Barn roof raisin’

Thought you might enjoy photos of the new barn roof.   Be sure to turn your speakers ON, there’s music.   

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Well wishers

The saga continues.  But first, let me get you caught up.

Last summer, after sending in a water sample to the state extension office, we were informed that we had bacteria in our water.  At that point we stopped drinking the water and began using bottled.  We’ve been trying to fix the problem, but progress has been slow.  We couldn’t do anything over the winter as the well head was covered with 5 feet of snow. 

We had the local well guys out earlier this summer and they recommended a chlorine treatment.  After letting the chlorine disapate, we took another sample and sent it in to the extension office.  Mind you, each time we send in a sample, it’s another $25 !! 

Shortly after sending in the sample we got a call (normally they send a letter) — they had detected the dreaded E. coli bacteria.  Yikes! Now we have to follow much more stringent precautions until we get it fixed.  This means no drinking.  No wetting the toothbrushes with tap water.  Rinsing dishes in bleach water.  What a royal pain!

Big fish, small pool

Normally the fish in our pond live out their entire lives within the confines of our 1-acre pond.   They are born, grow to maturity and then die a natural death — I’m assuming.   When we fish, we’re catch-and-release only types.  

In June when the big rain storms came — the same storms that emptied Lake Delton, Wi. — our pond experienced another “big flush” phenomena.   Once the pond fills up with enough rain water, it starts siphoning through the outlet pipe. 

Three large mouth bass, each about 18-20″ in length, were sucked out and deposited into a small pool just outside the pond.  Too big to make their way down the little creek to the bigger tributary, they ended up trapped in this small pool.  Using a large net we captured each fish individually and returned them to their “home” pond. If you’ve ever tried to net fish in an aquarium, you know just how elusive they can be.  Try it balancing precariously on a log, holding a 3′ diameter net and bugs buzzing about your face.   

Had we not intervened, the fish would surely have died.  They would have been easy prey for a wild animal, or their pool would have dried up.   As humans, we feel honor bound to put things back in their rightful place.  Was this the right thing to do?  Or was this nature’s way of keeping our pond’s fish population under control?

When it all began…

My first trip to the farm was in August of 1993.  It was then that I fell in love with a place and the man who later became my husband.  Our farm has been the focal point of our lives for the last six years.  Through this blog, I hope to provide some sketches about our adventures in “gentleman farming.”