Restoring Stream Beds

The backhoe, above, is vital to restoring the buried stream beds that are flooding the hillside, barn, yard and even the road. I'm fascinated by all of the hoses on the back that make the backhoe work.

There are at least two brooks here that come off of Barton Mountain. Decades ago, as the land here was developed for farming and building the house and barn, the brooks were simply buried or diverted without thought to the action that water has over time. If the water action is not considered, the brooks go underground and seep out everywhere. The land adjoining our acres was slowly becoming flooded so that you have to put on waders to pick apples from the trees. Willows and alders grew abundantly in the wet ground and created a fine mesh of roots that further buried the brooks.

The first step in restoring the brooks is to brush hog the willows and alders. You have seen this in previous posts. As the land was cleared and began to dry, it was easier to see how the water flowed as it appeared and disappeared here and there in its travel down the mountain. Culverts that were installed long ago had become full of mud and forest litter. Once the culverts were cleared, the water drained better, but still was not flowing in its original stream bed.

In the photograph above, John has finally reached the gravel of the stream bed. There are huge rocks there. When the brook is restored, there will most likely be a nice pool here. The water is running clear.

Above, you see the brook as it comes out from underground. There are blackberry and raspberry canes growing over the brook.

Above: another brook. Up in the woods, this brook flows over and under glacial erratic boulders that animals use for shelter. The pools and the gurgling water have been one of the things I love about this land. Buddy and I have gone up for years to enjoy the water. But down below near the house, the willows and alders have buried the brook. John has been clearing it away so that the water can flow the way it was meant to flow.

Below: behind the backhoe you can see a mass of brown roots growing over the brook. Willows grow roots like this. They cover the brook, submerging it. But the roots are always dangling in water. This is a very effective survival technique for the willows but not for the brook.

And finally, below, you can see that the water can now flow more freely. The volume of water increased greatly after the willows were cleared. It makes one wonder where the water was going underground.

Obviously, there is a lot more work to be done. But it has begun and the changes in the land are tremendous.
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Brush Hogging with Chickens

This is what it's like to brush hog when you have chickens. They quickly learn that you are digging up worms. Just for them. And then they follow the noisy, smelly tractor for more. They follow you everywhere. You can't even run them over because they are quick footed but you constantly worry that you might. The photo above is a normal shot from the back door. (Someday I may just persuade somebody to restore my cedar post clothesline so I don't have to use that awful plastic and metal whirligig one.) Below, is a zoomed in shot of John and chickens brush hogging the upper field.

By the way, just past John in these photos, he found a huge colony of trout lilies that I had never seen before! It's an exciting find and I can't wait until the thousands of lilies there bloom in a couple of weeks!

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Brush Hogging

John's been pretty busy. He has drained the water from around the barn as you can see above. I always thought that the water was from underground springs. It is, sort of. The brooks off of the mountain go underground before they reach the barn and then go underground because of the willows and alders that have grown wildly around the barn and the edge of the small field. John brush hogged the brush and the water began draining through his newly excavated ditches. He is recreating the natural flow of the brooks.

The brush in the photo above obscured the end of the shed at the end of the barn. John has brush hogged the entire barn and about a quarter mile of the right of way that goes up the mountain.

Technically, brush hogging means that you use a brush hog. But the tractor is best for this job because of the size of the brush. John hauls it to the far edge of the property. He got a burning permit from the fire warden and it took a whole day to burn the brush that he pulled in only two days. There is no snow pack now, so unfortunately John had to wait for a snowy, rainy day to burn. He had to stay with the fire the whole time in order to prevent a forest fire. It was a miserable day for him!

Below, John is clearing brush from the upper field. Our views of the field and the wildlife that visit it have been blocked by the willows. John left all of the beautiful tamarack trees, which we both love.

Below is a view from the bottom of the upper field to the barn.

And finally, the end of the barn is nearly entirely cleared. This part of the barn will be detached and rebuilt for a chicken coop that is weasel-proof.

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