My Oldest son and his wife and 3 kids were home this weekend for a short visit, I let him read this thread and see what everyone posted. He was an English major in school, befor he became a Preacher, so he made alot of comments about my spelling and grammer,
I told him that I was a functional illiterate, but he didn't buy it,
. He enjoyed the read as well as all of your comments and the pictures, then he asked me why I had not included any stories about building the house, or the landscape around the house, or the grapes or the pond or the,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,well, you get the idea. I told him that I was not finished with the story just yet. It was sort of on going. Today I walked down to check out the path to the pond. There had always been a wet weather spring that flowed from a rock out cropping in the middle of the path. Since we logged off some the spring has flowed all the time and my path has been a sea of mud. So mowing down around the pond has been a real problem. I have had the Alis Chalmers stuck several times and once I had to walk back up the hill to the garage and get the come along to winch myself up out of there. That was not a fun thing to do, the hill is very steep and it is a hike, but I am always proud of myself when I can get myself out of the trouble that I got myself into especially with out having to go and ask a friend or neighbor for their help. When I had a friend of mine brush hog the path down to the pond the 1st time, maybe 30 years ago [ the trees were alot smaller back then ] I had him go straight down the hill. I was thinking tobbogin run back then. Very steep, straight shot, lined with trees on both sides, ending up into the pond. What the heck was I thinking, you would kill yourself if you ever tried that run down the hill. Needless to say I have never tried it. I have made a new path down to the pond that loops around the property in sort of a horse shoe shape that hits the old pond trail about 40 yards above the pond. The spring in the middle of the trail started above where the horse shoe path comes in so it effected both ways down to the pond. When I had the equipment here to make the 2nd path and expand the hand dug pond that I had damned up myself I asked him to dig out that rock out cropping and see if we could divert the flow. He said he tried to dig it but the rock was too hard to dig. So for 25 years it has been a problem in the spring when things are wet, not so much of a problem in Aug when it gets dry. Now the water flow has been changed by the logging so it was a major problem all of the time. About 2 weeks ago I decided that if you have a problem, you have to eliminate the problem, so I swung the old mattox over my shoulder, got an old pair of gloves and walked down the steep hill to the rocks. Several hours later I had dug several ditches across the path to divert the water flow. I dug one above the rock out crop, 2 below the rocks to catch and divert the water off the path. Then I dug out the rock out crop by hand until I was down to the flow. It is not a large flow, but steady, so the pathway was always mud. I diverted the water coming out from under the rocks and got it off the path. I now have a 10 inch drop off in the middle of the steep path, [ which could be a problem for the mower ] but the water flow seems to be diverted. I walked down there today to see how it was working, and it seems to be working well. I think if I get some 3 inch flexible pipe I can put it in there to catch the flow and back fill with gravel and make the path level enough to mow it again. One ditch below the rocks also has some water flowing, so maybe I did not get deep enough through the rock ledge to catch 100% of the flow. I think 2 pipes will be easier than trying to get any deeper through the solid rocks. I am guessing a day of diging, hauling gravel, back filling should solve a problem that I have lived with for a very long time. It is now a fairly low priority for me because I can get to the pond to mow by the horse shoe path. The pond it a mess right now, its been awhile since I have been able to mow around it, and the loggers dropped several trees into it, and a very large cherry tree has fallen onto it as well now. I walked around it today and thought to myself about what has to happen, and how it has to happen for me to clear the trees and brush out of there. It is a very large project that requires alot of very hard work, I think I will have to sit and think about it some more befor I do anything,
it is not a high priority either, lol. I did play in the water enough to get muddy. I pulled out some sticks that I could reach from the edge with out boots on. There was alot of very black, very smelly muck that came out with the logs that I was able to pull out. I think the term for that stuff is Glee, it helps to seal the pond from leaking. Anyway I felt like a little kid again playing in the mud and getting dirty. It was great.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.