And the Branches Came Down

Friends, it's been a week. 

Northeast Kansas has seen it go from the 60's to the 20's outside, 

with snow flurries, terribly gusting winds to 40 mph, and everything 

in between. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the young men from 

Forest Keepers Tree Care were here working, despite the 

insane conditions outside. 

Longtime readers will remember our beautiful old 

walnut three which we called the Green Goddess... here she is last summer. 

She was mostly dead at this point, and had stopped dropping walnuts some years 

ago, but poison ivy and Virginia Creeper used her as a support, and of course, 

the birds were everywhere in her branches. 

I snapped this picture of her on Monday evening, as I came out of the 

hen spa.  

Her base (huge) was shifting and the trunk had twisted, and in the winds 

of the last few weeks, many pieces of trunk and branches had fallen down. 

Keith and I had put off taking care of it as long as we could, but she 

was becoming dangerous. 

And here, in the other direction, is Mabel, the huge silver maple by the house.  Mabel was also 

getting to where she would drop bits and pieces of her branches, and some 

were dangerously close to the deck. 

There was also one that hung down and brushed your head as you mowed, you 

can just barely see it to the right, behind the pole.  

Mabel this morning, as I came out of the henspa.  

Notice the cross bar on the last fence section near where you see Lilly standing, is gone.  That is the only damage done in two days of intense tree removal. 

Mabel is now good to go for a while, the dangerous limbs have been removed, and 

she is safe to sit under.  Some of the limbs showed sign of rot within, and the arborist 

told me it was lucky we got them down. 

Notice the bird flying at the top of the tree!  

Where the walnut stood.  From her rings, it was estimated she was close to or over 

100 years old, just as I had always thought.  That mound of wood mulch is not from her.... the walnut shavings were hauled away as they are toxic.  

Approximately twenty decent-sized saplings and young trees were removed from the old hen yard. 

I left a clump in the middle, right behind me in this picture.  

These trees, and the trees removed from the side of the barn/shop... were what went into the mulch. 

Some of these trees were 16 feet tall (maybe 20) and were pretty big around. 

I can now start re-habbing the fence around this yard.  Some of it is tilting, but the exterior fencing is still in decent shape, and yes, it's going to be a pain to fix.  Slowly, but surely, we'll get it done. 

I don't expect to use it until next year, I have to figure out a place for the ferals to sleep, first. 

I also had trees along the road removed or trimmed from the bank.... and one walnut there 

which was trimmed back considerably, since it had dropped a huge branch last fall that was 

still hanging dangerously.  That is all cleaned up.  I wish, now, that I  had had them remove all the 

small saplings from the road bank, as some are growing way too close to the fence. 

I was impressed with the safety precautions, the crew leader, who did the trimming, 

tied off carefully before he cut each branch, and moved slowly and methodically. 

Remember, it had plunged to the twenties, and the wind was blowing, hard. 

Some branches had to be tied and lowered to the ground. 

Each worker wore a helmet that also included a speaker phone, so they could communicate. 

I stayed on the porch it was SO COLD. 

As the branches came down, they were promptly ground. 

Little by little, the big tree came down. 

But not without some drama, enlarge that picture and you will see it was blowing snow. 

The crew chief laughed after he was safely back down, saying he had had to grab around the trunk at one point to keep from being blown off. 

And then there was this: 

There had been a piece of metal pushed or pounded into the tree at some point, probably 60 years ago, and it caused some problems... the scar of it is on the right, where you see a darker place to the right of the central opening.  (not the red).  It did cause a little problem. 

However, they left me with a four foot high trunk, smooth on top, as I requested... I am going to 

put planters up there.  (I think).  

I asked them to haul the huge trunks away, and they did, on Wednesday.  I was in the 

house concentrating on something and did not see the big crane truck come and 

drag the trucks onto it's bed!

They have a small mill at their place, and are going to put that wood to good use. 

Lilly was in and out, (remember, it was cold) keeping an eye on things. 

Jester mostly did this. 

Oddly enough, the chickens were unfazed through the whole ordeal, despite the loud noise of the grinder, etc., and the big machines moving all over the yard.  They went about their business, shifting themselves away from where the men were working. 

I also saw an unusual phenomena, but did not get a picture.  The maple tree was the 

last thing they did.... and after they had finished and were getting ready to go, 

I stood with the crew chief in the yard and saw hundreds of birds flying around the maple.  He told me he sees it all the time, it's as if the birds are recalibrating in their minds where the tree is now, 

and what shape it is in.  Fascinating!

Peace has returned to Calamity Acres. 

My Garden, Spring 2017

Well, it's kinda overgrown: 

My plant markers for the iris are gone. 

That does not make them less beautiful. 

Old fashioned small yellow 

And blue 

These are in another bed. 

My peonies are not opened yet, or rather... I should say ONE is, just one 

blossom.  The others are about to open, I have two established plants. 

You see that things are still overgrown. 

The grass was mowed this morning, and I have found 

someone who will haul my big mower out for me. 

Once I move (which will not be until July) then I will have Brandon, the young 

man cutting grass, trim everything with his weed eater. 

Love the flowers in the evening. 

And the birds!  I am going to have so much fun watching the birds. 

See the planting bed behind the bird feeder? 

The rose in the planting bed? 

The rose bush is blooming! 

I took this this morning, just before a strong storm. 

These are larger blue iris, and gorgeous.  I will work 

slowly on the beds, a little at a time, digging out all the weeds. 

There is the only peony open, from across the yard. 

I'm trying not to put a TON of feed out there until I move, 

because I am already feeding three raccoons.  

This red wing chattered at me while I took my pictures, he was 

waiting to fly down to the feeder and start eating. 

Once I am moved, and the chickens are there, all cat food 

will be taken up at night, so that the raccoons and the possums will 

leave the deck alone.  I also think Lilly's presence will dissuade them. 

I'm keeping Jes away from them, one of the raccoons is huge. 

The little abandoned cat, half-grown, is still coming to the deck to eat and 

it hurts me to see him/her groom himself/herself and lay there, 

like she/he thinks her owners are still there.  What she must think 

about the raccoons! 

This morning, before the storm, I was cutting and pulling vines from the old henhouse (I forgot to take a picture).  In the middle of all the Virginia Creeper, was a poison ivy vine! 

Luckily, I saw it in time and did not get near it.  It's the one thing I have no compunction about 

spraying... UGH!  

The huge old walnut is being enveloped with grape vine, so I am going to start working on it.  Instead of a green goddess swaying in the wind, I am going to have an old tree with dead brown vines all over it, but ... what the hey! 

Here is the tree in April, before the vines leafed out.  Trying to find one of the 

vine covered tree now. 

And there she is, just a few days ago.  I walked over to 

make sure I wasn't looking at a poison ivy tree, and was 

glad to see it was (mostly) grapevine.  I'll start their 

removal tomorrow. 

Another Five Hours of Work

Hard work, that took it's toll on my body, believe me. 

I took the truck today, and thought I was being smart unloading the dirt here. 

Then I started on the five remaining planting boxes in this section.  See that second box? 

There was a lamb's quarter weed in there that I had to literally cut apart with the big cutters... and it still took 30 minutes to dig it out.  It wore me out. 

But, I got a little reward when I got down to the last box. 

This is the last box.  Can you see what is hiding in the weeds?  A huge tomato plant!

There were actually five in the box, and one of the smaller ones had tomatoes on it.  I stopped, trekked up to the porch, and got a bucket with water and put them in it. 

I cleaned carefully around the big tomato plant. 

I staked both the smaller tomato on the left... and this big one in the front. 

You can see a weed pile to the right... more about that in a minute.  There was another 

weed pile off to the left, from the last two boxes on that side. 

See where the bags of dirt are?  That's where I erred... I should have pulled the truck around to the right in this picture, between the vegetable beds and the henspa. 

I carried fifteen bags... from where you see them, and three from yesterday I had unloaded in the yard. 

My back.  That's all I'll say. 

As an experiment, I planted two more of the tomato plants in the end bed, and staked them.  It will be interesting to see how they do. 

You can't tell, but I also tied them up to the posts, or rather, tied baling twine around them to hold them in. 

They got many buckets of water, all four plants. 

See the pile of weeds?  

It took everything I had in me to throw them in the back of the truck. 

I had to leave the other big pile for next week, I just could not lift another thing. 

See this mess?  That's next week's project.  I'm going to limit myself to two hours a day, and not tear my body up like I did today. 

I'm going to empty those planting beds out .... they are the ones that are trellised... and try to fill them as much as possible with the garden dirt.  Then I'll put the straw on them, too... I bought two bales. 

We are expecting storms tomorrow, and I have family things to do... so maybe Monday I'll start again and slowly empty those beds out.  See the weeds to the left in the pile?  They were heavy and awkward, and I appreciate Keith taking the first batch  to the transfer station for me so much! 

I'll have to drive the truck next week, and start loading this pile, and the subsequent ones. 

I had to sit frequently... my back is just beyond sore right now.  

I looked at the dying walnut tree... so majestic... and realized that it is dropping 

leaves right and left! 

Last year, in July, I realized they were dropping, and mentioned it in a blog post... but 

here it is June 27, and they were raining down!   The walnuts are always the last to leaf out, and the first to drop. 

I was so tired, I didn't go over and eat any mulberries on the huge tree out of sight to the right... 

I just couldn't do it. 

But, happily, I didn't get the truck stuck in the yard (Keith!) and managed to get back out to the driveway with no trouble.  

I stopped on the way out and ran back and took this shot... it's one of our apple trees, full of fruit! 

It was a happy ending to a hard day.