Life On The Hill

[matt walker]

Sounds great Guy. That's my favorite beer too, I also like One More, that's a good one. You are ahead of me on the tree fruit, but I'm getting there.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Back in about 1990 I decided that I wanted more grass to mow, What was I Thinking???? anyway I got a local fellow that lived down the road to bulldoz a section of light woods that was growing up by the garden and behind the house. I pushed the woods back enough to put in a grape arber [ That has since fallen down, 2 concord grape vines still grow there ] and I also wanted a fire ring that would be some what secluded from the road. I had him remove the trees and brush and then make about a 3 foot cut and make a level area below the cut. I wanted to build a stone wall there. I looked and looked for stone at any kind of a reasonable price but could not find any. Then one day I happened to be sitting at the Sportsmans Club talking to a fellow that I knew and he managed a farm for a Big Wig Doctor locally. The Doctor had torn down an old stone building on the farm and used the stone to stone his fireplace and patio at his Mantion House on the farm. Did I mention that this Doctor worked on all of the Steelers in Pittsburgh? Anyway he was quite wealthy and he wanted the rest of the stone and debre from that building out of there. My friend said that I could have all the stone just for hauling it away. That sounded like a deal to me, so I hired a Back Hoe and a Tri Axle Dump truck and hauled 6 or 7 Large Dump truck loads of stone and debre out of there and had it dumped at my place. I also told the Back Hoe operator to clean everything up for him and to make the place nice when he was done. Only 3 loads would fit near where the wall was to be built, the rest I dumped over by the old pavilion some distance from the house. Turns out that the 3 large dump truck loads pretty much built the 70 foot wall so I have a bunch of stone stock piled for future projects. My Mother and Dad wanted to help me with the wall, we started building in about 1991. I had dug a deep footer and poured cement below frost line so I had a Great footing to build on. The work was slow, I was working and Mom and Dad were getting old, Dad was 70 at that point. We would do about 2 bags of cement and lay what ever stones that much morter would hold. It took several years to complete the 70 foot wall and steps. The wall is pretty much a monolith and has not moved or cracked. It is about 3 foot high at its highest point and tapers down to about nothing on both ends.





Here is what it looks like today. The level area used to end at the fire ring years ago, looking left was just a drop off. I have been filling in to extend the level area for low these many years now. Anything I can get
for free, The Township has brought me many loads of burm materials that they scrape out of the ditches along the roads locally. I have also been dumping the rocks that I dig out of the garden below the wall and that has helped extend the level area by about 4 feet. When I put in the fire ring I did it temperary, You know, permanant but sub standard, I just layed out a bunch of stones that I had laying around there in a 4 foot circle, I had planned on digging them into the ground and formalizing the ring, but I never did get to that. The 2 flower pots are left out all year because they are heavy and hard to move, you will notice that I put in landscape timbers at an angle from the wall to the top of the steps. Those areas were filled in with lillys of the valley, because I had a bunch of it, and because it will grow with out alot of sun. That allows me to mow along the top of the wall with out having to trim anything. I can just sit on my be-hind and mow right along every thing. It is wonderful.



Here is a winter picture. We enjoy haveing friends over and burning Bon Fires. I have to pick up alot of fallen sticks and limbs from the many large Maple trees in the yard, they make great fires. My sons also enjoy haveing their friends over and sitting around a nice large fire. At this point I do not burn as often as I used to, but it is still a treat to sit out at night in that secluded spot and watch a fire.

[Lollykoko]

Sounds great!

[pa_friendly_guy]

I was up at my camp for 2 days to mow a bit and relax. When I got home today the grass needed mowed here, the Tomato plants had died back alot since I had been gone. The normal die back that most people around here call the Blight happens about this time of year. Lack of water and hot weather is the cause I believe. The biggest shock to me was what had happened to my privacy barrior along the road. I let a patch of trees, brush, vines etc grow up along the road all along the field about 20 to 30' wide to give me some privacy from the road. I have about 1000' of road frontage in all, but that section I have always had this natural barrior. I also let a wide section of woods between me and the neighbor maybe 20 to 30 yards wide. I like privacy, and I have the land. While I was away the Power Company came and " Trimed " some of the trees. Turns out they timed them at the ground and then sprayed some sort of chemical on the stumps to keep them from growing back. They did not clear the entire frontage, only a section starting at my yard and going west for 30 yards of so. It is so open now, and looks Bald. They left me some cut up fire wood, some big pieces that I have to cut up and a small walnut log. Yes they cut down a walnut tree that was making nuts. They did dump the wood chips on my mulch pile for next year. Hardly a fair trade to me. The trees were all under their lines, and they do have the Right to keep their right of way cleared, but when they trimmed my place befor, when I was Home to supervise , they cut the tops and a few branches and went away. They did not stop at the house to ask my wife, who was home, for permission they just did as they pleased. Now I have a fairly large open area that gets good sun that I do not want to mow. I mow enough already. So I guess my options are to plant a fast growing bush of some sort for privacy, or flowers or both, or think about food production and pick something that will not grow high enough to get into the wires, but will provide a visual barrior. I am open to ideas from the group. I like to hear about options. I will most likely do what I Daggone Well Please, but Its nice to have different ideas. I will try and get some pictures of the area so you can get an idea of size and area.

[matt walker]

Dang Guy, I'm sorry to hear that. Cutting the walnut tree all the way to the ground would have me pretty mad, but it sounds like you are taking it all in stride. Not worth getting pissed now, I guess. As for suggestions, well, around here blackberries make a great barrier, but I'm not sure how they do there, plus I imagine you'd have to find them and maybe even buy them. Here, you just would look the other way for a few weeks and POOF! Blackberry patch.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I thought about cane fruit, raspberrys, black berrys etc, but I do not feel they will be high enough for my liking. I thought about hazelnut trees with blue berry bushes under them, or maybe cane fruit under the trees. Cost could be an issue for those trees and bushes. I thought about forsythica, they grow well around here, there is a huge patch across the street that I could dig up for free, and they get beautiful yellow flowers very early in the spring. The bloom time is short lived though, but then again, they are free, lol. I thought about chineese chestnuts, but I think they would get too big in time. I thought about mulberry trees now that I know they do grow around here, but again the ones I have seen are large trees. They were old trees, but under the wires the power company would have trimmed them to the ground by now. The Power Company does not want to work hard, and they do not want to spend any money, so if my plantings do not make it to their wires I am sure they will leave me alone. Privet hedge would work, as would several other types of hedges, but they do not flower, and they do not fruit. I think I can get a decorative grass that grows 6 ft high with a 1 foot bloom on top of that. The size is right, and I think I can get it from a friend for free. It dies back in winter, turns brown and you have to prune off the dead stuff in the spring so the new growth can come on. I would rather not have to prune anything. The No Work theory should be a main goal here at this point. Of Course I could do nothing and Nature will fill that gap for me at no cost, It will simply take a few years.

[boo]

Oh no what a nasty thing to happen to your privacy hedge. If they spread chemicals around then could it affect anything else that you have planted? What about the wind drift spreading "nasties" onto your land?

[pa_friendly_guy]

The power companys have used contact killers, in other words they only kill what they are sprayed on directly. I am not worried about the wind drift, it will only effect where they sprayed and
directly touched. I am a little worried about what chemical they used. They had been using the only herbicide that was on the EPA's restricted chemicals list. It worked in the ground for 4 years after being sprayed on. It allows grass to grow, but no brushy woody plants. Therefore no trees or tall bushes to trim under their lines for at least 4 years. At least that was their thought. I do not know what they are useing now, I just know that I saw a green colored spray on all of the stumps. They sprayed it in a circle around the outside of each stump, I am guessing so that the tree will not send up shoots from the roots. I do not know if it will be in the ground for a long time. I did not think about that being an issue with new plantings untill now. I figured the spray would effect the dead stump it was sprayed on and not effect what might be planted or growing next to it. It does not look like the blanket sprayed the entire area with anything. I do not think it spreads through the ground, it just kills what it touches. I wonder how hard it will be to find out what they sprayed on my ground? When I called the power company about getting wood chips they acted like they really didn't know what was going on. They normally use sud-contractors for this type of line work.
Oh by the way, do you remember the power outage that shut the east coast and part of Canada down back in about 2003? New York City was with out power for days, it was on the news, anyway the company who caused the entire problem was First Enery out of Ohio. Guess who just bought out our local power company here in westerm Pa? Yep, First Energy, sort of fills you with confidence doesn't it,

[pa_friendly_guy]

I took afew pictures today to give you a better idea of how the place looked befor and after the " Trimming" and to also give you an idea of spacing and sun light for this new area.

This is what my place looks like from the road with the natural un-trimmed barrior.

This is my view of the road from the field, you can sort of see it through the trees.

This is how it looks after they " Trimmed "

Another shot, You can see at the telephone poll how wide the Barrior was befor they cut it down

This is the spray

[boo]

It's such a shame they felt they had to mulilate the trees like that....it was really pretty (and private) before they touched it.
Maybe you could find out who the sub-contractors were and a contact number so you could ask them what poison they used. They may still be working in the area butchering other peoples trees