Tree limbs

Yesterday was a long day! I had decided that it was the day to take care of the tree limbs that Irene had dropped into Mark's yard. As I said before, this tree is just over the property line, just north of mark's yard. So the limbs were hung up in the tree and on the ground in the yard. As you can see from the above photo, The tree had lost a couple of big limbs from the top.

And it is where it all landed! So I got out my new chain saw (Terri gave it to me two years ago Christmas!), First time I have had a reason to use it! I got started and had cut some of the smaller limbs out and loaded them into the back of my truck, When my neighbor Mike came over and said that his son was coming over with his front end loader to help!

And here he is taking the first load to the back 40, where I will cut it up later for fire wood.

That's taking a bite out of the problem! He accomplished in about 20 minutes, What would have taken me most of the day to get done! Thanks Mike and Kevin!!!

After the wood was gone, I took the tractor and bush hog and just chopped up what was left! It will break down and return to the soil. I and Mark cut the grass right up next to this area and I have always thought that I would clean this area up and just leave a few trees standing. There is the big Gum there and a Cider and Maple in there too. So while we were there, I cut out a few of the weed trees and under brush. I will continue to work this area with the bush hog and chain saw until I get it clear. Lots of work, But it will look so much better when it's done!

This it what we got out of the tree! The biggest part of the limb is the part near the bottom of the pile. There is a lot of wood there! And I would never have gotten that big part out of the tree without Kevin's help! It was up in the tree about 15 feet and a rope pulling with my truck wasn't going to get the job done! Thank God for great neighbors!!!
I was able to spend the rest of the day cutting grass! And when your talking about 6 acres of grass, I finished up this morning!
Now all I have to do is repair the carport that Irene tore up (It's where we park the tractor out of the weather). That will not be so easy!
Talk to you later!
Tom

Irene's aftermath

Irene came thru and dumper a lot of rain/wind. I spent 41 hours at the job (1130 Friday - 0700 Sunday). Lots of water damage to the building and meny trees down. The ride home was interesting!

This was the conditions on the drive home on the route I normally take! What is a 1 1/2 hour drive, became a 3 hour ordeal to get around the road blocks!

Some I was able to drive on the shouler to get around!

 And the Ahokie creek was near flood and runing over its banks!

This a bridge I cross over the creek on and it is normally just a small stream!

But as you can see it was over flowing and inadating some of the crop fields along it' banks!

One of the things we were hoping that Irene would do was put out the fire in the Great Dismal swamp and get rid of the smoke we have been put up with the past weeks. But nope! the peat bog is still burning and the smoke is still with us.

One very strange thing is this guy desided to take up residents on Mark's front porch!
He stayed with us for a few days and did not show any ill effects from the storm.

One last picture, this tree sat in the front of a resterant in town. It looks like it was hit by a bomb!

We do not have any trees on the homestead, but there is an American Gum that sits on the property line on Mark's place and it lost some limbs that fell into his yard. Tommorow I will be out there with the chainsaw to clean that up. I will have pictures on the next post. As if I didn't have enough to do already!
Tom

Made it through Irene

Irene hit us last week-end and spent the whole time at work (11:30am Friday - 7:00 am Sunday). I'm in the security department and we and the maintenance guy's are considered "Alpha Personnel"! The water damage to the roof of the building was bad! The roof is being resurfaced and repaired and in the process a lot of material was removed before the storm and being as the roof is flat, we had to wear rain gear while in the warehouse!
The building is ONE MILLION SQUARE FEET of floor space and that means alot of roof! We got 10" of rain and alot of that ended up in the building, Thank God for floor drains!
As I was at work, Terri and Mark took Daisy and Luke over to their house to ride out the storm. Every one made it through all right and no damage to either house. But their were a lot of trees down (Pictures in next post) and the only tree near our place is a American Gum on the very edge of Marks place. It lost a few big limbs and I will have to get out the chain saw it clear them out of the yard.
The drive home that Sunday morning was very long and interesting! Trees down on the road and power lines down with them! We lost power for only one day and the freezers were kept closed, so we didn't loose anything. And the BBQ grill was used quite a bit.
The one thing that we hoped Irene would do was dump enough rain on the fire in the "Great dismal Swamp", But she didn't. Its still burning, But it is much smaller and the smoke isn't as bad.
And one other thing that was good about this past week-end, All the OVERTIME I made! A little extra money is always welcome!!
The next post, I will be showing pictures of the death of the garden and some of the down trees. The garden looks like it was hit by a bomb and the weeds have gone crazy! Not much to salvage, but I will get what I can and try to get the beds ready for fall planting. But I will have to see how that works out.
I will work on that post and get it up in a few days. Until then, be good.
Tom

Smoke, Earthquake and Irine

Talk about a strange week!
First on Monday last, We had an Earthquake hit the region about 1330.The center of the quake was many miles to the north west of us and there was not any damage here in the locale area. Just some shaking.
Now the smoke on the other hand! Abut 5 weeks ago during a thunder storm, A fire was started by lighting strike in "The Great Dismal Swamp" about 45 miles from the Homestead. And over the next week it grew to over 6,000 acres! The 160 fire fighters that have been fighting this thing have been able to contain this thing, BUT it mostly involves a Peat Bog and is producing large amounts of smoke! So much so that now everything smells of smoke. Depending on the direction of the wind, It has been so bad at times that the State Patrol has closed some of the roadways until the winds shift and the smoke moves to anther area!
And now for Irene!
It is 1230 Friday afternoon and the leading edge of the storm is already producing rain. It comes in bands and is quite heavy at times. The predictions is that we could receive 6" - 10" by the time the storm moves off to the north. This in one way could be a good thing. If we get enough rain and it can penetrate the peat bog and get at the fire, it may be able to put this thing out!
Boy I hope so!!
I will be back after the storm is over!
Tom

Wordless Wenseday

At least the flowers grow!

Mass Disruction!

If you read my last post, I showed you pictures of the Mellon bed and told you how well they were doing.
Well I left the Homestead last Wednesday for the job and returned home last night after midnight.

Got up this morning and this is what I found!

Crows had gotten into the bed and broke open several of the melons. Its not a total loss, But I had high hopes for this bed. And of course They got the biggest melons! I was able to harvest a few small ones and we made smoothies out of them tonight.
I have learned my lesson and next year the hole garden area will be enclosed in a hoop structure that will be covered with chicken wire.
Thees melons were the "Moon and Stars" type and some of them looked like they were going to be a real good size! But there are only 5 or 6 left and they are pretty small.
I have been using a deterrent spray to combat the Deer and Rabbits, But CROWS?
Well I guess I will know better next year!
So far this year, here are the crops that have been a flop:
Potato's....To hot and not enough rain.
Carrots.... Root maggots got to them.
Summer squash.... Bugs!
Pole beans..... Nothing, not one single bean!
Onions... Just disappeared!

I some times wonder why I even try!
Like they say.....MAYBE NEXT YEAR!?
I hope your growing season is doing better then mine.

Be good.. and if you con not be good, HAVE FUN!
Tom

Melons and more Melons

The growing season has been both good and bad. Weather here in North Carolina has been hot and very little rain. Tomato's are starting to come on and we have had lots of cucumbers. Summer squash was doing well...But then all the plants just stopped producing and are the plants are dead!

But the melons are every where! Lots of volunteer's and  the "Moon and Stars" watermelons are in great shape.This is the only melon I planted from seed and are in a raised bed (4' X 8') and are spilling over the side. Weeds are not much of a problem as the plants are so heavy they shade them out for the most part.
One of the nice things about the "Moon and Stars" is that the plants are Indeterminate and the melons will not all ripen at the same time and at last count there were 14 melons coming on!
The hard part is keeping the Deer and Crows out of the bed!

So I am building a PVC structure to place over the bed that will be covered with chicken wire and is high enough that they can not reach the melons.


But I also have melons in other place's on the homestead.

In the tomato bed.

And in the flower beds!

And even where last years compost pile was!

The reason that the tomato beds and the flower beds have the melons is because I used a lot of Worm cast in the beds and the Worms do not eat seeds. And the seeds ended up in the beds. Once they got started, I couldn't get myself to pull the plants!

And talking about the Worms!

Here are a couple of hand fulls from right out of the Worm beds!

And the last picture is of a hard working member of the garden team!

This young Lady has been pulling her own weight by ridding the garden of grasshoppers by the score! Now normally I get rid of spiders (I have a bad reaction to spider bites!) , But she is where I can see her and make sure I stay clear of her. I even toss her a grasshopper now and then!
So that is the Melon Report. Hope yours are doing as well!
Tom