"Before we lay the drain...we have to do a little clearing" he said. "Fine, what do I need to do" I remember replying as Jim silently...knowingly, looked on. I'm not sure if Greg ever mentioned that we were bound and intent on re creating St. Andrews Golf Course on our overgrown hillside but as the sun beat down, the chain saw chattered, the blackberry and brush cleared and where there once was jungle...we have a clearing. I think, I need a re definition of "a little clearing". We are scratched and bloody, sore and bruised BUT we have created a masterpiece ( well...nearly !). I'm going to let the photos tell the story as Lulus field was transformed. I would like to say that the ten foot white drain pipes have moved....but sadly I can't. What I can say is....teamwork is amazing !! Thank you Erin and Jim for sharing and enriching our world. Jim...that smile by your woodpile made our day. Now I'm going to soak my poor aching bones !! Take care, keep safe and cherish your friends. M
Something apparently got lost in the translation here.... "We are off to put a drain down the hillside" he said as he and Jim disappeared through the farm gate. No apparent reason to question the validity of the statement: the old green farm tractor was groaning under the collective weight of every imaginable instrument of construction and destruction and the glowing white ten foot drain pipes were already in situ in the tangle of blackberry, fern, nettle and foliage. Unsuspecting any modification ( to put it mildly !!) to the drainage installation plan, happily unaware of the proceedings in Greg and Jim's world.... Erin and I cheerfully sorted out family, friends, the world and all its issues whilst tossing multiple piles of poop into a waiting wheel barrow and ensuring that the stalls were clean enough for our equine residents to destroy in 3 seconds flat...or less. Clearly if I had been aware of the proceedings on the hillside, our morning may not have been quite so lighthearted.
"Before we lay the drain...we have to do a little clearing" he said. "Fine, what do I need to do" I remember replying as Jim silently...knowingly, looked on. I'm not sure if Greg ever mentioned that we were bound and intent on re creating St. Andrews Golf Course on our overgrown hillside but as the sun beat down, the chain saw chattered, the blackberry and brush cleared and where there once was jungle...we have a clearing. I think, I need a re definition of "a little clearing". We are scratched and bloody, sore and bruised BUT we have created a masterpiece ( well...nearly !). I'm going to let the photos tell the story as Lulus field was transformed. I would like to say that the ten foot white drain pipes have moved....but sadly I can't. What I can say is....teamwork is amazing !! Thank you Erin and Jim for sharing and enriching our world. Jim...that smile by your woodpile made our day. Now I'm going to soak my poor aching bones !! Take care, keep safe and cherish your friends. M
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Young Jim has a hard hat, a bright yellow hard hat that will protect him should a tree happen to fall where it shouldn't. Greg also has a hard hat, possibly half a century old, forest green and a little beat up and discolored (discoloured, Brit. speak) from years of abuse. In 1969, in a surplus store in Missoula Montana, Greg bought that trusty old green hard hat and over the years, when the big growling chainsaw was fueled up, the forest green hard hat was dusted off and Greg the lumberjack went to work falling trees, dead trees, rotten trees and overgrown trees. Today, the trees got their revenge.....fortunately the hard hat protected his head...unfortunately, Greg currently looks like he has just gone ten rounds with Mohammed Ali....and lost !! His right eye is currently showing three shades of intense black and purple and Greg is feeling appropriately sorry for himself tonight. Clearly the ice pack treatment failed to reduce swelling and disfigurement....so he has settled quietly (almost !) for a cold beer and sympathy. Greg looks bad...but the fallen tree looks worse.
I had resolved to spend a relaxing afternoon steering the ride on mower around the ranch whilst Greg and Jim rendered mayhem and carnage with chainsaw, axe and brush hook in Lulu's field. ...I spent the afternoon battling dense, thorny blackberry bushes, leafy brush...and looking at Greg's rapidly swelling black eye. Jim, in his yellow hard hat had no aspirations for a peaceful afternoon and, trusty axe in hand enthusiastically worked his way through the blackberry thicket, hacked his way through fallen branches and hauled logs. Thank you Jim..we couldn't have done it without you ! Maybe I'll get to ride the mower tomorrow ! Postscript on Greg's condition...his eye is black to purple...his glasses are a little (lot) worse for wear....and he is getting appropriate sympathy. Take care, keep safe, M The sun is shining, the sky is blue... and the grass and weeds are thriving in the humid warmth of a very uncommon Pacific North West Spring. It must be gardening time.....darn it !!! My trowel, fork and weed plucker "thingy" have been resurrected out of the spider web infested gardening bucket where a colony of nasty crawly eight legged squatters have taken up residence. In the vegetable garden ( which once, not to long ago, served as a five star chicken residence), the sweet corn, beets, cucumber, melon, cantaloupe and some disagreeable squash plants are all either peeping up out of the very well fertilized ground or already starting to spread their tendrils across the garden. Sadly...the weeds, equally well nourished on healthy chicken by product are thriving and I'm trying to work out just how the weeds can be ten inches tall and my lovingly tended seedlings are only just appearing. Clearly, there is no justice.
As the days began to grow longer and the prospect of a night time freeze grew more remote, I started to propagate my Rose of Sharon cuttings. I watered those cuttings regularly, I fenced them off from the dogs, I checked their progress daily...and the greater majority of the spindly stems died. Today, as the sun was high in the sky and the thermometer rose, I went to work in the house garden. Several years ago, I coerced several visiting family members into my new project. I saw the pictures...I read the catalogue, I bought the 3 inch, leafless twigs. We shifted earth, we laid plastic, we transported stones one wheel barrow at a time we sweated blood for those twigs (thank you Annie and Pauline) and then just as I saw life... Doris the deer brought her extended family to feast on the moist green nearly leaves. I digress....the struggle for my Rose of Sharon shrub and my cuttings took on a new meaning today. As I went to work, the dandelion, chickweed and nettle were clearly struggling to compete with the thousands of Rose of Sharon seedlings that are obviously intent on taking over the world !! Decision time...tend to my struggling cuttings...or replant the millions of seedlings. Again...no justice ! While I have been busily occupied ( preoccupied ) with the state of the garden, Greg and Jim have been pro active with the flooding in our lower pasture. It would appear that an irrigation pipe was previously installed... it is still present, sadly, such pipe apparently ended abruptly causing water entering the pipe to leave said pipe with nowhere to go but right where it was at !! result...marshland. I hate the word "temporary"....temporary can mean 10 days ...or ten years ! Greg and assistant Jim went to work "temporarily" solving the problem and now I have a drainpipe log flume cascading down the hill. I hate drainpipes..I hate temporary.....am I being difficult ? There are so many stories, so much transpiring, so little time. Over the past weeks I have re connected with former class mates at the boarding convent school that was my home for several years and have become more aware than ever that who we were is what we are but it is really up to us to utilize our past to form our present and our future. Thank you "my past" for the present that I love and the future that I embrace. Life is good. Take care, kill those weeds, M The sheep have secluded themselves beneath the branches of a shady cedar tree; Momma and Poppa goose are sailing serenely over the surface of a mirror glass pond with their five fluffy goslings and Bella the beautiful golden Jersey heifer is lingering close by the ranch gate waiting anxiously with young sirloin the red Dexter steer for the dinner call. In the cobalt blue sky anxious crows fight aerial battles with regal eagles drifting on the thermals.....yesterday was warm.....today has been warmer.
Bright and early Friday morning young Holly, a former and much loved WWOOFER returned to the ranch for a weekend visit.....clearly, a weekend is WAY too short for a Holly visit and before we could REALLY give her a "Holly workout" our young friend was reversing out the drive in her city clean Ford. It was almost a rewind summary from the past four years with our young friend....Holly happily ( we think !!) substituted her busy everyday life for life on the ranch. With no hesitation and with a big Holly smile, our young guest hopped onto the old green farm tractor and confidently went to work, round and round the pasture, mowing down the invasive red dead nettle, thistle and blackberry and still managing to be done in time for a hearty lunch. Without a hair out of place or a chipped / broken finger nail, young Holly faced down Barney the currently celibate ram, took care of our equine residents uncomplainingly cleaned up the cow byre and mucked out the nasty sheep pen. As the temperature rose under the warm Spring sun Greg and Holly set out to take down a maple tree (or three) from an overgrown copse in the corner of the pasture. Sadly, the best laid plans of mice, men (and farmers) don't always work out and, even more sadly, falling trees are no respecters of fences, gates and...four wheelers. I heard the "THWACK"....I felt the earth move as the big maple fell, I knew that somehow, something had gone very wrong but, importantly, I could see Greg, I could see Holly, I could see the big old farm Chevy truck and I could see a swirling pile of leafy debris but, worryingly.... I couldn't see the four wheeler with it's signature plastic steer horns and it's plastic green trailer! The two mares, Chelsey and Mariah quietly watched the proceedings from their adjoining pasture, the grazing sheep were totally unconcerned by the drama unfolding in the cedar grove and the four wheeler that was lost was found....under fifty years of leafy foliage and broken bark. Not a whole lot was said as the "no blame" ranch policy card was played.....the four wheeler looks a little (lot) beaten up, still runs.... but....no one was hurt, we do have a LOT of firewood, logs for lumber and branches for chipping. We did have fun... at Greg's expense ! Thank you Holly for sharing your weekend with us, we look forward to the next time....miss that big smile !! Take care.....keep safe (we will try !!) M |
AuthorIts me, Maureen, (the Boss) Archives
March 2018
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