We had a very foggy morning today, and there was still fog when I went out to do my rounds. I decided to see if I could get some good pictures from behind the barn, and ended up checking things out further. I have not actually gone done this way, this far, since we moved here, so much of what I was seeing was new to me.

The first thing I stopped to check out was some fencing around trees. There used to be a pig pen and a manure pile in the area. I can see that the fencing went around the trees, but I am unsure of why. It was done long ago, and much of it has fallen.

At a corner post, I picked up and moved some loose barbed wire on the ground, but could not pick up the loop that you see in the left foreground. It’s still attached to a post on the ground that’s half buried in dried grasses, and even has rocks on or against it. Not something I can casually move. There is lots that shouldn’t be there; I can’t help but be concerned the renter’s cows might get hurt, but they’ve been grazing around here longer than we’ve been living here, so I guess they’ve got it figure out.

I spotted something unusual in the trees themselves and just had to take a couple of pictures.

There is a tree, hanging on another tree! A big section of spruce tree is held up by maples. You can see, near the middle, how one maple is bent over, with the dead tree trunk on top of it.

From another angle, you can see how much the one maple is bent by the weight of the broken spruce.

If you look behind the maple, near the middle of the photo, there is a dead spruce tree. The broken top of it is visible through the branches. That is where the section of spruce hanging on the maple fell from. The tree must have easily been about 60 ft tall when it broke. From the looks of things, the maple it fell on was still young enough to bend under the weight, but old enough to not break. Now it continues to grow at an angle, because of the dead tree it’s holding up.

All of this area had been full of trees and bushes when I was a kid. The lack of undergrowth would be due to the cows getting in here and grazing.

Nearby, I found an old set of discs.

It has lichen growing on it, it’s been there for so long.

There is a plowed field in the distance, hidden by the fog. 🙂

I was curious about the big fence posts you can see in the background. Along with the fence continuing along the trees, there was another row of fencing, plus this rounded areas with huge fence posts. Lots of fallen barbed wire around here.

Many of these posts also had many large nails in them, like this one.

I’m guessing that the two rows of fencing acted to funnel cattle into the rounded area, in preparation for transport or something like that. None of this was here while I was growing up. All of this was done while we were living in other provinces, so I know nothing about them. The many nails sticking out confuses me. I see no purpose to them, and there are so many!

I like this cow path, leading off to the fog. 🙂

I remember a time when those fallen trees in the distance were still growing.

I made my way around to check out the pond.

Nice to see it so full of water. Last year, it dried up completely. We had a really good rainfall yesterday. Finally! All the ponds and dugouts must be nice and full again. 🙂

Where I am standing to take this picture used to be full of trees. I took a closer look at the fallen ones here, to see if there was any evidence of boards or nails. When I was little, my late brother and I had worked on building a tree fort there. It was little more than a board floor joining 4 trees growing near each other. I found no sign of it, but it likely rotted away many, many years ago.

I used to play in that pond a fair bit, as a child. I once even saw a pair of black swans there! Extremely unusual. While playing in the pond with my late brother, I remember we found some strange, multi-legged creatures in the pond. Decades later, I mentioned it to my sister, and she remembered seeing them, too. Out of pure coincidence, I found a kit in a store as few days later, with a picture of the creature on it! They were triops! I was able to buy it and hatched them with our daughters. It was really awesome to find out that these prehistoric creatures had lived in this pond.

This is the path I usually take when going this way.

That fog hung around for another couple of hours.

While making my way back to the house, I passed the far side of the old log building. It’s noticeably collapsed more over the winter.

I keep needing to remind myself to stay focused on our clean up plan. First, the inner yard. Then the outer yard (where this building is). I so want to clean up the mess around here, too, but if I let myself dash from one area to another, it will take longer than if I methodically work my way to it.

This year, we should be able to finish cleaning up the spruce grove in the inner yard. If it goes well, we might even be able to start on the outer yard this year. There are some things beyond the inner yard that will need to be done, just out of necessity, of course; high winds have blown things from the pile near the barn that will need to be picked up again, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to rent a chipper and start working on the big pile of dead trees between the house and the barn. Especially since I’ll be dragging so many more dead trees out of the spruce grove over the next few months, as well as thinning out some of the live ones and undergrowth.

It’s going to be a much bigger job than the maple grove was, but it’s going to be a much healthier grove once it’s done.

I’m just including this picture, because I think it’s pretty. 🙂

The Re-Farmer