Erosion Project – July 23

After a very hot and muggy start to the week, we had two rare July days with mild temperatures and low humidity on Friday and Saturday. There was a three day horse show at Happenstance, but circumstances prevented me from getting over to watch. Jane provided us with news as Melissa brought two green horses to get experience away from home. Susan’s Galatea has a four year old filly called Poppy, who made her debut over little jumps and looks extraordinary. I was sorry to miss the fun, but I was very busy here.

On Thursday, George Mehler called to tell me they planned to do the erosion project on Friday. The trackhoe was being delivered. No sooner did he call than steady rain began, followed by heavy rain. Luckily, we only got a bit less than half an inch of rain, and George felt sure the project could proceed on Friday. Our driveway cannot accommodate a big semi trailer, so the arrival of the heavy equipment was noisy, as Jeremy, the driver, had to drive the trackhoe, clattering, down the gravel about half a mile just after the rain stopped.

Friday morning, Scott arrived to do the excavation work, contouring the site and then placing the gabian rock. Gabian rock is large rock – 12 to 14 inch size – making it unlikely to move when the creek floods. Scott was very proficient with the giant trackhoe, and did most of the excavation within two hours. The rock arrived in two trucks, with two trips, so 4 giant loads. The rock took more time to arrive, since the best rock was at a quarry north of here. But by mid afternoon, the work was done.

Jane is having a fence put in to divide her pasture, and she hired another Scott to do that work. He had done a beautiful fence around the new ring at Happenstance. As it happened, he started her project on Friday, so I went to see if he could replace our fence when he is finished at Jane’s house. He expects to be able to do that on Tuesday or Wednesday. Nathan could do the fence, of course, but he is very busy already, and we just want to get finished.

Scott explained to Nathan and me that we need to keep the creek clear of fallen trees so that we don’t get a new erosion problem. We looked to the south of the fixed site, and there were some huge trees in the creek, fallen during the terrible July storm of 2021. We can never forget the huge root ball in the woods after that storm. There was much hilarity on Friday evening when we brought up the root ball to Gerry and Betsey, who are sophisticated friends. They had not seen root balls before. We are astonished that several months later, Nathan was able to cut the tree, and the root ball returned to its hole.

But I digress… Back to 2023 – Nathan came on Saturday and set to work on clearing the creek. I helped in my pathetic, old lady way. We made much progress (mostly Nathan did) but there is more to do. Clearing the creek will be an ongoing project. Nathan saw several lizards and a box turtle in the creek, which was reassuring. I was anxious about the potential disruption of animal lives with all the heavy equipment work.

The horses were able to go out early, with the nice weather, and dodged horse showing, despite perfect weather, because of scheduling.

The bad news is that the stream pump seems to have shut down today. Jane came over to help as we tried to fix it ourselves, but it is beyond us. Even worse, I got some oak mites while working today! Now I will be very leery of working in the woods. I may actually resort to Deep Woods Off.

A last hollyhock is blooming out by the studio, and some lilies that the deer missed are just beginning. Weedy is progressing very well in his recovery. Today, Harry gave him a sense of freedom by leaving him alone in the grass for a few minutes. He was prefect, of course.

Be safe, be well, be grateful, especially for laughter. Slava Ukraini! Peace.