Splosh-splosh

 

We've started the process of reclaiming the pastures. It's a lot of hard work, but boy do they need the attention! The front 5 acres of our property is mostly old pastures that over the past few years have come into direpair. My grandfather couldn't physically get out and do what needed to be done, but also refused to let anyone else touch the tractor or machines to let anyone else get things done.

 

We've been using dog kennel pannels to wrap around the old fencing by cutting through some of the barbed-wire in places. This leaves a nice little paddock along the fenceline for the San Clemente girls to chow down. They've done a nice job helping clean up the lines so far, so at least we will get to salvage the fence posts even if the wire is useless. I'll have to come up with a decorative idea to do with the old wire. Once we've got a section cleaned, all the wire comes down and the mower can then maintain between the posts until we finish a field and are able to replace the fence with a nice goat/no-climb wire.

 

 

 

While the goats are at work, I'm busy trying to get the two ponds in working order again. The three drain pipes that drain the ponds have been backed up so we hacked our way through the briars to get to them and cleaned them out really well.

I've shoved 16ft of pipe down the drain to stir up the silt at the other end.

 

I couldn't believe how much water flowed out of the pond is such a short time. We had to move the tractor out from behind the dam pretty quickly as the drainage area filled with water. Luckily the culvert wasn't clogged and the water kept draining away from the dam. 

After 12 hours the pond is down considerably, you can see the line on the plants where the water level has dropped.

 

 

The two pipes on the large pond side are flowing great, but the smaller one is going to take more time to clean out around. We have had so much rain and both ponds are so over-full that the pastures are mush. I would say around 70% of the pasture with the large pond and 40% of the pasture with the small pond have major flooding. I wouldn't trust the tractor to bush hog through the grass at this point. The water level is dropping, but we are expecting many more days of rain this summer. I've never hoped for a drought before, but I could sure use that typical Georgia dry spell to dry things up a bit and let us get some work done.

 

 

Atleast the pond is nice to look at once more.

 

        

 

         -M