The tale of two hurricanes: Irene and Lee. These named storms were not twins, no hurricane is created equally. Irene was windy (55 mph sustained winds, gusting upwards of 60 mph), three inches of rain (we needed it) and a 5-hour power outage. Lee was a slow-moving storm with hardly a breeze, warm, humid air and 15 inches of rain over three days.
That's the short story. The long story is that Irene (not our cat) broke trees, limbs and branches, scattered leaves everywhere and watered the yard. Lee flooded the basement at our old house and broke some limbs, too. The boys spent the night inside four nights in a row. Warm but too wet to sleep outside, in my opinion.
We had made some headway on the burn pile after Irene, but now with Lee it looks like we burned nothing. A pending bonfire is certainly in our future.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Hurricane Lee
Rain, Rain, Rain. The entire week, from Monday afternoon into Friday. The creeks and rivers are rising, the kids stay in all night. The manure spreader is full, too.
Labor Day
Labor Day weekend was a fairly productive holiday for us. Three whole days blew by, as usual. We had planned on going to West Virginia but those plans fell through by Thursday night. I was relieved, really. We have so much to do, the riding is extensive and KC has been 'off.'
Plan B: Pick my Godson, Mario, up on Friday night. We have plenty planned for him to help us with. Farm life, right?
Feeding, pick up tree debris from Hurricane Irene and have a bonfire on Saturday evening, groundhog eradication, clean out the shed, wash four horses plus do their hair and trim them, too. Busy, busy, busy!
By Monday he was tired and bored and I took him home around 2:00 p.m. But he did work hard, especially on Sunday with the groundhog killing. My nephew, David, came over with two friends to shoot their guns, and the machine gun. I know, I'm the 'cool' aunt with 17 agricultural acres. We can do this!
Plan B: Pick my Godson, Mario, up on Friday night. We have plenty planned for him to help us with. Farm life, right?
Feeding, pick up tree debris from Hurricane Irene and have a bonfire on Saturday evening, groundhog eradication, clean out the shed, wash four horses plus do their hair and trim them, too. Busy, busy, busy!
By Monday he was tired and bored and I took him home around 2:00 p.m. But he did work hard, especially on Sunday with the groundhog killing. My nephew, David, came over with two friends to shoot their guns, and the machine gun. I know, I'm the 'cool' aunt with 17 agricultural acres. We can do this!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Earthquake!!
5.8:
We got home at 7:30 pm – immediately brought the horses in, got them water, fed them, April was outside with us – it gets dark around 8:00 now (darn) and he wanted me to clean up the dry paddock – I told him I would have but he needs to empty the manure spreader – where’s the muck bucket? Its full, won’t fit anymore into the manure spreader – He had already talked to his mother – he had to explain to her, slowly with good diction, why the METRO was so slow (15 mph) and why it took so long for the medical emergency to get resolved on the train in the station, blah blah – she was out in the yard when the ‘quake’ occurred, but Rob and Debi were just getting onto the road (Montrose) and noticed the traffic lights swaying – being from California, they knew what it was and immediately turned around to make sure Mary and the house were ok.
Anyway – Those minis are messy! I had cleaned the stalls over the weekend and they purposely go in there to use the facilities. She’s ‘going’ in Fred’s stall, too. With the spreader empty I had plenty of room to dump the muck bucket. He came out and asked if I had eaten, I said I had a pretzel and some dried peaches, what did you eat? Well, it was better than that! OK, but I’m too busy to eat. I got all the manure cleaned up, threw hay, he cleaned and filled the water buckets. The weather was delightful! And then its time for bed, just like that!
We got home at 7:30 pm – immediately brought the horses in, got them water, fed them, April was outside with us – it gets dark around 8:00 now (darn) and he wanted me to clean up the dry paddock – I told him I would have but he needs to empty the manure spreader – where’s the muck bucket? Its full, won’t fit anymore into the manure spreader – He had already talked to his mother – he had to explain to her, slowly with good diction, why the METRO was so slow (15 mph) and why it took so long for the medical emergency to get resolved on the train in the station, blah blah – she was out in the yard when the ‘quake’ occurred, but Rob and Debi were just getting onto the road (Montrose) and noticed the traffic lights swaying – being from California, they knew what it was and immediately turned around to make sure Mary and the house were ok.
Anyway – Those minis are messy! I had cleaned the stalls over the weekend and they purposely go in there to use the facilities. She’s ‘going’ in Fred’s stall, too. With the spreader empty I had plenty of room to dump the muck bucket. He came out and asked if I had eaten, I said I had a pretzel and some dried peaches, what did you eat? Well, it was better than that! OK, but I’m too busy to eat. I got all the manure cleaned up, threw hay, he cleaned and filled the water buckets. The weather was delightful! And then its time for bed, just like that!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Dog Days
Another whirlwind weekend – The usual Friday night blitz (grocery/gas/load the truck); Saturday morning chores routine. Then we hit the road – destination: West, by God, Virginia.
We planned, seemed like at the last minute, to go to our place in West Virginia to mow a little and pick up the box scrapper. We also are having family in Sunday afternoon from California. Too many things going on at one time, bound to be a conflict, right? A blind man can see this coming.
Friday night, we hitch up the flat bed trailer, load the tractor with the finish mower deck on it, pack the cooler with extra drinks. We’re ready to go for early Saturday morning.
For some reason we leave later than expected, he forgot to bring the gasoline can for the mowers up there, we stop at Kerr’s for a new tank and gas. We arrive there around 10:45.
The weeds in the drive way are almost waist-high. He’s lamenting that there is ‘cattle carpet’ under there, shouldn’t have grass and weeds growing. I tug on one of the weeds and it pulls out like a toothpick in a cake. No dirt attached to the shallow roots. This will be an easy task, except there are thousands of plants to pull. We pull and pull, throwing the weeds into a heap. The heap becomes a large mass, taller than the dog. Now there are several heaps, here and there. Taking about an hour, we finally are done.
He tries to get either of the mowers going, and uses up all the starter-fluid. Neither mow is going to run today. I put on the weed-whacker and hit the yard. He unloads the tractor, it’s about 12:30 p.m., and mows around the barns and lots of the pasture. He says he sees hundreds of mice, scattering from his tractor. He tries to run over as many as possible.
There is evidence that it has flooded, one of the bridges is moved about three feet down-river. The grass is still flattened from the rush of water. I weed-whack for about three hours, three tanks of gas, and lots of string. I try to kill or damage as much multi-flora rose as possible. I see a couple frogs and a mouse. I’m watching out for bees and snakes, see none.
We take a break, eat the lunch I've packed. I drank most of a bottle of pink lemonade. We hit our machines again; working, working, working. Now my hands are buzzing, numb. My shirt is wet, my hair is damp, I've got mud on my glasses. We're having a wonderful time!
He finally comes in about the same time my string is short and ratty. He moves the truck and trailer to mow where that was parked, then e hastily load up the tractor. He says we don't have time to pick up the box scrapper. What? Next time? We have to have the tractor to lift the box scrapper, it's like 600 lbs.! Next time.
We take the same way home and it was really a wonderful route; no Route 81 or 66 or Beltway. Scenic views. We get home at dark and everybody is at the gate, wondering where in the hell we've been! Tom fills the water buckets and I dish out the grain. Instant happiness all the way around. We eat the rest of our lunch. I'm pooped.
Sunday: another beautiful day, get up early like normal. I had things planned that I didn't get to the day before and it is heating up out there. He decides he's going to prep the exterior walls for paint; my new job is to scrub the walls. O boy.
I do get lots of dirt off, but the more I scrub the more the paint peels, a lot. It dries quickly and he starts painting with a primer. It loosens the existing paint. This is going to be futile. It looks like a Paint Horse. Then it starts raining. Great!
Retreat into doing household chores. Lightning and Thunder. Rain, heavy at times. O boy.
We planned, seemed like at the last minute, to go to our place in West Virginia to mow a little and pick up the box scrapper. We also are having family in Sunday afternoon from California. Too many things going on at one time, bound to be a conflict, right? A blind man can see this coming.
Friday night, we hitch up the flat bed trailer, load the tractor with the finish mower deck on it, pack the cooler with extra drinks. We’re ready to go for early Saturday morning.
For some reason we leave later than expected, he forgot to bring the gasoline can for the mowers up there, we stop at Kerr’s for a new tank and gas. We arrive there around 10:45.
The weeds in the drive way are almost waist-high. He’s lamenting that there is ‘cattle carpet’ under there, shouldn’t have grass and weeds growing. I tug on one of the weeds and it pulls out like a toothpick in a cake. No dirt attached to the shallow roots. This will be an easy task, except there are thousands of plants to pull. We pull and pull, throwing the weeds into a heap. The heap becomes a large mass, taller than the dog. Now there are several heaps, here and there. Taking about an hour, we finally are done.
He tries to get either of the mowers going, and uses up all the starter-fluid. Neither mow is going to run today. I put on the weed-whacker and hit the yard. He unloads the tractor, it’s about 12:30 p.m., and mows around the barns and lots of the pasture. He says he sees hundreds of mice, scattering from his tractor. He tries to run over as many as possible.
There is evidence that it has flooded, one of the bridges is moved about three feet down-river. The grass is still flattened from the rush of water. I weed-whack for about three hours, three tanks of gas, and lots of string. I try to kill or damage as much multi-flora rose as possible. I see a couple frogs and a mouse. I’m watching out for bees and snakes, see none.
We take a break, eat the lunch I've packed. I drank most of a bottle of pink lemonade. We hit our machines again; working, working, working. Now my hands are buzzing, numb. My shirt is wet, my hair is damp, I've got mud on my glasses. We're having a wonderful time!
He finally comes in about the same time my string is short and ratty. He moves the truck and trailer to mow where that was parked, then e hastily load up the tractor. He says we don't have time to pick up the box scrapper. What? Next time? We have to have the tractor to lift the box scrapper, it's like 600 lbs.! Next time.
We take the same way home and it was really a wonderful route; no Route 81 or 66 or Beltway. Scenic views. We get home at dark and everybody is at the gate, wondering where in the hell we've been! Tom fills the water buckets and I dish out the grain. Instant happiness all the way around. We eat the rest of our lunch. I'm pooped.
Sunday: another beautiful day, get up early like normal. I had things planned that I didn't get to the day before and it is heating up out there. He decides he's going to prep the exterior walls for paint; my new job is to scrub the walls. O boy.
I do get lots of dirt off, but the more I scrub the more the paint peels, a lot. It dries quickly and he starts painting with a primer. It loosens the existing paint. This is going to be futile. It looks like a Paint Horse. Then it starts raining. Great!
Retreat into doing household chores. Lightning and Thunder. Rain, heavy at times. O boy.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Clean-Out Connector, Guttering
On Sunday, late afternoon, Tom started digging into the sewer line to connect the RV clean-out. He bought everything he needed, he thought. Apparently the sewer line is not the measurement that he thought it was, so we had no in-door plumbing for Sunday night and Monday morning. He took Monday off to correct this problem.
By mid-morning he had resolved the plumbing issues and had guttering for the run-in shed. By late afternoon that was installed, too. This will cut down on the muddy spot in front of the shed.
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