Beechmere Diary

On Thursday, I drove down with the windows and door. Chris joined me later to pick up the building materials for the walls.

In spite of much rain on Friday, we were able to put up the rest of the first floor walls. We put up a tarp over the saws and generator and where we assembled the walls. When darkness arrived, we set up lights powered by the generator and worked until 10:00 pm.

On Saturday, I added another window opening above the kitchen counter area and moved all the tools back to the bunkhouse.

One unfortunate event, the water tank fed by the spring was empty. Some years, this time of year, the spring dries up. But usually, the 320 gallon tank is sufficient to last until the spring flows again in September. I don’t know if the 600 foot pipeline is damaged, or the faucet wasn’t closed properly, or someone drained the tank.

Since the spring is dry now, there is little point in trying to determine the problem. I have shut the main valve at the tank for now.

On Friday, June 11, at about 5:00 pm, Chris and I arrived. Although the radio weather service had just announced that there was only a 20% chance of rain, rain thundered down for about 30 minutes. Not a happy beginning.

After driving back to the camp site, we unloaded our food, clothes, and materials and drove into town to purchase framing lumber for the cabin walls.

On Saturday, drizzly rain occurred most of the day. We put up the north and west lower level walls. Then we tried to drive out to get more materials. We could not. The sod driveway was saturated and slick.

On Sunday, I assembled the steps up to the deck. This was pretty sloppy as the work site was very muddy.

On Monday, I decided the weather was not improving enough to dry out the driveway, so I used the come-a-long to pull the pickup to a higher, better drained, part of the driveway and was able to drive out.

There were some good moments ,though, on this visit. We saw a very handsome red fox while driving in on Friday.

The gosling is now about half the size of it’s parents. I am impressed how the parents are always near the gosling with the gosling protected between them. The geese don’t seem greatly bothered when I approach, but they do swim out into the pond.

I checked the seedlings planted earlier. The Swamp White Oaks look very good. The button bush looks good, as well. I was able to find the Red Maple seedlings, but I suspect the golden rod will shade out these seedlings.

I drove down on Friday. After opening the cabin, I planted 100 sycamore seedlings in the pasture.

Chris and Sophia joined me later on Friday evening.

On Saturday, we began to construct the cabin subfloor. We needed to make two trips to transport the materials.

We finished this Sunday morning. I spent the early afternoon covering the subfloor with plastic sheeting. A good thing, as it started raining about 7:00 pm.

Monday morning: I started planting sycamore seedlings along Sharp’s Fork. A slow gentle rain continued from Sunday evening. I could see that Sharp’s Fork was rising, but I thought it would stay within its bank.

At one point, I stopped to watch the stream. A muskrat, or maybe a small beaver, came swimming along carried by the stream flow.

At this point, I noticed the seedlings I had just planted were underwater. By the time I walked out of the pasture, the water was above my boots.

On Tuesday morning, I took a number of pictures of the flooded pasture and began planting sycamores at a higher elevation on the western edge of the pasture.

Tuesday Afternoon: I began planting the White Swamp Oak seedlings at the western edge of the CRP area near our stream. These seedlings are quite large, with a big tap root. I had to make double or triple planting bar plunges to get a wide enough slit for many of these seedlings.

A very heavy downpour halted my planting. After this, there was substantial flooding near the bunkhouse.

On Wednesday, I planted another 100 Oak seedlings.

The weather forecast had been favorable for Wednesday, but it was still raining. I had enough. I went home.

On the weekend before this visit, Sharp’s Fork overflowed and flooded much of the pasture. The water had receded by Monday, but there was a thin deposit of silt where the flooding occurred. There was no real damage. It may be that this flooding may have cleared out some of the debris in Sharp’s Fork. The water was quite muddy on Wednesday, but, by Thursday, the water was clear again. Much of the pasture bottom has standing water.

The temperature on Wednesday was 96 degrees, Thursday was 85 degrees, Friday was 76 degrees. Not typical May weather.

On this trip, I planted the 700 Red Maple seedlings that I heeled in on the last visit. I decided to plant these where the previous year’s Sycamore and Swamp White Oak planting totally failed. The Red Maple seedlings from last year look much better. Planting was difficult; the wet soil stuck to the planting bar.

At This point, I still have 700 Sycamore and 700 Swamp White Oak seedlings heeled in.

The Canada geese have one gosling. Once, while I was walking around the pond, I disturbed the parents so that they swam out from the cattails. After they had gone about fifty feet, they realized junior wasn’t there. They turned around and both honked loudly, junior swam out from the cattails as fast as he could. A small happy moment to remember.

The other surprise was finding a 13″ snapping turtle sunning on the dam. We have had, for many years, two or three snapping turtles in Sharp’s Fork which is a small river about 1500 feet east and 200 downhill from the pond. Sharp’s Fork overflows several times each year and I surmise that the turtle got washed into the pasture and wandered into the pond. Now there is only one lonely turtle in Sharp’s Fork.

Green Frogs have found the pond. At night, spring peepers and tree frogs are very loud.

A Great Blue Heron and a Little Blue Heron seem to be regular visitors. Many Red Wing Blackbirds are nesting in the pasture.

The goal for this visit was to plant 500 Buttonbush, 500 River Birch and 700 Red Maple seedlings in the old pasture and to open the cabin for a new season.

The solar system works just fine. I haven’t even opened the cabinet for three years now. I probably should remove the mouse nests later this year.

The spring and water storage started filling as soon as I opened the valves.

The pond is full and all appears normal. The cat tails and other water plants are thriving and there are thousands of small black tadpoles all around the edge of the pond. Several swallows continuously fly over the pond dipping down to seize insects on the pond surface.

As I was planting River Birch along Sharp’s Fork, I saw the snapping turtles. These creatures are easily two feet in diameter. I also found a dead 8″ diameter snapping turtle. I could see no reason for it’s death.

There are dozens of Red Wing Black birds nesting and calling in the pasture. Sunday evening I heard a Barred Owl calling for at least fifteen minutes, before moving on.

Anyway, I planted the Buttonbush and River Birch seedlings and healed in the Red Maple seedlings to planted later.

It was a good visit, good weather, and good books.

On this visit, we checked the sycamore and swamp white oak seedlings we planted in 2009.

The seedlings we were able to find looked good. However, it is very difficult to spot the seedlings until the leaves appear.

I find that ODOT has moved down some of my line markers and seedlings. I will need to see if I can find out who is responsible how to avoid this in the future.

I was surprised to see that the tree that fell into the stream and caused the stream to move west is now mostly buried in sand and the stream has now moved a bit east from the earlier path. Just the roots now stick up.

The driveway seems dry and we should be able to drive in in mid April to start planting seedlings again.

Usually, by this time of year, I don’t visit because of the cold, and the woods and driveway become wet and slippery. But we have un-expectedly warm weather, so a visit was possible.

The Farm Service has given me until April 1, 2010 to finish the CRP grapevine removal program. There may not be many days between now and April 1 with suitable weather.

On Monday, the temperature reached 56 degrees – very unusual for mid-December. I spent about five hours cutting vines before sunset.

On Tuesday, the temperature reached 44 degrees before cooling to the mid-thirties. I cut vines from 11:30 until 4:30.

I am basically finished with the grapevine cutting, but if weather and time allow, I want to go back and check to see if I have missed any vines.

This is probably the last visit this year.

Only the bright red oaks and some beech still have leaves now. The appearance of the woods is strikingly different in that you can see the shape of the land, the steep hills, the rock ledges and boulders. As the adjoining properties are wooded, it seems like the woods continue forever.

On Thursday, after driving down, I finished marking the east property line. This completes marking property lines for the 50 acre woodlands portion.

Friday was a beautiful fall day. I spent the whole day cutting more grapevines on the next ridge after the Beech / Maple woods.

On Saturday, it rained until about 5:00 pm. I stayed in the cabin and read Richard Dawkins’ excellent book ‘The Greatest Show On Earth, the Evidence for Evolution’.

On Sunday and Monday, I cut still more grapevines. At this point, I am almost finished. There were frosts both mornings, but the temperature rose to the high 50’s each day. Good weather for outside work.

I can see that trees that have grapevines are more likely to be blown down and then the grapevines tend to damage neighboring trees. In addition, grapevines compete with the trees for sunlight and nutrients.

I am leaving some grapevines for wildlife. It is difficult to balance protecting the trees with the effect on wildlife.

On my previous visit, I dumped 500 walnut seeds at four different locations in the pasture and in varying distances from the woods. I was pleased to see that almost all of the walnuts were gone from all four locations and presumably have been planted by the squirrels. I will be very interested in seeing how many walnut seedling result.

The primary objective for this trip was to cut even more grapevines. Ohio DNR has given me more time to complete this project.

The weather from Saturday until Wednesday was cool with no rain. On Wednesday, rain started at midday and I quit and returned home.

I was able to finally finish marking the property boundaries. On the east, north, and south lines, I was able to find remnants of fence, but on the west line, the fence at either corner disappeared after only 10-15 feet. I used GPS to mark the line. As this is only for our use to avoid over stepping our property, this should be sufficient for now. Truth be know, it has been many years since I have visited to this part of the property.

I still have perhaps five acres yet to clear grapevines. I have done the areas that have good trees worthy of protecting. What is left are areas with small trees and dense bushes. This, plus the steep slopes, makes it difficult to traverse.

Late last year, a tree on the east bank of Sharps Fork fell into the stream. This caused to stream to migrate about forty feet creating an Oxbow to the west as the water flowed around the fallen tree. I was surprised to find that the stream now flows to the east of the tree and has shifted about fifteen feet to the east of the original stream bed. There is now a small island about thirty feet wide and fifty feet long.

I did find surviving seedlings from this spring’s planting. Whether we have enough to meet to project goal of 300 surviving seedlings is not clear.

I am trying a different approach to planting walnut seeds. I gathered about 500 walnuts and just dumped these in four locations. Each location was marked with stakes. If all goes well, squirrels will find the walnuts and plant them for me. I also planted 50 walnuts using a planting bar. Fortunately, I can easily gather enough walnuts from just the trees near my cabin. Last year, we planted walnuts and just stomped the seeds into the soft ground.

As usual, we saw many deer and squirrels. I also saw what may be black bear scat and tree marking.

On Thursday, we tramped back to the back 20 acres and cut grapevines and marked more property lines. This area is a young forest with redbud, red oaks, some beech and maple. The understory is spice bush and multiflora rose with lots of ferns and mosses. There are some really impressive fence line trees that must be 200 years old.

On Friday, we walked around the pond and observed many frogs. The cattails seem more frequent and larger than just last month. The dam surface is now well covered with grasses, clover, and some wild flowers. Six of the weeping willows we planted are alive and several are about 48″ high. It is hard to believe that this pond is only one year old and was not filled with water until this spring.

We also walked along Sharp’s Fork. There is more water this year than last year, but one can walk down in the creek bed. There are many minnows and small fish. We also found mussel shells.

I tried to find the seedlings we planted this spring. The seedlings I did find were about 10″ high, but as the golden rod is 36″, the seedlings are hard to find. I did not find any successful willow cuttings. I can only hope they are there and just buried in the golden rod.

I noticed that rodents had gnawed a hole in the bunk house siding. The hole did not go through as there was a metal plate bracket attaching the post to the rim joists. It seems that the plywood siding tastes good to rodents. I nailed up a piece of 3″ trim board along the bottom of the siding to discourage chewing. This worked on the other side of the bunkhouse.

As we drove out to return home, we saw five or six white tail deer on the driveway. Earlier, we saw many squirrels, and chipmunks, one box turtle, many gold finches and swallows. We saw only a few viceroy butterflies.