrived late and so I decided to get some walnuts cracked instead of starting any larger (longer) project. I need to get cracking on these nuts if I am going to get the remaining 3+ bags cracked and picked. I almost filled my box, and got close to finishing off bag #2. (Each bag is 40-45 pounds.)

Blow Log

While I was cracking nuts, I decided to burn the trash in the fire pit – and possibly burn the cedars I have piled up in the back. I thought with the recently melted snow the ground, grass, and leaves would be damp enough to not worry about the fire getting out of hand. Wrong! It didn't take long to realize we were still in the middle of a very dry spell. So much for burning the cedars.

Some sparks from the fire got on to my hollow log I had by the fire pit (which I was saving to impress some guests). It was so dry and rotten, I couldn't get the smoldering areas that caught put out. So I just went ahead and put it on the fire – sitting it right in the middle. I had to use a stick to prop it up. This blow log was very impressive while it lasted. At least I got some good pictures before it fell over and broke apart (maybe 10 minutes). Sally enjoyed feeding the fire with all the lose debris she could find. I'll be looking for another hollow log so I can do this again. Maybe with a beer in hand the next time.

Pond Walk

Saturday morning we walked to the pond, which I was excited to see because I knew it was frozen over. Sally enjoyed throwing rocks out on it, which made that eerie hollow sound as they bounced across the ice. It was pretty thick, but with one foot I could get it to crack so there was no walking across it. The were only two spots where it was melted: directly in front of the culverts and where the spring seeps into the pond on the south side.

I talked Sally into walking back across the pasture hoping we could find some antlers a deer had shed, but no luck. I think it may still be a bit early. Though I have found some most years, I didn't get any last winter.

Lopped Cedars

My Saturday morning project was to drive down to Plume creek and then lop cedars on the opposite north facing slope. There are lots growing there even though I have covered this area before.

I worked my way up to the bluff because I wanted to see the giant icicles there. (Later in the day I would hear them fall and crash from across the valley.) From the base of the bluff, I worked my way down through the edge of the woods lopping all the way. I cut over 1,100 cedars in an hour and half, but didn't make a dent in those shown in the picture. I just need more time.

Split/Load Wood

We decided to take another load of wood home, and since Sally likes the exercise I let her load the whole truck. While she was doing that I split the rest of the Chicago/Denver logs I had stockpiled. I then decided to split one of the 24 inch logs I had cut the weekend before. I had to use my wedge to get the log into two pieces, but after that the white oak was very cooperative. From one log I ended up with 15 stove logs. I can't wait to burn this stuff – it will sure beat all the limbs I'm using now (although some of those bigger hickory limbs make great fire wood).

Before and after the splitting, I lopped and cut cedars and other trees and scrub just below the barn. Somewhere in there is the field line for the septic system. I need to do a better job of keeping trees from clogging it up with their roots. I whacked another 150 cedars in this area.

January 7-8, 2011

2011-01-12T19:04:00.001-06:00

I gave blood before getting out of town, so was an hour later than I prefer in getting off. Sally was having a girls weekend in Hot Springs, so it was just Tender and I. I was anxious to cut some wood, but that would have to wait until Saturday since I wasn't suppose to do any heavy lifting the rest of the day.

Eagles

Friday was nice, in the 50s, but the wind was really strong out of the north. Near Clifty I drove right under 3 bald eagles flying north. They were really working hard heading into that stiff breeze.

Walnuts

I decided to crack walnuts Friday afternoon since I had limited time, it was easy work, and I needed to get a box off to Jackie. I started in on my second full bag. They seemed to crack better than the earlier ones and there were more good nuts, about 80%. I was pleased and got my whole box filled up before dark.

Walk/Lopping

Since it wasn't quite dark yet I took my loppers and Tender and we walked up to the top of the hill. I lopped cedars along the way and Tender explored. We came back down through the woods in the dark. I got 150 cedars cut. There really aren't too many more up there, which is very nice to see.

Fire Wood

Saturday morning it was 24 and it never got out of the 30s the rest of the day. I loaded up my Stihl and McCulloch saws and Tender and we headed for the back pasture where the two huge white oaks have been down for 2 years or more (along with some decent size hickories).

I wanted to get some of the wood out before it got to wet to get back there. Even with no rain for the past week it was muddy enough where I drive the truck across the creek to cause some concern, but I didn't have any problem.

I started out with the McCulloch. Its heavy, hard to start, and a bit awkward to use, but it can sure cut good. But it suddenly died about 2/3 way through the first tank of gas, and the starter cord was locked up and wouldn't move. I continued with the Stihl but could immediately tell it wasn't cutting good. The saw dust was fine and powdery, a sign that I still had not gotten the depth gauges knocked down enough. I decided I would go ahead and take a load to the house and put my new chain on the Stihl, and retire this old one -- or at least make it my spare.

The new chain on the Stihl cut good, but I hit a couple of rocks working on a big limb that was lying on the ground. After that, not so good.

These logs were just about as much as I could handle -- lift into the bed of the truck. I ended up with three truck loads. Next time I'm out here I'll have to bring my log splitting tools just to get the logs down to a size I can lift. I'm getting anxious about getting these good trees cut and to the barn where they will be dry and not subject to rot.

More Lopping

On one of the trips to the pasture, after loading the truck I took Tender and my loppers for a stroll. There weren't too many cedars in that particular area. I think I cut about 60. They are really bad back just across the creek from where the road comes down. That inspite of working that area many times before.

McCulloch

Back at the house I took the McCulloch apart. I found oily sawdust so thick I couldn't believe it wouldn't interfere with its operation. A loop of the starter cord had come off the recoil pulley and tied it up. I spent most of the time trying to work the sawdust out of the compartment on the body side of the saw. Here's another place I could use an air compressor.

After getting it back to together, I started it up and cut the cedar limbs I had piled behind the rabbit hutch back in December. Now I need to have a huge bonfire to get rid of them.

Rake/Prune

It was getting late and cooling off, but not dark yet. I decided to rake some of the pine straw in the front yard. I also clipped the Obedience Plant out front before cleaning up and heading back. Drove the shortcut in the dark.

Dec 31, 2010 - Jan 1, 2011

2011-01-05T20:56:00.000-06:00

Weather

It was 60 degrees Friday afternoon, 22 Saturday morning, and didn't get out of the 30s the rest of the day. We had received some hard rain (much needed) Thursday night and I noticed some road erosion just below the house heading toward the pond (some future maintenance required). Water was coming out of both culverts at the pond.

Power Cut

When we arrived we were surprised to see the chain down. I noticed the Carroll Electric pad lock hanging open, so I knew it was them and assumed they were in at the time -- but nobody was there.

We then immediately noticed they had mechanically cleared under the power lines. Several years back they had sprayed to kill the vegetation, but this time everything was cut down over a wide swath under the lines. I didn't like seeing it, but know it is necessary. They covered everywhere the power lines went: along the fence to the south, angled over the hill and down the bluff to the bottom, east along the valley, the tie in going back up the hill to the house, and even the tie in going over to Jeff's. This last run goes right over the confluence of our creeks where they left a mess of willow limbs. I cleared those because I don't want the culvert under the road to clog -- it'll overflow even when not clogged up.

I was wondering how they had done the clearing – whether any of it was done by hand. The limb cuts up the side of some of the tall trees along the side was very rough. On the way back home I found my answer. At the Rock House Road intersection there was a large 4WD tractor parked. It had what looked similar to a brush hog on the back of it, but sat lower and seemed much heavier. It must have one heck of a blade to cut through the brush they ran it over. I had also noticed where they had obviously driven it outside the power cut lane but turned off the blade (but still laying down some of my trees it ran over). Further down the road next to the Fire Station, I noticed another strange piece of equipment. It sat very high with all 4 tractor wheels the same size. It had a long boom on it that could be extended and a small circular blade on the end. I think that is what they used for the high limb cuts.

Bed Swap

We're getting a new bed at home, moving our old queen to the guest room, and therefore decided to move that double bed to the farm to replace two twins in one of the spare bedrooms. (The two twins we passed on to Lisa and CJ.) It was a lot of loading, unloading, reloading, cleaning, and setting up -- but it looks nice and leaves much more room in the little bedroom. I hope our guests will like it.

Fence Down

A section of the fence had apparently blown down in the storm. It was never attached very well -- just scabbed up on both ends, not really being long enough for the span. (This is the area that was occupied by the McDaniel's hot tub.) I'm thinking about adding a post next to the garage in order to shorten the span and better secure this section. There are always plenty of projects to choose between.

Cracked Walnuts

Friday afternoon I cracked more walnuts, finishing up the first bag I had started on back in December and then did all the ones I had hand hulled. Only 20% of the hand hulled ones were good. I hand hulled them because they had come through the huller with hulls intact. Makes me think it knew they were bad and weren't worth hulling. I am anxious to get into the next bag and see what the percentage of bad nuts is there. It's not looking like a good year for black walnuts.

Creek Clearing

Saturday morning I took the Stihl down to Plume creek to continue the ice storm clearing I had started last spring. The first picture is the mess of cedar, hickory, and maple all tied together with wild grape vines. I'd cut what I could reach and then drag those up the hill to either side, and then start again. Dragging this stuff on the slippery slopes is quite a work out -- I was sore. I felt good about what I got done (second pic), but there is more to do further up the creek -- maybe another hundred feet. I don't believe there is another mess as big as this one though. It was nice to hear the water running in the creek when the saw was shut off.

Sharpen/Split

With just a little time before leaving, I got the Stihl chain sharpened and split a few more of the logs I have stashed at the barn.

December 10-11, 2010

2010-12-16T19:12:00.001-06:00

Sally stayed in town to do Christmas preparation stuff. Weather was pleasant, about 50 each day, and we received a little rain overnight (not enough though).

Lopped Cedars

I took my loppers down the hill behind the barn. This slope is thick in cedars, most of which need a chain saw. I was just trying to clear some of the smaller ones. In spots I had to lop a path just to get through. I don't expect to ever get it in control.

This picture, which is not very good, is of one I cut maybe 4 or 5 years ago but didn't get below the lowest limb (as Ben had directed me to always do). The result is it grows back from the root and the tiniest limbs left growing. Its harder to cut the second time.

When I got to the bottom of the hill I started back up toward the house working just outside the fences. In spite of hitting this area the last couple of years, there are always more. It was getting dark by the time I got back to the house – I had cut 981.

Insulation

Thursday night I picked up two more bags of the R19 insulation I have been adding to the attic. Friday evening I got these spread, and with the help of one piece of R25 left from what I used to insulate the top of the well house I have now completed this job! Now to sit back and reap the benefits -- how long will it take to recoup energy savings of $750.

Load of Wood

We burned wood for three days the past week, and seeing how it depleted my supply in that short time I decided I should bring a load into town with every trip. So I loaded her up and just plan to add it to the stack at the back of the carport.

Split Wood

I started in on the two loads I had cut several weeks back. I thought it was all shorter stuff that could go to Denver or Chicago, but three of the largest logs were nearly 24 inches and had to go into my pile on the other side of barn. The white oak and even the hickory splits nicely. I got about half of the stack done, as you can see here. The vertical stack are the two logs I picked up along the short cut the weekend before.

Chain Saws

I sharpened the McCulloch, gassed it up, and filled it with oil so it will be ready to take back out. I then got the Poullan out, which I don't think I have used in almost a year due to not being able to get the carburetor tuned. At first it ran pretty good and I got two more cedars cut up above the well house. But then it started bogging down and I could barely keep it running, much less cut anything with it. I tinkered with the high setting but failed to get any improvement.

Fire Wood Box

I brought a small piece of 3/4 inch plywood down from the attic thinking it would be a good bottom for a box I could build for the firewood I bring into the house -- just set it next to the stove and keep the debris off the floor. I found some other scraps and hand cut a few pieces so the box would be 25" x 18" x 12" high. When I got them home Sally informed me we didn't need that and there were other things I needed to do with my time. (I'll get it built, just not sure when.)

Walnuts

I cracked another quarter of a bag, but this time the ratio of bad nuts to good nuts was almost 50%. I'm glad I have so many, but hate thinking about the time spent picking up, hulling, and now cracking them to find out they are bad. Somehow the squirrels can tell immediately and just leave the bad ones.

December 3-5, 2010

2010-12-08T19:16:00.001-06:00

Sally was bringing Lou out on Saturday, but I chose to come Friday afternoon and have three days at the farm -- woo-hoo! The weather was clear Friday with a high of 60, clear Saturday with a high of 50, and cloudy Sunday when it never reached 40.

Poachers

I was a little anxious to get out because I had received a call Thursday afternoon from our neighbor, Jeff. He asked if I had given anyone permission to hunt on our property because there was a guy down by the pond cleaning a deer at the time. He said he had already run another hunter off our property, several off his property, and that it was getting to be a real problem. He said the guy's truck was parked at the cattle guard and had New Mexico tags.

Jeff called back later after having a conversation with the hunter, whose story was that Ernie from Kings River Outfitters had given him permission. The only thing is our place isn't any where close to any land Ernie may own. Jeff was going to report him to the sheriff. He and Kathy had also purchased No Hunting signs and put them up on the county road, a tree in front of Kathy's, and on our gate beside the cattle guard (right next to our No Trespassing sign).

Saturday morning I walked down looking for the carcass. Its hard to believe that within two days this is all that would be left (just skin and bones), but this was all I found.

While I was done there I hiked over to look at Jeff's new pond. We'd heard his dozer running over several weeks. He moved a lot of dirt. This is the second one he has put in down the hill. This one is bigger than his first, but smaller than ours although it looks like it will be deeper. Both of his were partially filled, while ours was running out the culvert – the first time I had seen that since spring.

Free Wood

I came out via the short cut and found these two logs along the road. Someone has been cutting some of the downed trees, and I guess they didn't want these 2 for some reason (they had been sitting there awhile, so I didn't feel guilty about taking them). I did suffer a minor muscle pull in my back lifting that big one into the bed – perhaps why they had left it. The other was so knotty I could understand it being left.

I had to use a wedge to split them, but they were good hard wood. The outer inch or two of the light colored one was all rotten, but everything else was great. They seem to be two different types of oak (guessing here). The dark one had a big branch and required two wedges to get it into small enough pieces to burn. (You can see one wedge stuck in this picture, I couldn't free it until I got it to the barn where my other wedge was.) The logs were short, about 18 inches, so the smaller pieces will go into the Denver/Chicago pile. I loaded them into the truck to carry to the barn and they filled the width of the bed -- two logs were 1/4 of a truck load. I liked not having to cut 'em – pieces that big are a chore.

Siding Treatment

Since it was warm Friday afternoon, I got the south side of the house painted with the clear wood finish I apply to the cedar siding. This fall I have now gotten the east, west, and south sides of the house and some of the porch done.

Insulation

I brought two more bags of R19 out, 18 8' bats. Friday evening I finished up the east end of the house, and spread the rest in the west end of the attic Saturday morning. I still need a little over 1 bag to finish. I had two bags of the 16" wide R13 I purchased in the spring, but decided to bring it home and use in town since the R19 (24 inches wide) is so much easier to work between the roof supports (requires little cutting).

Fertilize Trees

I picked up some fertilizer at the Farmer's CO-OP on the way out of town. Saturday morning I spread special fruit tree fertilizer under 9 trees (peach, nectarine, apple and pear), and lightly spread some 13-13-13 under the other trees we are nurturing around the house.

Meals

Lou and Sally arrived about lunch while I was walking back up from visiting the ponds and deer carcass. We had turkey sandwiches and pickled beets for lunch. For dinner we had pizza made with ONF dough, pesto I had made (and frozen) back in the summer, spinach, onions, garlic, mushrooms, pepperoni, and mozzarella. Lou provided a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau French wine to go with it -- yum. Breakfast was a spinach, onion, and feta omelet with a fruit strudel they had picked up at the Botanical Gardens market -- yum, yum. Lou got pictures of all the food, and everything else (available on her Walgreens site).

Walk

Sally was under the weather with a cold, so Lou gave her a Reike session Saturday afternoon. Afterward, while Sally was resting, Lou, Tender and I walked to the pond. I talked her into a side trip up Plume Creek, which I had started clearing last spring. It was pretty. Although the creek was running down in the field, it was dry (running underground) where we walked. We got as far as the big brush pile which I need to tackle this winter.

After the creek, I convinced her to walk the field over to the pond. She didn't want a close up of the deer remains, so she and Tender stayed back while I got my photo. We returned to the house via the road.

Walnuts

Lou was interested in my walnuts, so after showing her my stash I offered to crack some for her. I was anxious to try them myself. I cracked about a fourth of a bag for her late Saturday, and she spent the evening picking them out. Unfortunately I couldn't find a nut pick and she had to do the best she could with a wine opener. She continued the process Sunday morning and got all of them picked – I was impressed.

After she and Sally left Sunday, I cracked another quarter of a bag. I thought a high number of them had been bad the day before, so I counted the first 100. Over 30% were bad. I hope the ratio doesn't run that high in all bags. The Sunday cracking is probably destined for Atlanta where my folks will pick them. My right upper arm was sore Monday due to the force required to break those hard shells, even using my long armed hard nut cracker (pictured last spring).

Frost Flowers

When walking Tender Sunday morning I found lots of frost flowers down by the spring. I picked this one to show Lou. She had never seen or heard of them (and her dad was a naturalist) and was fascinated by them. There turned out to be many more on the hill going down to the barn and also behind the barn. Lou stuck this one on the back fence and it was still intact when I left after 3pm (with the temperature holding at 38).

Annual Rye

I had also picked up 50 pounds of annual rye grass seed at the CO-OP. So right after Sally and Lou left I spread it on the road – the steep part going up the hill. It helps to minimize erosion if we get enough rain to sprout it. So far this fall its been too dry, so I have my fingers crossed. I filled a 5 gallon bucket and walked up the road scattering seed as I went. The bucket was empty about a third of the way up the hill, so I returned to the house and carried the rest of the bag to that point where I refilled the bucket. I then did the left side to the top, returned to fill the bucket, and then did the right side. Hum, I wonder if this is also a reason my arm was sore the next day?

Stihl/Cedars

I took the chain off and used the bench grinder to knock the depth gauges down. I thought I was taking a lot off, so I immediately put the chain back on before checking with my gauge. Darn if they didn't need more off. I went ahead and tested it by cutting a cedar above the well house. It did better but not great, so I took the chain off again and repeated the process. This chain doesn't owe me anything – there is very little left on some of the cutters – and the depth gauges are essentially gone now. I took it back up above the well house and cut another cedar and some lower limbs from two others. As soon as I would start cutting it would start smoking. I'd have to cut a little at a time, giving the oil time to catch up. I wasn't terribly pleased, so I sharpened each tooth with a couple of licks of the file and tried it on some walnut and oak I had by the wood pile. I liked the way it cut that wood.

Now that I had a bunch of cedar limbs, I had to drag them down the hill where I hope to burn them in our fire pit. The process reminded of how I hate dragging these things since they grab at everything and get tangled amongst themselves. We need to have one big hot fire now.

Blow Log

I found this hollow log up where I was cutting the cedars. (I had cut it and left it there, just forgotten about it.) Buddy had an article talking about how to stand a hallow log on some rocks and then build a fire under it/in it. It sets up an air current where the fire and smoke are shooting out the top. I need someone else like me that would be entertained by such an activity.

Nov. 19-20, 2010

2010-11-23T21:03:00.000-06:00

Sally had stuff to do in town, so this was a solo trip.

Insulation
I had to get gas on the way out, and since that was taking me by Lowe's I decided to go ahead and get some more insulation for the attic -- a project I had started last spring. (To hot to get up there during the warmer months.)

There was a rebate if I spent $399, so I bought 6 bags of R19 (6.5" thick, 23" wide, by 93" long), with 9 bats in each bag. I could only fit 3 in the truck, so I've got to go back and pickup up the other three later. I plan to use 2 bags or so in town to line the perimeter of the attic before getting more insulation blown in (so the blown insulation doesn't cover my eve vents).

Late Friday I started on the east end of the house. Using our rickety 1975 wooden step ladder, I could push 6 bats up through the roof cutout in the hall. I would then go up and spread them, using a long beaver stick to push them back into the tight corner where the roof rafters and the ceiling joist meet. The joist were on 24" centers, so the bats fit nicely. It turns out the house is 24' wide, and so it took three bats to cross the house and I didn't have to do any cutting. I got two bags (18 bats) done Friday before I was wiped out by the stooping and crawling around up there.

First thing Saturday I spread the remaining bag. Other than a few bare spots in the center, I had reached the area over the kitchen and bath where I had spread the R13 bats last spring. I've still got several rolls of that to spread, but may need to purchase even more to complete the west end of the house. I am hoping to see some improvement in propane use, and maybe even cooler temps in the summer. With the new insulation I have gone from 3.5" to 10", and with the R13 3.5" to 7".

Flood CWF
I had bought two more gallons of this Clear Wood Finish, and since the temperature was still warm enough I finished up the west end of the house first thing Friday afternoon. (This was a project I had started 3 or 4 weeks earlier.) Last thing Saturday, I finished the west end and began on the porch. The T111 siding under the porch had never been treated but was showing the weather at the bottom (and was really dry). I only got about 25% of that area done before it was time to head back.

Fire Wood
During the middle of the day Saturday I cut up more of the big White Oak that has been down for over 2 years now. It turns out there are two big white oaks down, plus lots of hickory trees and limbs inter-mixed. The area is still a big mess, but I'm getting it cleaned up. One of the hickories was still green and growing even though it had been laid over and laid on by the bigger trees. I got two loads which I stacked in the back of the barn where I will split it this winter so that it will be cured and ready for next season. These are 18" logs, so they are destined for Chicago or Denver.

This was all cut with the McCulloch. It was difficult to get it started, but it sure cut good once it was going. Although, by the end of the second tank of gas I could tell the chain needed sharpening. I also took the Stihl down, but even though I had just sharpened the chain it would not cut. This chain has practically no teeth left and I think I just need to lower (file down) the depth gauges -- next trip.

Walnuts
The two bags I had stashed in the rabbit hutch were still secure, so I added one more full bag and the partial bag I had hand hulled. I had a little trouble getting a stick jammed in the door to lock it, but I think it will work fine. The remaining two bags I've decided to store in the basement at home. I am anxious to get cracking and to sample the harvest.

Friday night I made some date nut bread with black walnuts, adding coconut and bran. Very tasty toasted with cream cheese. I've still got over 2 quarts of nuts from years past.

First
I didn't see them, but I heard the first geese of the season flying south. Their honking is sure loud.

Short Cut
I went out and came back via the short cut. I saw no one on the way out, but passed two parked trucks coming back. I returned that way since it was about dusk and I figured there was less chance of hitting a deer going 15-20mph. I'm sure the trucks were deer hunters. I read that 1 out of every 99 registered vehicles in Arkansas will hit a deer each year!

Nov. 5-6, 2010

2010-11-17T20:38:00.000-06:00

I was first in line when the Bloodmobile opened at 1:00, but it still meant we got to the farm later than I would like -- almost 4pm. Day time temperatures were nice, near 70, and the trees were showing their fall color. We had a light freeze overnight, but not as hard as had been received the night before (Friday morning). It finished off the basil.

Walnuts
The huller had left lots of nuts un-hulled. So I went through the bags picking those out. The dust off the nuts was really bad and had me sneezing and my nose running. There were more un-hulled nuts in some bags than in others, which made me wonder if he had made some adjustment to the huller during the process. Perhaps to better handle these smaller nuts.

I used a hammer and/or pliers to get the hulls off the ones the huller had missed. Pounding them with the hammer was definitely faster. I ended up with 5 full bags, plus about a quarter of a bag that I had manually hulled. It will be interesting to see if they have any different taste or ratio of bad to good nuts.

I left two bags in the rabbit hutch, and have the rest in the back of the truck. I suspect I will store them downstairs in town, but if the rabbit hutch proves secure enough (I locked the door by jamming it with a stick) I may leave more at the farm. I'm still considering the attic as well.

Garden
With freezing weather, I had taken the rain gauge in so I wasn't sure if we had gotten any rain. There was a chance only one day early in the week. Either way the garden was very dry. Sally picked lettuce, bok chow, and spinach. She left 1 or two lettuce and bok chow plants since we had more than enough to eat. We'll see if they make it to our next trip. We've really enjoyed this fall crop.

Cut Trees
I carried the Stihl up the hill to cut more of the pines that had been laid over by the ice storm. This picture is of the largest, up by the pasture. Most were very small trees that had no chance of ever straightening up. I then started seeing many cedars and so started tackling them -- finishing off the tank of gas. I left the biggest cedar standing because the top was hung up in some oak branches. I hope a big wind will bring it down for me.

Oct. 30-31, 2010

2010-11-03T21:45:00.002-05:00

Sally was in Chicago, so it was just me and Tender. The weather was great with temperatures in the 70s and mild nights.

Black Walnuts
I hit Asbell school again to complete my haul of nuts for the year -- I pretty much had a truck load with the bed full of bags of nuts. (I forgot to get a picture with the truck full, and snapped this one half way through the unloading/hulling operation.)

The huller I had used in 2007 and 2009 in Clifty wasn't operating anymore. There was a huller setup at the old Anderson's site on Hwy 45, but it wasn't listed on Hammons' web site and I couldn't find a phone number when I stopped by there on the way home the weekend before (and I had never seen anyone there). Hammons listed a Huller north of Berryville, one in Gentry, and one in Westville, OK. No listing for the one in Elm Springs which I had used in 2008. Since I didn't get an answer for the guy in Berryville, and I had time Friday afternoon, I decided to take them to Westville.

You can see the operation behind this feed store. They would buy the nuts from me for 11 cents a pound, or they would hull them for me and charge me 6 center a pound. I chose to keep all of mine and ended up with 6 bags and 280 pounds. In one of the recent years I had 150 pounds, so I will have my work cut out getting through these. But Mimi and Papa will pick out their own as Jackie will, and John has offered to help Amanda pick out theirs -- Yes!

Do you see all those bags stacked in the background behind the huller? Some day I would like to tour the Hammons operation to see how they do it. For now the nuts need to dry out. I've just got them in the back of the truck, but that will have to change. I've also noticed several that didn't get hulled, so I may dump them out and go through them. Some of mine were on the small size, so maybe that is why.

Garden
We had gotten .6 inches of rain, which must have come the Saturday before. The big event was the first killing freeze which we received Friday morning. It got the peppers, the tomatoes, and the one green bean plant. I was able to harvest a dozen or more bell peppers (though they had not yet turned yellow/orange) and a few of the hot peppers (I found the identifier for them, Santa Fe Grande's). The lettuce, bok chow, and tender spinach survived just fine so I brought more of that home. The summer spinach was slightly tan on the highest leaves, but I was able to pick as much as I wanted (got a quart). The ground was bone dry, so I watered the surviving plants both Saturday and Sunday.

Oil Barn Doors
I'd brought my extension ladder from home for the siding project, but I first used it to try and oil the barn doors. They sit on rollers at the top and slide back and forth. I couldn't get to them to actually use oil, so I just sprayed them with WD 40. It seemed to help -- not that I was having a problem with them.

Insulate Well House
With freezing temperatures arriving, I went ahead and spread the insulation over the top of the well house. There are 4 2x6s in there that create a ceiling for the insulation just below the roof. The system seems to work well with the submerged house.

Treat Cedar Siding
The big job for the weekend was to treat the cedar siding by painting it with a clear UV sealer. I brought the ladder out so I could do the high areas on the east and west ends of the house. I worked on the east end Saturday and the west end Sunday. I didn't finish both ends, but got most of it. What's left is low, so the ladder went back to town where it is needed regularly this time of the year to clear the gutters.

Oct. 22-23, 2010

2010-10-27T19:03:00.000-05:00

Sally had an appointment with Ted in Harrison, so we met at the farm. We had .3" in the rain gauge, and got another quarter inch Saturday afternoon before leaving. But it continued to rain on us all the way home so the garden should have gotten a good soaking.

Mow
I wanted to get the loud business taken care of before Sally and Tender arrived, so I jumped on the mower and did the front and back yards. I figure the rest can wait for a killing frost -- we'll see.

Black Walnuts
I drove across the creek and up into the back pasture to see what nuts I could find. There were only three trees out of more than a dozen I checked that had produced. This small tree was probably the best. I gathered 6 buckets which translated into two bag fulls. (I use the old 50 lb sunflower seed bags.) That was what I was doing when Sally arrived -- she saw me and yelled across the valley.

Saturday I picked up another two bag fulls from the tree below the pond (my best and most consistent producer) and another couple of trees. I'll pick up more in town, and then hope to get them hulled on the way back out next weekend.

Garden
We picked lots of lettuce, bok chow, several yellow and orange bell peppers (oh so sweet), a pint worth of hot peppers I canned, some spinach and tomatoes, and lots of summer spinach that Sally steamed and froze. We even got a few onions. For dinner we had a big salad, adding some cucumber and feta we brought plus green olives.

We wanted to make a big double batch of pesto, but the basil was bitter. We presumed that this was due to the dry spell we have had, and hope it will be better next week.

Lit Pilots
I picked up some canned air on the way out. Friday night I used that along with carburetor cleaner and WD40 to clean and blow out the pilots on the two problematic propane heaters. One lit right up and burned good -- the flame right next to the pilot. The other not so good, leaving the smell of gas in the air. I shut it down, blew it out some more, and then it burned better though there was still a touch of yellow to the flame. At least there was no more smell.

Wood
Sally and I loaded the truck with more wood to bring back to the house. Its sure nice having a large supply of cut, cured, and dry wood for winter.

Oct. 15-16, 2010

2010-10-20T12:26:00.010-05:00

This was my first trip out in three weeks due to taking my annual Colorado pilgrimage. It had been two weeks since Sally was out, and we had received zero rain during all that time. We were concerned about the garden.

Garden
We were surprised to find that the bok chow, lettuce, bell peppers, and hot peppers had done just fine and looked great -- as you can tell from the pictures. The basil was struggling so we deferred picking any of it. There were still some cherry tomatoes, but they weren't great. A few more onions have shown up, so it will be interesting to see if they mature. We left lots of produce for the next weekend. Interestingly, the hot peppers seem to be getting hotter -- Sally couldn't even eat the one she put in our stir fry.

We pulled up all the black eyed peas. A bit of a job because they get inter-twined in the chicken wire fence. I also weeded and Sally watered both Friday and Saturday.

We found this tomato horn worm trying to burrow into the ground. I'd heard they go through a large moth stage, and bet that the cocoon I dug up last spring was one of these fellows.

Culverts
The pond has been below the culverts for months. Where it is leaking, I am not sure. I dug up the high grass that had grown up in front of and around the culverts, but still couldn't tell where it is going through. On the outlet side of the dam I could find a small trickle of water way down low. I'm just not sure what I need to do. I also checked the creek feeding the pond, and there was practically no flow their either. This is about the driest I have every seen gum spring.

Mow
The grass wasn't bad except for the low part of the road on the way to the pond. I cranked up the riding mower and took it down, partly to just try and keep the battery charged.

Wood
I loaded the truck with wood to bring back to the house -- beginning to think about and prepare for winter.

Autumn Blaze
This little maple we transplanted twice is doing well and had brilliant red leaves. All the trees seem to be a bit late turning this year. Off course the sassafras has been turning for two months -- it begins when the dry weather sets in.

Poulan
Last outing I had determined that this weed eater was not getting fuel. Sure enough, the weighted gas filter on the end of the flexible line within the tank had broken off. Its a bit shorter now, but I re-attached it. Still couldn't get it started, so I took it apart and found the feed line from the priming bulb was also disconnected. I can only presume that occurred due to my vigorous pumping of the primer during my failed attempts to get it started. Once it was back together it ran fine -- though I still don't like the head I have on it.

Snake Skin
Most years in the late summer and fall we have found one or two large snake skins in this same area -- out front by the road just above from the spring. One year it was in good enough shape I tacked it to the wall under the porch. This guy (or gal) has to be at least 5 feet long. I have no idea what kind it is, and hope I never find out.

Bathed Tender
It was time, and plenty warm, so he got a bath under the hose. We got in a little hammock time while he dried and before heading back home.

Sept. 25-26, 2010

2010-09-30T17:45:00.000-05:00

With Sally in NM this was just a boys trip (Tender and I). We received rain on Thursday morning so I decided to come the short cut. Didn't see one vehicle, but did meet a horse party of about 20 of all ages. The road was in pretty good shape -- I was able to drive the entire length in second gear and never had to use 4WD.

Garden
The rain gauge had almost an inch in it, so I didn't have to water. There was lots of bok choy, but some little white fuzzy worm was helping itself to it. Tender also likes it. I also picked some beautiful orange bell peppers, a bit of lettuce, and small container of cherry tomatoes. Plus I did some weeding in there.

Mowing
The grass had really grown, with the recent rains. I mowed the upper level Saturday. Sunday morning it was raining lightly and I was regretting not doing it all the day before, but it cleared by late morning. The grass was still wet, but I got the rest of it knocked out in the afternoon.

Cursed Weed Eaters
I determined the Poulan is not getting fuel, but didn't have an allen wrench to get it apart. The brush whacker had a badly fouled plug. I finally got it to run briefly, but then couldn't get it re-started. Did what I could with the little John Deere.

Kitchen
I made black berry muffins Saturday night, and a double batch of pesto Sunday morning while it was raining. I froze the pesto in muffin tins, and then popped them out, wrapped 'em in plastic, and left them in the freezer for a winter treat.

Wood
Loaded the truck with wood, and that was the weekend.

Sept. 14-15, 2010

2010-09-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

This was a fun trip since we were hosting Amanda, John, and John's niece Ann. The weather was still a bit warm and muggy for mid September, but still pleasant. We'd received 4.75" of rain (probably more) over several days the week before -- so everything was growing again.

Garden
The basil looked great and we picked enough for a double batch of pesto. Amanda said she had never seen a plant this large. We had enough large bell peppers to make buffalo stuffed peppers for dinner, to go along with the leak and gruyere quiche Sally had made and frozen our last trip out. There continued to be plenty of cherry tomatoes. That was about it -- a little spinach for eggs in the morning, a couple of bok choy leaves, and a few peas. There were green shoots from what looked like onions that maybe had been laying dormant?

Dinner/Night hike
We ate about dusk out back and enjoyed a nice Spanish white wine Amanda had recommended. Afterward, since there was a crescent moon out, we decided to hike to the pond. I refused to turn on the flashlight, in spite of Sally's protests.

Apples
We picked the dozen or so Gold Rush that were still on the tree. Everyone agreed they were very tasty. I don't know if we will have any next year since the other apple seems to have died and you need to varieties to pollinate. I doubt the small pixie delight is mature enough to bloom. We also picked the one pair we had this year. Sally was afraid it wasn't going to be good because it looked a little rough on the outside, but it was firm and juicy.

Brush Hogging
Larry couldn't brush hog two weeks earlier because it had been too dry and there was danger of a spark starting a fire. He did get it done the previous week -- some of it in the rain. I wanted to inspect his work, so I drove John and Ann down to the pond so I could check out my trees. It looked like he did a good job of going around the flagged trees and staying out of the back area I have planted (this is a first!).

Log Splitting
I just had a few logs, but wanted the visitors to experience log splitting. They were all successful, though Ann and Amanda got to tackle short small pieces. I think John could have a second career -- or at least qualify as a farm hand. It took a while, but I finally got them to understand that this activity was not chopping wood.

Sept. 3-4, 2010

2010-09-07T20:14:00.000-05:00

We finally got rain both Wednesday and Thursday -- 3.1 inches in the gauge. How nice. We got to open the windows again overnight. Saturday morning the temperature was 55 with fog hanging in the valley. The afternoon high was 84 -- very nice indeed.

Pine Straw
Pine needles have started falling. Since we use them in the garden to combat erosion and to keep the weeds down, I decided to go ahead and rake up what I could before mowing. I think I got 8 bags and Sally immediately started spreading it. I spread a couple of bags around the trees as mulch to help with moisture retention.

Garden
More cherry tomatoes, no hot peppers, a few bell peppers and one that actually turned 75% orange, and just a few black eyed peas. The bok choy, lettuce, and spinach was sprouting. Sally had started more in town and brought it out and planted it as well. The garden looks nice, just hasn't produced much.

Mow
Friday I took the mower down the road to the pond. The grass was so thick on the south side of the pond where the seep is that I barely could get through it on the highest setting. I was stopped when I hit yet another big rock bending the deck into the blade (again). This happened over by the swing. I took it back to the garage and used a pipe wrench to bend the deck lip back out. This Murray has really taken a beating.

Saturday I mowed all around the house and out back. It looked nice, though I probably could have gotten by without mowing at all -- but it may be a couple of weeks before I get another opportunity.

House Cleaning
I swept and mopped the entire house, some Friday night and the rest Saturday morning. Boy did it need it. I also went after all the spiders and spider webs hiding in the corners and around the ceiling.

Bat
I noticed this little guy on the north side of the house. I guess it was cool enough for him there during the day. He didn't seem to be bothered by me (he was awake and moving).

Weed-eater Frustration
I couldn't get the Poulan or the Brushwhacker started. Very frustrated. I finally just used the little John Deere to clean-up around the house.

Top Coat the Water Bars
The dirt I had mined and used to build up the water bars had turned to mud with the rain, and stuck to my tires as I drove in. So I took a shovel up the road and got loose rocks and dirt to spread over the top of it. This is something I usually do when laying it down, but it just didn't seem necessary when it was a dry powder.

Thistle
I noticed thistle at the bottom of the hill coming in, so with shovel already in hand started digging it up. I'd look around and find mover. I don't know why I hadn't noticed it sooner. I ended up with a hug arm full to carry back to the house, with seeds being scattered with each jolt. I bag it and leave it by the pit to burn.
Cut Blackberries

Sassafras
More of the sassafras had started turning its pretty yellow/orange. Maybe this rain will save our fall colors.

August 27-28, '10

2010-09-01T20:38:00.000-05:00

We finally got a little relief from the heat with near record lows for Thursday and Friday, and dry air – we were able to open the windows Friday night. By Saturday though, the temperature was back up to 94. Unfortunately still no rain, so it was another watering weekend. (On the way out we stopped and bought a couple of watermelons from a fellow in Springdale who said he had not had any measurable rain in 5 weeks.)

2009 Rain
Sally found the record I kept of rainfall last year: May 9.5", June 4.5", July 6", August 2.5", September 1.6", and October 12 inches. What a difference this year.

Septic Tank
I brought some roofing cement out and got the lid sealed. Then I scrounged for rocks to build a box directly over the lid so whoever has to do this next want have to hunt (as I did) for the lid. Once I got the box built and filled in, it was just a matter of shoveling and raking all the fill back into the hole. It was so dry the dust flew everywhere. I ended up with a quite a mound, I suppose because of the space displaced by the boxed area full of rocks.

Garden
We had seen and picked off a few of these tomato horn worms (AKA tobacco worms) in weeks past, but this week there were 15 to 20 of these creepy things. They are so hard to spot because they blend in with the leaves. You can certainly tell where they have been though, because the leaves have been stripped and you just have bare stems.

We just got a few peppers, some black eyed peas that weren't quite ready, and fewer cherry tomatoes than in past weeks. Sally had me pull up most of the summer spinach, and she pulled up the zenias that were growing or falling into the lanes. A few of the bok choy seeds she had planted the weekend before were coming up (which surprised me), and she planted more of those and more lettuce. She really wants the garden to look nice for when Amanda is here. Of course we ran the sprinkler for hours.

Water
Once again I was constantly moving the sprinkler around. I actually forgot and left it on the newest maple out front overnight. There's a huge green patch leading off from these trees that have received water.

Apples
There were none on the ground, but some rotten spots were on a few on the tree. We picked maybe 5, including the ones with bad spots. They are still too green. Keeping our fingers crossed that we will actually get some ripe ones.

Water Bars/Cattle Guard
Saturday I repeated the process from the week-end before – harvested a load of dirt, hauled it up the hill, built up a couple of water bars, and attempted to clean out from under the cattle guard.

One difference this week was that I was able make use of the front D-Ring kit I had ordered and installed in the bed of the Tacoma. Toyota put them in while I had it in for the floor mat recall. They are frame mounted tie-downs, like in the back of the bed. I don't know why they aren't standard. Without them you just have the plastic clips on the rail, which I don't trust with any weight. This time I was able to rope the buckets, and keep them from sliding back and pinching against the tailgate. That means I can open the tail gate and take the buckets out one at a time without having to lift them over the side of the truck. Anything to make this process a little easier.

At the cattle guard I dug out and poked around each end trying to find an opening I could use to rake out the loose dirt and rock that has filled it up (it really needs to drain water underneath). But I had no luck as it seems to be sitting on large rocks the full length. I could dig out a rock, but I don't think I could ever get it replaced so that it would be helping to support the weight of big trucks (like the propane or septic tank trucks that drove over it the week before). So I did as the weekend before and loosened some dirt with the pick, used the blade of the adz to lift small portions out at a time, and got exactly 4 buckets worth. Its going to take a long time to get the job done this way, but I am patient.

Weed Eat
I had trouble getting the Poulan running without the choke on, but finally succeeded. I then began to tackle the weeds between the barn and the bluff. Half way through the fixed line got too short and I had to stop. I wish I could find another decent head for it, but I also need to figure out how to get it running good.

Tender's Bath
It was time, so I put on the spray nozzle and bathed the boy right there in the back. Once done, he likes to run around. But then his wet paws mix with that bone dry dust to create dirty, muddy paws. He got watermelon for his reward, which I think is an all time favorite treat for him.

August 20-21, '10

2010-08-25T21:00:00.001-05:00

Sally went to see Ted, so she and Tender met me at the farm. The miserable hot dry weather continued. There was actually one drop of water in the rain gauge. I wouldn't have noticed it except there was a drip from the bent gutter over the garage. Apparently a thunder cloud had passed over earlier in the day.

Timer Switch
This week it was 82 in the center of the house and 84 in the living room when I arrived. I thought I had tested it, but apparently the timer switch is not going to work on the AC since it did not kick on when I bypassed the switch and plugged it straight into the wall. Even after pushing the button to turn it on, the compressor didn't kick in. I was considering where I could run buy another air conditioner, but after several minutes the compressor finally engaged.

Propane
I had the tank filled and Anderson's left the ticket on the back gate this time. 251 gallons at $1.59 each plus tax ran the tab to over $425. This is an expensive season for the farm: propane, brush hogging coming up, quarterly insurance payment, property taxes (Carroll and Madison county), and this year septic tank pumping.

Steve's Septic Service
Steve was right on time. I got changed, set the sprinkler on the garden, and had started on refilling the bird feeders when he showed up. He used a long breaker bar to hit the lid several times to loosen it and then just pulled it up. The tank didn't look bad at all -- several inches of water were on top. It didn't take him 45 minutes to get it pumped. He pumps it out, pumps it back in to loosen everything up, and pumps it out again. He actually did this twice. I need to get some roofing tar now to seal the lid so that roots don't find there way into the tank. He also recommended building some kind of box right over the lid so it doesn't have to be dug up again. I told him I figured I'd never have to do it again, since it had made it 15 years to this first pumping.

Weed Eat
There was green grass around the trees I had watered the weekend before, but that was about the only place it had grown. I re-strung the John Deere and cleaned up around the house and did the hill south of the house. I was sweeping the porch when Sally drove up.

Garden
It survived the blistering heat, but the baby green beans I had seen the weekend before didn't look like they had grown at all. And we found very few black-eyed peas. But there were lots and lots of cherry tomatoes -- again. We picked a few bell peppers and had stuffed peppers for dinner. I also surprised Sally by finding enough summer spinach for our eggs in the morning.

There was a 50% chance of rain overnight, but we didn't get any. Very disappointing. Sally began lamenting that she may not have a garden next year (as she had done last year). But she had already gotten seeds for a fall garden and actually planted some of them. I think its too early (and too dry).

Water
As the weekend before, I moved the little sprinkler around most all the trees and filled the soaker bucket 4 times for the little oak out back (it did put on new leaves, lets hope they survive a few weeks at least). We also heavily watered Sally's soul tree -- the Colorado Blue Spruce.

Apples
There were about 4 on the ground. They are still very green. I counted 30 on the tree. I will be surprised if we get any ripe ones. The 1 pair is still on the tree, but felt rock hard.

Water Bars
I decided to work on the water bars Saturday. I mine the dirt (usually mud, but just loose dirt and rock now) for the water bars from behind the barn up next to the bluff. I loosen it up with the pick and then shovel it into all the buckets and containers I have. Then I drive it up the road and add it to which ever water bar needs it the most. The buckets all slide to the back of the truck when going up the hill, which makes getting them out tough. It is much harder in the Tacoma than it was in little blue, since it is so much higher and I have to lift up and over the side. (If I opened the tail gate everything would dump out.)

Cattle Guard
While at the top of the hill with pick and adz, I started trying to remove some of the silt from under the cattle guard. I had done some of this years ago, but it has gotten very bad. I would loosen it with the pick and then scoop it out with the blade of the adz. This was very slow and very difficult -- squatting, lifting, raising, and dumping. And each load was so small. I managed to get only 4 buckets filled during a period where I took two breaks. When I got back to the house and saw the temperature was 99 degrees, I didn't feel quite so bad.

I need to find some way to get underneath from the end and rake it out. But the only clear spot has a huge rock which the guard is sitting on. This will be a job for a cooler day.

Flagged Walnuts
Thinking I may go ahead and get the pastures brush hogged, I wanted to get some tape on more of the trees I wanted to keep. I flagged along the road, the area back and above the pond (the line of pines that didn't get cut in '06), and the few in the back pasture above Plume Creek.

Along the creek I found a bunch of giant thistle, so I went back to the house to get a shovel and bag. While there I observed the temperature had crept up to 102. It didn't take 20 minutes to get the thistle. Then it was shower, pack-up, and head out. I followed Sally all the way back -- boy does she drive slow.

August 13-14, '10

2010-08-17T17:35:00.003-05:00

More hot and dry weather. So hot, Sally (and Tender) decided not to come out. This picture of the thermometer was at 4pm. The highest I saw Saturday was just 98. And nothing in the rain gauge. Everything was parched. I really do not like August.

Timer Switch
It was 84 in the center of the house and 86 in the living room when I arrived. I immediately turn on the AC. At 8pm when I came inside, the outside temp was still 94. When I bedded down in the living room where the AC is it was still 82.

I had stopped at Acords and bought a timer that would work with a grounded outlet. Its made to be used outside, but was the only one they had. I hooked it to the AC so that it would come on for 1.5 hours each afternoon. I am hoping it will help keep the inside humidity down and the mold that we sometimes find around (and under) furniture. I don't expect it to do anything about the temperature, other than temporarily.

Garden
I brought a sprinkler out and immediately put it on the garden, hitting both sides before dark. I didn't pick until Saturday morning. Another load of cherry tomtoes (though I thought some had tough skin), a few bell peppers, a couple of hot peppers, and some black-eyed peas. I also weeded, and even watered a little more. There were baby green beans on the plants that hadn't died. I squashed one cut worm. The stink bugs are doing a lot of damage to the black eyed peas. The basil is just struggling to survive.

Water
I moved the little sprinkler around most all the trees. I filled the soaker bucket three times for the little oak we planted behind the house last fall. It had lost almost all its leaves, but now has new ones growing. We'll see if it makes it. I forgot to water Sally's soul tree -- Colorado Blue Spruce she moved twice before its home out here.

Jeff Gay
When mowing down to the pond Jeff drove up (saw me out I guess) and we chatted. Ben had moved in with his family and died July 2009. I found out Jeff bought the dozer he used to build his pond (said it was about half full), and also has a back hoe! I gave him (really his kids) permission to catch and release in the pond. He also told me he had seen hunters on our place the last day of deer season. He said when he headed down they went up and hid in the woods. I gave him my phone number. I hope we get to see more of him.

Apples
I didn't find any on the ground! I picked a couple that looked like they were beginning to turn, but they are still very hard.

Sprayed
I made a last trip of the season up to the top of the hill. I think I have eradicated all the large patches of sumac, though I think it will be a constant battle to keep it knocked down -- but much easier than this initial control effort has been. What's it been, a 4 or 5 year process with my limited time?

Mow
Sally didn't understand why I needed to mow, but there was still some high grass in areas. I outlined the walnuts by the road to the pond, did in front of the barn, and the front of the house. Very dusty.

Septic Tank
I decided to get the septic tank pumped, so I had to dig down to it and clear an area around the door. I had dug it up several years back when I was suppose to open the lid and check it -- at Jerry's recommendation. But I couldn't figure out how to get it open since it was tarred shut. By my calculations it has been 15 years and never pumped, so I'm just going to do it.

Friday evening I dug down until I reached the top of the tank. I felt that was a good accomplishment and called it a day. Saturday I widened the area looking for the danged door. As you can see, I had not recalled where it was and therefore dug up much more than I needed. I finally switched from the adz (which would stop when you hit a rock) to the pick for loosening the dirt before shoveling it out. Did I mention that it was hot. I don't believe I will ever do this again. Steve's Septic is going to meet me to do the pumping for an estimated $210.

Flagged Pecans
I had a little over an hour before I needed to scoot, so I went down to find and flag the pecans along the creeks. I planted these in 2007, and I hope flagging them keeps them from getting brush hogged (coming up). I walked up Plume creek first and found 10, which I thought was pretty good considering they aren't any larger than they were in 2007. Along Gum creek I only found 5. I ended up flagging more volunteer walnuts that pecans. These, plus maybe another dozen pecans along the fence line are all that have survived of the 100 I originally planted. Promoting growth of the volunteer walnuts is definitely the way to go -- nature's choice of what trees should be growing out here.

August 5-6, '10

2010-08-12T17:22:00.005-05:00

Since we were going to be out of town for the weekend, I came out Thursday night. The week had been very hot, several days hitting 100, and dry in town. I was glad to see puddles on the road, and found .8 inches in the gauge -- apparently falling earlier Thursday. I woke to this thick fog in the valley.

Garden
I picked the garden before breakfast to avoid some of the heat. Lots of cherry tomatoes and some others, a few bell peppers (none orange), a few hot peppers, and some black-eyed peas. Later I weeded, and even though the ground seemed pretty wet I went ahead and hand watered before I left.

Apples
There were still apples on the Gold Rush, with just a few on the ground and chewed on. I picked a couple and took the mostly whole ones that were on the ground. The pie I had made with the green ones from the previous week was okay, but not as good as I had hoped.

Sprayed
I had gotten some diesel to mix in with the Clear Pasture. The first tank I took down to the buck-brush in the little pen at the bottom. The spray had been somewhat effective in July, but it was obvious it will take repeat applications to knock this stuff out. The remainder of the tank I took to the field above the pond where there is still some sumac and lots of viney thistle.

The next tank I hiked up the hill and continued mopping up the sumac in the upper pasture. Its looking pretty good, though I keep stumbling on patches of sumac. We're letting the center part grow up (not brush hogged the past two years) and trees are 8-10 feet. I waded through these searching out sumac as well.

Lop
While down by the pond, I took my loppers into the back area where I first planted pines that got brush hogged, then walnuts, and finally red oaks three years ago. I wanted to lop the persimmon while the leaves were still on and I could recognize them. Lots of pines have survived, and probably half or less of the others. I even found a few cedars to whack. I didn't cover it all, but did ware myself out.

Mow
Once it dried out, I mowed the back area behind the house, around the spring, and the upper area on the other side of the spring and over by the swing.

Brush Whacking
The road was really grown up, especially round the cattle guard. So I took the brush whacker up one side, around the cattle guard, and back down the other. Its not running great, so I need to figure that out. Plus the bar used to hold it had cracked and the wire I duct tapped to it isn't working that great. Oh well.

Swallows
These baby barn swallows were peering out at us the previous weekend as well. They were so cute -- several nests and 15 or so birds all watching as I would walk through the barn. I wish I had gotten a better picture.

July 31-Aug 1, '10

2010-08-04T12:41:00.002-05:00

I didn't come out the weekend before because of my MOHS surgery and the honking can't get it wet compression bandage I had on my nose. Sally did come out that Friday to water and pick and sweat. She said there was a big rat sitting in the rafters of the garage watching her the whole day. She only got 8 peaches off the Alberta, squirrels or coons had gotten the rest. She picked a few off the huge volunteer down the hill, but they were still very green.

Hot applied to this weekend as well. Sally saw the thermometer hit 99. I even came in for a break Saturday afternoon. And no rain at all in the gauge.

Watering
Boy was it dry. I brought a sprinkler out and bungied it to the garden fence. I planted the rain gauge in the dirt and then let it run a couple of hours, which amounted to almost 2 inches. The next day I tied it to the opposite fence and let it run about an hour. I also ran a little sprinkler I have on the Gold Rush apple and 3-in-1 pear, and let a hose drip on the baby Pixie Delight apple, the other apple which is probably gone (tiny apples hanging on but all the leaves were dead and dried), the baby buckeye, the 3 dogwoods, the new baby maple, and the barely surviving Japanese maple. I filled the drip bucket twice on the baby oak in the back, but I am afraid it may be a goner since it has lost most all of its leaves. And then there was hand watering of peonies, disobedience, rose, northern red oak, and the six year old maple. I really don't like summer in the Ozarks.

Peaches
The big volunteer had been cleaned out during the week. The little volunteer still had some nice size peaches that were still green, so I picked about a dozen. Many on this tree were just drying up and dying. Not sure if these will be edible or not.

Blackberries
I didn't see any, though Sally did find a couple. The bushes are stressed from the heat and lack of water, and the raspberries are really burned up (they may be goners). Sunday I pulled grass around more plants and laid out newspapers, holding it in place with cedar sticks from the fire pile. Sally says I am wasting my time and the blackberries in the wild don't get that kind of attention. But this is my yard, and that bermuda will just take over.

Apples
The apples on the Gold Rush are looking good. But apparently that is also the opinion of the wild life, as there were about 8 on the ground, some partially chewed on. Of course they are still real green, but I can eat them. I picked up the ones off the ground and picked a few more to make a pie. We'll see if there are any left the next weekend. I'm thinking I should get a trap next year – and start using it in the spring to thin out the competition for my fruit.

Garden
We picked buckets of cherry tomatoes, and quite a few regular ones. But, the bottom of many of the stripies were rotting. Many of the bell peppers are burning on the side facing the sun and are left with a thin brown skin on that side. Only one has actually turned orange this summer. No more green beans, they were all too large and tough (though we did cook some up for Tender), 1 more onion, a few hot peppers, and some black eyed peas – though many were just a few days from being ready. Unfortunately the basil was struggling with the dry weather, but liked the watering. We had some summer spinach with our eggs, but its not looking very good either. I also weeded the garden Sunday morning.

High Wheel
I took this beast down the road and then around the barn. I kept pulling the spark plug wire off when getting under the fence. It can sure take down the weeds, but it is really tough to wrestle on un-even ground – and that's mostly what I have. I almost tipped it over several times. I'm wondering if I should have just gotten another big brush whacker.

Mow and Weedeat
Before mowing, I sharpened the extra set of mower blades and put them on. That's a slow process with my 6" bench grinder, and I probably could have done more, but I was anxious to get started. I mowed everything except the very back behind the house, the spring, and the section across the road from the house above the spring. It was so dusty I wore mask. As dry as it was, I still had to use the highest setting on the low section of the road down by the creeks where the big sycamore is. Sunday I went ahead and sharpened the blades I had taken off the day before – since the grinder was already out.

I finished weed eating the back hill, which had only partially been gotten two weeks before.

July 16-17, '10

2010-07-22T20:01:00.004-05:00

Sally worked until 1pm, so we got a bit of a late start. Plus we stopped in Clifty for mower gas, one of the last places I can find regular gas, not gasohol.

Snake
When I got out to unlock the chain I saw this big fellow race off from directly under the cattle guard to the right. I saw the nearby tree limbs bending down and swaying. It all happened in an instant, but I finally realized this snake had climbed up in the tree, going all the way to the top. You can see him horizontally in the top of this limbed cedar, just watching us. I think he was actually afraid of us. Sure got my adrenaline up.

Rain
We were fortunate to have another inch and a half in the rain gauge. But that was nothing near what we got in Fayetteville, or Farmington where Cindy measured 5 inches Monday night, 4 inches Thursday, and another 2 inches Friday afternoon. We drove through heavy rain on the way out, but could tell there had just been light rain that afternoon at the farm.

Peaches
I was surprised to find the peach tree still loaded. Some were on the ground, but not just pits laying on the ground like we found with the nectarines. A few peaches were ripe, but most still had a bit of green. But we weren't going to take the chance of losing them all, so I picked 300 on Saturday -- leaving a few to see what would happen.

Blackberries
There were still quite a few berries. Between Friday and Saturday I probably got three quarts. I froze one of those and left it at the farm. I still had maybe a quart in the fridge at the house from the week-end before. Gotta do some baking.

Garden
More cherry tomatoes, lots of green beans (many too big to eat), a few more onions, some hot peppers, a beautiful orange bell pepper that was perfect, and two cups of basil for more pesto. Sally has just grown to ignore the summer spinach, though I think much of it is just fine.

Mow and Weedeat
I mowed back of the house, around the barn and spring, and down to and around the pond. I did some weedeating in the back and on the back hill -- but didn't finish.

The Kings
We were going to canoe the Kings on Saturday, but Sally wasn't feeling up to it so we just went down to Earnie's and played in the river. We had gotten Tender this doggie life vest and were anxious to try it out. He's just not a water dog, with our without a life vest. I could take him out and he would swim straight to shore, though I think in the end he was fairly comfortable with that routine.

July 10-11, '10

2010-07-13T17:28:00.005-05:00

Sally had stuff to do in town, so I made this trip solo. We had gotten rain late in the week and I was expecting cooler weather, but was I mistaken. I know it got up to 92 Saturday with high humidity, and boy did I sweat. There was 2.25" in the rain gauge -- which was great, I didn't have to water!

Blackberries
After filling the feeders, I started picking. There weren't as many ripe berries as the weekend before, some were bitter (don't understand that), and some were so ripe and soft they fell apart as I tried to pull them off the vine. I rinse them (some have tiny ants on them) and spread them on a dish towel to dry. I froze over a quart of these by spreading them on a cookie sheet and leaving them in the freezer until hard -- so they don't stick together -- and then bag them.

Saturday I picked only the black ones, and just before leaving Sunday I went back around and picked anything mostly black. There are a surprising number that ripen over night. I had a quart and half of fresh berries to bring home. And then on the way back I decided to take the short cut and couldn't resist stopping along the road to pick wild berries. They were a bit smaller, but very good. The thorns weren't as much a nuisance as some little gnats that kept buzzing around my eyes and ears. We still had fresh berries in the fridge from the weekend before, so I definitely see another blackberry peach crisp in the making.

Garden
There were lots of cherry tomatoes, lots of green beans, and several onions without any green on top. I left many of the green beans that had gotten too big and we'll use these for next year's seeds. I left the smaller green beans and the almost read tomatoes Saturday, and went back around Sunday to get anything close to being edible -- since they will get too big or go bad before the next weekend. There was an orange bell pepper that was beginning to turn, but I left it and hope it is still good and fully transformed by next weekend. Oh, and I got two hot peppers -- gotta make some fresh salsa!

The last thing I did Saturday was tackle weeding the garden. It was really in bad shape. I only got about half of it cleaned up before I came in at about 8pm. I got the rest of it Sunday morning. The ground had just the right moisture to make the job tolerable. (Of course the Bermuda and mint is impossible to get up.)

Peaches
There were signs of critters sampling the peaches -- partially eaten peaches on the ground and small teeth marks on fruit on the tree. Many of the peaches were also splitting, I presume due to the extremely hot and dry weather followed by some good rains. I ate a few, and though not really ripe they were edible. After working in the garden I decided to go ahead and pick about a third of the tree, assuming they may all be gone by the next weekend. They are small, so the 185 I got only amounted to a third to a half a bushel. We'll see if they ripen. Sunday morning there were more peaches on the ground, so the squirrels or raccoons had been back. I'm thinking live trapping them and hauling them off might be the best option.

Buck Brush/Thistle
I took my backpack sprayer down the hill in the truck to see what the Clear Pasture would do to the buck brush that is head high within the pen near the confluence of the creeks. (There is no way to get the brush hog in there.) In the process I also found two varieties of giant thistle there next to the fence to the Clark's -- I should have remembered it in this location from last year. I dug and bagged it.

High Wheel
Sears had this high wheel string trimmer on sale. I had one before that came with the lawn equipment we bought in 2003, but it had died and wasn't in good enough shape to save. I'm hoping this will save my back and be an improvement over slinging the brush whacker around. I took it down to the pond and initiated it on the south bank. It works good and can tackle some big stuff, but it is still a workout pushing it around -- especially if it isn't level. (Unfortunately, most of this place is not level.) When I was done I did have the spindle pretty choked up with long strands of grass, fortunately clearing it wasn't too bad. (The string head slides up and down to allow cutting at different heights, and made clearing the clog a bit easier.)

Leaking Dam
I discovered a few weeks back that the dam is leaking under the culverts again. I don't know if it was going when the beaver were plugging the culverts or not -- the water was too high to tell. Now that it is dry and the flow is down, all the water is passing through the dam versus through the culverts. This is very frustrating news, and leaves me wondering what to do next. I can tell there has been lots of settling where I dug up and filled in around the north culvert. Do I do it all over for both culverts, and why didn't the bentonite plug it?

Pecan Trees
On the way back from the pond, I decided to flag what pecan trees I could find that I planted along the fence just above Plume creek. I found maybe a dozen, less than half of what I planted there. Most are still tiny and having quite a struggle to survive. I'm thinking I should mulch around them.

Blackberry Pancakes
Sunday morning I made myself pancakes from my multi-grain mix I made up and keep in the fridge. Naturally, I added blackberries to these and had them with lots of butter and maple syrup. Yummy!

Dog Hair
I had brought some old socks out and I stuffed them with Tender's hair and hung them in the fruit trees. I also hung some old CDs. These are supposed to help keep the critters out/off. I noticed some nibbling on the new maple we planted in the fall, so I included it in the decoration.

Apples
My two bearing trees are loaded, though they are struggling. The apples are still too green even for me, though I keep trying them (which also helps lighten the load). The Japanese beetles are doing some damage to the Gold Rush -- I'm pretty sure it is not rust. I went ahead and sprayed them again for the fungus.

Mow and Weedeat
I mowed only the upper level, around the house and over by the swing. I then fired up the John Deer weedeater to clean up around the house, and ran a whole tank through the Brush Whacker. I took it down the road across the spring, down around the spring, and ran out of gas before I got the area in front of the barn. Gives me something to do next weekend (smile).

July 2-3, '10

2010-07-05T16:07:00.008-05:00

This was a typical Friday/Saturday trip made by Sally, Tender and myself.

Garden
It was dry with no rain in the gauge. Sally picked more onions, some getting to a nice size, just a handful of green beans, some cherry tomatoes, and one tomato still a little green.

Blackberries
After filling the bird feeders, I hit the slopes. I spent almost 2 hours picking, just trying to get the all black ones -- knowing I would be back picking again Saturday. I think I got about a gallon, and left two quarts frozen at the farm. Saturday just before leaving I picked another 3 quarts or so -- including those with a bit of red. Amanda said organic blackberries at Whole Foods were $3.99 a cup. My cost for mine I am sure is way above that.

Mowed
The one nice thing about the dry weather is that the grass slows down. I mowed the road to the pond, around the walnuts I'm trying to get to grow along the road, in front and behind the barn, and over to the spring. I never cranked up a weed eater.

Wine and Sudoku
We had wine and two puzzle challenges, one completed in the hammock.

White Oak
Saturday I decided to get one more load of wood cut to 18 inches so that I would be ready for a trip to Chicago and Denver if it comes up, so the wood would be cured. So I headed back to the huge downed white oak. I think this was my fourth cutting on this monster and I am just getting the meat of the tree. As you can see, the wild grape and other vines are trying to claim it. The trees or limbs in front and behind are hickory. One pinned underneath had green leaves on it. There is more hickory underneath.

I used one tank of gas with the McCulloch and got a whole truck load. I was surprised because a month before it took two tanks of gas -- one in the McCulloch and one in the Stihl. This is better wood since it is bigger pieces and not many limbs.

It started to sprinkle as I was finishing up, and it was raining by the time I got to the barn. I thought I would split a few pieces before lunch. On the second piece the maul stuck. (Although the white oak splits really easy, there were lots of big joints in these pieces.) So I was driving it through with my sledge hammer and ping -- a shard of metal flew off the head of the sledge and hit me right above the knee. It really stung, and then I noticed it bleeding. Holding some pressure on it I hobbled up to the house to clean and dress the wound.

It cleaned up nicely and with some pressure quickly stopped bleeding. I put a band aid on it and had lunch. After lunch Sally joined me at the barn to help stack the wood as I split it. Then I picked berries and got a shower in preparation for leaving. I thought it would be good to change the dressing on my leg and noticed something black in there. I presumed it was a piece of metal still in my leg, but decided to look at it closer once we got home. We talked about what to do, including swinging by the Eureka hospital, Medi-Quick in town, or tackling it myself.

We decided to first check my pants to see if there was a hole in them -- no hole, there must not be a piece of metal. Sure enough there was a small hole. I started working on it and quickly knew it was metal, but I couldn't get it out. Several times I was able to grab it, but the tweezers would slip off and it wouldn't budge. Did I mention that poking around on it hurt.

I hated to be a wimp, but Sally called Medi-Quick and they said they would take a look at it but that they closed at 8 and I needed to get there ASAP. (I did not want to go to the Emergency Room on Saturday night.) Within an hour they had deadened the area, widen the cut, and pulled it out. The fragment removed is shown here in this picture. You can see the barb that was holding it in. I was very thankful for their service.

June 29, '10

2010-07-01T17:25:00.005-05:00

I had told myself for years that I needed to come out during the week when the blackberries were ripening, so I made my mind up to actually do it. No telling how many I lose just picking on the weekend. And the season is just a few weeks. I just took off work for the afternoon, so had to drive out and back the same day. Makes those berries pretty expensive -- and makes me look forward more and more to retirement.

Short Cut
Since it had rained Sunday afternoon and shouldn't be too dusty, I thought I would try the short-cut in the truck. The road is really in bad shape and was almost as rough in the truck as in the 4Runner earlier in the month. But I was glad I took it because I kept seeing blackberries along the road. After passing a large patch I found a place to pull over. I took a gallon container and low and behold I filled up the whole thing. I'd pick one bush, walk a little ways, and find another. They were big, juicy and sweet. Some were so ripe they would just fall off. Of course these weren't thornless like at the house. They caught my shirt, scratched my arms, pulled my hat off, and one actually broke off in my ear -- ouch. But they were worth it. It does make me wonder why I work so hard at growing my own.

My Berries
I had many more ripe than the previous weekend, but there were still lots of red ones -- as you can see from this picture. I got another gallon. Mine have some small ants on them I never remember seeing before. With both batches I rinsed them and then spread them on a towel to dry. The wild berries I spread on cookie sheet, put in the freezer, and later bagged and left at the farm. From the batch I picked the weekend before I had frozen some, but with 3 cups I made crisp with 2 cups of peaches and a crumb topping that had chopped almonds. Boy that was good, especially right out of the oven.

Garden
I picked a half dozen cherry tomatoes and a handful of green beans. Even though the rain gauge had a half inch from the Sunday rain, the garden was really dry. So I watered real good and then weeded some. This picture shows the sunflowers she's got growing in the wild flower plot within the garden.

Spray
I made two trips up the hill to the upper pasture with my backpack sprayer -- 8 gallons. There's not much viney thistle up there, but quite a bit of knapweed and still lots of sumac, though I keep thinking I've about got it under control. I did run across one giant thistle that had already gone to seed -- uck. I'll have to keep an eye on that area next Spring.

June 25-26, '10

2010-07-01T13:02:00.007-05:00

I was in Texas the previous weekend, but Sally came out for a day. She happened to try a nectarine and it was ripe, though small. She picked about 50 and brought home. We wished she had picked more, because this weekend they were all gone -- just pits on the ground. I'm afraid the same will happen to my peaches and apples. (One apple branch has broken due to the weight of the fruit.) The pears look healthy, but many leaves from one branch of this 3-in-1 were beginning to dye from the hot dry weather. I watered it.

Garden
We had about .75 inches in the rain gauge, and were so glad because it has been hot (we set a record high on the last day of Spring). The garden was still dry and Sally watered Friday and Saturday. She picked a bunch of onions and more green beans, but they had really slowed down. The black berries were ripening though, so I got this bowl full. Found a few wild ones also, but nothing significant (lots were still red).

House
We arrived early, because I took the entire day off. It was 79 in the house, in spite of the hot week. Seems strange since the A/C at home runs practically all afternoon just to get the temperature down to 78. After turning on the window unit most all weekend, it got down to 77 in the house. I can't quite figure out why it doesn't get hotter inside, but I am glad.

Mowed/Weedeat
I mowed everything but the barn/spring level, and cleaned up most of the back and around the house with the weedeater.

Spray
I sprayed the apples, and then tackled the weeds: sumac, knapweed, and the Viney thistle. I sprayed 4 gallons below the spring, and 8 gallons up in the top pasture and the field we've let grow up (right side of the road coming in).

Thunderstorms
There were storms all around Friday afternoon, be we didn't get any rain -- though it did cool things off. And then Saturday, just after lunch, one came through and we got some hard rain. Tender and I were eating watermelon on the porch during the worst of it. It was amazing that Tender never even whimpered during all the thunder -- distracted by the anticipation of the next byte of melon. Surprisingly, the rain accumulation was only .25 inch.

White Oak

Here is the white I got for Amanda a couple of weeks earlier. You can sure tell why they call it white oak.

June 11-12, '10

2010-06-16T12:57:00.001-05:00

Lisa, CJ, and Savannah came out and staid Friday night and Saturday. Temperatures weren't bad, in the upper 80s, and we had gotten a half inch of rain.

Short Cut
Since we had gotten rain Friday morning, I figured the dirt road wouldn't be dusty so we took the short cut. Instead of dusty, it was muddy. It was also very rough (much worse shape than just a few months ago) and felt much rougher in the 4Runner than the Tacoma. It also was not any shorter time wise because I had to slow down to keep from shaking our teeth out.

Garden
Sally picked another couple of gallons of green beans, a half dozen onions, a few beats, a bag of summer spinach, and the last radish.

Mowed/Weedeat/Thistle/Berries
After filling the feeders, I mowed the back and the road down to and around the pond. I noticed lots of black raspberries on the plants under the two giant sycamores at the confluence of the creeks. On the way back up I noticed a giant thistle at the unfinished dam Ben had started on Plume Creek.

The grass was really high on the upper road and around the cattle guard, so I filled the tank on the brush whacker and took off. I worked my way up the hill on the right side of the road, got around the cattle guard, and came back down the other side. Ran out of gas about two thirds of the way down.

With thistle (and raspberries) on my mind, I grabbed a feed bag, shovel, and small bucket and drove down the hill. I dug up the thistle and then walked over and picked about a quart of black raspberries in 15 minutes. When I started driving off, I looked over and noticed another group of 4-5 thistles on the other side of the creek. I went after them and then started seeing more clumps of 4 or 5. Then I started noticing baby ones coming up that hadn't yet started to bloom. I just whacked them off at the ground with the shovel. Some must have gone to seed in this area, so I'll have to keep a close watch in the area.

Fishing
Lisa and family arrived just before dark. CJ was anxious to fish, so headed straight to the pond. He caught several bass and said they looked healthier than the year before -- heads weren't out of proportion with their body. He also reported seeing a beaver -- troubling news and something I have never been able to do.

As you can see, Savannah enjoyed the raspberries. (And so did I.)

Kings River
Saturday morning we went down to the river at Rock House. Everyone got in but Lisa, although only CJ and Savannah spent much time in the water -- it was cold. The air was also cool until the clouds burned off. There were lots of canoes putting in -- and I had thought the river would be too low to float. Lots of dogs (and even a baby) were also going, and they had doggie life jackets. We decided we'd get one for Tender.

Sharpen/Spray/Cull/Mow/Weedeat
Saturday afternoon CJ headed back to the pond for more fishing. I wanted to mow, but Savannah was napping and Tender would bark. So I sharpened the Stihl and McCullock and got them ready for another outing. I then sprayed the apples and culled 150 nectarines -- some of the branches were bending down to the ground. Once Savannah woke I began to mow the upper areas. CJ got back then and took over the mowing while I took the Poulan weedeater to the front hill.

Cookout
We cooked hamburgers and a new curried turkey burger recipe. While the fire was going picked about a pint of blackberries over by the swing, plus a few more raspberries. Its a really good year for berries (due to the wet summer we had last year?).

June 4-5, '10

2010-06-09T12:48:00.006-05:00

Hot and dry, hitting 90 on Friday and 92 on Saturday with only one quarter of an inch in the rain gauge.

Garden
After getting only a hand full of green beans the weekend before, this week Sally picked about two gallons. Wow! She also got the last of the radishes (too big and hot for me), a couple of smallish onions, and a few beets. A bell pepper had fallen off prematurely. She pulled up all but one collard, but the worms are going to get it too I am sure. She forgot (or didn't want any more) of the summer spinach. (That black walnut growing in the garden, I'll leave until winter and then move it.)

Mow/Weed Eat
I only mowed the upper level -- I hope I can get through the lower road next week. I took this picture thinking I would show a before and after, but forgot the after. I also tackled the back hill with the Poulan weed eater and fixed line head. (Smaller line worked better.) That's some real work. I didn't get to the upper road and cattle guard, that will really need it next week. (I got a tick from the high grass just getting out to put the chain up at the cattle guard.)

Berries
I continued weeding around the berries, and spreading more newspaper. There were a few red raspberries, but they seem to be drying up on the vine. The blackberries are looking good. I wondered the fields looking for wild raspberries, but didn't get enough to collect. Saw the cactus blooming on top (yellow) and ran across 4 young armadillos though.

Sprayed
I sprayed the apples for fungus, but didn't get any herbicide on any of our villainous plants: knapweed, thistle, sumac, or buck brush.

White Oak
Saturday I took my McCulloch and Stihl into the back pasture where the huge white oak still lays. It was toppled two years ago this fall (Ike or one of those hurricanes that made this far). I had gotten just a little off of it and then our ice storm hit. I wanted to get some more short (18 inch) pieces for Amanda, thinking we would be driving up this summer. The whole tree was buried under brush and grape vines.

I didn't get quite a truck load from the tank of gas in each saw. Boy, was I whopped -- I'm not yet acclimated to this heat and humidity. Sally unloaded the whole truck as I split the larger pieces. That white oak sure splits nice -- even right through a limb joint.

Wild Flower
I'd like to know what this wild flower is. Its pretty thick on the hill just above the house, and in a few other places on the south facing slopes. Sort of soft and delicate.

May 28-29, '10

2010-06-03T12:34:00.001-05:00

No pictures this trip! Hot for late May -- mid 80s again.

Garden
We had a half inch in the rain gauge, but the garden was dry. Sally did the watering and picking. Got our first green beans, only a handful but they sure were good. Got the last of the broccoli and pulled up the collards. Both were being attacked by some little green worms. Sally soaked the broccoli in salt water to get the beggers off. Lots of volunteer tomatoes, and some of the onions are developing nicely (others not so). Of course we harvested lots more spinach.

Mow/Weedeat
So boring, but it has to be done. The clover is so thick around the barn and down by the creeks it is hard to get through it even on the highest setting. I think I will have to weed eat the upper road again next weekend.

Weeding
I did some more weeding around the berries and spread more newspaper. I got one red raspberry that was so luscious. It looks like there will be a large crop of blackberries, domestic and wild.

Peaches
They were about the size of golf balls and had already broken a branch from the weight. I decided to thin them out by removing every second or third one. Picking them was tough and sometimes pulled bark from the limb, so I used some garden snips. I culled 250 from the Alberta! I'll be happy if I end up with 20 after the critters take what they can get. Still need to look into an electric fence.

Sprayed
I forgot to spray the apples, so hope the fungus want set in.

Sally asked what the purple flowers were below the spring. A viney form of thistle. I started spraying it and found tons and tons of through that area west of the road, and noticed more below the road and back to the east below the barn. Of course Sally got on to me for spraying chemicals. I even found a large patch of sumac in there, and bunches of knapweed (which is about to bloom). I wonder if I will ever be able to get the upper hand out there.

Cookout
We cooked curried turkey burgers out and noticed several flies -- something we rarely see out there. Sally said others have talked about how the flies are bad this year. Great.

May 21-22, '10

2010-05-26T17:42:00.006-05:00

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

2010-05-18T17:46:00.008-05:00

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

2010-05-11T17:46:00.004-05:00

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.)

Apr 24-25, '10

2010-04-28T17:33:00.007-05:00

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

2010-04-21T17:21:00.008-05:00

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

2010-04-14T21:02:00.004-05:00

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.