MOVING BOULDERS AND DIGGING DRAINAGE DITCHES

          Summer solstice has arrived - after the long winter that continually just went on and on - spring seemingly to have lasted about three days - the smiling summer sun is finally shining down on Golden Unicorn Farm .  The grass in the pasture is almost up to my chest due to the heavy rain fall and the black fly droppings - makes great fertilizer.  My friend Clayton Clark who lives smack dab on the top of Green Mountain, is going to bush-hog the back pasture one day this week - waiting for the tall grass to dry.  Since that portion, about a fifth of the 50 acres is already tamed so to speak, I might as well keep it that way or the squaw-bushes will soon take over.  Hopefully, the weather, if it's anything like last summer, we should have a good crop of golden rod - plan on making a sack full of golden rod herbal tea - mmm good!

Clayton Clark and His Skidster

          Clayton dropped by yesterday evening with his skidster and rolled some huge boulders away from where the new barn is going to be built this coming Saturday - the little orange machine certainly had its work cut out.  I was hoping to have the ditch finished being dug, the crushed rock in place and the drainage pipe laid so he could push the earth back over the drainage ditch but no such luck - Lenny will just have to depend on his shovel and fill it in by hand.  My back from the tip of my neck to the last tail bone is one achy part of my body, not to mention my legs, arms, hands - come to think about it - the only part of my body that doesn't ache is my head - don't even get hangovers. 
          Last night, I crawled into the tub, the water was so hot, almost the ideal temperature for cooking a lobster; it felt delightfully, yet somewhat painful and soothing at the same time.  I feel relatively good this morning, a bit stiff for wear and will hopefully finish getting the drainage pipe in place and then filling in the remainder of the ditch sometime today.  I sure hope, after all the effort it took to dig the ditch that it does the job it was intended to do, which is to divert the rain water from streaming off the road going by the property and into the garage and under my studio.

  50' Drainage Ditch

          I should be working on the ditch right now rather than writing this blog but I have to go into Woodstock this morning to pick up some building materials for the barn and get a big load of manure from a friend of ours, Glenn McLean.  No use starting a hard chore, building up a massive sweat for just a short time and then not complete what I have to get done, so I'm taking a wee break, just letting my fingers do a little tap dance on the keyboard for a short while..  Seems the barn I tore down had all sorts of good re-usable lumber but nary a 2"x6" could be found, which could be used for the new barn's rafters.   Clayton said he would drop by this evening to give me a hand in leveling and begin building the floor of the new barn.  He also agreed to oversee this project because what I know about building a barn wouldn't even fill a wee thimble.  Hard to believe that come this weekend, there will be a structure in place that will be suitable for the dog, goats and chickens, which will soon be arriving.  It will be great to have some animals here at Golden Unicorn Farm besides the occasional deer that traipses across the pasture or a bear visiting the apple trees.