Reclaiming a long-lost field

[dave1949]

Looks good Dave. All your work has paid off. Soon maybe you'll be doing this.View attachment 429613

Ha! I wish. I'm making progress slowly. The rock picking is taking longer than I thought--surprise, surprise. I must have been guesstimating with a 20 year-old mind in a 66 year-old body. :laughing:

But, I can see light at the end of the rock tunnel now at least and everything gets easier after the rock picking is done. After the rocks are done my next step is to get lime on it. I will mow it down sometime in late July probably. That will give what grasses there are a chance to go to seed and grow without competition until winter. I have some other smaller areas here that I have mowed once or twice a year since 2003 that hold grass pretty well. Alfalfa could be a stretch.

 

[Garandman]

Maybe this guy can be a helpah.

 

[Larro Darro]

Little Peter can talk the talk.

 

[dave1949]

Little Peter freaks me out a bit.

 

[Garandman]

He's a pissah.

 

[MaineTom]

Now I KNOW my uncle Frank has been reincarnated! Hey Frank!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Dave, found your place on google maps........ Is that a swampy area to the north of the clearing?

 

[dave1949]

Dave, found your place on google maps........ Is that a swampy area to the north of the clearing?

It is when the beavers are using it. It's a beaver bog fed by a small stream that comes down from Boardman Mtn., that knobby hill to our north. Most of it is less than 3' deep. There are actually three connected, terraced areas they have dammed off and on but they seem to keep just one pond full at any time. That beaver pond consistently shows up in all the images going back through time.

Since we bought this lot in 2003 there have been beaver in there except for a three year period 2007-2010. I think they had eaten all the easy trees. It takes a long time for the bog to dry out after they leave but eventually I could walk across most of it on dry ground.

Some pics. The brown trees are dying (drowned) because the beavers expanded their flooded area with that new section of dam.

 

[cat fever]

It is when the beavers are using it. It's a beaver bog fed by a small stream that comes down from Boardman Mtn., that knobby hill to our north. Most of it is less than 3' deep. There are actually three connected, terraced areas they have dammed off and on but they seem to keep just one pond full at any time. That beaver pond consistently shows up in all the images going back through time.

Since we bought this lot in 2003 there have been beaver in there except for a three year period 2007-2010. I think they had eaten all the easy trees. It takes a long time for the bog to dry out after they leave but eventually I could walk across most of it on dry ground.

Some pics. The brown trees are dying (drowned) because the beavers expanded their flooded area with that new section of dam.
View attachment 431740


View attachment 431741

Those pictures are great. Sure wish I had something like that around me.

 

[dave1949]

Some update pics. I declared my one-day independence from rock picking today. The air is muggy and calm anyways.

There were a couple times I wondered if I bit off more than I could chew but I'm close to being done with the hand work now. I bought a 3pt spreader last week to spread lime, fertilizer and seed.

From the field entrance.


This is the last rock picking area. It's a mess with buried boulders. Some of those small ones I can pop with the backhoe, some not.


I mowed off this section two days ago which was about 2/3 open and 1/3 trees in clumps when I started, so it has a fair amount of grass sod established already. I figured it was time to knock back the weeds and tree seedlings to give the grass an advantage. I took the pic from the top of the rocky rise that used to have a rock wall on top of it.


Looking the other direction from that rise. Much more sparse where it was all trees at the start.


This is from the backend of the field not far from the beaver bog. The white blooms are ox eye daisies.