Well, the rain hasn't arrived...yet. We did have about a dozen drops or so when a really dark cloud passed overhead around noon but I don't think that's what the weather guessers were thinking of. I will say that it's been overcast most of the day so the clouds are there.
I managed to fell four pines that were casting shade on the fledgling apple orchard and one small poplar that was growing against the garage. All fell exactly where I wanted them. After that it was a matter of limbing the pines. The loppers did a good job on that since the pines are really soft, fast growers. I did use the chainsaw to cut the larger limbs and the trunks up into manageable sizes. Not much went into Mount Slashmore as I'm not in caber tossing fitness at the moment. I did pile everything up nice and neatly with all the butt ends together so I can lasso them and drag them off later.
As I was working it suddenly hit me that today is Earth Day and here I am cutting down trees and burning wood in the stoves to warm the cabin. Oh well, if it gets down to the 30s again tonight (as it did last night) we could use a little more global warming. Besides, the apples will thank me, the grass will thank me (although it means more cutting on my part...with a gas powered mower), the wild strawberries and blueberries will thank me, the woodcock will thank me for the larger strutting grounds, the turkeys will thank me for the same reason, and even the hawks and owls will thank me now that they have a larger hunting grounds for voles and such.
Will I worked, the ravens passed loud comments upon my work, flickers perched on tree tops nearby and yakked it up, a red-tailed hawk circled above, a trio of yellow-bellied sapsuckers made a racket as they tried to sort out their marital arrangement, and, off in the distance, a grouse found a suitable log upon which to do his drumming.
When I came into the cabin to get something to drink, I cleaned some of the debris out of the small pond out front. I call it a pond but it's not much bigger than a 100 gallon aquarium. While scooping out the dead leaves and phlox stems that had found their way into the water I also pulled out several newts and one large salamander (about 8" long, an inch wide, black/blue with large yellow dots). I also netted three small frogs (or the same frog three times). I note that someone got lucky last night as there were two large egg masses attached to the weeds I pulled out. I didn't feel badly about grounding them since, if they all hatched, there would be over 100 little critters swimming in that tiny pond. I did not notice any mudbugs (dragonfly larvae) which are often present. Perhaps they are still down in the muddy bottom or perhaps the cold went too deep this winter and they didn't survive. Or, maybe, that big salamander has a belly full of them.
1 comment:
That sounds like an eventful day!
Post a Comment