Your move, beavers
Sep. 2nd, 2020 19:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI haven't felt the need to post, feeling like I haven't done much that's significant... except that when I look at the list of things that have to be done, I realize I can check off things like fixing the water box, and making the latch line up on the Shippen door, and a bunch of other helpful stuff.
The garden has been largely cleared; the tires should be stacked to one side, I'm not done sorting and stacking the chimney bricks, and the carpet should be pulled for use elsewhere. I did finally stuff the bald-faced hornet nest into the freezer a week ago; I pulled it out to pin them yesterday, finding six females and no males or queens. It was a small nest. One of them had its stinger out, a formidable little needle; they were pretty pissed when I bagged them up. At any rate, they're specimens now. The pyracantha at the foot of the garden can be cleared further when I get to it.
I'm hoping to break the ground in the garden and leave it bare over the winter, in the hope that the exposure and frost heave will do a bit of weed control. Jenny and I argued over my plan to put fence boards on bricks for walkways out there; she was in favor of newspaper and straw, until I told her I dislike uneven ground I can't see. Then she suggested cutting plywood for walkways, until I told her that even if I could get it up here, cutting the plywood was enough of a hurdle I'm not sure I would get it done. She seems to think fenceboards are inherently unstable, given they would be two across and mounted on bricks. What if the bricks sink? she asked. Then things would be uneven! For starters, I know how to set bricks (hint: step on each brick to set it firmly, and add another on top if it sinks too much), and I'm planning on tacking strips across the bottoms to mate the boards together. I do like the fact that the surfaces will be rough, and I prefer fenceboards for raised bed construction... We'll see who wins out.
Today I took a couple of ten-foot lengths of 4" corrugated drain pipe (it looks broader than that) out to the duck pond behind the Shippen. I used the light fencing I pulled off a section of the perimeter around the blueberries (since the sheep require heavier fence) to make an intake screen, and wired the pipe to it. I cleared the lower blockages to run the pipe, fitting the sections together to get it all the way to the bottom. Then I demolished the dam.
I was wearing river shoes and Thai fisherman's pants, which were exactly the right gear for being up to my shins in muddy water. I corrected the intake placement (the deepest part I could find) and dug down into the dam, staking the pipe as low as possible and within a couple of inches of the natural water level. Skyberg's didn't have the solid pipe on hand, so I had perfed pipe; it wasn't an issue here, since I could make sure the whole pipe had gradient (perfed pipe won't siphon). In a spot where multiple dams appear to be their MO, I suspect perforations will be an advantage, serving to drain every little dam they make up and down that stretch.
I managed to drop the water level about 14-16", enough to reestablish the banks of the right-angle bend and produce the proper sound of burbling further up... there should be a small pond where the dam is, but now it's about 10" deep, which jibes with my memory. I doubt that one pipe will take the whole stream during the spring, but right now it should take almost all of it, making water level rise frustratingly slow. A few more disruptions, and properly piping the main dam, should make the beavers give up in frustration and move on for the winter.
I'll go explore that area a little more once the banks firm up again. At least now I can walk up the bed a bit to put barbed wire under the fencing at the bridge, to keep raccoons and coyotes out of the pasture.
That reminds me... Jenny said, a little while back, that she didn't see any reason why I couldn't get sheep next spring. They take so little care, she said, that she didn't mind having them there while I'm down south for the spring and early summer, since I'd be back in fall to have them butchered. This is, of course, assuming that I can find a suitable pickup truck to use... and it puts me into high gear with making gates, mending fences, and making sure everything is safe and in good order for them. On the plus side, it would deal with a bunch of the weed control necessary before I can fix up some of the things like repairing the lower footbridge, the cross-pasture fences, cutting a bunch of trees in the pastures, liming and overseeding the pasture, and beating back the blackberry canes.
Meanwhile, Gormley is supposed to be here on the 10th to deal with the plumbing under the house. They finally threw out the estimate they had sent us (which was totally inaccurate), and told Conrad to simply ask for two guys to work on a parts+labor basis. We'll see how that works out. Just before that news came through, I had proposed a plan to Conrad for replacing the kitchen fixtures, starting with clearing space in the Annex and shunting most of the garage contents up there (which would have the added benefit of giving me a place to park under cover in spring). He said go ahead with the initial stages, that it has other benefits and it might give me a feel for just how much I can accomplish before I head home this fall. I get the feeling he doesn't think I'll manage to get to the appliances part of the plan before October, but I'm used to surprising people by now.
I do have a great deal still to do before winter, though. It's hard to believe I've only been here five weeks... maybe I'll have enough time to square things away after all.
The garden has been largely cleared; the tires should be stacked to one side, I'm not done sorting and stacking the chimney bricks, and the carpet should be pulled for use elsewhere. I did finally stuff the bald-faced hornet nest into the freezer a week ago; I pulled it out to pin them yesterday, finding six females and no males or queens. It was a small nest. One of them had its stinger out, a formidable little needle; they were pretty pissed when I bagged them up. At any rate, they're specimens now. The pyracantha at the foot of the garden can be cleared further when I get to it.
I'm hoping to break the ground in the garden and leave it bare over the winter, in the hope that the exposure and frost heave will do a bit of weed control. Jenny and I argued over my plan to put fence boards on bricks for walkways out there; she was in favor of newspaper and straw, until I told her I dislike uneven ground I can't see. Then she suggested cutting plywood for walkways, until I told her that even if I could get it up here, cutting the plywood was enough of a hurdle I'm not sure I would get it done. She seems to think fenceboards are inherently unstable, given they would be two across and mounted on bricks. What if the bricks sink? she asked. Then things would be uneven! For starters, I know how to set bricks (hint: step on each brick to set it firmly, and add another on top if it sinks too much), and I'm planning on tacking strips across the bottoms to mate the boards together. I do like the fact that the surfaces will be rough, and I prefer fenceboards for raised bed construction... We'll see who wins out.
Today I took a couple of ten-foot lengths of 4" corrugated drain pipe (it looks broader than that) out to the duck pond behind the Shippen. I used the light fencing I pulled off a section of the perimeter around the blueberries (since the sheep require heavier fence) to make an intake screen, and wired the pipe to it. I cleared the lower blockages to run the pipe, fitting the sections together to get it all the way to the bottom. Then I demolished the dam.
I was wearing river shoes and Thai fisherman's pants, which were exactly the right gear for being up to my shins in muddy water. I corrected the intake placement (the deepest part I could find) and dug down into the dam, staking the pipe as low as possible and within a couple of inches of the natural water level. Skyberg's didn't have the solid pipe on hand, so I had perfed pipe; it wasn't an issue here, since I could make sure the whole pipe had gradient (perfed pipe won't siphon). In a spot where multiple dams appear to be their MO, I suspect perforations will be an advantage, serving to drain every little dam they make up and down that stretch.
I managed to drop the water level about 14-16", enough to reestablish the banks of the right-angle bend and produce the proper sound of burbling further up... there should be a small pond where the dam is, but now it's about 10" deep, which jibes with my memory. I doubt that one pipe will take the whole stream during the spring, but right now it should take almost all of it, making water level rise frustratingly slow. A few more disruptions, and properly piping the main dam, should make the beavers give up in frustration and move on for the winter.
I'll go explore that area a little more once the banks firm up again. At least now I can walk up the bed a bit to put barbed wire under the fencing at the bridge, to keep raccoons and coyotes out of the pasture.
That reminds me... Jenny said, a little while back, that she didn't see any reason why I couldn't get sheep next spring. They take so little care, she said, that she didn't mind having them there while I'm down south for the spring and early summer, since I'd be back in fall to have them butchered. This is, of course, assuming that I can find a suitable pickup truck to use... and it puts me into high gear with making gates, mending fences, and making sure everything is safe and in good order for them. On the plus side, it would deal with a bunch of the weed control necessary before I can fix up some of the things like repairing the lower footbridge, the cross-pasture fences, cutting a bunch of trees in the pastures, liming and overseeding the pasture, and beating back the blackberry canes.
Meanwhile, Gormley is supposed to be here on the 10th to deal with the plumbing under the house. They finally threw out the estimate they had sent us (which was totally inaccurate), and told Conrad to simply ask for two guys to work on a parts+labor basis. We'll see how that works out. Just before that news came through, I had proposed a plan to Conrad for replacing the kitchen fixtures, starting with clearing space in the Annex and shunting most of the garage contents up there (which would have the added benefit of giving me a place to park under cover in spring). He said go ahead with the initial stages, that it has other benefits and it might give me a feel for just how much I can accomplish before I head home this fall. I get the feeling he doesn't think I'll manage to get to the appliances part of the plan before October, but I'm used to surprising people by now.
I do have a great deal still to do before winter, though. It's hard to believe I've only been here five weeks... maybe I'll have enough time to square things away after all.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-03 17:44 (UTC)