Lost in the Woods

Okay, so one can't get too lost in a forest of 6 inch tall trees.

But if I seem to have gone missing the last few weeks, it's because all of my time lately, on top of all of the usual getting-ready-for-winter chores around the farm, has been spent planting the 220 tree-lings that were shipped to me on a staggered schedule from Plants of the Wild.
The project has been taxing, to say the least.

Here I am rolling out the [very expensive] "Lumite" landscape cloth.
Because of the competition from invasive reed canary grass along the irrigation ditch, previous plantings have not been at all successful. Our hope is to eliminate that competition by first spraying the grass with Round Up, then covering the dead sod in the immediate vicinity of the new plantings.

One inch by six inch staples go in every 2 1/2 to 3 feet along the each edge, in the shallow trenches that will later be pushed in to help hold the cloth down. Each planting hole will also get a staple or two, and our abundance of rocks will be handy for weighting the center of the cloth between trees.

Sandy supervises.
Almost to the end of the first 100 foot run of landscape cloth.
I later decided it was faster and a bit easier to kneel on the center of the cloth and just crawl along, shifting left and right for the staples.
Either way, an awful lot of hands and knees work for this old body!

Tucking in one of the few surviving trees from an earlier planting.
(Please note the helpful photographers foot.)
At the bottom of the trench you can just see the new supply line for two extra sprinklers being added to the system to irrigate this section.

Here's where the new line [behind me] will tie into the old line [in front].
In the meantime, we hauled gallon milk jugs to water the newly planted trees.
This first section was just far enough away from the barn, around gates and fences, and it was just warm enough, that it was helpful to run the hose from the paddocks....

...and fill my watering bottles from the planting side of the fence.
The first "plugs" I got were Rocky Mountain Junipers.
Please note the blister on the inside of my left thumb!
After cutting an L-shaped slit in the mulch cloth and folding the flap back under a staple, I used an inch and a quarter spade bit to bore a planting hole. The 4 cu. inch plugs are supposed to transplant much better than bare root stock.
Sometimes we hit rock and I had to pull out my little planting trowel. But more often, it just got tangled up in the dead grass.
Into the hole
A little drink.

The 10 foot piece of conduit is to help me space the trees evenly.

It was sort of sunny on this first day of planting, but only about 40 degrees F.
Nearly done with this first 100 foot row.
Only 800 more to go!
I did wise up on the hole drilling, and ordered this "Garden Auger" off of Amazon (a little cheaper than their own site). Although it can't handle anything but the smallest rocks, it churned through everything else like butter! And because of it's two foot shaft, after I slice all the holes in the landscape fabric and add a staple, I can just walk down the row (upright) and drill hole after hole! My drill's charge will last 15 or 20 holes, depending on the soil, but quick charges while I do some other part of the project, or eat lunch, or some such. Then I can go back and drill some more!
It has a welded on blade at the bottom of the shaft. It also helps that the top of the shaft is flatted a little, to keep it from slipping in the drill's chuck.
Two weeks after the Junipers arrived, here came the shipment of Austrian Pines. Most of the trees are for windbreak and privacy screening, so the rows are primarily parallel. In one wider section, I wanted a little more of a "grove" look, so I mixed and matched the pines and junipers and will scatter in some shrubs come spring.
After the evergreens, I added fast-growing hybrid Idaho Poplars. They came still a little green, but have shifted to dormancy rather quickly once out in the chilly open air.
Where we used to live there were masses of quaking aspens. I also got a few of them for the particularly wet corners of this project. This summer photo shows one of the earlier planted ones that is actually doing pretty well. I love their colors in the fall!
Next spring I will add several areas of shrubs and wildflowers. For now, I'm pooped!
Al and I are truly blessed with the land with which we have been entrusted.
I must say that I am more than a little proud of how far we have brought it, from rough cattle pasture to horse farm,
in the seven years we have been here at EvenSong Farm.

A busy, but productive week!

It's been a busy week, since getting home from our little vacation (yeah!). [Travel post coming.] I've been scrambling to finish up all the projects I should have been working on all summer. Even managed to get a couple of rides in.

Monday-Tuesday

Finished (mostly) the 450 foot section of cross-fencing in the north pasture.
After the first of the month (ah, credit at the farm store!), I'll pick up the 16' gate for the middle of the run (where we bring in the big hay loads). I already have the 12 footer for the horse-and-little-tractor opening at the paddocks.My reward for [almost] reaching this goal came the next day.

Wednesday
Pat came and picked Kate and I up for a trail ride.
She came earlier than expected, because she had given misleading directions to another gal that was joining us at the last minute, and wanted to beat her to a particular intersection en route, to cut her off.
Consequently, I had to gulp down the last of my raisin nut bran while pulling on my boots, make a quick trip to the little girls' room, and grab my horse and gear in a rush! I therefore forgot my water bottle (Pat shared), a snack (again, thanks, Pat), and my camera--so no pictures. Pat got a couple, but has yet to download her camera from any of the rides so far this summer, so I'm not holding my breath!
[You can just pick out the trail head, just to the left of bottom center of this satellite photo, where two creeks come together in a Y. We took the western branch up to the tree line, under the "show labels" box.]

View Larger Map
But the ones she got should be breath-taking! Five of us wandered about five miles up Parke Creek canyon, northeast of E-burg, until we started hitting the trees. We came upon some privately owned cabins and decided we'd try to find the road back down the east branch of Parke Creek, so we climbed up to the top of the ridge. This is what we faced when we topped the ridge:We were as high as the newest and highest turbines at the Wild Horse Wind Farm! Our view included not only most of the Kittitas Valley, but Mount Rainier and Mount Adams! [If we had actually been on the same ridge as the turbines, we could have seen the Columbia River and beyond to Moses Lake!] Pat shot the rest of us against two backdrops: the wind turbines, and the valley/volcanoes. Looking at the topo map now, I see that we had climbed from about 2500 feet at the trailhead, to 3700 at the top of the ridge.)
We never did find a route down to the road on the south east branch of the creek, so we descended about halfway down the ridge-top, over nasty volcanic rock (glad I did remember Kate's Simple Boots!). Then what trail was there sort of petered out, so we side-hilled back down to our original path, dropping on self-made switchbacks close to 500 feet in about a quarter mile!
Kate was very well behaved for the whole trek, other than draggin' along at the slowest pace possible without letting the others get more than 50 feet or so ahead of her. I used Pat's wide tree synthetic trail saddle, which worked really nicely, except for sliding forward just a snitch on the descent from the ridge; nice even sweat pattern when we got back to the trailers. Her Simple Boots lost a bit of tread, but really helped eliminate the "my feet are killing me" excuse.

Thursday
The little gal who watched the horses while we were gone last weekend decided she'd rather have some riding lessons that cash, so she came over before it got too hot. I had done this with C last summer, too--C had ridden Misty last year, and Hank had loaned her a somewhat sour little pony for the summer, as well. But C's parents aren't horse people (and Mom is a bit wary of the big creatures) so she didn't get much riding in then. This year, C has been riding some on Pat's dependable old mare, and her natural balance and confidence, as well as Kate's inherent laid-back nature, led me to believe they would do alright together.
Kate was like "Whaddya mean, work two days ina row?!?"
C's biggest problem was convincing Kate that she couldn't be buffaloed (like Kate had managed to do with my grandson). We started out with some walk-jog in the round pen, then moved out to the arena for some trail obstacles, then out in the pasture for some less confined work.
My friend Anita arrived part way through, and after seeing how mellow Kate was for C, I convinced her to get on board for a few minutes. Getting on a green horse (she's known Kate since she was foaled) is a bit of a milestone for Anita--she is still rebuilding her confidence from a wreck 8 or 9 years ago. Counting Kate, she has been on five different horses in the last three weeks! (She called me on Friday to say she had actually trotted! the mare she plans to bring home soon.)
I didn't even have to remind her to breathe!

Friday
I finally broke down and took baby Jackson in to have the vet check his butt--it didn't seem to be shrinking very much more than it had in the first few days.
Being without a trailer, Pat agreed to bring down hers--a step up! Misty has not been loaded in a step up in the 13 years we've had her, but she walked right in. After the fussing Jackson did when he was a week old, I was prepared for a fight. But he leads very well these days, and I only put the rope around his rear when we got to the trailer. He actually tried stepping in, but bumped his shins a few times and then just stood there. I lifted his left fore and put it up on the floor (he's learned that lesson well, too!). He weighted it just a little, then stepped back out. I lifted it in again and waited a moment. Then I tapped his other fore foot with my toe--he stood up....settled back on the ground for a sec....then stood up, stepped in with both fores....then hopped up behind and walked up to join mama!
At the clinic, he walked off as nice as could be--no mad leap into space.
Vet felt the swelling was a "seratoma" (fluid, rather than blood--I called it a "hematoma" last post). He said we could drain it, but that often such swellings would just fill back up, as the damaged tissues still need "protection". Plus this time of year, creating a wound (the needle puncture) would just be asking for infection. He kindly remarked that Jackson's training was very good (thank you, Dr. Ben), and he did not care to undo it with daily antibiotic injections. He suggested we just watch it a bit longer, and maybe do some hot packs to increase circulation to the area, to improve healing and internal absorption.
Back on the trailer Jackson hopped, like nobody's business, and we headed home, where he unloaded in just as mannerly a fashion.
GOOD BABY!

Then back into town!
I had not planned being able to get a ride-on Ditch Witch until next week--when I would have had to do all my hoped for projects with it in one day. But the rental place called to say they unexpectedly had one available over the weekend; did I want it? Yes!
I still have only eight hours "credit" before I have to pay extra, but now I have two days to spread the work over. Which is good, 'cause I'm only half ready--I had hoped to get everything laid out and marked over the weekend.

Saturday
C came again first thing to ride Kate again. While she warmed up in the arena, I took Maddie, who I am ashamed to say I haven't worked with in several weeks, into the round pen to gauge her frame of mind. I put the wider synthetic saddle on her, with a nice new 1 inch felt pad, and a nice new felt "Smart Cinch"--hoping to eliminate some of Miss Sensitive-Thin-Skin's grousing. She started out a little snotty, then seemed to settle down.
C and I headed out for a short "trial ride": down the driveway, around the east side of the property on the ditch road (Maddie led the way past the dump truck and noisy water at the weir!), out into Hank's cattle pasture, down the draw a ways, then up the hill to the road and home. All three girls (C, Kate and Maddie) did a good job.

Then it was time to do some serious ditch-digging!
I have 2700 feet of landscape fabric to install prior to planting tree seedlings. They recommend burying the edges in shallow ditches--the ditch-witch slid right through this project--it was probably over-kill for 4-6 inch trenches. But I need to install one additional sprinkler line, and that has to be 18-24 inches. Down at that level I hit some serious rocks--no Volkswagens like the summer we first installed the irrigation system, but plenty of basketball sized boulders. It took me almost as long to dig this 200 foot stretch as all of the other ditches combined! (I only stalled the machine a half dozen times!)

Sunday
Today's projects included this trench for the water line to the final frost free hydrant in the paddock areas, along with electric for the tank heater. Then all six paddocks will have access to their own side of a water trough (no more hose and extension cord to that third tank in the winter!).I have found that, in our rocky soil and nasty caliche (hardpan), the Ditch Witch actually does a better job digging post holes than an auger. I just set the brakes on the trencher, and slowly work my way down to the desired depth. It leaves a long and narrow hole, so I try to aim the machine so that the solid, undisturbed sides of the hole are against any possible horse pressure.I put six post holes in two spots in the paddock area, where I have used panels or T-posts in the past, until I decided exactly where I wanted permanent fences.The gate and panel will still give plenty of access for manure management and loads of hay.
I also pulled out one wall section in the barn to add another post for a new stall door.And I dug some slightly shallower holes for some feeders along the south wall of the barn (that should get built sometime this fall-- I will set the posts soon, so I can let the horses back into these two paddocks).
Tomorrow, after I drop the trencher back off at the rental place, I'll go in to school (gaagh!!) and spend some time getting my office put together. Nothing happens in this town until after the Kittitas County Fair and Ellensburg Rodeo ("Greatest Show On Dirt!") on Labor Day weekend. So our first teacher work day, for planning/professional development (we used to get three, then two, now only one, due to economic conditions) is Wednesday the 9th. Then the kids start on the 10th.

So I'll have exactly eight days to set all the posts and get the paddock fencing up, set up the water and electric lines, install the new sprinklers, and lay all that landscape cloth. The latter could stretch into fall weekends, if need be, as it does not present any potential danger to the horses. But I'd like to get a start on planting the 300-400 seedlings this fall, if I can.
And besides, once school starts, weekends will be my only real time to ride!

Pesky Projects

Hot weather, the infamous Ellensburg wind (once the temps finally dropped, the wind came up!), and various responsibilities have all conspired to keep me (and Mike) from doing as much riding as we would have liked these past few weeks.

One of the more pressing issues was getting the yard fenced for Sandy's safety. She is recovering well (no more cone-head!), but confused that she no longer has the freedom to roam. She does seem to appreciate having the run of even the small yard, after having to stay on leash for the last month.

This little gate used to be our access to the horse pastures, and the missing bar in the center box was to allow Sandy clearance to get through (the gate is upside down in this photo). She was frustrated that the gate is now covered by wire:
"Watz the deal, ma?"

Another bit of fencing, for the horses, is this last 500 foot run of cross fencing. Six years ago, when we were starting to upgrade from electric to permanent fence, the guy at the farm supply store convinced me that high-tensile (think New Zealand fence) woven wire (think field fence) was the way to go. "Stretch it good and tight, and the horses just bounce off of it!" Well, that may be, if one's horses run into it, but my horses tend to put their feet through it, and the lighter gauge high tensile wire cuts like a knife. When Amy ran into it as a baby, leaving small scars on her nose and one foreleg, I was willing to write it off as a freak accident.
But when Kate chopped up her back legs last summer, I took the rolls meant for this last section back, and started saving for 2 X 4 inch mesh, that feet can't go through. (I already have it installed in all my paddocks and the arena.) It costs as much for one 100' roll of the 2 X 4 as for 330 feet of the other, but I will slowly start replacing the high tensile stuff, a fence line at a time. I was able to sell some of it on Craig's list for a dog-proof orchard enclosure and for some goats. But I don't recommend it for anyone with horses!

This patch of dirt is a lousy example of one section of my arena footing. Or should I say a good example of my lousy arena footing? I have gotten several loads of free fill dirt, but the last one was full of rocks and weeds and stuff. I've found that a muck fork is really good for picking all but the smallest rocks.
I needed fill because the south end of the "almost-an-arena" dropped off fairly drastically. So I built a little retaining wall and am back filling it.
However, the mesh fence that Mike helped me put up last summer is slightly low for the level I want to bring the dirt to, so I was hoping that he and I could adjust it and finish the back fill. Dog-fence, however, took priority.
Also: the trailer floor has needed work for a while now.
Because I was beginning to question it's safety (the first and last boards were looking pretty iffy) it was time. And I'd like to upgrade to a newer, smaller trailer (if I can ever sell some stock!)and I won't sell this one to someone in less than safe condition. (I can't say "less than perfect", as this homely old girl is far from perfect!)
It was a frustrating process, as I couldn't find the right tool to drill out the heads of all the little (big) bolts that held the floor down. I would try one carbide tipped drill, that would fly through two or so bolts, then be totally dull. Back to town for a different approach...over and over again. We were getting one board pulled up per day and getting very frustrated. Finally got a "deburring tool" that held up for the final three boards. I have to pick up a couple of additional replacement boards, trim them to fit, then we'll be good to go again!
[Edited to add: finished the floor yesterday morning, but don't have any "finished" photos, because I sold the trailer in the afternoon! Anyone out there in the Pacific Northwest know of a two-horse slant for sale?]

Another major chore: we fenced off a "shelter belt" for tree/bush riparian habitat several years ago, but have had very little success competing with the reed canary grass that grows rampant on the canal banks and adjoining fields. So I'm off to mow it down, in preparation of herbicide spraying and then landscape cloth, to try to give the plants a fighting chance!
This is the southeast corner of the property, and probably the most naturally moist area. You probably can't see them all, but there are a grand total of four bushes and four trees in this photo--out of I think 50 that we planted!
The biggest of four quaking aspens (out of 10) from two years ago planting.
One of only three little evergreens (out of 25) that have survived now for four years.
One project that is complete (OMG!) is pruning back the driveway trees, so that Pat can bring her trailer in without the "car wash" effect (also the UPS guy). The willows had really gotten thick between the hybrid cottonwoods, to the point that several little Austrian Pines that I had planted a few years ago were being choked out. All of the back branches of this little guy had been pushed forward--the two white sticks are to try to train them back to the rear.
It's hard to believe all of these cottonwoods were only about 4-6 feet high when we moved here seven years ago! I love trees and it hurt me to cut them back, but they do look much more civilized now.

So, as Grey Horse Matters said: Summer time, and the living is...BUSY!
But I've gotten two little jobs done in the barn this morning (that have been waiting forever) so, to reward myself, I'm goin' for a ride!

TTFN