Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
>
Sun. Jan. 24, 2009 - What are U doing today?
date
newest »


It was 11 degrees out this morning & never got above 24, so with the ground good & frozen, it seemed like the perfect time to pull them out. I cleared the brush with the chainsaws & front end loader, then pulled them up into the south field & piled them against the woods. Next Spring, I'll probably make a couple more log jumps out to them. A couple of the trunks were 20' long, so that's 2 logs each for a jump. Another was Red Cedar, which is perfect to put on the ground since it doesn't rot very fast.
I took Pixie (the pup) & Molly (the Australian Shepard mix) out to help me pick up the remaining branches this afternoon. Pixie stayed with me the whole time & was too busy to get cold. She still had lots of energy when we got back in.

Perhaps you should have named Pixie "Peppy". We once had a dog named Peppy when I was a kid. He was one of the puppies from our bull dog, Queenie. My father had a paper bag and in it were the tails they had just cut off the puppies. Funny how I've remembered that all these years. I guess it made a big impression on me.

Becky - You're ambitious! My cabinets are filled with, not only my stuff, but my MIL's stuff which we kept after she passed away. I hate to get rid of anything because prices are going up and the items may be useful years from now. My mother had a saying: "We can always get rid of them... but we can't always get them back." (g)

Yes, Peppy would have been a good name for her. No, the jumps are for the horses. I'll have to post pictures of some of the other ones I've made. I have them from 18" up to 3'. Marg wants a ring with jumps in & out. Logs are the cheapest to make. Plenty of them around.
Thinking of logs & kitchens, one of the most disgusting things I found today was cockroaches under the bark of one of the Sugar Maples. I've seen them a time or two when removing the old barn. We haven't found any in the house, but I guess I'm going to have to be real careful about the wood in the shop. I HATE cockroaches & would hate to bring them in.
Thanks for inviting me Jim! Its a BIG group! I also loathe cockroaches. They do not live here in Colorado as its too cold and dry for them. I encountered giant ones in Florida as a child and they would fly at a person if they felt threatened.
We may get snow tonight and I am looking forward to it. Too many sunny days lately. I know you remember from Aspen.
Love the polls here. thanks again, Alice
We may get snow tonight and I am looking forward to it. Too many sunny days lately. I know you remember from Aspen.
Love the polls here. thanks again, Alice

Ew-w-w on the cockroaches!
I see that you keep the horses hopping as well as the dogs... and they keep all of you hopping.
What do you mean by jumps "in and out". In and out of where? Oh, I suppose you have an indoor area as well as an outdoor area.

Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Best wishes,
Joy
PS-I read the note you wrote with your Friend Request. I responded by sending you a Friend Request because it was the only way I could send you a welcome note, since you don't accept email. Anyway, thank you for becoming my Goodreads Friend.

There's already a fence on two sides, but I'll need to put up one more - leaving one end open. That will let dump trucks in to put down down 4" of top grade (CR-8) & 4" of I Sand (stone dust) on top of that. I'd really prefer the sand to be mixed with rubber, but we can't afford that. Then I'll put up the end.
Unfortunately, I can't afford any of it right now. Not with Erin in college. Just the fencing materials will be close to $1000. Stone & sand will likely be over twice that. Eddie probably half that.

How does the rubber help when mixed with the sand? What's the sand for?
We had our driveway paved recently. I learned a few things about all the different choices. Bluestone was one of them. They put that where we couldn't afford to extend the blacktop and where there are roots of pine trees which could crack blacktop and create dangerous bumps.
Bluestone is like a rough powder mixed with stones. The powder hardens after being laid down.

Bluestone used to come in several varieties. We use 'Screened #10's' on my grandfather's driveway. That had no powder in it & all the rocks were about the size of the end of my finger. Sifted means they kept just that size stone, no powder. 'Crush & Run' generally denotes stone dust mixed in with specific size stone. CR 8 would mean mixed stones up to 1.25" in diameter, including dust & smaller stone. Here it's mostly limestone, which is white. No bluestone around.
Normally for a ring, you'd put in a clay base, but that's what we call soil, so I just have to level it. Then you put dense grade (not top grade, wrong name, but what I would call CR-8) on which gives a cushion & drainage for water to move along. Usually 4" is good enough. It also lets you get a better level. Then you want 4 - 6" of something that's easier on the horses feet & can be dragged for a smooth surface. In our case, it will be I-Sand, even though that packs pretty darn hard.
I'd prefer even beach sand, but that's tough to come by, too. Rubber mixed in just keeps it from packing as hard & isn't as dusty in the summer. Since it's old tires, you'd think it would be cheap. It isn't.

You mentioned clay. Our summer place consists of mostly clay. Hard as a rock in dry weather and nothing will grow well in it. Terrible stuff, especially to dig post holes in. There's top soil over it in most areas where the grass grows, but some areas never were covered with top soil. Little by little I try to fill in the clay areas where I'd like to see grass. Ed doesn't care. Just let's it be. He has too many other things to do.
OTOH, our winter house has sandy soil. Drains very well.
At the house we had downstate, whenever we wanted to dig for a garden, we hit rocks and boulders.
Are you doing anything special today?