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Water Issues & Moonlight Trespassing
The work continues… we made a trip to a chain hardware store and got lots of stuff we needed to fix and treat the back deck, prune things, mow and rake the grass (the last lawnmower bit it the first day…) and replace the main bathroom's shower head. Not to mention a long overdue trip to the grocery store. I swear we were out of everything.
Upon our return, our neighbor from across the street, Arlene, came over with a hanging pot of red geraniums as a house warming present and chatted with us for a bit after introducing her sister. The topic of discussion became the weather and the lack of winter we all had here in the PNW. Arlene's sister lives in the foothills of Mt. Rainier, and she's one of their snow pack measurement people– has been for years. She said a typical year where she lives gets some 12 to 14 FEET of snow every year. Guess what the total snowfall for this year was?
4 inches.
Yeah, talk about a serious problem..! We're having a very wet spring, more downpours and less soft rain than normal, which is helping to keep reservoirs full and plantings wet. However, the snow pack melting May through September is what refills those reservoirs during our typically very dry summers. This year, there just isn't much to refill them. Arlene said everyone in Harmony at the tops of the hills like us keep a careful eye on their well situation and cut way back on water when things get bad– as everyone affects everyone else's well situation.
We… have an overly saturated piece of land due to the fact there is an underground spring somewhere above us in the forest that used to go down a substantial creek that ran right through the middle of our property and on down through the middle of several other properties– you can see the moist and deep ditches where a creek used to be. Being at the top of our hill near the now suffocated spring without a creek as an outlet means we have a squelching quagmire of land as the water oozes just under the surface. There are drain outlets, basically at the top of where the creek used to be on our land to the bottom of where it used to be, where it drains into the adjoining neighbor's land. We definitely have to figure out some ways to use the water, rehabilitate the natural system a little, and get some deep rooted trees that love water (like willows) to start to balance out the system a little. Its too bad– a creek back there, allowed to do its thing, would have been very pretty…
The rest of the lawn got mowed finally. Some of that grass was nearly thigh high! A newer, more powerful mower was purchased, but we also got a manual rotary mower which the guys are determined to use and get used to in order to cut back on our reliance upon a gas-powered mower, which is smart… but they tried it and now see why people prefer a gas mower most of the time! I still remember my dad using those in the 70s, it was quieter and smelled better, but mowing was a BITCH. The easiest way is with grass eating animals, but we don't have enough land for that– at least not for a while.
Tad and Darcy made a crazy good but very spicy chicken n' cheese dinner. Basically like a buffalo dip that works with veggies or flat bread or thick crackers. We ate a ton, but it was very hot– and I like hot but it was almost too much for me.
Meanwhile, we've slowly begun to clean out the huge mess left in the entrance to the forest area. Lots of lawn clippings and branches from trees cut down and then left in a pile to burn– which didn't burn very well. We think the previous people were trying to create a dam to keep that used-to-be-a-creek watershed from saturating the yard all the time. They didn't succeed. We're thinking why fight nature? We want to dig out a section where the forest creek bed meets our yard and allow a natural pond feature to be created there. Something for frogs and birds and deer to use. We can even put some native fish there– or something non-invasive that's legal to raise as fish to eat even. But first all that yard debris had to be pulled out.
THEN we burned it in a bonfire (the ashes to be used as fertilizer and for the compost, etc.) It was nearly a full moon out and a very mild night– next to the fire one didn't even need a jacket. Everyone was in a jovial mood, as all our hard work is beginning to be obvious and so taking a celebratory break from all that seemed in order.
I went for a walk in the full moon light to check out the absent neighbor's yard. Yes– I was trespassing, thank you for asking! But I mean no harm and the temptation was overwhelming. I had to be sure I couldn't be seen from the road or from Arlene's across the street first, but soon it was clear. There's a NICE forested area in the back and to one side that I envied. The house has a completely collapsed deck in the back that looks hazardous that has yet to be dismantled or replaced. I could also see red lights on in the house through the windows (no I did not peep in the windows, just looked from a distance) so it appears they have interior security. However, no motion censor lights came on outside or anything, which was nice for a criminal like me. (Heh!) Darcy joined me at one point and I showed him the highlights. He was quite taken by my daring– and I was astonished that he'd never trespassed in his life before.
I do so love corrupting the young ones!
Then we returned to the fire, which was quite large, and stayed warm as the night became quite coolish until well after midnight when we began going in and the fire had finally burned down (after many cubic yards of debris were burned.)
Source: http://lucretiasheart.livejournal.com/1128829.html
