If wishes were trees the trees would be fallin'

So you might be wondering about the title of this post.  If you don't already know where it's from, see the end of the blog for the answer.

We had a series of thunderstorms come through for about a week straight.  It was great to get the pond filled from all the rain, but winds coming from the northeast played havoc on the trees.

I was surprised to go check the trail after the storms and see six different, large trees that had fallen across it.  With all these trees falling, I'm surprised I have any forest left.

To fix things, I took the chainsaw and waded into the mess.  Let's just say the trees were dispatched with extreme prejudice.

One problem caused when the bigger trees fall is that they take a lot of other trees with them.  In the picture below, you see the big tree in the foreground took out a similarly sized tree just off to the left.

From 2012-07-24

I think this big, old, dead tree just kind of got tired and just fell over, right across my fence on the back property line.

From 2012-07-24

This tree had been leaning for quite some time.  I guess all it needed was a gust of wind to finish the job.

From 2012-07-24

This section of trail seems to be cursed.  We've had several blow downs as well as one that got hit by lightning and cut in half.

From 2012-07-24

JADT.  Just another dead tree.

From 2012-07-24

It looks like a hurricane came through here but the split trees are actually from a bulldozer session I did to widen the trail.  It was surprising to see the one across the trail had just kind of tipped over.  I must have loosened up the soil too much.

From 2012-07-24

The barn area keeps getting closer and closer to being done.  A couple more burn sessions ought to do the trick.  Then it will be time to bring in gravel.  It'll be nice to be finished with this phase of the project and start building.

From 2012-07-24

The answer, to where the post title came from, is Stand by REM.  I'm not sure what it has to do with anything, but they lyrics kept going through my head while I was clearing the trees.

 Your feet are going to be on the ground 
Your head is there to move you around 
If wishes were trees the trees would be falling 
Listen to reason 
Season is calling

Creating a Pond

Despite temperatures above 110 degrees, the show must go on.  As long as your in the shade, it only feels like 109 though, so it makes it much more bearable.

The two main projects going on now are continuing to clear the barn area and working on the pond.

From 2012-07-02

The pond hadn't really been on the radar since it still had water in it, but the hot, dry spell we just went through dried it up much faster than we expected.  I was surprised to come by one morning and see that it was bone dry.  I was also a little stressed because this has become our main water supply for the goats.

However, this was the opportunity I'd been waiting for since the pond filled several months back.  When I originally built it, I had no idea it would work so well and last so long. 

Now that it was dry, I had a small window of time to cut down all the trees that were growing inside the dam and pond perimeter.  I also needed to patch up the leaks and smooth it out to make it look presentable.

The picture below shows how it looked right after drying up.

From 2012-07-02

I can testify that lighting a bonfire in 100+ degree heat is as unpleasant as it sounds.

From 2012-07-02

Luckily I had a tough work crew that was able to handle the heat and was able to stay in the kitchen.

From 2012-07-02

The bulldozer was a great for  digging the pond deeper and building up the sides.

From 2012-07-02

We were able to get the pond dug to around 6 feet at the deepest point.  Luckily it was clay all the way down, so it will be great at holding water.

From 2012-07-02

We didn't finish a moment too soon.  The day after we finished,  a big storm came through and filled the pond up to the first level.  My next task is to get some grass growing so the water doesn't end up getting so muddy.

From 2012-07-02

Most of the water comes down this road and runs right into the pond.  My next plan is crowning the road and making a channel on the side, lined with rock, to divert more of the water directly to the pond.

From 2012-07-02

A drawback to having a fence in a forest is that  trees are constantly falling on it.  After the storm that filled the pond came through,  I was surprised to see  a big tree (cut up in the pic below) laying across the fence.

I was also surprised to see the goats and donkey still in the pen.  Although, as we looked closer, we saw lots of tracks and pellets indicating they spent a fair amount of time playing outside the fence.

When a hurricane knocked down the fence last year, the animals all escaped and went on a three day romp through all the neighboring farms. so it was nice to see they like this pen enough to stick around.

From 2012-07-02

The stump in the bottom center part of the picture is from the tree that fell across the fence.  The post is newly planted in an attempt to fix the damage.

From 2012-07-02

It's kind of hard to see the fence in this shot, but it shows another big branch that's fallen across the fence.  I'm beginning to realize that I really need to get down to the prop and check on things after every big storm, as well as the fact that it's going to be a regular occurrence.

From 2012-07-02