I Feel The Earth Move

     This Blog isn't about Earth quakes but about moving earth, which was a big part of this past weeks activity around here.  We had a surface drainage ditch put in, well actually across, our side and back pasture.  And like many jobs we have under taken, it escalated into more than we expected.

Dave, who repaired our drain tile, suggested having this done.  So we looked into it, calling Marvin, whom Dave recommended.  Marvin came out Monday, he surveyed the land Tuesday morning and quoted us a price, and came back that evening to drop off equipment, since we were going to go ahead with the job.
    
     In the mean time, Mark baled our hay, starting at about 3:30 Tuesday.  It didn't take long because we only got 200 bales.  140 of them we sold right out of the field.  The other 60 we stored up in the already full hay loft.  We were done by about 6 Tuesday night, allowing time for Courtney and I to go for a quick ride.  (I was making a "Day in the Life of Mrs. Villhauer" slide show for my students, which didn't even include preparing lessons that morning, teaching 3 classes mid day, and grading papers that night.) Here are the pictures I showed, while narrating.  I'll add captions for you. 

Conferring with the hay man.

      Watching bales roll in off the field.






Loading bales onto elevator.




              Up to the hayloft.







Unloading elevator in hayloft.
 
   
        Dismantling round pen.








Conferring with Joe.

      
       Mowing what didn't get baled.









Picking up dead branches.

          To the chicken coop.






Feeding chickens.


              
                   Looking for lost chicks.
                   







Feeding mama and chicks.


        Conferring with Hercules (not).







Collecting chicken eggs.

               
               
           Cleaning stalls.               








Adding to manure pile.


        Feeding and watering horses.







Brushing Amiga.




       Riding Amiga.







Conferring with Courtney.




          Feeding Bro and Sis.







 Conferring with Daniel. (not)



Britney took all of these pictures, so she is not in any of them.






     Marvin's crew started moving dirt at 6:30 Wednesday morning, and worked all day long.   Our neighbor to the East was mowing while Marvin was excavating. This is the second time all summer he has mowed those weeds.  I think he was checking out the earth moving.   The crew finished by late afternoon, and I was impressed and amazed with the end results. 

Lots of the dirt we had them haul to where our round pen was (oh, we had to dismantle most of that on Tuesday night)  And the rest of the rich top soil was spread out across much of the back pasture, which we now need to seed.  Here is a progression of the round pen leveling:

      We put the round pen back together Wednesday so Courtney and I could ride there.  And Joe started re-stringing the electro-braid fence which he had taken down the night before. We also meet with a man who was going to seed all of the pasture and drainage ditch that were now bare dirt.  His exorbitant price for seeding really took us by surprise.  Then Marvin, who had left his two big earth movers, called to say our two neighbors (to the north) wanted in on the action (drainage).

     Next thing you know, we met with our neighbor Alan on Thursday.  He came over and we walked the pastures, and talked and listened.  After a few hours of information gathering, thought and careful consideration, we decided to help both the farmers out.  We ended up agreeing to have the ditch dug another 18" deeper, which meant quite a bit more earth moving.  And more dirt to be spread.  This time the neighbors were going to pick up the tab.  They are also going to seed it for us.  We'll buy the seed but Alan will do all the work involved in planting it.  I am not sure of the end results, except that there will be more water coming our way, but it will be moving faster and should drain off our land quicker.  This of course is hard to envision with it being so dry and hot.  In fact the birds have been coming in
                                                                                    flocks to drink
out of the deck fountain, pond and bird bath.  Some even resorted to the stock tank.  I have a board floating in it to save any animal that accidentally slips in.

     Alan said we catch surface  water from about 1000 acres of land.  When we had those gully washers last fall and our first spring, that was a lot of water.  We are going to have to keep the bottom of the drain ditch mowed short, so the water is not slowed down.  This will mean less area for baling, but will also mean less flooding and weeds to contend with. 

     Marj and Richard rode over on their horses for Courtney's lesson.  Marj "parked" her horse while working with Courtney and Joe and I talked with Richard about field drainage and what to plant. 

     I showed Richard around (on horseback) to see the work....

while Courtney had a lesson in the newly level round pen.

                    Then we all got together, on our mounted horses

and rode over to Becks with Marj leading the way and Richard bringing up the rear.


     Marvin's crew was back out by 6:30 Friday morning.  They put in another full day of moving earth, and still did not finish.  All that extra dirt was spread to the east side of the whole length of the ditch.  It still needed to be smoothed and leveled.  So, more pasture is gone and more seed will be needed.  It looks like a barren waste land right now. 

The next delimma is, when to seed it and what to seed it with.  We have decided to get it done this fall.  With the drought conditions and heat, we know it is a bit of a risk, but we really want to get the pasture back as soon as possible. Right now the bottom of the ditch is hard clay, and may not even be workable.  Joe rented a post hole digger and picked up and delivered frozen Chuck (1/8 of which he brought home), so he was late.

We had to replace 6 posts so Joe and Daniel got to work right away, but it was late in the day.  They had a pretty good system going and almost completed the digging.


















     Friday also marked the end of the first week of school.  There wasn't anything Earth shattering about the week, but I am happy to say that I have 3 really nice classes.  Similar to 2 years ago, my co-taught  ELL class is larger than the others, and much slower moving.  But boy what an interesting group of students.  It has been very difficult to focus on school with all the activity we have had around here.  Farm work, training and riding Amiga, and family fun and folly really distract me.

     Saturday at 5:45 am, Marvin was back at work leveling and smoothing all the dirt.  I had gotten up early to take Amiga for a moon light ride.  I tried this the night before, but the moon didn't start "rising" until 9:00pm, which resulted in there not being enough light from it.  It was up fairly high in the sky and shinning bright Saturday before sunrise.  So, as I rode Amiga around, and Marvin drove around, the rising sun snuffed out the light of the
                                                     falling moon.  Joe and Daniel were up
and digging by 7am.  They put in two big posts for me, to make a hitching post next to the round pen.  Joe had to have the machine back by 8am.  When he returned, they cemented in the 8 posts.  Then he, Daniel and Britney were off for Iowa. 

     I had planned to get a bunch of school work done with the solitude afford me over the weekend.   But, much of the landscaping was crying out to be watered, and then all the animal water bowels and buckets needed cleaning and refilling.  And then I had to take a walk and see the end results of Marvin's work after he left.  I did get a little school work done, but Courtney was here just after noon and we headed to Moraine View to hook up with Marj and the Paso Fino riders and hit the trail. We had a fantastic two hour ride.  Our neighbor lady Lisa also hooked up with us.  Her quarter horse did a nice job of keeping up.

When getting back to camp, the horses got hosed off, and were given some time to eat and relax as we enjoyed watermelon and chatting amongst ourselves.  I found (nearly stepped on) a baby bunny which then preoccupied my thoughts the remainder of the afternoon.  It was so "tame" I wondered if it had been hand raised and set free there.  But it didn't look big enough to be on it's own yet. Probably it was just holding very still as a survival technique. 



 









I ended up bringing it home thinking caring for it here would give it the best chance of survival.  So, the dog crate that was used for the baby chickens was now converted into a bunny cage.  And more of my time was used up.

      I climbed out our bathroom window on to the roof to get photos before hopping into the shower.  Don't be alarmed, I still had my riding clothes on.  These photos show how much field we are going to need to seed.

You can see that it is dirt along the whole length of the ditch over to the east fence.  The clay at the bottom of the ditch looks kind of shinny.  In this next photo you can see that most of the back pasture needs seeding.  There is a pile of dirt by the barn that still needs spreading, and the electro-braid needs to be stretched again.  And I would like to move the round pen a few feet west.  At least the grass on the hill side by the drive is coming along well.

     I woke up three hours before sunrise this morning wondering how I was ever going to accomplish all the absolutely necessary things on my to do list.  I was definitely going to need to prioritize and get an early start.  This blog post was the first to be tackled.  I checked on the bunny after the sun came up when I was out doing chores and I can see that it ate and drank over night and remolded it's nest.  So there is hope for him.