On Franklin Hill Farm: A little bit of heaven

By Bettina Sperry

About a week ago, early in the day and in the rain, I got on the tractor and headed over to the machine shed, and though I traversed a relatively flat area, the soil and shale were so saturated with water that it was like freshly cooked pudding pouring through the pasture and horse paddock. Hours later, the sun started setting. I realized I had spent my entire afternoon tending a mudslide. Hours of it. Mud had moved and settled in places it really wasn’t supposed to be. With the tractor, I tried to move it along the banks of the run, to serve later as barriers to flooding, but it lay in formless heaps. Mud was everywhere.

    And this morning it rained early, so I took a walk out to the machine shed to look at the flow of water following the mud landscaping I’d done last week. While there was still some work to do, water was flowing away from the shed nicely. However, there were still places that needed adjustments, and I spent a bit of time leaving marks where needed, so I’d know what to do at a later time, after the mud dries.

    Unknown to me, my right boot was stuck in mud and my foot completely slid out of it when I took a wide step away. My all-weather boots are about a size larger than needed so that I can add extra socks in the winter on very cold days. These are not snow boots, just wading boots since I have a lot of water on the property. Anyway, left with only a sock on, the only option I had was to go ahead and finish what was started – I put my foot in the mud. Oh, yes I did. I’m sure I was giggling inside. Then I grabbed the boot and pulled it out of the mud, and then took the next step, which was to decide to either put my muddy sock back into the boot or walk a few acres in just the sock – in the mud. Wearing the boot won and I just simply went back to work for a few hours exploring the water flow around the machine shed, later getting on the tractor to move a little more mud

What becomes obvious to a farmer is that the landscape adjusts under foot of the horses and cows and ever so slowly the land changes shape. It can get very tough when too much rain leaves everything completely saturated with little room for more water, but made worse when the water doesn’t flow off the land correctly. Enough erosion and water starts gathering in the wrong places or edges up near a building. I have to spend time on the farm walking, time walking the stream, observing during heavy rains, watching for flooding, and laying and adjusting stone in those locations most aggravated by the frequency of hooves.
    I learn to enjoy these farm maintenance activities for various reasons, but sometimes because of the surprises that arise. This particular location that I’ve spent time working in this past week had previously been very rugged terrain with limited intervention. It was always an area that needed improvement, rather unsightly, but was too tough a place to deal with due to the stone in the area. Now, a little more work and some pasture grass seed in spring and it’ll be a very nice location for some horse grazing.
    Other landscaping and farm maintenance that needs to be done during winter includes removing brush and small trees off the mountainside. Barbed wire fencing at the back of the property needs to be checked and repaired, and I tend to clean the barn during the winter also. Why winter? Because snakes and ticks are pretty much out of my way during this time, as are hornet wasps, and bears are mostly hibernating. Up on the mountain the trees have lost their leaves and the forest is wide open, proving an opportunity for some care-taking tasks. On the other hand, it is a wonderful time to explore and enjoy the back part of the farm, look at stone that is covered with foliage during warmer seasons, go for long walks and observe the deep, moving streams running through the property, and just simply get out and enjoy the cold fresh air – sometimes even in the snow.

There are a few farm maintenance tasks that I undertake during other times of the year, but the majority of them are completed during the cold of winter. In spring and summer, my priority is driving my tractor up the mountain with the brush hog to trim weeds. Last summer I had the pleasure of arriving at the upper pasture to find it lush with monarch butterflies. There were hundreds of them. It was an unexpected find that day. Naturally, I got off the tractor and spent a good bit of time with them. A little bit of heaven.

Copyright © 2019 by Bettina Sperry