eor

burn, baby burn

Sun, 27 Apr 2014 14:51:18 GMT

Yesterday was an overcast day, with rain predicted, so it was dedicated to burning brush. We started out at about 8:30 working out in the yard.

derien was cleaning out one of the compost bins, which was filled with dirt, and moving the contents to the berry patches. They could use some more soil and the compost bins don't work too well if they're filled with dirt. I started dragging brush from behind the barn up to the pile by the pool. That was an endless task, so after a while I switched to another endless task, cleaning out flower beds. I made very little relative progress because both are such big jobs.

At some point it started to sprinkle and just before 1pm I decided it wasn't going to stop sprinkling, so it I started the fire. Fire regs say we can only burn before 5pm if it's actively raining and I didn't want to start a fire, have it stop raining, and have to put the fire out. We fed the fire brush, and fed the fire brush, and fed the fire brush. The rain went from sprinkles to a steady rain and we kept the fire going. Fairly difficult when all your fuel is green or rotten on the inside and wet on the outside. But we kept at it until about 8pm. I'm guessing we burned close to 10 cubic yards of brush. We saved all the pieces big enough to use as firewood or kindling, but vine and rot isn't good for anything unfortunately. derien kept making jokes about us being charcoal burners because we were gather all these little twigs and bits.

This morning I'm doing laundry, dishes, and such because I didn't have any chance to do housework yesterday and it's soaking wet and cold outside. With any luck it'll dry out and warm up a bit this afternoon and I can start piling up the next brush piles.

I thought I'd taken some pictures, but unfortunately the memory card was in the computer not the camera, so no pictures of flowers, birds, and brush for you.

comments

could be a hat

Wed, 23 Apr 2014 00:16:50 GMT

Today while wandering around out back, well behind the barn and down hill I came upon a bit of wild unlife. It was a raccoon laying on a rock, looking for all the world like he was peacefully sleeping. His coat was beautiful, especially his tail. The rotten tree stump next to the rock looked like a good home for a raccoon, until the side fell off. I have no idea what killed him and I'm not going to go pick him up to find out. I will leave him on his rock until the cleanup crew comes along. derien is worried he'll stink, but he's so far down in the woods I doubt we'll notice.

Today I saw a bird with the sillouette of a cardinal, but not the size or the color. I think it's a Tufted Titmouse. The pictures and description seem to match. It certainly was hanging out with the chickadees, but more shy.

comments

bird brain

Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:00:53 GMT

Today's bird of the day is the male Downy Woodpecker. He's a very ska bird, decked out in his two tone, with just a touch of red for style. He was enjoying the suet feeder along with the chickadees.

I managed to relocate somewhere between 6 and 12 frogs from the pool today. I lost count. Some seemed to take to relocation pretty quickly. Others just sat where I put them in the water feature under the trees. It's a pretty good spot for frogs with stagnant water and lots of leaves and water plants to hide in. I may have overpopulated the little hole, but I hope a few of them live. The pool isn't a good place for them to be because I got the pump going and started working on cleaning the leaves and algae out of it. I spent I'm not sure how many hours today scooping leaves out of the bottom or the pool or scrubbing the sides and bottom with the long handled brush.

I also got the last of the blackberries transplanted. By the time I was done with that task I was sick of it. I hope a few of them survive the process.

Also on the accomplishments for today, 3 more wheelbarrows full of sticks/brush transported to the burn piles, several medium sized limbs dragged to the burn pile, one of the compost bays shoveled out into one of the others (making room for new stuff).

comments

it's a wild life

Sun, 20 Apr 2014 00:30:29 GMT

Today we took on moving the berry patch(es). We started at around 10am in Freeport, digging up blackberries. We dug up all of the blackberries we've deemed "the nasties" in respect to their thorns. They are root spreading and with the nasty thorns, we didn't want to leave them where they might be left to go crazy. We took a sample of the everbearing raspberries we planted a few years ago. We left enough of them to provide late berries for anyone who wants them. We also took a sample of our favorites, the wild early season blackberries from the property. Digging up berry canes is tiring work and by the time we left Freeport at about 1pm we were both pretty much done, but digging them up is only half the job.

We put the early season blackberries on a bank between where the pool currently sits and the lower terrace that has the horseshoe pits. My idea is that they can spread as much as they want on the bank and it'll be easy to mow above and below them. No one will want to walk through the patch because it's a bloody steep bank. The everbearing canes we place on a bank behind the house down a bit from the level of the lawn around the house. The idea being if you're sitting on chairs on the lawn you'll be able to see over the canes and enjoy the downhill view a bit. That bank is nothing but vines and rose right now, so it will be nice to have something on that side of the house that isn't something we have to rip out.

We didn't manage to get the nasties placed. They are going to go further downhill in a spot that will allow me to mow around all four sides of the patch. We started to clear some of the debris in the area, but didn't have the energy to start another batch at that point. So I wrapped them in a tarp and sprayed them with water. Hopefully the roots will survive. If they don't, we can buy more if we choose. Those originally came from Fedco. By the time we got back into the house it was 6pm. Utterly exhausted.

We also discovered we have a frog in our pool. He was sitting in one of the inlet filter baskets, croaking sonorously. I decided to rescue him and pulled the cover off to have a look. He's a big frog and he has no interest in being rescued. As soon as I started to reach for him he was off, out of the inlet, and into the bottom of the deep end of the pool. He will have to come out eventually, but for tonight, he's happy where he is and seems quite healthy.

comments

a bittersweet day

Sun, 06 Apr 2014 18:42:21 GMT

The battle was joined this morning. At times I felt like I had put on a red coat on January 22nd, 1879. Even my heavy iron couldn't bring them all down.

Yes, trying to save some of the trees from Asiatic Bittersweet. Thankfully no rose was involved, so I didn't have to watch out for thorns. But I've had to take two rest breaks and I didn't manage to get all the vine out of the three small trees. After the first break I brought out the heavy artillery. Imagine the thing on the right in this picture, only 12 feet long and made of iron. It's hard to hold, but on the down stroke it provides its own locomotion. It wasn't designed for pulling vines out of trees, it was designed for cleaning clinkers out of steam engines. Since there aren't any steam engines around, it's been re-purposed.

comments

what else is going on

Sun, 30 Mar 2014 22:45:43 GMT

Long time no post. It has truly been "the winter of our discontent". Let us hope it will be "made glorious summer."

The sun has finally gotten strong enough to think about going outside after work. So we've been spending some time wading through snow, getting our pantlegs soaked, and pretending to make progress in the yard.

I'm pretty sure we have 3 of the top invasive species in our yard, two of which are doing their best to kill the trees.

The Rambler Rose is the rose bush we have battled for years in Freeport. There are huge vines of it here. The biggest I've seen so far was the size of my forearm at the base. Nasty stuff which can puncture regular leather work gloves and the skin underneath them with impunity.

The second vine is our old friend Asiatic Bittersweet. It is not nearly as nasty to the remove as the rose, but is perhaps more deadly to the trees.

The third, as yet unconfirmed, invasive is Shrubby Honeysuckle. It tends to block out native groundcovers. The reason that we think we have it is that the neighbors down the hill have a lot of a bush they described as "some kind of honeysuckle". Once things start leafing out we'll try to figure out if it is our one native honeysuckle or one of the three non-native invasive species that are on Maine's most wanted list.

The good news is that so far I have seen no evidence whatsoever of Japanese Knotweed. It will be easier to kill off all the rose and the bittersweet than it would be to deal with one stand of knotweed.

I have the bird feeder up and a hunk of suet as well, but I don't know if the chickadees have found it yet. They have been singing, which is a lovely thing to hear this time of year.

comments