Posts Tagged ‘Wintervale Ranch’
Not Funny
…edited shortly after 7:00 a.m. to add additional image from this morning. ( jwh)
Curious, yes, but not funny. Before sunset last night –not that I was able to see that happen– I took a picture of the progress of our umpteenth springtime winter storm event of the year, just getting underway, on the 1st day of May. The joke’s on us, but who’s laughing now?
Here we go again… It’s beautiful, and terrorizing, all at the same time.
And this was how it looked in the pre-dawn light this morning…
Water Tight
Our fencing crew made a couple of discoveries yesterday. The first one wasn’t much of a surprise: the ground is still incredibly wet here. I found the second discovery rather enlightening.
One of the holes they drilled for a fence post, filled with water soon after. The noteworthy thing was, the way the hole filled with water. It was flowing in from just above the clay layer, not soaking in from the bottom up.
One of the reasons it is taking so long for the land to dry out here is, because the clay keeps it from soaking down. Water needs to flow through the topsoil, where there is a downhill grade, or evaporate up, from places where there is no out-flow.
Our patience is being tested, but we are just going to have to wait it out. We could sure use a few consecutive days of sun and wind. Yes, that would help, greatly. Unfortunately, what we have in store is more rain, and even some rain/snow mix. In May! It’s almost comical.
The fence crew was successful in driving about 20 more fence posts yesterday, despite the muddy mess. Now, they are on hold again for a number of days.
Luckily, Cyndie got some laundry done while it was still dry yesterday. The new clothesline is put to immediate use! At least one task has come to fruition in a timely manner.
Too Much
When there is no snow on the ground, a whole lot of work becomes available, all at the same time. It is a mental challenge to figure out where to start, and what to do next. It is a physical challenge to do it all. There is too much to do, but that doesn’t stop us, and we are loving it.
We ran into one hitch, though, yesterday. The snow may be gone, but the water isn’t. The ground here is like a saturated sponge. Our plans for the day changed early, when our fence contractor arrived to see the area we had hoped to work, was still too wet. However, it turned out really sweet for us. Since they couldn’t do any work on our property, they were headed to buy maple syrup from a local farm, and they offered to pick up some for us.
On their way back, they stopped in the road at the end of our driveway, and I walked down to collect our prize: Two quarts of pure maple syrup in unmarked Ball Jars. What a treat.
Then, it was back to work. We did some burning at both of our brush piles, then Cyndie worked on cleaning the barn, while I mixed up some concrete and put in a base for a removable umbrella style clothesline. I greased the tractor, and put in another shift on the burning brush pile.
At every turn, there is something additional that deserves attention. We have definitely neglected some organizational tasks, as we haven’t yet figured out where our preferred places are to store some of the common use tools. We want some things near the house, in the garage, and others belong in the shop garage, or the barn. We know full-well that wherever we leave a rake or shovel, we’ll inevitably need it next, in one of the other locations.
Ultimately, I’m hoping we don’t just end up getting three of everything. That just seems excessive, like a bit too much, to me.
Looks like a great conflagration
…but it’s just a drop in the bucket.
Finally Warm
Now we’re getting somewhere. The weather pattern has shifted, …finally. More importantly, no new snow has fallen for two whole days! It feels remarkable.
The first thing I did yesterday morning was, walk out to check on the water rising from the ground at the spot I discovered the day before. It had stopped flowing, but there was still a small pool of standing water there. I guess the next thing to watch for is, how soon that water disappears.
I have no sense of how quickly the ground here is going to dry up, once we get a few consecutive days without new moisture falling. I hope to find out soon enough. With luck, we can spend a little time down by the labyrinth this weekend, doing some more design work. Walking around near the spots where the soil has been turned up (left from last fall’s roots and brush removal in the areas of previous fence lines) will tell us very quickly if the ground is still muddy.
Yesterday, we committed to the purchase of a geothermal heating and cooling system, to replace the old, existing furnace and air conditioner, so it appears the ground around here will continue to be in a state of disturbance in the months ahead. We are challenged with trying to get some pasture grass planted in a few key locations, so our hope is to get the essential excavating projects completed in time to hit the ideal growing season.
We have a lot of activities to choreograph now that we are snow free, not the least of which involves being on our deck, soaking up the warm sunshine, and watching the forest finally burst forth with leaves of green.
Day’s Difference
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Here are the images I took on Tuesday morning, after the overnight dump of almost a foot of snow. It is hard to get an exact measure of the total amount, because, it is so heavy and wet, it compacts on itself as it accumulates.
When I left for work on Tuesday, the road beyond our driveway had only been plowed one-lane wide. That made it really nerve-wracking to climb the hills, not knowing what might be approaching from the other side. Luckily, there was no other traffic at that hour.
By the time Cyndie left, the plow had made another pass, and she discovered that it blew our mailbox off its post, again. With how heavy the water-logged snow was, it didn’t surprise me one bit to hear.
Next winter, I may need to strap that mailbox down, or I may be repairing it after every heavy snowfall. The plastic platform on top of the post, which is where a mounting screw is supposed to find purchase, is showing signs of wear, after the two dramatic failures this year.
When I got home from work yesterday, I re-mounted the mailbox, and then pumped up the tires on the new trailer, putting it to work moving firewood. I hauled the last of the split wood that the sellers had left stowed under the eve of the barn, moving it up to the wood rack we bought for the deck.
I took a picture of the trailer in action, which shows how quickly the snow disappears in the late-April sun. What a difference a day makes.
The water run-off was really flowing! I spotted something very interesting while inspecting how well it was running off the plowed field to the north of our property, and into our ditch, where a culvert runs under the driveway.
Just to the left of where the water was flowing in a concisely defined stream, there was a small pool that appeared to be bubbling up from the ground. I figured it was an optical illusion, and that it was just more of the flow through the grassy area.
I hopped from the edge of the driveway, through the flowing water, to get across the ditch, for a closer inspection. I moved all the grass away, to verify there was no above-ground stream feeding this flow. Sure enough, this water was bubbling up from below grade. I stuck my boot down into it, but didn’t really feel anything noteworthy.
That served to cloud up the water with the silty soil. Most revealing was how quickly that cloudiness was replaced by the very clear water that was flowing up from below. This was a classic example of what I had read about, where the spring appears when the ground in the area is saturated with water. I will keep an eye on it, checking to see how quickly after things dry up around here, the water ceases to flow from that spot.
I’m guessing it won’t be running for very long. And, if I discover that I am wrong about that, I’d be delighted.
Snow Again?!
We are three weeks into April, and still, this morning, it is snowing. I called our fence contractor yesterday, to check on his status, since it was predicted to be a clear and sunny Saturday. He has enlisted a crew to build our hay shed, and they were going to work weekends. I wasn’t surprised there wasn’t anyone here, since we had just come out of a blast of a winter storm on Thursday and Friday, which kept both Cyndie and me home from work on Friday.
He confirmed that it was just too wet to do anything down there now. He knew what he was talking about. Cyndie and I wanted to continue on a project to move the eagle statue, and the rock landscaping beneath it, in preparation of digging out a berm next to the barn. We need to create a path to drive the tractor around the back side of the barn, now that the front side is being fenced off with paddocks.
It was both too wet, and too frozen, if that makes any sense. Snow from above was melting, and running down around the area we were tromping, and the further we progressed in moving rocks, the more rocks we came to that were still frozen in place.
We changed plans. Next on the wish list was creating a labyrinth. We had a general idea where we wanted the labyrinth to be located, and had reviewed a variety of layouts. Next step was to physically measure the area, and see if we the idea in our heads would fit the reality of the place we want it to be.
Last fall, when the fence guys were ripping out the old barbed wire fencing that existed when we bought the place, they also cleared out a lot of brush, and turned up a few boulders. We asked them to move the rocks back to the area where we were thinking the labyrinth might be created.
The spot where they put them ended up being about 12 inches off of the center point we calculated yesterday. We used some of the metal fence posts they had pulled out, to create a circumference, placing a final one at the center point. Cyndie ran a fluorescent pink string around the circle. We plotted and measured, and are feeling very confident that our joint vision is viable. The project is a go.
That is, it will be a go, if it ever stops snowing, and dries out enough to navigate our property without fear of stepping into a bottomless sink-hole of muddy soup.
Plowed Slush
Every once in a while, I end up with a picture I really like, which I figure will probably work as a “Words on Images” piece, but later, when I get it opened up on my screen, I can’t bring myself to interrupt the image with text. This is one of those images.
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I think the close-up shot looks a bit like the super-magnified images created by electron microscopes.
Seasonal Dyslexia
Yesterday’s unwelcome weather event did not turn out to be one of the ominous “top-10 historic April snowfalls” that was being touted as highly likely, but it still scared me away from trying to negotiate Thursday’s traffic. I didn’t go in to the day-job. Both Cyndie and I stayed safely off the roads and tucked in our home, protected from the elements.
Thus far, we have experienced heavy rain, then sleet, then sloppy wet snow, then falling temperatures, and then wind-blown snow, out of this winter storm. It is still going strong, continuing to ply its wrath over us this morning.
Winter storms that occur in the springtime can be rather exasperating, especially when they cause postponement of an already delayed fence installation project. Doesn’t do much to accommodate our brush-pile burning project, either.
We have an important meeting in the cities this afternoon, with our tax accountant, so must bite the bullet and get behind the wheel, regardless the conditions complicating the morning rush “hour.”
The things we do for love.
We are head-over-heels in love with this place we now call home. It easily makes our driving hassles worth the trouble. Even when it is covered with snow in the middle of April, it is a wonder to behold.
Meditative Burning
It rained Sunday night, but that didn’t stop me from reigniting the brush pile yesterday afternoon. It is a fascinating exercise to witness the ebb and flow of fire energy, as it slowly, but surely consumes tree root bundles. You can’t leave it untended, if you want to make constant progress. There is just too much moisture stored in the roots, and they don’t really want to burn. You need to keep feeding the fire wood that is dry enough to burn well, and stoke those coals to keep them glowing red-hot.
Still, the fire will tend to grow calm, as the burn consumes the immediately available fuel. It is mesmerizing. Then, a simple adjustment of the pile, by poking around in the coals, followed by the addition of some new wood, brings a rush of sound and fury. It is energizing.
I completely understand why someone I know explained that her husband took a picture of her when she was lured out to tend their brush pile burn, while still in her bathrobe. The task has that addicting allure.
Last night, I had a tough choice: the addiction of the fire, or the addiction of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament championship game.
The brush pile will still be here today. The game won out last night.
Disappearing Day
Maybe this can be attributed to the old saying, “time flies when you’re having fun,” but it seemed like yesterday did more than fly. It just plain disappeared.
In all fairness, we did get a bit of a late start. We enjoyed a leisurely beginning to our day, and then dove into chores to prepare for a late brunch with our children and their significant others. As the noon hour came and went, Cyndie and I stepped out to putter on some outdoor chores while we waited for the kids.
We made our way down to the barn, where we started the process of clearing the eagle statue and the rocks used for landscaping, from the area to the right of the door. We will be creating space to drive the tractor around the back side of the barn, and that is going to involve removing some dirt. Before we can move the dirt, we have to get the rocks out of the way.
We barely got started on the project, when kids arrived. After a brief tour to show off the fence progress, we headed inside to prepare the feast for serving. It was a classic “Cyndie brunch,” with her homemade waffles, and oodles of fruit. When the meal was done, we didn’t even clear the table, but retired directly to the comfortable seating by the fireplace, to visit.
With the afternoon sun showing dominance over the thin clouds, we were lured back outdoors, where we explored for something to do. I decided to see if we could get any of the branches in one of our brush piles to ignite, with the hope of picking up where we left off last fall, burning them.
The process of burning brush can be real mesmerizing. We made it a challenge to start the fires without any paper or accelerant, which I’m sure occupied much more time than any of us realized. Once we achieved a spot with some good coals, it became a process of finding the driest stumps and root balls to pile on top of the flames.
It seemed like just a short time, but when we finally dragged ourselves away from the fun, and back up to the house, it was almost 7 p.m.! Holy cow! Where did that day go?
The tough thing about this experience is, we can now see so many outdoor springtime tasks already deserving attention, the phenomenon of amazing disappearing days is going to become an all too common reality for us.
It’s like magic! Luckily, we like magical things.
Wanna watch us make a day disappear?
Relative Something 