Acair Fearann

It is odd how we always think of crickets as a summer insect, but they really aren’t. Or more accurately, summer is a complicated set of seasons and not one season at all. Crickets belong to late in August, to the lengthening nights, the tall and drying grasses, and the leaves that are no longer the luscious green summer leaves but have become whip thin and rustle in the stirring breeze.  Sometimes, there is the drenching summer humidity; but nearly as often are the days with temperature changes of twenty or thirty degrees.  This is cricket weather, they don’t belong in the velvet darkness of June or even July, when the fireflies are at their peak and all is green and growing. They are an odd echo of the spring peepers, but somehow a steadier sound. The peepers are frantic and (naturally) very directional, since they always come from one location: a suitable pond. If the peepers are a sudden wellspring of life, the crickets are the steady, encompassing beat of life fulfilled.

One Response »

Or how to annoy the fishermen…..saw a very proud Bald Eagle the other day down on the river by the retaining wall in town. A popular fishing spot because the bend in the river hits the wall and makes a fairly deep pool.  In a year like this, those deep pools are critical habitat for the trout. They are, of course, also a confined space.  The eagles know this too, so it isn’t too uncommon to see the pair that lives up on the lower reservoir dropping down to the center of town. Often they will hang out on the hill that rises to the west of the river, which is on the other side of the road that runs on the top of the wall.  In this case, he or she popped up over the wall and over the road a little more slowly than is their wont.  With good reason.  That had to have been one of the bigger trout in the river.  Emphasis on past tense.  The eagle looked, if an eagle can, rather happy.

Comments Off on Wildlife!

Because, you can always long for the other extreme! Beat the heat?  The basement is a good choice otherwise, think cool thoughts:

Comments Off on Why I like the seasons

It is funny how we tend to react to rain, even today when most work is indoors the instinctive reaction is a desire to stop and wait it out or at very least stop and watch it for a little while.* These days we work right on through storms and I can’t help but wonder if that disconnect does odd things to us.

A project can’t get delayed because of the weather, but perhaps it should?  The modern ‘on time’ ‘lean’ culture has a great many benefits, but it also has some drawbacks.  Sometimes, they are obvious: watching two guys load a very large and expensive bit of machinery in the middle of a thunderstorm because it had to be at another facility by lunch time.  No slack in that schedule or in that operations budget, but what is the long term cost?

In paperwork, there is no safety concern about working through the weather. But, is there a mental quality to it? Would it actually be a negative if we did what that deep, old bit of instinct tells us to do and simply watched the rain for a few minutes? Maybe I’m just a Luddite!

*Assuming one is not so deep in the bowels of a building that one can’t even hear it.

One Response »

In the next few weeks, once the last bits have arrived (the new rims) and when we have a bit of time, the old tractor will be getting its rear end rebuilt: new brakes, new rims, new tires. It needs a little work on the front too, which we may get to.  It runs beautifully, but right now it really isn’t any good for heavy work.  The tires can hold air for perhaps half an hour and the rims are delicate…fine for mowing a flat field, not fine for anything else.

This project, by the way, is not being done by me…..I’m the enthusiastic cheerleader on this one, with joy.

So before pictures:

The bush hog, siting behind the tractor, is also going to get some judicious welding done to it….that dark line you see was caused by a bent blade making like a can opener in sheet steel.

New tires, with tread! Purists will grumble about switching from the original tread pattern (there is a subtle difference), but this is a working tractor not a show tractor, so we went with solid tires rather than pretty Chinese/Thai. The aim is to be able to keep open some areas that otherwise are impossible and, with this tractor largely out of commission, reverting to brush (mostly bittersweet and barberry), plus there is a reasonable possibility that the near future may involve more work in the woods. And the Fergusons, with a high ground clearance but a paradoxically low center of gravity, are ideal for the firewood/bush hog trade in rough ground. They’re not much good for things that need hydraulics: front end loaders, backhoes, snow plows, etc. But as iron mules….they’re just fine.

Comments Off on Before Posts

Odd how that works. Actually a little better today, but not enough moisture to even begin to perk anything up. At least the grass doesn’t need mowing! And if it continues, I’m likely to be able to work on another section of my project this fall….the Colebrook River Lake is probably not going to be much of a lake!

But, it does make one less than inspired to do anything at all outside. Let alone write about it.

However, I probably ought to take some before pictures….the elderly Massey Ferguson is about to get itself largely rebuilt. The parts are coming from hither and yon, the toolbox is waiting, and the person who will be doing most of the work can’t wait to start.  (though when we will find the time….)  Get that done and the Bush Hog fixed and perhaps we can start to get some areas back under control. The Oriental Bittersweet is rapidly becoming the Kudzu of the north around here.

One Response »

well anything else except for a self-inflicted rant about green beans….

Your moment of zen*

*though, zen was not first on my mind, even if it was a gorgeous morning.  One of the interns was trying to get seasick…with success….and I was in charge of finding the things that would make the day ‘worth it’

Comments Off on In lieu of