Crick Dry, 8 July

The trees are having a good season--good, long candles, healthy needles, no mold, in spite of the rainy season. On this day, 8 July, the Crick ran dry--it's fading before it reaches the outfall. We did some transplanting this year, but no new planting. The little elm is still doing quite well, all things considered--the one against the workshop is growing like mad. I should really chop it down. We have now cut most of the "wild field" next door and at Diane's; only a few troublesome patches remain. I have hacked out most of the spruce stumps from the old tree line north of the garden.  Dogs: Frey (c. 6), Ollie (c. 3). Then there's Abbie (c. 5?).

Valhalla

 We have a new dog: Valhalla (formerly "Vanilla" and "Valla" for short). The acquisition at the SPCA was hilarious. After assuring me that she was very friendly, very good with other pets, the desk officer cleared everyone and every animal out of the lobby. Only then did Valla come forth....

Snow time like the present

Boris shovelled off Di's roof, a job he completed a few days before a heavy rain which was followed by an ice storm. The woods were completely glazed this morning. Thanks to the fine snipping job on the red oak, it was one of the few trees not bowed under scintillating shards. All along the English Settlement Road, the trees were bent over until they reached well into the middle of the north-bound lane. There were slippery patches on the Killarney Road hill. I'm glad I waited until 8:30 to head in. Even so, the "water over road" signs were plentiful; we'll see what it is like on the way home!

Snow Fun

We made up for the slow start of winter with a compressed but busy season: massive snow storms, wind, hail, and extreme cold, most of in the last month. The deck is half buried in frozen masses of snow and ice, the guttering was damaged (I had to take it down), and it's been hard keeping the path to the oil tank clear.

All three dogs--Frey, Ollie, and Abbie--are fine.

Green Christmas

Our Christmas cookout was a little different this year. We all walked out--Diane too--through a complete absence of snow. It was delightful--no awkward trudging. The only disappointment lay in my having bought everyone new snowshoes for Christmas. Still, two or three days later there was enough snow to try them out, and we did. For the last few days, I have been trekking out in rubber boots; there is still a little snow, quite packed down, but nothing that really requires snowshoes or skis. Today there was a little snow; it does not look like much in Fredericton, but we'll see how it is in the woods.

All in all, this has been a wonderful year for the trees. I carefully clipped all the leaves off the red oak, but we really haven't had those dreadful ice storms--yet.

Transplants and Burials

On May 4 we had a definitive signal: at 5:30 PM the blackflies arrived; spring has officially begun. We mowed the lawn between swats. The next day, there were far fewer flies and more wind and cooler weather. Today it is blowing wildly and quite chilly. Still, May 4-5 for the first lawn mowing must be close to a record. We have had a wide variety of spring weather over the last 16 years (this April!), but this is one of the earliest so far as snow loss and grass growth. I do recall getting a bad sunburn in late April at Dave's cottage.

Most of the trees in the yard and grove are doing well, but the 5000 is now something like the 50--terrible losses, most due to deer foraging, I think. Meanwhile, drainage progresses steadily. Panama now has a respectable stream gurgling its way through some dramatic bends. We're filling in the old skidder tracks and widening and deepening the channel down the slope.

I notice I recorded the death of Loki before. I might add that we have three dogs in the ground now: Freya (2006), back in the grove; Loki (May, 2008), near the stream just below the workshop; and Milow (August, 2008, Lucy's spelling), next to the dead fruit tree. Freya was first--liver failure, it seemed. She spent the day lying in the sun, and the next morning Pam came. She had been panting hard all night, and just let out her breath. Loki struggled through a long undiagnosed cancer of the shoulder--rotten "homeopathic/chiropractic" veterinarian hospital frauds!--and struggled even when the needle went in. After that, Milow grew careless of his life. He was struck and killed by a car on the road as we returned from St. Mike's. Ollie, his replacement, is slightly more loveable than Milow, who was always a rather distant dog. He at least interacts more definitely. He is nothing like Freya and Loki, dogs who took their relationship to the family very seriously. Frey is a better match, but even he lacks the fierce, protective loyalty of the earlier dogs. Diane's Abbie, the latest addition, is a bit of a nut. A kennel breeder till the age of four, she had no idea of life beyond the pen and feared men, open spaces, and trees, in roughly that order. She has been here one year the day before yesterday.

We were busy on Sunday transplanting some quite large pine and spruce trees to make a border parallel to the road in front of Diane's. We cut a lot of roots; I hope they manage to thrive! None was as large as the cedar, which is still slowly recovering after lying dormant for about two years.

The grass over the new seepage bed (clover mix, really) is thick and well-integrated with the rest of the front yard. It no longer looks like a badly-concealed septic field. All the trees did better this year. There were fewer ice storms. We still lost some boughs, but far fewer than the year before. Now we are doing some culling.

The fellow with the tractor tilled the garden, expanding it in the process. I think we can eventually run it most of the way down toward the road. The soil seems deep and rich all  the way--an anomoly, considering how close the clay lies everywhere else.

---

Canis nobilissimus

Boris and I--and even Lucy--extended the drainage ditches. This is the first big digging effort in years. The goal was to dry up the paintball field, but this was not really successful. Still, the new channels are still carrying lots of water away a week later (it seems like a year).

Posted 2:01 PM by Tamarack
The winter was hard, and not only on the trees. We buried Loki amidst the red pines yesterday evening. requiescat in pace, canis nobilissimus.