WE HAD RAIN

 A LOT of rain.

This was a couple of weekends ago. We got about 5 inches of rain in a couple of hours.

We learned where our low spots are.

The backyard has a low spot right here near the well-shed.

Here is the front yard toward the driveway.

Here is a little more of the front yard.

Here is the side of the house near the septic.  The water runs from this side of the property through the front yard and down the sides of the driveway toward the road and speaking of...

...the driveway is high and dry.  Glad they updated that for us during construction.  The water flows down the sides and with the culvert drains they put under it, the water flows under instead of over, so we're happy.

But we had a new thing happen.  This is where the OLD septic tank was.  It was one of those cylindrical ones, small, concrete.  They removed it and filled the hole.  Well, it has settled.  They are coming back out to fill in more dirt for us when everything is finished settling.

The good thing is that when they staked out our house, the surveyor told us we should move the house forward and over a bit so that this area wasn't under the slab (which it would have been).  So we moved it 10 feet each way and sure enough, if this had been under the slab, we could possibly have cracks in the slab.

Anyway, next step is to contact someone to have them see about what we can do for the water.  We don't want to add dirt and have the water move back toward the house.  As it is now, even though it does fill up, it flows away from the house so that's a good thing.

We shall see how things go...

ZEN MACHINE TIME AGAIN

 Well it finally happened this weekend.  I was able to mow!  With the sporadic rain we had last week, it was getting green in various spots and the trails were finally coming back as well.

With more rains possible later this week, we figured it would be good to get everything even so if it does get more water, it will all grow back at the same rate instead of having spots that were higher than others.

It was not the usual 1 1/2 hours I do, but it was nice.  The weather was hot, though humidity was lower than usual and there was a mild breeze.

I took the exit chute off so it would let the clippings go into the yard as they provide some nutrients to the growing grass.  We've done it for years and maybe that's how our grass always bounces back after droughts and super hard freezes, ha.

Either way, it got me on the Zen Machine 2 for the first time since June and y'all know that makes me happy!

THE PEAR TREE HAS BEEN CUT

You all may have see the post HERE about the power company needing us to butcher trim the pear tree behind the outbuildings.

In fact, they needed us to do it and then we had to send pictures so they could clear their file.

Well I did that Saturday...

Here it is before and the line is about the six foot mark.

Let the cutting begin.  I used my wonderful pruners, that have telescoping handles to almost four feet.  They ratchet-cut, so you open them, close to cut into a branch, open and it clicks a notch, then you close again with more leverage and then you can do it a third time if needed.  They work GREAT and cut through very large branches.  They made the job easier.

Took me about 30 minutes and here it is after.

Sigh.

We hope it won't be too bad.  I even left a few pears on the lower branches, though we're not sure if the tree will jettison those due to shock.  The rest of the pears, maybe eight or so, we tossed into the brush to share with the wildlife.

I even put a couple on the ground in front of the trail cam, hoping we might get some good pictures.

But it's at about six feet now (maybe I cheated a bit, seven or so?).  I texted pictures to the guy and he said it looked great and he would clear the followup.  He did say he wished us luck and hoped it would produce even more pears next year, so that was nice.

I also cut down a trash tree growing on the side of the house and pruned the bushes on the side of the stairs.  As long as I was getting hot and sweaty, I figured I might as well accomplish a little more.

HOT DAY UPDATE

It was hot today.

I did the cutting (that in an update Monday).

I didn't really need to mow but one thing led to another.  I edged around the outbuildings because they needed it and they look better when neat.  Then, with all the cuttings on the ground and areas I needed to cut shorter, I decided to get the mower out to do that.  Then I mowed the driveway...just because...and then around the orchard...just because...and the front a bit...just because...

But as you can see above, it was only about 30 minutes on the mower.  It was good to have it running so it is used and isn't just sitting.

Definitely no mowing next week because...

There is ZERO rain in the forecast plus a hundred degrees or more every day.  Next weekend the "and humid" means the "feels like" will be insane.

But hey, no mowing.  No edging.  Just watering and back to cool air.

PHONE CALL FROM THE POWER COMPANY

 We posted the other day about the local power company doing their periodic brush/tree easement clearing last week.  We thought all was good.  Then yesterday I got a call.  My phone said it was possible SPAM so I declined it.  About 15 minutes later, 2nd Family called and said "the power company called me and they are trying to reach you about your pear tree?"  

Oops.

This is the tree in question.  You can see the lines above it.  It looks close but it's about 10 feet under.  However, that's still a problem.  I got in touch and this is what the guy from the power company texted me:

"Yes, that pear tree behind your outbuildings needs to be cut at about 6 feet from the ground to be able to stay in the utility Easement. We only allow shrubs and hedges that are maintained at 6 feet annually."

Well crap.

Now this is in no way connected to our orchard area, those are all far away from any power lines (that's why we located them in their spot behind the house).  This one is the "wild pear tree" that we posted about last year.  It's been ignored for a long time and is doing great on its own.  When it was planted, it was only about 3 feet tall.  Now it's about 10 or 11 feet tall. 

In fact, it produced a LOT of pears for us last year (still put up in our freezer), but I guess now we'll cut it back to six feet.  We're not sure how it will react to such a dramatic pruning, but it has proven resilient all these years, we hope it makes it through this event.

Never fear, we still have two pear trees in the orchard area so we won't ever go without pears!  Besides, we have a guard out there...

#farmshark

POWER COMPANY EASEMENT CLEARING

 Every few years, the local power company comes through all the rural properties and cuts back everything that runs near the power lines and is within their ten foot easement.

Update at the bottom 7/27

This past weekend, they had done the front of our property.  This is from the driveway where we pull in all the way to the other end.  Click to enlarge, see that third pole waaay down at the end of the road?  That's how wide our property is at the front end.

My plan is to mow that this coming weekend and hopefully keep it mowed so it stays like it is.

Update: I have decided, thanks to your comments and 2nd Man's concern, not to mess with this on the new mower, at least not right now.  It should stay clear for awhile, maybe we can figure out something in the Fall.

We need the space for when we have a new fence put up along the front.  But for now, that's not a priority.  Let me just keep it cleared for a while.

Here is the other side of the driveway, the front portion of 2nd Family's property.

Oh no, we think all that clearing has angered the...

#farmshark!

😀😀😀😀😀😀

BRUSH AND TREE CLEARING

A big project we've been needing to get done is happening TOMORROW.  We'll be clearing the driveway and some other spots!

I cleared, SLOWLY, this area from where we come into our part of the driveway over several years. The trees were very small at the time and easy to cut down and/or in some cases, mow over.  I was able to widen it considerably as you can see by the arrow.  The drive was originally that wide all the way down...back then.  

Once you get past that wider area, it is a long and windy road from there on, ha.  A curvy driveway would be OK someday but for now...

...it is narrowing because the mesquite trees are encroaching.  I've pruned back and that works for a few months but there are some points where it gets so narrow, the limbs touch the sides of the car.  Keep in mind, these are mesquite trees which are covered in thorns.  Not good for paint on cars, ha.

However, with work going to be done on the house this year, whatever we go with, we'll need room for vehicles and trucks to go back and forth and come and go without worry.

So they will be clearing a row or two of mesquite trees all the way down to where we park.  They are cutting them flat to the ground and then drilling out the stumps.  Also, the gangly mesquite on the corner of the driveway is being removed as well.  It's limbs collapsed in last year's freeze and it's just a mess.

Even though I'll be there with them all day, I bought some marking paint so they can do what they need in case I am otherwise occupied.

I sprayed an X on the trees and brush that are going.  

In the areas where I couldn't really get to the trees or brush, I just painted an arrow on the grass, ha.

And here is the other thing we are having done that I'm so excited about:

They are clearing all of the area around the garden, all three sides.  By the way, this picture is from a month or two ago when things hadn't bloomed out for Spring.  We wanted to get the work done then because it might have been easier but alas, it was too wet and every time we scheduled it, it would rain more.

The brush has been creeping in and I can't get the mower around the fence to keep it clear and now I can't get it to the backside of the garden and it's growing out of control.  We want to fix up the garden this year, but it's too hard to get to the sides to replace the fence and the brush and branches are starting to become a problem inside the garden.  The big clump of trees also puts too much shade into the front side of the garden.

The crew is coming with a team, some heavy equipment and a bunch of chainsaws.  The goal tomorrow is the driveway and the garden area.  The guy seemed to think they could get all that done by early afternoon and then work on anything else we needed done around the yard.  In his words, "you are paying me for 8am-6pm so you just point at it and we'll clear it".

Our mind races at the potential! LOL!

So that will be the day tomorrow.  I'll probably leave this post up tomorrow and try to add to it by way of an update during the day.  If I can't, certainly there will be big post of BEFORE and AFTER photos, ha.

A LONG DRIVEWAY

We've mentioned that our house is about 1/4 mile from the road (and the mailbox, ha).  When I was mowing a few weeks back, I got these pics to kind of show you.  As always, you can click and the photos get bigger.

In this one, I'm about halfway down the driveway.  The arrow is where we come in.  I was facing that direction when I took the picture.

Next...

...I turned the mower around in place and faced toward the house.  The arrow is where the house is and where we park our cars when we come in.

And last...

This photo was taken from behind my car at the house, looking back to where I was when I was taking the second picture.

Yep, it's a long driveway.  The good thing is that it gives us absolute privacy from the road as we are at the farthest back side of our property. 2nd Family lives just behind those trees to the right of the arrow.  It's quiet and secluded for sure.

NATURE FINDS A WAY

Several years ago, not too long after we bought the property, I had a wild hair and thought it would be neat to plant fruit trees in different spots around the property, so it would look cool.

What I didn't think about was that they were far from water sources, far from just being able to check on them with a quick glance and I couldn't get to them every time we were there to check on things.

I got smarter, I began planting close to the house, water hose, etc and created the raised bed mini orchard behind the house.  I abandoned them and I let nature take its course.

This pear tree is about 12 feet tall (from about 3 feet originally).  We haven't watered it in years. 

And now it has two small pears on it!

Hard to see this because of the mesquite behind it, but this is a pomegranate bush/tree.  I planted two of these.  One died and that's when I gave up on the other one.  Now...

...it has small pomegranate fruit on it!

Then, behind the garden near the fence, we had read some things online about growing Mayhaw trees, that they do well in the South and they are supposed to make amazing jelly.  Well I found two at a small local nursery, they were the only two they had and the owners said they rarely got them in.  I bought both of them dug the holes and planted them.  

They struggled.  I struggled to care for them.  I gave up on them as well.

Here are small fruit all over one of them...

An here is the second one, also surviving...

...and also fruiting!

Now in all fairness, several other trees didn't make it.  There were two pear trees, one didn't make it.  Two poms and only one made it.  I planted an apricot tree elsewhere, it didn't make it.  And the original citrus (from a few years back) died as well.  I feel guilty that I left them to fend for themselves but hey, I guess they were of strong stock and "nature found a way" after all!  Now I need to prune them correctly, perhaps give them some proper fertilizing and watch out for pests and other problems.  Maybe I'll bring them a bucket of water on occasion too, ha!

This makes us wonder though, maybe it would be worth just randomly planting things all over the property and hoping for the best?  Not just fruits but flowering trees and bushes.  I always seem to find good deals at the end of Summer on plants/trees so perhaps some of those good deals could just be scattered around and we'll let nature do its thing!

FIRST MOW AND A MYSTERY HOLE

Well it finally happened!  I was able to MOW for the first time since October, ha.  I went to the farm, not expecting much because it was gray and overcast, looked like it might rain, and in Houston there was on and off rain most of the week.  There has been standing water for weeks.  I even told 2nd Man to stay in town as I wouldn't be gone long.  I was mainly going to check on things after the freeze earlier last week.

I got there and it was dry!

And sunny!

And there was a cool breeze!

I went into the shed and dusted off the John Deere.

I filled it with gas...

I rolled it out...

It fired right up...

I was back on the Zen Machine!

Here is a before.  It looks pretty but believe me, it was overwhelming.  I really thought if I couldn't mow for another week or two (heavy rain expected this week) I'd have to hire it out.  In spots it was more than ankle deep.

But it was dry and I was able to mow without a problem.  I left the clippings down, I always do with the first couple of mows of the season as it helps the new growth coming in.

Here is the side yard, before...

And after...ahh, much better!

As an example, here is one of the heaviest spots.  You can see how tall it was.  Now mind you much of that is not grass, it's a longer weed that we get down here in these parts, and while it looks green and fluffy, it's a pain to deal with, ha. 

Of course, I was so "in the zone" while mowing, I didn't think to stop to check the fuel level like I usually do.  So of course I ran out of gas...and had to walk two acres to the shed to get the can and then carry it back two acres to fill it up.

At least it was cool!

  

Here is an app I have on my phone that maps my mowing in real time and records the history of each mow.  Saturday I mowed a total of 4 acres and covered a distance of 7.4 miles.  At two hours, it was a longer than normal mowing session (probably why I ran out of gas) but I did cut some new areas.

All in all, it was SUCH a satisfying weekend.  I really feel like I accomplished a lot.  I didn't get to edge yet but I think with the still cooler temps, it won't grow much and this coming weekend I can do that. 

Now here is the mystery...

This is an old wheelbarrow that we have under a tree.  It was going to be one of my refinishing projects this Spring/Summer but as I was mowing near it, I noticed a lot of dirt.  I thought that was weird, I didn't remember any dirt piled up next to it.  Then I looked around to the front of it.

I saw this hole.  A very LARGE hole (you could easily roll a soccer ball into it).  Um, yeah, no, I didn't stay around to see what was inside.  I thought about tossing a stick or pebble in it but then I imagined something charging out and my imagination took off from there.  I'll wait on that. 

When I got home and showed 2nd Man he said "why didn't you put one of the trail cameras near it?"

Arrgh!

I can't believe I didn't think of that.  Sigh.  I'll do that this coming weekend and then we'll have to wait another week after that to see "what lies beneath".  Armadillo?  Opossum?  Fox?  Werewolf?

Stay tuned!

MAC AND CHEESE RECIPE COMING WEDNESDAY!