Friday/Saturday
Mar. 31st, 2007 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenWe spent more time waiting than I did seeing the doctor, but he's a good man who does his best by everyone -- an increasingly rare breed, and I shall be sorry when he retires someday. We're not certain what the problem is still, but it's rotator cuff-related, as I suspected. But it might be a compression/inflammation, vs. a tear. Currently on anti-inflammatories, and have an appt. to see an orthopedic specialist next Thursday. Doc said that if it was miraculously better by next Tuesday/Wednesday I could cancel the appt., so we'll see what happens.
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fitzw went off to help with cutting down one of the trees in the old Christmas tree lot. This is a project that will probably be going on for a while over the summer. The lot hasn't had a lot of attention in recent years, so the trees are growing on top of one another, to the point where the random giant junipers are dying out in that area (hard to kill, they are) as well as most any underbrush. Not a balanced area, environmentally speaking. So the idea is to open the area up again, and perhaps re-introduce maples into that section. There are a couple of spots that are level or not too steeply sloped, where we may be able to eventually try growing crops of various sorts.
I walked about a bit near the road, checking out land I'm not on often, certainly not just for its own sake. There were a couple of maple trunks lying down that I sat on for a bit (downed by a storm), just listening and feeling the breeze and critters and sun. The brook is always worth watching and listening to, anywhere along the route. I have a bit of a tune that came from that, but I don't know if something will come of it or not. Some songs are for but a moment. I've always loved watching water in motion -- ever onward it goes, always going toward its destination, even though quite often it must go left or right or backward on itself, as it encounters rocks and sticks and bends in the river, or the pull between the shore and the depths of its home below in the oceans.
Returning to the house, I chatted a bit with my MIL, then we went out to see howfitzw was getting on with a second tree by the pool behind the house, a red spruce. Out of place for some years, it was finally decided that the time had come to remove it. Some of the wood will be made into boards to repair the double-sugarhouse across the road, and some may be usable for other small projects, and what can't be used for anything else will likely become firewood. Then off to dinner at Elmer's in town, which was quite good and pleasant. After that fitzw and I went down to the sugarhouse to see the last of the boiling (a sadly short season this year because of the weather) and stayed quite a while to chat with various relatives. We stayed at the farmhouse overnight, in one of the upstairs guestrooms, then up early the next morning.
fitzw did some more work on limbing the spruce and such, and I helped to rake out the beds behind the house and trim the grapevines so they weren't trying to choke the new bushes. Then we took a break from that to take a tour of nephew Curtis and his wife Sherri's house and property. There is still much work to be done on the house, but the property is larger than we thought (altho' C says it's only 2-1/2 acres), and does have some possibilities. Then back to the house for lunch and more chores, before going up the hill to walk the South Pasture.
This time we went in from behind C&S's house, crossing the small brook behind it and up the hill. We found one of the lumber roads and took that up as far as it went, and then thankfully beyond it on our own, up to the ridge. I say thankfully because there were cut limbs and broken bits all over the 'road' -- some is storm wrack of course, but much of it is probably because the trees are tall and close together, so sometimes a tree hits another tree on the way down. Some trees are used for repairs, others for sale as lumber and/or firewood (depending on the tree part). It is one of a number of sources of income that keep the farm's taxes paid, etc., so that the family can afford to keep the land in one piece and away from the developers. Still, somewhat distressing.
Passing beyond that, we came across the most amazing maples! There was a large rock outcropping, and they were growing on top of the outcropping, and had somehow spread their bark and roots to join one another, and to encompass the top and most of the sides of the rock, except for the side facing down the hill. We'll have to go up again at some point, asfitzw had forgotten the camera, and it isn't a site many other people will be able to see in person.
We travelled a good deal of South Pasture (not really sure why it's called that -- only some of it is gently sloped enough, but there it is). Much like water in a stream, we often had to go right in order to go left, or down a bit to go up.... We came across many different types of moss, still only one type of fern, but I did spot some fresh grasses and creeping charlie. In sunlit places one could spy the silver threads of spiders spinning their first webs.
We sought out and found the source to the major brook on the hill. You can't really see it too well this time of year, as there is still snow up there. It's a boggy area, held in perhaps by the rocks there. Trees love the sun and water, but the rocks keep them from forming deep roots. A number of overturned trees were around us. The earth there keeps the water from being choked and cradles it; then the water is free to course down the rocky falls down the side of the hill. After wandering a while longer, we travelled down by the brook, finally crossing it over some rocks and boulders at one point, then continuing down until we came to the 'county' road. From there we walked out to Baptist Corner Road and back to C&S's house.
Some conversations and final farewells, and then home again with some fine farm fresh eggs and fine memories as well. A few memories I brought home by hand too -- a few pieces of birch bark (loose on the ground) and downed bundles of white pine needles.
fitzw went off to help with cutting down one of the trees in the old Christmas tree lot. This is a project that will probably be going on for a while over the summer. The lot hasn't had a lot of attention in recent years, so the trees are growing on top of one another, to the point where the random giant junipers are dying out in that area (hard to kill, they are) as well as most any underbrush. Not a balanced area, environmentally speaking. So the idea is to open the area up again, and perhaps re-introduce maples into that section. There are a couple of spots that are level or not too steeply sloped, where we may be able to eventually try growing crops of various sorts. I walked about a bit near the road, checking out land I'm not on often, certainly not just for its own sake. There were a couple of maple trunks lying down that I sat on for a bit (downed by a storm), just listening and feeling the breeze and critters and sun. The brook is always worth watching and listening to, anywhere along the route. I have a bit of a tune that came from that, but I don't know if something will come of it or not. Some songs are for but a moment. I've always loved watching water in motion -- ever onward it goes, always going toward its destination, even though quite often it must go left or right or backward on itself, as it encounters rocks and sticks and bends in the river, or the pull between the shore and the depths of its home below in the oceans.
Returning to the house, I chatted a bit with my MIL, then we went out to see how
fitzw was getting on with a second tree by the pool behind the house, a red spruce. Out of place for some years, it was finally decided that the time had come to remove it. Some of the wood will be made into boards to repair the double-sugarhouse across the road, and some may be usable for other small projects, and what can't be used for anything else will likely become firewood. Then off to dinner at Elmer's in town, which was quite good and pleasant. After that fitzw and I went down to the sugarhouse to see the last of the boiling (a sadly short season this year because of the weather) and stayed quite a while to chat with various relatives. We stayed at the farmhouse overnight, in one of the upstairs guestrooms, then up early the next morning.fitzw did some more work on limbing the spruce and such, and I helped to rake out the beds behind the house and trim the grapevines so they weren't trying to choke the new bushes. Then we took a break from that to take a tour of nephew Curtis and his wife Sherri's house and property. There is still much work to be done on the house, but the property is larger than we thought (altho' C says it's only 2-1/2 acres), and does have some possibilities. Then back to the house for lunch and more chores, before going up the hill to walk the South Pasture.This time we went in from behind C&S's house, crossing the small brook behind it and up the hill. We found one of the lumber roads and took that up as far as it went, and then thankfully beyond it on our own, up to the ridge. I say thankfully because there were cut limbs and broken bits all over the 'road' -- some is storm wrack of course, but much of it is probably because the trees are tall and close together, so sometimes a tree hits another tree on the way down. Some trees are used for repairs, others for sale as lumber and/or firewood (depending on the tree part). It is one of a number of sources of income that keep the farm's taxes paid, etc., so that the family can afford to keep the land in one piece and away from the developers. Still, somewhat distressing.
Passing beyond that, we came across the most amazing maples! There was a large rock outcropping, and they were growing on top of the outcropping, and had somehow spread their bark and roots to join one another, and to encompass the top and most of the sides of the rock, except for the side facing down the hill. We'll have to go up again at some point, as
fitzw had forgotten the camera, and it isn't a site many other people will be able to see in person. We travelled a good deal of South Pasture (not really sure why it's called that -- only some of it is gently sloped enough, but there it is). Much like water in a stream, we often had to go right in order to go left, or down a bit to go up.... We came across many different types of moss, still only one type of fern, but I did spot some fresh grasses and creeping charlie. In sunlit places one could spy the silver threads of spiders spinning their first webs.
We sought out and found the source to the major brook on the hill. You can't really see it too well this time of year, as there is still snow up there. It's a boggy area, held in perhaps by the rocks there. Trees love the sun and water, but the rocks keep them from forming deep roots. A number of overturned trees were around us. The earth there keeps the water from being choked and cradles it; then the water is free to course down the rocky falls down the side of the hill. After wandering a while longer, we travelled down by the brook, finally crossing it over some rocks and boulders at one point, then continuing down until we came to the 'county' road. From there we walked out to Baptist Corner Road and back to C&S's house.
Some conversations and final farewells, and then home again with some fine farm fresh eggs and fine memories as well. A few memories I brought home by hand too -- a few pieces of birch bark (loose on the ground) and downed bundles of white pine needles.
