This Winter we have had a lot of snow and a fair bit of rain. Now the weather has improved somewhat it is clear that the bottom pasture is waterlogged. Naturally all our land slopes gently down to the beck and it is usually well-drained, but something has gone wrong. So today the farmer has decided to dig a few holes and find out what it is.
As he put all the drains in over the years, he knows exactly where they run - so he digs a line of holes down the field parallel to the line of alders that mark our farm boundary. The culprit is found immediately - alder roots have disturbed the pipes.
I ring him on his mobile from the kitchen to see exactly where he is and then set off with a vacuum mug that we bought years ago on the top of Pikes Peak and have never used - mid morning coffee on the hoof.
Tess comes along on the long lead for the walk (off the lead means "Stop at every rabbit hole and shout in doggy language "I know you are down there - just you wait till you show those long ears above ground!"")
The holes are quite spectacular - not dug by hand so they have appeared quite quickly. In the bottom the water is flowing fast and free, the alder roots chopped off where they interfered with the drainage.
Just above where he is working the beck falls over a pretty little rocky waterfall - there is not too much water in it at the moment. Then it reaches the point where the underground drainage system comes out into it - water is gushing out, cloudy brown water from underground, where it has been holed up for weeks. Then the beck goes on its merry way across the fields.
The sun is shining, there is a light breeze, what has been a very heavy ground frost has melted away and it feels like Spring, the water is flowing freely - all's right with the world (as long as you don't make the mistake of watching the news!) - just the holes to fill in now.
A man who knows his land and knows how to keep things going smoothly! Indeed, deliver his hot coffee in situ.
ReplyDeleteWhat are those white clumps of blooms in the final shot?
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteI was friendly with quite a few farm children when I was at school and at one time I spent many a weekend staying at my friend's farm...I loved it..so I find your blog fascinating!
Yes, you can buy anything you like from me..just ask!
Some is in my Flora Doodles shop, (see top rhs of my blog) and some on my blog.
Thank you for the lovely comments...I do appreciate you 'visiting' me ;-)
Sal ;-)
Hm - that digger would have caused mayhem with the pavement down here, or I might have wished I could borrow both Farmer and vehicle to sort my tree roots!
ReplyDeleteAnother reason for having a mobile phone! I don't have one, but can see they are very handy at times. Hope the field is drying out gradually - the beck and waterfall sound delightful. It was always my dream to live in a little house with a stream at the bottom of the garden, but after all the awful floods of the past two or three years I'll stick where I am and be thankful.
ReplyDeleteYou have always a lot of work to do on a farm. Have you ever got time to go on a holiday? Take care!
ReplyDeleteLooks like the farmer had a bright sunny day for his digging project!
ReplyDeleteNow I know what the little pipes are in fields!
ReplyDeleteThe light in the photos is beautiful, Weaver.
Never a dull moment on a farm!
ReplyDeleteHello Weaver,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great boon modern machinery is! Imagine having to dig it all by hand. Methinks the field might have stayed waterlogged!
Do you provide the coffee delivery service to a wider area?! :0)
Scribe - they are snowdrops, how they got there is anybody's guess. Somehow snowdrops seem to pop up everywhere - expect birds spread them as the bulbs come up quite easily.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sal - I will visit you shortly. I too used to go with a friend to a farm when I was a child - never thought I would end up living on one!
ReplyDeleteJinksy - tree roots are troublesome. The trouble is that the trees are so beautiful and are such living things that one hates to interfere.
ReplyDeleteYes Heather - the beck is far enough away from the house (a field's distance) so that if it floods it doesn't matter but I do know what you mean.
ReplyDeleteReader wil - we always have one lovely holiday every year (to the States this year) when we have a farm manager who comes in to look after the animals and see that all the fences stay up!
ReplyDeleteWillow - I hardly dare say it but at present our weather is lovely - very frosty mornings and then bright sunshine but cold.
ReplyDeleteThanks Raph - we never know what is under our feet in fields, do we?
ReplyDeleteHi Derrick - sorry but I think the Borders is a bit of a long way to ring a vacuum cup of coffee!
ReplyDeleteTo know one's property so well is a blessing, I think.
ReplyDelete