Farm report: The thistles are growing on the hillside and the pasture, but there are very few compared to the previous 2 years that we have been fighting them. The odd thing is that on each groundhog pile there are many many new thistle seedlings. Here and there are large (3' high) thistles which must have been baby plants that I overlooked on my forays before. I have been digging them up by the roots and fortunately, not one has flowered yet.

The grasses and native weeds are high, at least knee high, and I can barely see the trail to follow to ascend the hillside. I see that my neighbor has mowed his pasture next to mine, and so I will leave mine alone this summer, (except for the path)for the pheasant, quail and wood duck to enjoy. I am slightly sad that I know that I will not see the mountain bluebird coming to eat thistle seed, but that is just how it goes.

We had a retired biologist come to visit, and he came and borrowed some fertile eggs from some wood duck nest boxes we have up here and there. We will see if they can be semi-tamed if raised by humans. He is creating some wetlands habitat on part of his property, and plans on replacing the wood ducks there. It is very interesting talking to him, and hearing his stories about the dept of fish and game, and dealing with gobmintal entities and all sorts of fun like that.

As I was taking in the sunset with an evening walk on my upper acre, I saw some animal in the bush, but couldnt' quite make out what it was. Upon closer observation, I could see that it was a skunk, and a fat one. It made such a funny little sound, raised it's tail, but didn't spray. Maybe it was out of spray, or just wanted to non-violently let me know who it was. It was cute and I have no idea what it was after, perhaps it was eating the stink bug beetles, which have just started coming out.

Tomorrow I am going with my father out to see a pair of baby great horned owls. We are told that they are up in a pine tree about 10 feet up, and are covered with down. I will bring the camera, and hope to get some good shots.

We are also trying to figure out what to put under the famous water tank. Steel reinforced concrete, railroad ties, gravel, or river rock are all being considered. Considering that there will be 80 tons of water weighing down on one spot, I am planning on going to the library to do research on the matter.

Any civil engineers in our bunch? I think I need a consultation......

Hope all is well with all of you. Take care friends, will report more when there is more to report.

((((all))))

-- (Sis@thefarm.zzz), May 04, 2000

Answers

Thanks, sis. I always like it when you folks take me along on your walks. Your farm sounds nice, skunks and all. Actually, I kinda like the smell of skunk. It always reminds me of being a kid in the Texas hill country, and drives on summer nights with the windows down. (Funny, it seems that I can only conjure up the memories of summer nights; I guess my mind just help onto those parts.)

Just what part of the country is your farm anyway? I can't recall you ever saying. I hope you are enjoying nice spring weather, and not the extended drought of most of Texas. Although it has been raining here on the bayou since Sunday night, almost non-stop.

Don't forget to report in again, real soon.

---------------

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), May 04, 2000.

Sis,

Better go with concrete and have some stout footings under it. If it shifts when it's full it will be hard to manage. I'll bet there is information online somewhere, but I have a friend who is a civil engineer and if I can catch him I will ask.

It will make a difference what kind of soil you have, and if there is rock or gravel not too far down. Sorry about the mountain bluebird not coming to visit. There must be part of the story that I missed.

We saw our first swallow yesterday. Hope we have more soon. We have some hatchlings in the Bluebird box, but they are not bluebirds. And mourning doves are everywhere in the spruces.

Temps here have been in the 80s for the last couple days. Hopefully, that doesn't mean that in JUly we will be in the 100s. *gasp*.

Say hi to the skunk for me. WE used to have one, but I asked him to leave because the dogs wanted to play with him, and I didn't think it a good idea.

See ya in the chat.

Gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), May 06, 2000.

Thanks Lon and Gene for the offer of assistance. Gene, you are right, it seems like it is hotter this year at this time of year than it was last year, and the plants and animals are acting out their routiness earlier also. One slightly disturbing thing: All the flowers that were planted with hummingbirds in mind are beautiful and flowering. Unfortunately, the hummers are not here yet. It is very strange to see the lovely orange tubular flowers on the horse chestnut tree and there aren't any hummers around to suck the nectar, let alone fight over the territory, like they always have done in the past. I do seriously hope that the little hummers are not casualties of our environmental problems.....

On the tank footing issue: The area we are in is high desert-like in the southwestern part of Idaho. It looks very much like northern Nevada. No cactus, just lots of sagebrush, tumbleweeds out in the rangelands, and I am surrounded by neighboring pastures and farms. My water tank will reside up on the upper acre, which is up on the bench of a hillside, and the soil is dusty clay on top, and hard pack cclay down below, I think this is what is called "hardpan". It is very very hard to dig into even with a pickaxe, and takes extreme efforts to dig 3 feet down as we did to bury our water and power lines going to and from the well, last summer. We did rent a ditch witch for most of the job, but still had to dig part of it by hand, and what a nasty job that was! We are thinking of having rebar put into the form, then concrete poured to be 10 inches thick. Then we need to wait for the stuff to cure (I think 2 months?) before having the tank delivered. Unfortunately, we have to modify our driveway so that the heavy equipment will be able to make it in (The lowboy, and 2 front loaders to lift the tank off the lowboy and scoot it into place.) Just thinking of moving that thing into place gives me a stomachache.

But! I know what I will plant around it to shade the tank from view, Lilacs! Seems like everywhere I go, there are very large lilac trees, bushy and tall. They like the weather and the soil here and do very well.

The baby turkeys are growing fast, but it's not been quite warm enough to let them be outside for more than about a couple hours in the warmest part of the day. They sure are "people birds" and are only happy if they can see us, otherwise, they peep quite a bit. We have taken some pics of them, and will put them up for all to see when I finish this roll.

Hope all of you are doing well, and your gardens growing......

((((hugs to all)))))

-- sis (Sis@thefarm.zzz), May 07, 2000.

Hmmmn. Get hold of me by email.....I know a civil-type engineer person who may be able to help......

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 08, 2000.