Lesson Learned

The other day The Aussie mentioned that it's been a while since I updated this blog. I told him that I really didn't have a whole lot to talk about. Each time we go out to the ranch we do similar things. Yard work, mowing the lawn for hours on end, b*tch about the gophers... It's all much of a muchness.  But guess what?? He gave me something to blog about!  And lo and behold, it fits in perfectly with today's Axis Of Ineptitude prompt, Lesson Learned, so I'm posting my AOI post here today.

It has been almost two years since we first toured the property. We were told that there may be a leak in the lake. As it turns out, whoever built the lake didn't seal it with clay all the way up, so the water level has dropped to the point where we have two ponds. Supposedly there is some clay, but not enough to combat the super sandy soil. We have started the process of getting this taken care of, and an initial survey has been made by the person who fixed a neighbor's pond. Before we can have clay put down, we have to cut back the brush and reeds that have grown up along the banks. There is a lot of it, so it's quite the job.

Yesterday morning we set off towards the berm end of the narrow pond, The Aussie using the big mower, and me following behind with the dogs (on leashes).  We haven't taken the dogs out to that section of the property, so they were having a wonderful time, smelling all the smells, marking territory left, right and center. I'll tell you, my wrists really know I had all three dogs yesterday. They were pulling like a sled team. After we crossed the berm, we made our way through the corner of one of the hay fields, and through the opening in the trees towards the back side of the cabin.  There were a lot of large tree limbs down (I'm beginning to hate sweet gum trees), so we had to move a lot of heavy branches to get the mower through the pass.  Eventually, we did get through, and I wandered with the dogs while The Aussie mowed some of the big brush in back of the cabin. We made our way to the front of the cabin, and couldn't help but notice all of the animal poop on the porch of the cabin. I'm really hoping it was just raccoon poop and not bear poop. (Hey raccoons, our cabin is NOT a latrine, thank you very much).  Since the water level is so low that we have a land bridge back to the house side, I let The Aussie know that I was going to bring the dogs back to the house. He said he was going to mow along the banks of the pond, so I left him to it.  Fast forward an hour or so later, and he shows up in the kitchen for a drink. I asked him how it was going. He said he got the mower stuck at the edge of the bank. We have large vehicles with winches. No problem, right? Well, after several hours of trying that, it took a bit more to get the mower out. Thankfully, one of the neighbors was home and could come over with his tractor to help pull it out. Lesson learned? Be very careful when you mow on really steep sections of the bank.

Oops.

It's really steep in this section

It took a John Deere tractor and a John Deere "bobcat" to pull the mower out

That's one way to landscape the yard

Unconventional Workout, or How Mother Nature Takes Back Her Own

I have to tell you, pushing around a brush hog (lawn mower on super steroids) for almost two hours really gives you a workout. I don't care if it is "self-propelled." It isn't self-steering or self-turning, and it weighs about 350 pounds. I got quite a lot of brush clearing done yesterday. I didn't make it all the way to the berm at the end of the narrow side of the pond, but close. 

What a long, strange trip it's been

Years and years ago I attended a Grateful Dead concert with a friend I've known since 6th grade. It was quite the experience. I don't know many of their songs, but I sang along where I knew the lyrics. One line that I'll always remember is from Truckin'. This year has been quite the strange trip. I'm happy to say that the pond is filling back up. Fingers crossed we get more rain soon.

 Our first trip to tour the place. Little did we know we'd buy the only place we looked at.

 Springtime. Water down in the pond(s).

 The "Glade."

 Heartbreaking.

 Happy to see the water at this level.

 Got stuck in the mud on Christmas day. We were able to winch ourselves out.

 Yes, bears to sh*t in the woods.

 The Aussie, hard at work. Not easy on the grass because it's so soft, but better than a pickup truck dragging huge logs around.

 Beautiful Grandfather tree.

Praying these are deer and not hog tracks. Bottom may be deer, top hog. Hopefully they'll move on.

Please pass the (epsom) salt

The Friends and I were working over on the cabin side of the pond yesterday. I wanted to get the leaves and fallen limbs away from the cabin so that it's easier to walk around, so I spent a couple of hours raking. During a break, one of The Friends and I were wondering if we could get the big riding mower over to cut back some of the long grass. I called over to The Aussie on a two-way and asked if he could bring the mower over. He did something waaaay better. He used the land bridge and brought over the brush hog and started mowing. Man, that thing is awesome! It certainly is a beast.  When he asked if I wanted a go, I was a little hesitant because it is a serious piece of equipment. I am glad that thing is self-propelled. Mowing on a slope is not easy. If you're in to immediate gratification, this is the toy for you. It's quite the workout. Between the tree limb hauling, leaf raking, weed pulling and Beast driving, I am really sore today. Here are the before and after cabin yard pictures.

Cabin: Before

 

Cabin: After

Cool, huh? It no longer looks like a derelict house.

And just because they're adorable and photogenic, here are more puppy pictures.

 Buddies

 

My Beautiful Girl

 

And here's this week's obligatory wildlife picture. I call this one Turtle Conga Line.

 





Dreams of nature trails danced in my head

Back when The Aussie and I used to dream about having a property, I dreamed of strolling around the land with the dogs, enjoying the sunshine, peace and fresh air, maybe building a running trail. To these dreams I now say Bahahahahahaa. Good one. Mother Nature really likes to reclaim fields and woods. In a big way. Soon the vegetation will start to die back, I hope, and we'll be able to make some headway in to reclaiming our fields. In the meantime, you had to figure that a brush hog would be in our future. I was across the pond, cleaning at the cabin, when the boys took the brush hog, now named "The Beast" out for a spin. From how they described The Beast, Stephen King could write a horror story about it. You know, along the lines of The Mangler. This thing seriously chews up the brush. Which is a good thing, considering that's why The Aussie got it.

 Making headway in to the brush.

 You could do a non-corn maze in this stuff, it's so tall.

 This is the back side of the huge tree that was taken down last time.

 This is as far as they got. It's so thick here. They'll need to try to clear brush from the other side of the pond.

 Looking towards one of the hay fields.

Looking back towards the cabin where we were cleaning.

What a difference some rain makes

Over the last few months, I have been taking pictures, documenting if you will, the water levels of the "lake." I use quotes because the lake became two separate ponds, both shrinking. This could be all drought related, but we were told before we purchased the property that there *may* be a leak, because the water seemed to drop more rapidly than if it was just evaporating. When we were there a few weeks ago, I took the top picture. I have to tell you that it just about broke my heart seeing that side of the lake almost gone.

Since I took this picture, we have gotten some significant rain. I cannot describe how happy it made me to see the pond coming back, almost to where it was when we first saw the property.

 

 

I also managed to get a picture of one of the hummingbirds. Our friends say that there are even babies, half the size of the adults, that are coming to the second feeder we put up. It's really cool to sit outside and watch them. They dart around the yard, perching up in the trees, chittering at each other. Please excuse the crud on the window. The Aussie was mowing the lawn one day in the wrong direction and grass was flung up towards the house and stuck there. Just another thing that needs cleaning. ;)

 

 

We also had a larger avian visitor. I've seen one of the huge grey herons around the pond before, but it always took off as we arrived. We had a white heron visit this weekend. Very cool.

 

In less quiet moments, the guys were at it with the chainsaw again. While I like the look of many of the dead trees, it would be very dangerous to keep certain ones standing. This is one of them. When I drove up and saw what they'd been up to, I must admit that my jaw dropped, and some expletives came out of my mouth. It took them 4 hours to get this one down. I'm really glad we'll be able to haul the wood with Tigger and the trailer. Now if only we knew where to store to store the wood, since the log racks are already full. 

Lastly, just because he's my beautiful boy, I give you this picture for your viewing pleasure. :)

Cheers!

Kyra

 

 



The answer is no

The question? If The Aussie could get the mower down the bank of the pond and mow around the edges for a bit. He got it down there. And got it stuck. 

 

Enter Tigger (yes, I named the UTV) to the rescue. We were able to winch the mower out of the soft sandy area and back up on to slightly more stable ground. This little thing is a serious workhorse. She was hauling stuff all weekend. On a side note, we aren't always there working alone. We are blessed to have some really good friends to help us with this place, and rescue me when the car breaks down, over an hour away, with a car full of three dogs and a parrot, in 104 degree heat on a getaway Friday. Things could have turned out very badly for my pups, but Someone was keeping watch over us and I was able to limp to a gas station and made it under the shade cover over the gas pumps. (Thank you, also, to the man who gave me bottles of water for the dogs, and Angie and Brooke, who kept me company while I was waiting for my rescuer, my husband (who wasn't allowed to leave work, even though it was an emergency, thank you very much corporate person who doesn't know what Texas heat is like), and a tow truck.

 

Some of these friends are REALLY, REALLY handy with chain saws. The guys were able to finish cutting down a number of dead trees and get them cut in to logs. We really need to research converting a gas fireplace (no chimney) in to a wood burning fireplace to take advantage of all of the dead wood we have. (Another side note: I wonder if we can get Gatorade to be a corporate sponsor of our work weekends.)

 

Last time we were there, we noticed a hummingbird flitting around the patio. When we went in to town, we picked up a hummingbird feeder and some nectar. As it turns out, we don't have one hummingbird. We have four that regularly visit. One of them is a bit of a bully, too, but it's really neat seeing hummingbirds so close. If you look just to the left of the bottom of the feeder, you'll see a little light brown shape. That's one of the regulars. They are seriously tiny!

 

 We also had a couple of Bambi sightings. The light tan spot in the middle of this picture is a young fawn. We didn't see her mom, but the guys said that momma was likely hidden in the trees. Little one was grazing on some of the brush near the edge of the pond. It was so cool, seeing her!

 

Next work weekend trip we'll be making bread. Start to finish, I'll grind the wheat to make flour, and then make bread. Okay, so we'll be using a bread maker, but still. It will be very fun. Now if only we could get some cooler weather. I want to do some campfire cooking!

We bit off a lot

It's a lot of work, but we'll get it figured out. Hopefully we'll also figure out why we can't get the chainsaw started a second time. It worked once that day, but wouldn't start a second time. Maybe the tree in question had a better connection to the Greater Powers than my husband. Frustrating. I did manage to lop off some of the offending branches from the offending tree limb so that it doesn't hang down quite so far.  Hauled a lot of brush and branches. Husband had a good old time driving the UTV around. I informed him that I named it Tigger, because it's orange and black. He said "but tigers are yellow." "Tigers are yellow, yes, but Tigger is orange." He rolled his eyes at me. ;)