Posts Tagged ‘digging’
More Digging
What’d you do yesterday? I dug through dry, packed gravel that was as hard as concrete to uncover even more of the AC power wires to the barn. With Cyndie’s participation, we worked together from two ends and met in the middle.
The owner of the Electric/Plumbing company we use for service stopped by in the morning to assess the situation. He was concerned there could be an additional splice and convinced me to dig up the rest of the lines all the way to the barn.
That was easy for him to say and a heck of a lot of work for us to do. At least we now know there are no other splices, at least not in that direction. I have very high confidence the patchwork that was done over ten years ago did not involve any more than the bare minimum repair to solve (and bury) the problem they had created.
What still remains unanswered for now is whether or not the splice is where power is actually being lost. I have notified the company that the cables are exposed all the way to the barn, allowing them to schedule an electrician to (hopefully) verify the splice is the problem and then redo all three splices with a much higher-quality up-to-date process.
I’m looking forward to that work being done so we can put all that class 5 gravel and thick clay soil back where it came from.
I don’t know what today’s projects at Wintervale will be for us, but I’m going to make every effort to avoid anything that involves digging.
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Unattended Digging
Yesterday, while Cyndie and I were working in the front yard, she leashed Asher to a tree nearby. It just so happened to be in the spot where he had already been digging a few days before. I didn’t argue. We figured that he had already made a mess of things there, so there was nothing left worth protecting.
Cyndie was digging up ferns to transplant them and I was trimming a limb that was hanging over the roof. Asher was digging.
We started pulling up some of the flagstone slabs and stacking them on a pallet. We experimented with screening out river rock from dirt and debris.
It is all preliminary tinkering before fully diving in to seal the foundation and then re-grade the dirt before laying slabs back down and finishing with river rock.
As I was cutting off the branches from the limb I brought down, Cyndie hollered that Asher had reached a gas line.
“He what?!”
Oops. That’s not a root across that hole he dug.
I think he got a little carried away. We are going to need to find a better place for him to go wild with his digging. I’m thinking maybe the middle of the woods. We probably should have made that “call before you dig.”
I sure am glad he didn’t start gnawing on that copper tube like I’ve seen him do to roots that get in his way.
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Flexible Scheduling
One hard and fast rule that is good to keep in mind is that scheduled events aren’t necessarily hard and fast or guaranteed to play out as planned. It pays to be flexible. Yesterday, Cyndie and I got out of bed a little earlier than usual because we were expecting a visit from a veterinarian who was going to check the horse’s teeth and give them required rabies vaccination shots.
We closed gates to confine the horses and put halters on all four of them in preparation and then headed up to the house for breakfast. It wasn’t long until Cyndie received a text that the vet would need to reschedule due to an unplanned emergency call.
I headed back out to open gates and remove halters.
Later, as I was filling a wheelbarrow with composted manure for our driveway landscaping project, I got a call from our asphalt company asking if they could reschedule sealing the driveway from July 27th to tomorrow (now, today!). That call was soon followed by news of a plan for the vet to come at 1:00.
Shortly after noon, Cyndie received a text that the vet had another emergency call and wouldn’t make it until some future day to be determined. I don’t know if that will be soon because there was a month-long wait to get the first appointment.
Asher had a pretty good day of testing his off-leash limits. Cyndie decided to use a lot of bribing with high-value treats to entice him to stay close to home and that seemed to pay off. I didn’t like him having free access to the compost area where I witnessed him eating manure from the freshest pile on two different occasions.
Cyndie let Asher help her out where she was pulling weeds.
I’m not sure if he got that one by the roots or not. Can’t see to the bottom of the resulting hole.
It will be interesting trying to keep his paws off the driveway while the seal coat is fresh. Hopefully, Asher is flexible about our schedule of off-leash practice because it will be on hold for at least a day starting this afternoon… if all goes as planned.
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Asher Digs
It is no surprise to learn that Asher digs after the scent of critters in the ground similar to the way our previous dog, Delilah did. Since the digging done by dogs is so destructive to our lawn areas, we spend a lot of energy discouraging digging in the grass. However, when on walks through the woods, I like to give a dog the chance to exercise their natural instinct. Yesterday, Asher plowed after something his nose told him was there.
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His efforts failed to produce any reward, but like Delilah many times before, that didn’t seem to matter. He just returned to the trail and we resumed our walk along the perimeter of our property.
Within a day or two of getting Asher home last week, Cyndie and I noticed he was adjusting to our regular routine more than we were changing our days to accommodate him. It’s another sign for me that he will be a good fit for the kind of pet we would like to have. After a bit of whining yesterday, he settled down for a good chunk of time in our outdoor kennel while we worked nearby. Cyndie was planting in her produce garden and I did my core strength and stretching exercises.
I recently read a recommendation that yoga routines can be enhanced by doing them outdoors and our philosophy of promoting the health benefits of forest bathing seemed to boost the idea doubly for me. This week I have moved my planking and stretching outside beneath the branches of two large trees. I’ve also made a change to the time of day I start, which doesn’t feel like it fits my routine yet but does offer a chance to linger in bed for a bit after waking. Slowly getting out of bed feels like a BIG luxury that suits me, even though working out first thing in the morning has always been my preference.
There are a few details I hadn’t considered when thinking it would be great to be outside. The mosquitos could become a problem and ants have already been a nuisance. The leaves aren’t completely opened yet so the sun was a little hard on my eyes yesterday. The ground not being perfectly flat is probably good in terms of adding difficulty for some balance routines but one particular bump interfered with keeping my back as flat as I wanted while stretching my hamstring muscles.
Speaking of new leaves opening up, I found this little specimen of baby oak leaves on the driveway beneath one of our biggest trees. They hardly got started and now it’s already over for them. That little sprig was about an inch across.
It’s sad to admit these brand-new leaves won’t even be missed. There won’t be a “bald spot” in the tree where they would have been. That tree will have more leaves than can be counted. At least we’ve given them worthy respect and have saved an image of them that will outlast all the rest of the leaves that survive them.
We are so very lucky to have all our trees. Looking up into the leaves when doing a cobra stretch is a great alternative to the ceiling of one of our rooms.
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Slow Progress
Yesterday, despite mighty intentions to tackle many tasks, I lowered my expectations to match my level of energy. To start, I decided to complete the prior day’s effort to shape up the old manure compost area. The chickens were thrilled to see me.
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It was low-hanging fruit, so to speak.
I had intended to do some chainsaw tasks that I’ve been saving for when I wasn’t home alone, but a power tool with a sharp blade was more than I wanted to be managing this day. In fact, the leaning pine tree stump I was going to trim back suddenly offered an alternative solution of being pushed back upright with a hydraulic jack.
Some spur-of-the-moment ideas don’t always pan out. The extra effort toward that side-project was only successful in avoiding doing something else. I think it is going to take the come-along winch to ultimately accomplish that task, but we decided to save it for another time.
From there, we headed across the field to try digging in the footbridge. That was another project which morphed into an adaptation somewhere between the ideal I had in my mind and the reality of what could be easily accomplished in a short amount of time with tools we could carry.
It ended up a perfect example of “good enough.”
That is a pretty good description of my whole day yesterday. It is something for which I have no complaints.
Slow progress is better than no progress at all.
Still healthy, 97.2°, and happily sheltering at home for the weekend with an amazing chef and companion. No complaints whatsoever, indeed.
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Digging Projects
Since much of my yesterday was spent tethered to the day-job email account I didn’t dig into any large outdoor projects, but I did get a chance to do a little digging. There are remains of two old manure piles that have essentially been flattened by chicken activity that I have wanted to toss together into one big pile. When I start turning dirt, chickens come running to take advantage of the opportunity for their worming purposes, so it needed to be a project that didn’t involve the presence of a certain canine.
Now that Cyndie is home to entertain Delilah, I nabbed my chance to revisit my old days of turning composting manure piles, much to the chicken’s delight.
The three breeds have distinctly noticeable differences in behaviors. The two Australorps are impressively bold about getting as close as possible to my every pitchfork turn, eager to get first-dibs, accepting my tapping them out of the way so I have room to take the next scoop. The yellow Buff Orpingtons recognize the advantage the black Australorps have and try to emulate them, but they aren’t as confident about getting so close to the business end of my pitchfork and spend most of their time in retreat.
The Wyandottes have always been the more timid of the three, and have figured out there are plenty of worms to be found in the scoopfuls getting tossed onto the new pile, so they spend their energy on the back end of the process.
The constant presence of the hens is both entertaining and annoying. I could do the job twice as fast if they weren’t so in the way, but it wouldn’t be near as much fun.
After I had tired of the exertion, I stepped back to just stand and watch them. In no time, I found myself surrounded by the flock as if they wanted to come thank me for the treats I had unearthed for them.
Today, there is more digging in store. I want to dig in the new footbridge so the ends are at ground level to accommodate the primary purpose of being able to drive the lawn tractor across the ravine with ease.
After that, a much larger dig is awaiting up by the house. Cyndie wants to plant a produce garden on a slope that will require terracing. I thought I was just going to be putting in some short retaining walls but the project now threatens to involve critter proofing with buried hardware cloth and perimeter fencing.
I fear the possibility of more digging than I’m interested in, but I expect visions of a future with home-grown produce might help me to overcome that lack of interest. Plus, such a garden will provide a place to use all that composted soil I’ve been piling up.
Can you dig that?
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Dug In
I did some trenching after I got home from work yesterday. To my surprise, I learned that the drain does not run in a straight line. I’m not sure why they did it this way, but one guess is to improve the position to the drain field.
So far, everything looks fine. I was looking for the junction where it splits and heads to the drain field, but I was running out of time, and the pipe was getting deeper and deeper. When I reached a joint that was covered by some sort of fabric, I stopped for the night. I suspect that is the spot I’m looking for, and will need to open up a larger area around it, to be able to adequately inspect it.
It struck me, as I was working, how much attention we put into assuring both our furnace and septic system were inspected and in working order when we made our offer to buy this place, eight months ago. Now we are totally replacing the furnace and digging up a portion of the septic drain system.
At the time, we were meaning to be diligent about pertinent details; prudently thorough about such a significant purchasing decision. Seems like maybe that wasn’t as important as it seemed to be.
We are getting this place ready for the long haul, and we have dug in with the intention of staying here for the rest of our lives. These things are just small steps toward the achievement of our overall goals of living with horses in this magical place we now call home.
Matched Set
It feels a little odd to be so pleased with my back yard being torn up, but it has me just tickled to see. The loop field is actually out to the left of this image, underneath the trees of that front section of forest. It is the ideal location, I have learned, as the tree roots draw moisture up, enhancing the effectiveness of the geothermal transfer.
Everything that grows green is bursting forth with gusto right now. I took a short walk in our woods, searching to see if we have any trillium growing, and hardly recognized our trail. I need to be careful about getting lost in there! Unfortunately, I spotted no trillium.
What I did find was, standing water in the ruts of the trail. I don’t think I’ll be driving through the woods for quite a while around here. It is wet, wet, wet.
Inside the house, they got the old furnace ripped out, and already replaced by the backup unit that will function for our new system. Today, they plan to pour the concrete to patch the floor where the lines come up from the loop manifold out in the back yard, and then set the heat pump and other unit side by side on top of that spot.
Meanwhile, I have received counsel on my septic situation that has me pondering doing the digging, myself, to expose the suspected problem area. If I can get it dug up, the guy that pumps it out told me he could make the repairs. The target zone is about 10 feet from the tank, along the pipe that leads to the drain field.
I’m not sure my back will be all that happy with me taking on that chore, but I won’t know until I try. I’ll be working slow, since there is a propane line buried in the area, so I don’t think over-exertion will be a problem.
When that gets completed, we should end up having matching dug-up front and back yards!
Relative Something 