Archive for the ‘Wintervale Ranch’ Category
Times Change
This morning, sunrise occurred at a new time, under the change to Daylight Saving Time in the U.S.
I saw a poll yesterday, that indicated the majority of people would prefer that we not change the clocks at all. I am included in that majority. I think it is a useless annoyance.
Something about it makes me feel like a helpless kid. I have no choice in the matter. Why do we change the clocks? Because we do. It’s just what we do. It has been in practice for over a century.
“It saves energy.”
“It helps the economy.”
“It does not.”
The debates I hear even sound juvenile to me, but that just may be the mode I’m in. I keep having thoughts about childhood, lately. Maybe it is the many times that my recent experiences on our new property are bringing remembrances of my formative years on my family’s farm property in the 1960s.
I have reduced my hours at the day-job, and spend more time here at Wintervale. I don’t have to get up and get ready to go to work everyday. When that work-day arrives, I look in the mirror and discover I have been doing less daily grooming. I don’t enjoy spending time in front of the mirror. (Maybe that is because I am seeing my reverse image.) Last week, I thought, ‘I never had to spend this kind of time when I was a kid.’
That got me to thinking about the pros and cons of being a kid:
Pro: The only grooming required is, your mom licking her hand to fix your hair.
Con: Your mom licks her hand to fix your hair.
Pro: You never have to drive yourself anywhere.
Con: You can’t drive yourself anywhere.
Pro: Your friends make you laugh.
Con: Milk comes out your nose.
Pro: You get to go everywhere with your mom, and people fawn over you.
Con: You have to go everywhere with your mom and strangers try to talk to you and pinch your face.
Pro: You get to go outside and play games with your friends.
Con: You have to register for a team and wear a uniform and be driven to an official field for games with parent coaches and kids older than you as referee.
Pro: You get to be the center of attention.
Con: You have to learn you don’t always get to be the center of attention.
Pro: You get to go to school for free.
Con: You have to go to school.
Pro: You are always learning new things.
Con: You have to learn every new thing.
Pro: The world of possibilities lies before you.
Con: There are an incomprehensible number of possibilities you must face.
Pro: You don’t have to plan each of your days.
Con: You don’t get to set the plan for your days.
Pro: You are encouraged to wish for anything you want.
Con: You might get what you wish for.
Okay, so that last one might not be a con. I got Wintervale, didn’t I? No wonder I feel like a kid again. That, and the fact I had to change the clocks today, even though I didn’t want to.
Critter Feeders
My sister, Mary, must have been out at my house recently, sometime when I didn’t know about it, because yesterday, she sent me this picture of one of our squirrels:
Generally, Cyndie is the one who fills the bird feeders here, of which there are many. I’m hesitant to do it, because we haven’t squirrel-proofed our feeders enough to successfully save a decent percentage of seed for the birds.
We haven’t raccoon-proofed them either, but I fear that is beyond reasonable to expect.
I haven’t mentioned it here this week, because I have been trying to not be a whiner this time, but Cyndie is out-of-town, again. It’ll have been a week, today. So, I’m starting to get hungry, and the birds are starting to get hungry, and all the other critters are starting to get hungry.
If I’m not eatin’ well, I figure, they shouldn’t either.
As if we needed proof, the recent snowfall has provided ample evidence of the critters beating a path(s) to the feeders. I thought it made pretty humorous pictures.
Post Storm
As soon as I got home from work yesterday, I jumped on the tractor to clear the snow from in front of the barn, and around the new loop we have planned. I still haven’t figured out a system I like for plowing that area. It is kind of a quick drop down from the asphalt, and working up to the barn doors limits what can be done. It is also currently made more complicated because of the trailer of fence wood that is still parked there.
I’m not entirely pleased with my results, but I think it will be sufficient. Daytime temperatures will be well above freezing in the coming days, and that will melt much of what I missed.
After a quick bite to eat, I headed back into the woods on my skis. I would be very pleased with myself if I were able to make skiing a daily exercise, but I doubt that will happen. This late in the year isn’t the best time to start a goal like that, anyway. Already, after just 1 day, I recognized very noticeable change in the snow, both out in the open where it is exposed to a lot of sun, and in the woods.
It changes so quick that it makes the beauty and splendor of that just-after snowfall scenery extra special. The slightest breeze, or a clear sunny day, will dry up those tree branches in a blink. It will look like it never even snowed.
I tried packing additional length of trail, but I started just after sunset, and it became increasingly difficult to see as the light grew dim, so I’m not too sure how well I did. It got me to thinking, though, that I should search online to see if there are any suggestions for a way to groom a ski trail using human power. Trying to pack it with skis is just too inefficient.
I always like it when the search box pops up hints that match what you enter, taken from the history of search terms. I started by entering “human powered trail…” and it had one for trail groomers! The internet is a great thing.
There were several styles, but I am particularly intrigued by this one: HPTG. Seems like they’ve thought of everything.
I believe I will be saving up to get me one of those for next year. I have a feeling I am going to enjoy working on making a groomed trail even more than I will skiing on it.
Beautiful Storm
First off, let’s just look at a ‘before’ and ‘after’ view, comparing that shot from Sunday with one I took yesterday afternoon. What a difference a couple of days can make.
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It snowed most of the day yesterday, and I wanted to wait until it stopped before plowing, so that meant I was able to go out and play! First, I hiked on snowshoes for a lap around the entire 20 acres. When I got out to the road, I discovered our mailbox had been knocked off its post by the snowplow. It would take some tools to fix, so for the time being, I laid it sideways on the post, and kept on snowshoeing.
I took a picture of the back of the house, because the snow drifting over the eaves looked cool, and I realized we don’t take many pictures from that vantage point.
While in the woods, I packed down a portion of the trail, with thoughts about the possibility of trying some skiing. I hadn’t gotten around to doing that yet this winter, and the days when that will still be possible are numbered. I was pretty worn out by the time I made it back to the house, but the conditions were so perfect, I decided to get out the skis.
Mind you, I haven’t been on them for a very long time, and I still haven’t quite mastered the art of skate-skiing, so this was a pretty significant undertaking. I’m sure I could have done better if I hadn’t been fatigued, but it was a lot of fun, and I worked to pack down a little more trail with each pass back and forth that I accomplished.
By about 2:30 p.m., the snow had tapered off, and I wanted to get the plowing done before dark, so I ended the ski experiment, before I incapacitated myself with exhaustion. The skiing worked really well, and I’m hoping to get right back out there soon, to make the best of it while it lasts. There’s still plenty more trail yet to be groomed, and I’d like to see how I perform when I am not already worn out.
The plowing turned out to be quite a challenge, because of the amount of snow (I’m guessing 11 inches) and the fact the temperature was warm enough to make it a bit sticky. I wasn’t very successful using the back blade, so I mostly resorted to the bucket. There’s a lot more monkeying around to maneuver to where I can empty the bucket when it gets too overloaded, and I can no longer push it in front of me.
I want to report to my siblings, I was thrown back to wintertime at the old Intervale farm, after I was finished plowing, because I had created giant piled-up snow mounds in a few spots. I visualized my 6-year-old self standing on top of the mountain of snow at the end of that driveway, back in the day.
They must have used a lot bigger tractor than the one I have, though. (Did Dad do that plowing, or someone else?)
Today, it’s back to the day-job for me. No playin’ in the snow till evening. Maybe I’ll do some night skiing in place of my half-hour walk.
Snow Accumulating
Melting snow, slowly making its way off the barn’s steel roof.
I’ve never had much luck interpreting what the weather was going to do next, but I have always had a keen interest in what’s happening in our skies. That is, I’m interested when the weather presents us with something dramatic, like storms, or record-setting extremes. I think meteorology is fascinating.
As a result, and since I am lousy at predicting on my own, I make frequent use of weather web sites. As I write this, we are currently under a winter storm warning, and I have been checking the radar frequently. I started checking on Sunday. The storm was predicted to start in the early morning hours of Monday.
When I was rudely awakened, several times, by the crashing and banging activity of raccoons on the deck in those wee hours of the a.m., I took advantage of the motion-light which had triggered, to find out the deck was still bone dry. That just added suspense to what daylight would reveal, at the break of dawn.
Daylight revealed nothing. Still dry as could be. I checked with folks at work, on the other side of the Twin Cities, and learned they were getting accumulating snow. I immediately checked the radar, to see how far off it was, and what I found was pretty useless. The radar looked as if it was already on top of us and snow was falling over Beldenville. Maybe, but just not at my house. Or, maybe it was one of those situations where snow falling from the clouds was drying up before it could reach the ground. Whatever.
Finally, by 12:10 p.m. yesterday afternoon, I started to see some falling flakes. However, by 12:18 p.m., it had already stopped. By the end of yesterday, all we had received was a trace of snow. What was going on?
I checked Minnesota Public Radio’s Updraft weather blog. The post said they knew all along that the snow accumulation from this event would come in two waves, and the second wave would be the heavier amount. It also indicated that their computer model “insisted” that the area of greatest accumulation remained directly over the metro area, into western Wisconsin.
The prediction for the timing of the heaviest snowfall was now the early morning hours of Tuesday. I made an advance decision to stay home from the day-job today, based on the warning of the ‘insisting’ computer model.
I don’t dare hold ill feelings for the discrepancies between meteorologist’s predictions, and what really takes place. I certainly am not able to do any better.
If all goes as planned (hoped), I will wake up (from a full night’s sleep), to find a massive accumulation of beautiful white snow, and then snuggle back under the covers to sleep in, giving the storm more time to move out of the area, toward the east. The afternoon will then be spent plowing and shoveling.
That is, if the weather doesn’t deviate from what the computer model insists should happen.
Sun Day
Yesterday was a jacket-free day. We’ve experienced multiple days in a row with mid-day temperatures reaching, and often exceeding, the freezing mark. The majority were more cloudy than clear. Over the weekend, the sky was mostly clear, and that sun was out! In fact, my face got a little sunburned, much to my surprise. I started the day splitting wood, and it didn’t feel like I was being exposed enough for it to be an issue. I’m guessing it was the driveway work I moved to next that did me in.
The ice has finally released its grip from our driveway pavement. After last week’s snowfall, we gave in and spread some sand over the ice. Then, our fence contractor ordered delivery of more, from a truck with a salt/sand spreader, to apply a dose in front of the barn where they will be working. The truck driver saw fit to give the entire driveway a covering. I’m not complaining, but in hindsight, it certainly wasn’t necessary. The high temperatures ended up doing most of the work.
Now you can clearly see where the drive to the front of the barn will become a loop.
With the ice gone, we ended up with a driveway covered in an accumulation of sand and salt. I don’t want it all being tracked into the garage, so I got out the push broom to reclaim as much as I could. I swept about half the drive, from the house down. Halfway was enough broom work for one afternoon. Plus, I ran out of buckets to put all the collected sand in.
That brought me to my highlight of the day: I got to play like a kid, making a channel through the snowbank and ice on one side of the driveway, to allow a big puddle that formed in the low spot, to drain. For that being a legitimate issue needing attention, it sure was a fun one to remedy. Breaking ice to make water flow is one of life’s simple pleasures.
And how often do you get to break stuff to fix something?
Fun as all that was, Mother Nature gets the last say, as the prediction for today is 6 to 10″ of new snow by the end of Tuesday. The good thing about late winter or springtime snowfalls, they rarely are followed by severe cold snaps which lock everything into months of being frozen. Temperatures are expected to rise well-above freezing by the end of the week.
Bring it on, I say!
Beautiful Night
It was another beautiful night on our new property. Breathtakingly so. The richness of being here is almost overwhelming sometimes. Walking through our woods on the snow-covered trails, heavily marked by the frequent activity of wildlife, large and small, is an enthralling experience. It is a dance of life. It is a privilege and a pleasure, and a feast for the senses. The crunch of footsteps in the snow makes what seems like a thunderous cacophony announcing my presence, but stopping to stand still, immediately wraps the surroundings in a blanket of comparative silence. Just as quickly, subtle hints of movement can be detected in the increasing darkness of distances. Branches creak in the flow of cooling air, a dog barks somewhere far away, and the sound of a bird brings a sensation that springtime is locked up in everything here, on the verge of bursting forth in all its splendor.
I can’t wait to see it happen, but I wonder if I have the capability to bear it all. Part of me senses the beauty of this place could be incapacitating if I am exposed to too much all at once. There are times I feel like I’d be perfectly content to just sit down in any spot here and do nothing but absorb the surroundings to the fullest until my ultimate demise. It is intoxicating!
One Year!
Holy cow, my dear readers, how far things have come in one year! Last night, as I was walking the quarter-mile length up our driveway, in the enticing rural darkness, (returning from having dropped off the trash bin for morning pickup) I felt a wave of sensation about how much has changed from our previous life. We have now been living at our new place for a whopping 4 months.
It got me to thinking about where our lives were at a year ago. When I got back in the house, I went online and paid a little visit to the “Previous Somethings” link on the right margin. I picked February, 2012.
There I found an image of trees weighted down by ice and snow, and I had written about a storm. Cyndie had just been home from Boston, to visit for a weekend. It was February 28, 2012, when I wrote the following:
We have lived in the house on this lot for about 25 years. Just 3 days ago, Cyndie and I met with a realtor to begin the process of selling this home, and buying a horse farm.
Whoa! What a trip. Not a long, strange trip, though. It feels like it has been a fast, thrilling ride. And I’m not just talkin’ about the tractor.
Tractor Lesson
Last Saturday, we received a visit from our fence contractor, who came over to shoot some elevations in preparation for locating and creating the new driveway loop, and the hay shed. Work here has been in a holding pattern, due to the weather we keep getting smacked by. When the spring melt happens, we will be subject to road restrictions for gross weight allowances. That means our plan becomes a bit pinched. Can’t start too soon, but don’t want to wait too late.
In a phone conversation discussing the status of our project, Cyndie asked the simple question about getting the dirt/gravel fill we need, delivered early, before road restrictions are in place. That was deemed a good idea (she’s so smart) and triggered some activity. Our contractor showed up with an assistant to take some readings. The first thing that needed to happen was removal of snow, to provide a good base to work from. I offered to try with my tractor, but warned them I was inexperienced, and had already gotten myself stuck on the ice there, multiple times. Luckily, the guy he brought with him was skilled with heavy equipment.
I jumped at the chance to have him use my tractor, and give me some tips. It was a great opportunity to stand by and watch from the ground, beside the tractor, to see how he manipulated it. I don’t get to enjoy that view when I’m the one driving, taking my lessons via trial and error.
I’m pleased to report that my operation is not very far off. Mostly, it looked like he was doing what I do, except he was doing it better than me. He definitely demonstrated a better ‘touch’ on the hydraulic control for the loader bucket. It made me realize that I usually over-correct. His adjustments were much more subtle.
I was happy to discover that there is an indicator that tells me when my bucket is level to the ground. It was always right in front of my view, I just didn’t know what I was looking at, and thus was operating blind.
When he developed a leg cramp, we switched up and I got to mess around on the tractor while they took care getting elevation readings at a few key spots. I got the snow cleared again from the path where the new section of driveway will be.
If the weather holds, we are hoping to see truckloads of gravel dumped for the driveway loop, and the start of progress on the paddock fencing, next week!
Looking at this picture now, I realize the dramatic difference the last 4 days of warm weather have made. Our driveway is mostly melted, and there is a lot more gravel and grass exposed in front of the barn where we cleared the snow Saturday.
You can see in that shot that we put down some sand to break up the skating rink ice that was developing on the driveway. That, and the above-freezing temperatures have helped immensely!
Dang Critters
I’ve got a lot to learn about mouse-proofing. Yesterday, I discovered that the fresh air intake for our fireplace, outside on the rock structure of our chimney, was again plugged by a nest. I assume it was a mouse’s nest.
The interesting thing about this is that I had cleaned it out last fall, and then put up a screen to barricade access. Or so I thought. I think what I did was make it even more secure for the little critters.
The actual opening to the tube that runs to the fireplace is protected by a wire mesh that is cemented in place. From what I can see, it appears intact. That screen is about 8 inches back in the structure,
about the depth of the stones that form the face of the chimney. That creates a wonderful crater for a nest.
When we bought the place, there was a bunch of insulation, and a lot of chewed acorns stored in there. I cleaned it out and improvised a screened cover to block the entrance to the cave. As I was hauling in some firewood yesterday, I thought I noticed some debris accumulated inside my outer screen. I grabbed a light and discovered it was filled. There were some pieces of insulation in there, but mostly, it appeared to be animal hair. In fact, it looked exactly like the deer hair that was strewn in the area around the carcass the 
coyotes took down in our woods last fall.
Did some critter really haul this from way down the hill in the woods? I don’t know. I also don’t know if the nest-builder was able to sneak around the edge of my barrier, or if there is an internal route that I can’t see, along the blocks on the inside of the stone facade.
I may resort to constructing some form of tube from the inner screen to the edge of the rocks, and then filling the surrounding space with expanding foam. That way the critter will have something to chew on in order to open up another entrance to build his next nest.
At least the fire was looking real good yesterday, with the return of a full dose of fresh air available at the intake again. Since the screen wasn’t keeping the nest-builder out, I didn’t put it back. For the immediate time being, I plan to watch for signs of activity in there, and just clean it out as fast as they try to fill it up.
I’ll know now, to check it right away if I notice the fire seems to be burning slower than usual. Before, I thought it was probably just the wood. Now I know better.
Relative Something 