Monday, April 16, 2018

November Hill farm journal, 51

Last night we got 3.1 inches of rain in a matter of hours, and all that water rushing through the stream bed in the front pasture swept leaves from last fall against a section of the front fence and damaged it. The leaves used to simply go under the lowest strand of Horseguard tape but now that we have the no-climb with boards the leaves were trapped. Thankfully my farm helpers are both here tomorrow and they’ll get it fixed, but I was so upset this morning to see the mess and realize at least a day’s work will go to that instead of the steady progress we were making with the “list” items.

All the rain started the spring flowing again, too, and while it’s not enough to do serious damage, the water is flowing along a path that’s creating boggy areas along the driveway. I feel like we need to address that as well.

It’s been quite warm again but tonight we have a frost warning in effect. I’m past being ready for spring!

April is our birthday month - husband, daughter, Keil Bay, and the pony. 48, 21, 29, and 18. Of all those ages the most remarkable ones are daughter and pony. Best birthday wishes to them all!

I’ve ordered two flowering dogwoods and 10 inkberry hollies for planting. I’ll be picking up a few more pollinator plants for the beds, and if the weather ever settles down, need to get the vegetable garden going and also overseed the pastures. I have seed from the botanical garden, all native pollinators, and I have to get those started very soon.

Bee supplies are rolling in. I have to figure out exactly where the hives are going - have changed my mind three times already, but once you set them up, moving them can only be done in gradual increments so I have to find the best site and plan to leave them there if possible.

April is historically our busiest month but somehow I still feel like it should be March!

4 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

It still feels like March around here! We had epic rain yesterday and of course another huge cedar came down and knocked out power lines for 34 of my neighbors. I'm sure they're thanking me! So the power company told me it was my responsibility to remove it from the end of my driveway. I couldn't get out and it was blocking access to the through road. I called my landscaper who came within the hour and the power company came back and told him to leave they would do it. Well they did. And piled up the branched on both sides of the driveway and generally left a big mess. So I can get out but I'll still have to clean it up. Wanted to tell them thanks for helping...

Happy Birthday to all the birthday celebrants! That's quite a lot of birthdays for one month. It should be one long celebration. Sounds like you're very busy with lots of things. Hope you find a special spot for your bees. I'm sure Spring is just around the corner and we will get some decent weather sooner or later.

billie said...

Oh, wow re: tree down and all the rigamarole with that!

Son sent photo of him with snow covering the ground and his hair today - did you get snow today too?

Grey Horse Matters said...

No snow just a monsoon. This is crazy weather for April.

billie said...

I think we’re all over this now. Ready for the season to move on and stabilize!