I’ve been told that a blog without photos is too boring. Well, it just so happens that the reason I didn’t make any blog entries over the past weekend was because I was down at the family farm making a mess and taking photos. The job at hand was to relocate the pump that supplies the house and barn with water from one spring to another. It was messy, but first, a photo from the driveway…nice country.
When we first arrived we got to see the condition the contractors left their equipment in. We know where the hard ground is and told them how to approach the spring, but they had their ideas and wound up stuck up to the chassis in cold mud with a track missing:
That was pretty late in the day. The next morning I had to jump in there for a photo—while I was still nice and tidy.
What ensued after that photo was about 6 hours of toiling with the contractors and our family machinery to get that thing out of the mudhole. Next, they relocated the machine into position for digging the new pump location while an old friend of mine and I did some fence repair.
You can’t really see it well, but the machine is tethered to that young Douglas Fir tree behind it—or else the machine was going right into the hole being dug. Or maybe my daughter is just holding it in place…
The next shot shows the hole complete at about 8 feet deep with a 12’ x 4’ culvert positioned on-end to prevent caving. At that point the spring was producing about 200 to 300 GPM into the hole—a very dependable water source. Within hours the water was running crystal clear. The next task is to place some 15 cubic yards of 5″-open rock and a fabric barrier then the pump goes in and the whole this is capped off.
The next shot puts it into perspective with a view from the house down into the hole where the spring is. Steep country. Nice farm. Good time had by all.
There, I did it! Another blog entry with photos!
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beaut place, Kevin!
Stunning scenery. How do they manage to get any farm work done? I’d be lost in day-dreaming, looking at that.
Hi Noons,
Well, it is pretty much a hobby-farm. The family keeps dairy goats (up to 80 of them) and Llamas…there are some pretty boutique producers of fine cheese that clamor for the raw dairy products though. I do love it up there.
What a nice place!
Thanks, Alex..
80 dairy goats is a hobby? I imagine that’s quite a bit of work. Any public grazing allowed on those clearcuts?
Yep, hobby and a lot of work over the years. The headcount is way, way down these days. Seems Llamas are picking up the slack.
The photo with the clear cuts shows the view well beyond the property which is only 12 acres. Those clearcuts are privately held by a timber company–a stretch that goes for well over 30 miles.