Friday, June 19, 2009

And what did you do last weekend?

As for me, I had to drive up to the farm and dig out the septic tank because the new bathroom which had been installed didn't work. I spoke to one of the previous owner's sons who had grown up there and as far as he knew, the septic tank hadn't been pumped out - ever. And he'd been around for perhaps 50 years.

In fact, we didn't know if there even was a tank. It might be an old well, a cedar log box or most anything. So I made a note of where the pipe exited the basement and began digging. And digging and digging and digging and digging. I finally found a cast iron pipe leading farther out into the yard and kept on digging.

At last I found what I thought was a concrete lid. It turned out to be one of several giant old stones which covered the tank. The final hole was big enough to bury many people. There were big piles of dirt all over the front yard and I was tired and sore.

I had to go home, but on Monday Rick contacted a contractor to come pump out the tank. He declared it a real septic tank with a real leach field. He said it should not need pumping again for many years. But just in case, we installed an access route to prevent another major digging operation in the future.

And the Columbine in my back yard are now in bloom. Not the ones I'd planted, but only the old ones.

And these strange flowers, above. I cannot find them in any wildflower field guide and they don't look like cultivated plants. Anyone recognize these ferny-leafed, white flowered plants? I also saw them along the roadsides in the high flat parts of the Adirondacks.

And my south hay field is full of Bladder Campion, Silene cucubalus. It's an imported alien which is now common throughout our region, a member of the Pink family.

This is the south hay field. It's mostly grass but you can see how the wild flowers thrive in the midst of all that grass. This is the field the local farmers all want to hay. Well, actually, the cultivated hay begins out beyond the fence posts you see. The close up conglomeration of miscellaneous plants is the former barnyard. I think that yaks or cattle will be very happy there and I won't have to buy additional feed.

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