Goen' Hoen'

[gcreekrch]

Since it looks like we will be haying in October and the water table is a long way from dropping I am cleaning out several of the ditches at Morrison Meadow. We had a record 81 hours without rain and then had another shower this afternoon.

Moved yesterday.

Walked 1 1/2 miles up the meadow to dig out the worst one. This is looking downstream.

Upstream.

View from the seat.

Since I am a half fast ho-er I got a half mile done in six hours. The last 200 yards had some brush involved.

Today. 'Nother ditch
Upstream, fair amount of water.

The old ditch was getting quite shallow and losing a lot of water.

A Movedit.

I found some frozen lumps under the heaviest brush. Any of you heat wavers want some mudsickles? :lol:

Making some headway, I started at the far timber.

Where I quit tonight. Willows on both sides of the ditch, roots joining them underneath. Slow going.

Wall of brush to clear for visibility out as I go.

500 acres here with a good crop of Meadow Foxtail. Todays rain and a little breeze started some of it laying down.

500 acres with most of it's feet in water. This is a low spot in the road but there are lots more low spots out there.

 

[Soapweed]

Looks like you got a lot accomplished. Hope this helps to drain the meadow so you can bale some hay. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[Silver]

Geeze, I thought we were wet. Looks like your on the right track to solve a good part of the water problem, now Mother Nature needs to kick in a little. Speaking of 'on track', I noticed your tracks are pretty loose. I'd hate to see you step out of those tracks out in that wet ground, in my experience that is no fun at all.
I did the outside rounds on a couple fields on Monday, then the rain chased me out. Yesterday I did some more and got chased out by the rain again. Stayed off the tractor today and took Mrs. Silver into town for her birthday supper and it turned out to be a beautiful day after the morning 1/4" of rain.

 

[littlejoe]

I've seeded garrison foxtail on poor drained spots---by hand, slow to start, once i got a little going baled it up and fed it where i wanted it to grow.

It crowds about everything else out, then production seems to drop off, once it really gets sodded in. For me, it makes kinda rank, not too popular with the cows, hay----how does it work for you---any tips?

thanks~~lj

 

[gcreekrch]

Geeze, I thought we were wet. Looks like your on the right track to solve a good part of the water problem, now Mother Nature needs to kick in a little. Speaking of 'on track', I noticed your tracks are pretty loose. I'd hate to see you step out of those tracks out in that wet ground, in my experience that is no fun at all.
I did the outside rounds on a couple fields on Monday, then the rain chased me out. Yesterday I did some more and got chased out by the rain again. Stayed off the tractor today and took Mrs. Silver into town for her birthday supper and it turned out to be a beautiful day after the morning 1/4" of rain.

Changed one seal a month ago but the barrel was pitted and rusty. Not sure if I can clean it up enough without getting to big or not. I did pump them up before it came off the trailer and check them several times a day. You're right, I don't like that job. :wink:

Trust a trackman to see that, I was wondering who would be first.

 

[Silver]

Geeze, I thought we were wet. Looks like your on the right track to solve a good part of the water problem, now Mother Nature needs to kick in a little. Speaking of 'on track', I noticed your tracks are pretty loose. I'd hate to see you step out of those tracks out in that wet ground, in my experience that is no fun at all.
I did the outside rounds on a couple fields on Monday, then the rain chased me out. Yesterday I did some more and got chased out by the rain again. Stayed off the tractor today and took Mrs. Silver into town for her birthday supper and it turned out to be a beautiful day after the morning 1/4" of rain.

Changed one seal a month ago but the barrel was pitted and rusty. Not sure if I can clean it up enough without getting to big or not. I did pump them up before it came off the trailer and check them several times a day. You're right, I don't like that job. :wink:

Trust a trackman to see that, I was wondering who would be first.

Ah well, I know where you're coming from. My old D6 has similar issues.
Say, I guess I signed myself up to take a course in predator loss verification. I guess since the program ran out of money they're gonna let us foxes guard the henhouse. They tell me they may be offering us a mitigation course in the future as well. Similar happenings down there?

 

[gcreekrch]

Geeze, I thought we were wet. Looks like your on the right track to solve a good part of the water problem, now Mother Nature needs to kick in a little. Speaking of 'on track', I noticed your tracks are pretty loose. I'd hate to see you step out of those tracks out in that wet ground, in my experience that is no fun at all.
I did the outside rounds on a couple fields on Monday, then the rain chased me out. Yesterday I did some more and got chased out by the rain again. Stayed off the tractor today and took Mrs. Silver into town for her birthday supper and it turned out to be a beautiful day after the morning 1/4" of rain.

Changed one seal a month ago but the barrel was pitted and rusty. Not sure if I can clean it up enough without getting to big or not. I did pump them up before it came off the trailer and check them several times a day. You're right, I don't like that job. :wink:

Trust a trackman to see that, I was wondering who would be first.

Ah well, I know where you're coming from. My old D6 has similar issues.
Say, I guess I signed myself up to take a course in predator loss verification. I guess since the program ran out of money they're gonna let us foxes guard the henhouse. They tell me they may be offering us a mitigation course in the future as well. Similar happenings down there?

Yes. We're right back to where we were before the program started. Giving it back to the Keystone Cops and expecting any effectiveness from them is a farce.
I'll call you in the next few days and you can let me rant for a bit. :shock:

Funny, since the Bunny Sherriffs took it back in mid February there have only been 17 complaints in the Cariboo Chilcotin. I wonder why? :roll:

 

[lefty]

If we dug a ditch like that the frog police will haul you away .

? can you get your spoil pile back away from the ditch more & leave some gaps for the water to go in the ditch . I have miles of ditch like that ,If your pile are to close to the ditch the wt. of them will push your ditch shut over time . we have many acres of low ground hay underwater yet too . Good Luck .

 

[leanin' H]

Man, your a regular excavating son of a gun nowadays! Gcreeks basement service? That is plenty of water. Hope the haying gets started for you before next summer. We have some garrison meadows out here that makes pretty good hay. It does well in poorly drained, alkali/clay soil and the cows eat it when we feed it on snow.

 

[gcreekrch]

littlejoe, we have no problem getting cattle to eat this hay. Later cut they will leave some stalks but not much. Cut now it will go 10-12% protein and 65-70% TDN. It increases production by as much as 3x over wild hay.
I would suggest you feed it out first if you are having trouble.

Lefty, there was an old wire fence involved in part of the ditching. The other was mostly 4-5 feet back. Over time they will slough back in but these should be good for my lifetime now.

H, want a night job? There will be quite a fire next spring if we don't get it off.

 

[Nicky]

If we didn't have meadow foxtail noone around would get much grass hay. No problem whatsoever getting the cows to eat it.

Gcreek, you'll have lots of hay if you can ever cut it! Did you get an inline wrapper? or whatever they are called?

 

[jodywy]

some of my meadow foxtail is starting to lay down..... need to get thru the dry farm alfalfa first....

 

[gcreekrch]

If we didn't have meadow foxtail noone around would get much grass hay. No problem whatsoever getting the cows to eat it.

Gcreek, you'll have lots of hay if you can ever cut it! Did you get an inline wrapper? or whatever they are called?

We still have our single balewrapper Nicky. It costs more but I like the feed far better than most of the inline stuff I've seen.

Seriously contemplating doing acid like Per. :lol:

The ditch cleaning is starting to have an effect, along with some warmer days with wind and not much for showers.