We had a great time at the farm this weekend. The Jones, Carmody and McElhany families arrived, and on Saturday afternoon we burned a couple of acres adjacent to our upper stock tank to rid it of briars, small cedars and other invasive species.
We each had a job. John was the burn boss, Allan “dropped fire” for Team One, which included Jeff, Erin and Anna carrying a portable sprayer, or a “flapper” to put out any blowing embers and make sure the fire didn’t spread beyond the designated area.
John and Joel also dropped fire and Jef manned the flapper for Team Two. I drove the John Deere gator with its water tank in case we needed more put-out power.
Fortunately, we did not. Everything went off as planned, although the fire wasn’t quite as hot as we would have liked. We just hope we killed a lot of the species we were targeting, and that it will be easier to find those we missed when plants begin to sprout in the spring.
While the eight of us were burning the pasture, my brother’s oldest grandson, Noah Carmody, watched his sister and younger cousins. Then, in the afternoon Rachel, Jamey and Laura, along with their moms and me, painted rocks they will later hide for someone to find.
Here are some of the afternoon’s finished products.
The dogs also had a good time. Cousins Clover, Zeva and Rosie joined the Bagley Pack for some socializing, exploring and bone chewing.
Five-month-old Rosie isn’t quite sure about her older, larger cousins, but she was cautiously optimistic about joining in their play.
And she was very interested in the bone Rue was chewing. She hung around with an expectant look on her face, and finally Rue got up and left it for her.
Rosie was thrilled and wasted no time working to get some of the marrow left inside. It was a very good day for man and dog alike.
No comments:
Post a Comment