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Another smokey day

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We started to get air quality warnings for smoke, yesterday.

This time, however, the smoke isn’t coming from the fires in the west, but from fires in the east!

Driving my daughter in to work this morning, the smoke was even heavier than when it started blowing in yesterday afternoon.

I went to the lake to check it out.  The fires, from what I’ve heard, are on the far side of it.  There were pretty high winds, and even in the length of time I was there, it got noticeably smokier.

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These guys were a bit of a surprise…

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I’d seen some brownish lumps on the rocks in the distance, and could not tell what they were.  As I was taking photos, I wasn’t paying too much attention to them until I got close, and realized they were ducks!  Normally, I would never have been able to get as close as I did to them.  They were far more interested in tucking their heads out of the wind, than in me!

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This is looking to the north while stopped at an intersection.

The air was actually smokier than it appears in the photos.

The air quality warnings say it should blow over by tomorrow morning.

I would think that would depend on the state of the fires!

Normally, I would be taking advantage of the cooler weather to work outside, but my lungs are already irritated by the smoke, so it will wait.  Things are going to be a bit hectic for the next few days, as I will be driving my mother to meet a family member from Poland at the airport tonight – arrival is after midnight! – and we prepare for our own house guest that will be arriving on Monday.

These, at least, are pleasant things to deal with.  In today’s mail, I found an unpleasant thing to deal with.  A letter from legal firm of the co-op we used to live in.  They’re still trying to stiff us for the shares return the owe us, and are basically threatening us with a bill of over $20K for “damages” we supposedly did – meaning the needed renovations that were done – if we decide to sue them for the shares.

We’re talking a few hundred bucks here.  It probably cost them more to pay for the lawyer to mail us the letter, than what they’re demanding we pay them.  I wonder what the membership would think, if they knew their board was blowing money on lawyers like this?

Ugh.

Time to move on to more pleasant things.

The Re-Farmer

 

A bit of manual labour

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When I started clearing out at the spruce grove, my husband was able to get a picture from the living room, as I was dragging the downed tree top out of the bush.

So here is me, in my grubbies.  A decidedly unflattering picture, but then, this kind of work isn’t pretty, either! :-D

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The difficulty was maneuvering it between two trees, when its branches were wider than the space.  Most broke off, but I did have to cut one larger branch to get it through.

Since starting an Instagram account connected to this blog, I’ve been following a number of farm and country related accounts.  Most heavily feature farming equipment (swoon!) or cute animals.  Then there are the hashtag “women farmers” ones.  The usual pictures of people holding armfuls of vegetables, or adorable baby livestock, except focusing on pretty women.  I do have to admit to giggling a bit over some of them that feature conventionally beautiful, thin women in painted on jeans, perfect hair, coordinated outfits, and not a bit of dirt or sweat, anywhere.  Then there’s me; short, fat, burly, wearing the sweats I stole from my much taller husband (they have elastics around the ankles; keeps the bugs out), twigs stuck in my braid, and dirt accumulated in the sweat of my neck and elbows.  But I do have my sparkly, sequined, dollar store baseball cap!

I realize that, for a lot of people, their Instagram accounts are a branding tool, so they’re not going to show the grungy side of country life.  Not going to gain a big following doing that!

Me?  I couldn’t post pictures like that if I wanted to!  LOL

The Re-Farmer

Cats, kits and the things we find

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It was a hot one today, so no progress on pruning and clearing the spruce grove today.  My daughter was able to get some of what I cut away yesterday, hauled out, before it got too hot.   It’s 7:30pm as I write this, and we’re still at 30C, and we’re supposed to hit the 30s again, tomorrow.  So it was a good day to be inside!

It’s probably for the best.  After driving my younger daughter to work, I was thinking of getting more work done on the grove while it was still cooler.  In the end, I found I had to painkiller up and lie down for a while.  My body was reminding me not to overdo things again.

Getting old sucks, sometimes! :-D

This evening, Beep Beep and her kittens were out while I did a walk around the yard.  I did a bit of watering, including the grape vine, though I harvested most of the grapes, yesterday evening.  Some bunches weren’t ripe yet, but I could also see that something – likely a bird – has been eating them, so I want to leave some behind.  I don’t want to take away some creature’s food source.

The kittens wouldn’t let me come near them, even when the tuxedo deigned to play with the end of a stick I was wiggling for him.  When I headed towards the storage house, they ran ahead of me and hid in the lilacs.  When I got near the stairs, I could see a sparkly cat toy I’d brought out for them some time ago, and went to get it.

Which is when I noticed something in the dead leaves and grass.

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I wonder how many years it had been there? :-D

I sat on the stairs for a while, eating some of the grapes that had ripened since yesterday.  The tuxedo was watching me from the lilacs, so I tossed over the cat toy, which he immediately pounced on.

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He’s pretty much right on top of where I found the shot glass.

Then there was Beep Beep.

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No birds use this bird bath.  I wonder why?

If you look under the grape leaves, you can see the black fur of the tuxedo kitten, sitting on the tire planter.

You know, growing up here, I never imagined I would ever someday be sitting on the steps, eating fresh grapes off the vine.  I never imagined there would ever be grapes that could grow here!

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: spruce grove, further down the line

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Another lovely day for yard work!

The girls were awesome and hauled away what I took down yesterday, while I made a run into town to get the prescription refills that got missed yesterday.  By the time I got back, they were just finishing, and I could get started! <3

Before I started on the next section of trees, I got the anvil sheers out and worked on the area that was under the overhanging branches.  Here’s a look back at the area I cleared yesterday.

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The wheel barrow is filled with all the little things I pruned out, and a few things dug out of the leaves, etc.

If you look in the wheelbarrow, there is a lighter coloured stem sticking out, to the right of the handle.

Notice it looks slightly… fuzzy?

That’s a wild rose.  And the “fuzzy” is thorns.

Wild rose stems are basically all thorns.  Little, skinny, vicious thorns.

The gloves we have are decent gloves.  Not the highest end, by any means, but good, mid-range quality gloves.

Wild rose thorns can go right through them.  I had to stop and get a daughter to use tweezers to pull one out of a finger, because I wasn’t able to do it one handed in the spot it pierced me!

When I start working further into the spruce grove next year, I plan to keep as much of the wild roses in the undergrowth as I can.  What I’ve cut away here will likely grow back, since I just pruned them.  The root stocks remain.  I will make decisions about them next year, as they grow back.

Here are the before and after photos of today’s progress.

This is basically where I left off, yesterday.  Once I took out the dead and dying tree next to the last tree I worked on yesterday, I was able to finish that one up, taking out more dead branches with the extended pruning saw.

My goal for today was to work my way down to a maple tree.

No, you can’t see it either of the photos above!

Nor the photos below.

Though I did thin out some smaller poplars, I’ve left the bigger ones.  I am hoping, as they get more sunlight throughout the day, they will not lean quite so much as they grow larger.

The farther I worked down the line, the spruces seemed to get thinner, and more crowded.  Quite a few were dead, but I was surprised by how many still had live growth happening.  I still avoided working the inner row of trees, which is where most of these are.  A few times, I did have to prune away dead branches and twigs, so I could access the trees in the outer row better.  It should be interesting to see how they fare, next year.  It is very typical for the lower branches of black spruce to be dead, and it’s not always a reflection on the health of the tree.

As I cleared away the low hanging branches, I found more and more wild roses and, among them, little dogwood bushes.  I took out those that were large enough to be a tripping hazard, and will clear the rest out another day.  When I work further into the grove, I intend to leave any dogwood I find.  They make great underbrush.  It will be interesting to find that balance between open space and undergrowth that I want to foster in here.

But that will wait.

The maple I was using as my goal post was something I was intending to keep, like I am with some of the poplars.  Then I reached it and found that it was not the original tree, but growing out of the base of a rotten stump.

After removing the rotten bits, I found the rot extended quite low into the moss (all along the outer edge of this area, where the poplars and this maple are growing, the moss is several inches deep).  I wasn’t sure if the tree had much support, so I basically yanked it back and forth.  It seems to be holding its own, so I straightened it as much as I could and tamped the ground down to support it.

We shall see if it survives.

When I work on the next section, I should be able to reach the fence line.  After that spruce you see in the background, there is an open space of moss that I’ve been using to turn around with the mower. :-D  There won’t be a lot to clear, there.

There are a number of larger, downed trees around here, too.  Once I reach the fence, I will start working towards the driveway.  The goal is to make the fence accessible, so I’ll be leaving the downed trees unless they are at the fence line.  I know there is at least one that had fallen on the fence itself, before we moved out here, that my older brother had cut loose.  So I will also be examining the fence itself, as I go along, and see what repairs might need to be done.

I’m quite happy with the progress and how it is looking.  The labour is not without it’s price, however!

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Both arms, my lower legs, and even my abdomen, are covered in scratches!

It’s sweaty, dirty and sometimes bloody work.

And I’m loving every minute of it!

The Re-Farmer

Absorbed

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While walking around the trees in the west yard (because we can do that now!), I took a rake to the bottom of some of the tree stumps that are all over the place.  The taller ones, to prepare them for when we can cut them close to the ground.  Other, old and rotting ones, to uncover them and make them more visible, because I keep finding them by tripping over them!

There is a large elm tree in there that I’ve walked past many times, but it wasn’t until I started raking a stump next to it that I really paused to look at its trunk.

Where I realized I was looking at … another trunk?

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It looks like a tree inside a tree.

With all the clean up I’ve done, and seeing so many trees growing against each other, I am guessing that this tree had suckers growing out the bottom that no one trimmed away.  Over the years, the main trunk simply grew around the smaller tree growing against it, absorbing it into itself.

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It looks like there are two more of them on the other side!

I’m sure there is some deep and meaningful metaphor that can be seen from this.

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: spruce grove perimeter, down the line

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I got another hour or two or work along the north side of the spruce grove.  I almost forgot to take a before picture, so the first one below was taken after I’d already removed one of the larger, low hanging branches in the first tree I worked on.

This northern row of spruce trees – at least the larger ones, that were deliberately planted – were planted by my oldest brother, probably before I was born.

There are smaller ones that are likely self sown.  I am focusing on just that northernmost row of trees, though sometimes I’ve had to work farther in, just so I can access them.

The trees just inside this row my brother planted, have me perplexed.  From their ages and sizes, I would guess they were self sown, and yet some of them are forming another straight line – or is it two straight lines? – parallel to the row I’m working on.  So it may be that some were planted, and some were self sown?

Either way, most of them are either dead, or almost dead.  I’ve taken some out, as needed, but the rest will wait until I start working farther into the spruce grove, next year.

While working, I saw evidence that, at some point, someone else had been clearing this area, too.  In some places, I uncovered hidden cut stumps, and at one point, I even found a fairly large pile of cut branches, hidden by the overhanging branches of the spruces.

When looking through here in the winter, I saw a small harrow under the branches, so I knew I would reach it eventually.  It turns out to be right after the pile of cut branches I had just cleaned out.

Also, a Bud Light can.

After finding it, I figured I would cut away some of the dead branches, so I could reach it better to pull it out.  After cutting them, however, I found I wasn’t able to pull them out.

Whoever dumped the harrow there, dropped it on top of the branches.

So I had to pull the harrow out, to pull the branches out.

Which is when I discovered that it was dumped there, upside down.

That’s right.  Those spikes were facing UP.

The cable would likely have been used as a handle; I am thinking it was pulled manually, when it was used.  It’s so small, anything bigger than a lawn tractor to pull it would be overkill.  But I am just guessing.  I have no idea how long it’s been there, who put it there, or why it was left where it was.

Now I have to figure out what to do with it!

I continued on until I got close to one of the first self-sown poplars along the way.

Most of what is now uncovered will be trimmed and cleared until I can go over it with the weed trimmer and, eventually, the mower.  I found some wild roses that I will likely take out; I want to keep the ones that are growing inside the spruce grove, but I don’t think I will keep the ones in this area.

I am waffling about keeping the poplars.  They are growing at the very edge of the low hanging branches.  Once the branches are clear, there will be quite a gap between the poplars and the spruces.  Do I really want to leave them, that far into the garden area?  Ultimately, that gap is just the right distance for both the spruces and the poplars to do well, so if I do want to keep them, they are in the best places for a new row of trees.

But do I want a new row of trees?

For now, I will leave them.

Next to the last tree I worked on before stopping for the day, there is a pair of trunks that make up one self-sown tree.  One side – the larger one – is dead.  I noticed something odd about the leaves on the smaller side.

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This appears to be some sort of fuzzy infestation.  Insect?  Fungus?  I don’t know.  They are all over this one tree.

Whatever it is, the remains of this tree will be taken down.

Tomorrow. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: spruce grove perimeter, start

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I got a few hours work on the spruce grove this morning/afternoon, and plan to head out again, but here’s progress so far!

I’ve started at the north west corner, where the stone cross is.

This is more or less what we see out of our living room window.  I went farther into the underbrush than I intend to, elsewhere.  This is part of the reason why.

That’s the top of the dead tree we watched come down in a storm this past winter.  The top alone is bigger than some of the dead trees I’ve taken down!

Here’s another view of the corner.

The topsoil here is decades of decayed spruce needles, so it’s quite loose.  This meant a lot of the spirea I cleared out could be pulled right out of the ground.  Every  now and then, I’d find myself yanking out anywhere from 2 – 8 feet of rhizome!

After this, I started working my way down the north side of the trees.

After clearing the lower hanging branches from the first couple of trees, I found a whole crop of little dead spruces that I cleared out.

Of course, there is always going to be some unusual finds!

The first was what I think is the top of an oil drum that was half buried in the needles at the base of a dead spruce.  I pulled it out, then took the photo of it right where I found it.

Then, as I was finishing up for the afternoon and bringing the wheel barrow over, I found the glass jar.

I expected it to be broken, but when I pulled it out, it was fine.

I have to say how much I appreciate my girls.  While I was working in this, I left what I cut or pulled out, off to the side.  My older daughter came out and started hauling it away for me – a much bigger job than the clean up!  My younger daughter didn’t have a shift today, and between the two of them, they took care of the household stuff, like cooking, washing dishes, laundry, etc., freeing me up to do the yard work.

We’ve started a new wood pile outside the yard for this.  It’s kinda in the middle of the outer yard, between house and barn.  This pile shouldn’t need to be moved, when we are ready to burn it.

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We do plan to rent a chipper, but there’s only so much we can chip!  Plus, even the biggest ones only do up to 4 inches in diameter.

It’s going to be much bigger, before I’m done!

Now, back to see how much I can get done, before it gets too dark. :-)

The Re-Farmer