Life On The Hill

[pa_friendly_guy]

The story of the Pond is a long one. It was one of those learning experiances that we have been talking about so much on here. There have been many times in my life where I knew what conventional wisdon said you should do, but for my own reasons, reasons that seemed to be very sound at the time, I did something completely different. Maybe I watched too much Monty Python as a younger man. Most, if not all, of these crazy ideas have worked out better in my head. There was method in my madness though, I did have a plan, but as they say, the best laid plans,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[pa_friendly_guy]

I decided to work down in the woods today. There is a slope mine opening down below the stone wall and fire pit area and about 2 years ago I decided to have a make work project down there. Since I am retired I figured I needed something to do. It was the dead of winter about 2 years ago and I went for a walk down into the woods. When I got down to the mine opening [ The shaft is closed, you can NOT go down into the mine. ] I stopped and just looked at it and thought, I thought for a good while. I had seen a thing on TV about this woman who had made a path through her woods and she had piled up large stumps several layers high. She called it Hugelculture, a term I had never heard befor, and she had planted ferns and hosta and other shade loving plants and had a very private pathway through her woods. I had alot of large stump type logs left in a large pile from the logging operation. I figured that I could line the mine with those large logs and get the same effect, a very quiet, very private, very secluded area just below the fire pit. That sounded like a plan to me. Here is what it looked like that winter when I started the plan, the mine opening was full of brush and fallen trees and debre.







When the snow melted and befor I could work in the garden I cut up the brush and burned everything that was laying in the mine. I them started to dig out and level an area near the top of the mine shaft. There was a chunk of concrete showing where I wanted to level a sitting area. I thought it was just a bag of sacrete that I had dumped there years ago. I had been dumping things into the mine opening for years to fill it in. Turns out it was a solid block of about a yard of concrete it must have been left over when they poured the footer for the stone wall above the mine. There was a min order that you have to pay for, the left over concrete they just dumped into the mine. It was sticking up above the level that I needed to get to for my planned sitting area, so I got a sledge hammer and started to beat on it. I broke it up into movable chuncks and used them to build a retaining wall at the edge of what I was making into the seating area. I dug back into the bank and leveled out a 10 foot by 12 foot level area at the top of the mine.



Then I got some logs left over from the stuff I had burned and made some steps down to the next lower level of the opening.




That took about a day of digging and moving logs. I put the steps in Temporary, you know, permanate but sud-standard, I then continued to put in steps and dig out the side of the mine opening to level the walk to the bottom.




When that was sort of done I had my neighbor start to drag the large logs over to the area to start putting then around the edges of the mine. My goal was to make you feel like you were in a secluded spot down in there, yet you would only be 50 yards from the yard. These are the 1st 3 logs and stumps we put in last year, looking from above the mine.



Here they are looking up from the sitting area down in the mine.



Well it has sat like that for a year now. So today I decided to fire up the old tractor and go down in there and move some more logs. Here is the stagging area where we stored the logs.



I went down and dug out several small trees by hand what were in the way of the tractor pushing logs. Then I got the Farmall out and started down the hillside beside the mine. As I got to the steepest part I realized that my 2 front tires were low on air, so I stopped and started to back up the hill to put air in the tires. Unfortunatlly I did not go backwards, I just sat and spun the tires. I tried to use the front bucket to push myself out, no good. So there I sat, on the steepest part of the hill stuck. I am always worried about the hill, the Farm behind me, on the same hill was owned by Bill Hubert, he had farmed that hill all of his live. One day his farmall started to fish tail as he was bringing in a load of hay, the tractor flipped over onto him and he died. He was a much better farmer than I am, and he knew alot more about equipment than I do, and the Hill took him. I am always carefull and always a little afraid when I get off the paths. So I walked up the hill to the garage and got the cumalong, when I got to the tractor it was too short to reach a tree. So back up the hill to the garage again and I got 2 chains. Hooked everything up and started to winch her out of the hole. The chain broke. It broke at a place that I had repaired it befor, but still, not a good thing. Hooked the other chain up and started again, this time the cumalong broke. I blocked the tires and let her sit. I walked down to the neighbors to have him use his 4X4 Kabota to pull me out. He was away on vacation. I walked home, got the air tank and pumped up the 2 front tires. Then I put a For Sale sign on it and left her sit.



Hopefully my neighbor will be home soon, but for now the tractor is sitting outside down in the woods, and that is where she is going to stay. I left the key in it, good luck on trying to steal it.

[boo]

Tractor accidents take out a lot of farmers here too. I'm so glad to hear that you're wary of that hill and tractors, as I was reading I was getting a little concerned Accidents with machinery can happen so fast.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I agree Boo, Farming is the most dangerous occupation. That old Tractor can still do alot, but there are definate limits to how you can use it and what it can do and where you can take it. My feeling is that it is a Heck of a good machine, but that operator aint worth a Dam,

[pa_friendly_guy]

Well, the tractor is back in the garage. My neighbor got back from his trip and we used his 4X4 Kabota to yank me up out of the hole I had dug. His tractor does not weigh as much as mine, and he was not very optimistic about our chances, we had to try several times befor it moved at all, but we finally got it moving up hill a bit. I was stuck again but this time I was not in the big hole so we redid the chains and got her moving again. Another redo on the chains and I was out. I love it when I can get myself out of trouble, its easy for me to get into trouble, often not as easy to get out of it, I don't think I should be allowed to own tools and equipment, because it seem that every time I get tools out I hurt myself, and every time I use the equipment some disaster befalls me, Like I said befor, that tractor is one heck of a machine, but that operator isn't worth a Dam,

[matt walker]

Glad to hear you got her out Guy. You are not alone my friend, I've had some hairy times in my little tractor as well, and I guarantee it wasn't the tractor's fault.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I moved 3 large slabs of wood down to the mine today. I put then on the bank behind the level area. They are just for added effect, they serve no real purpose, but they sort of look like a smiley face, I had been meaning to haul them down there for 2 years now. I figured it was about time. I guess since the garden is on the decline I needed the make work project for something to do. I always have a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

[pa_friendly_guy]

The guys from the Power Co line crew were back on my road when I got home today. It was not the crew that raped my frontage, but they were from the same Company. The Foreman was very nice, and so was I, He called the Company to make sure what stump killers they had sprayed on my ground. It was a mix of Tardon/ Tordon. I think it was Tordon that was the ONLY Herbiside to be included on the hazordous chemicals list by the EPA a few years ago. It stays in the ground working for 4 years. They only sprayed the stumps, nothing else. So they felt what ever I planted would grow on the bank. It is a contact killer only and has to touch the plant to kill it. I have not contacted my friend with the decorative grass yet but I am hopeful to be able to start with that this fall to get it established. I am thinking about Filbert Nut Trees as well, they only grow about 15 ft tall so they are not a Huge problem with the wires. Butterfly Bushes are still in my thought process as well. I may have to give it a bit more thought befor I do anything, but that is my thought process so far. Any thought from the group?

PS I contacted my friend and he said I can have all the decorative grass I need. He has been very generous with me in the past. Its good to have friends.

[Lollykoko]

Butterfly bush or Rose of Sharon would give a dense, decorative line.

[pa_friendly_guy]

That is what I think Lolly. I have a Lilac bush as well that I can dig up a few starts from its base. Flowers are always nice, and things that flower every year with out replanting are better, and things that bloom a long time with out replanting are the Best, . Butterfly bush will be my 1st choice if I can get some starts next spring. The neighbor has purple Rosasharron I could get, it does grow well around here and it will get thick. Lillac is lovely in the spring, but the flowers are short lived. Forcithia is the same way, very pretty in the spring, but very short bloom time. I did talk with my friend about the decorative grass and he said I can have as much as I need. So that will go in this fall, maybe next week if I have time .