Moving the Rhubarb

The new rhubarb bed.

Years ago, I found a beautiful Canadian red rhubarb that I love. I had two plants but I never divided them. They were huge. They provided a lot of rhubarb and photographs. One summer, Wingnut and I wouldn't cut the rhubarb because it housed a huge aphid farm for ants. We followed the life of the farm until it suddenly simply stopped existing. But this year, we had to divide the rhubarbs. They were simply too big.

Rhubarb after it was dug up with the tractor.

The rhubarb plants had to be dug out by the backhoe on the tractor. It had to be done carefully so that the plant wasn't damaged. I was stunned to see the size of the roots. Each carrot-like root is a plant, but we couldn't even count how many there were, so we divided the rhubarb into four plants.

The huge rhubarb roots.

Last summer the new septic system was installed, with an access that sticks out of the ground. I had planned on a wreath of rhubarb around the cap, but John built a raised bed with a stone wall in a semicircle around the cap.

Preparing the new bed for the divided rhubarb.

John had already moved a rhubarb we had found growing behind the house that I never knew was there. We don't know where it came from. But it is flourishing in front now. John used the backhoe to dig holes for each of the four new plants that we divided.

Planting one of the four rhubarbs divided from the one plant.

Even after using the backhoe, we weren't sure if we had planted them deep enough, .But now, two weeks later, the plants are producing more stalks and are growing huge once again. We have to finish the project with the other red rhubarb. There is also one green rhubarb that I want Amelia to take home. And friend Barb has given me a pink rhubarb. In return, she desires one of my divided red plants. In the end, we will have at least 9 rhubarb plants out front. Now we think we have to make another rhubarb bed because they are growing so large!

Planted and watered.

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Sign of Spring: Rhubarb Is Up!

This is what the rhubarb looked like thirteen days ago. It is maybe a half inch taller now. If it would ever warm up and stop snowing, we would move it to the new septic tank access port. That is the green thing that is sticking out of the front yard. If we move all of the rhubarb there, it will look very attractive. The rhubarb plants all need to be separated, anyhow, so we can do both chores at the same time. I hope we can do it soon. We are both itching to dig and plant outside.

Today is the day that I chose for the Crystal Lake ice out. People win a lot of money in those raffles and I was absolutely certain that today (or even this week) would be the day.  In 2007 ice out was on April 22 at 4:55 PM (source: Vermont Weather Blog, ice out page). There is no way that ice out will happen tomorrow. It is now 30°F (-1°C) and snowing. The weather report says we will get about an inch of snow.

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The Night of the Flash Flood

The washed out lower driveway near the apple orchards.

The new septic system was completed the week of July 20. Every day after that, John graded the leach field by tractor and by hand. I helped a bit with removing rocks — tons of rocks — from the ground, to buckets, to the pay loader on the tractor. It was hot and dry in the sun, yet John continued every day, all day long. And finally, on August 5, the grading and seeding was finished.

Late on August 5 the thunder and rain came. It was falling at the rate of inches per hour and it continued for hours. As the rain hit the roof, it was so loud you had to yell so that others could hear you. I went to bed about midnight because the sound of storms relaxes me. John stayed up because he was worried about the brooks from the mountain overflowing and about his newly seeded leach field.

I woke at 1 AM to the sound of the tractor in the night. Opening the window and looking out, I heard the roar of water all around the house. I grabbed a sweatshirt and went downstairs to see what I could do to help. The roar was deafening outside. I could see the lights reflecting in water all about me and I knew immediately what had happened: a flash flood from the brooks on the mountain. I knew that John was working hard to block the water as it roared down from behind the house, around the barn, through the orchard's edge and down the driveway. But there was nothing I could do to help. Later, when John was done, he told me he had dammed an old, broken culvert and made a levee to redirect the water behind the house. The kids told me the basement was totally flooded (but that was okay, because the furnace and water heaters are on blocks because this has happened before. The basement would drain by itself.).

The next morning, I went out with the camera to view the damage. The lower driveway was washed out. The back meadow had been flooded, one brook had cut new banks and undercut old banks. One old culvert that had not been replaced yet had been pulled out of the ground. The orchard was fine, the driveway could be graded. More sections of the ancient, cast iron furnace had been exposed by the rushing water. But the leach field! It was destroyed. There was erosion, gullies, and all the seed had washed away. It would have to be done all over again. Weeks of hot, hard work had been lost!

A temporary earthen dam to stop the water from running into the house.
This is where the old culvert had been torn out of the ground by the flash flood.

Raccoon and cat tracks in the mud the day after the flood.

The old culvert that was torn out of the ground from under the back road.

The lower, washed out, driveway near the apple orchard.

The washed out lower driveway. The new culvert that the town put in held up well and did its job.

The destroyed leach field.
John completed the work, again, and it is now lush with thick meadow grasses.
John re-buried the cast iron furnace pieces
because they were simply too large and embedded to retrieve.
Future owners of the property in the next century can find and recycle them.

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And Speaking of Tractor Chicken . . .

After the kids had their tractor ride (see the previous post below this one), I looked out over the newly graded leach field and saw , , , what was that?? A dead chicken??

Whew! It was just one of the girls taking a dust bath and ungrading the newly graded leach field!

Here are some of the best photos of her bath , , ,

Chickens don't roll completely over during their dust baths but they appear to do so.

The other hen appears to be kicking dirt at the first hen, but she is only beginning her bath by getting her "dust tub" prepared.

The hens were at the peak of their weight in July. Fat, happy and wild.

But that soon changed to simply fat and wild once John saw what they were doing to his day's work!

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A Scary Ride

After the great day at Vacation Bible School, Catgirl, Ironman and I returned home. John was grading the new leach field with the tractor. The kids love the tractor as much as Tractor Chicken does — not because of the grubs and worms that are uncovered but because they get to "drive" the tractor or, as on that hot July day, they get tractor rides. Catgirl loved this. Ironman? Not so much!

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Septic System Installation

On July 20, the trucks, excavators and gravel arrived for the new septic system. All the permits and permissions had been gotten and filed with the town and now the mess began! Above you can see the truck delivering the new septic tank. Our excavator, Arawn, is on the truck. He was the boss that we hired for the project.

Above and below: The tank is lifted from the truck and lowered into the hole.

Above: you can see the mess that this equipment did to the yard. It was something to watch.

Above & below: John and Arawn attach all the pipes.

And finally, Arawn and John quit for the day. As soon as they left, the chickens ran in for dust baths! They were quite a contrast to the huge shovel on the excavator.

The story of the new septic system is hardly over. There were a few problems later in the month. But that story will come later . . .

Click on any of the photos to be taken to the Flickr photo page and the New Septic System Set.

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A New Septic System, Part 1

Let’s take a step back in time to May 7, two weeks before the wedding. I had been told, and Amy had been told, that our septic system was fine. It was just wet because the land was wet. It has always been wet, we were told. Well, John took one look at the leach field and said, nope. . . the septic system has failed and has to be replaced. And he set about doing just that. In the photo above, you see John digging holes in the front yard for the septic design engineer for soil samples that the state requires.

The soil tests were done while Route 16 was being paved. Above, the flagman waved traffic through. One day, while getting the mail from the mailbox across the road, a driver nearly killed the flagman because he was speeding and didn’t stop until it was nearly too late. There usually isn’t this much traffic on the road here, but it had backed up after a long wait for the flag to change from Stop to Slow.

Above, one of four trenches dug for soil samples.

They found a drain pipe in one of the test holes. We found that this pipe comes all the way from a downspout on the house. The pipe ends at the catch basin way down at the bottom of the yard near the road. We have no idea why previous owners did this.

On the left is the metal of the catch basin that the town installed a long time ago. On the right, barely visible, is the end of the drain pipe from the previous photograph that drains a downspout on the house.

A few days after the holes were dug, this spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) (a chorus frog) was found at the bottom of the hole. It managed to crawl up the side of the hole and free itself. Peepers here make so much noise that you can’t talk on the phone without closing windows and going to an interior room!

The septic engineer has returned and surveyed the land for the state requirements. He has designed the new septic system and will submit his plans to the state. I hope the process is short! Part 2 of this series will return when there is something new to show.

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