Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Postscript to the article last week

Been busy this week. Wednesday was the best day. Almost that perfect one I’m always seeking.

We may be shifting to a drier pattern because the washout that was supposed to be today wasn’t and it got warm and sunny late afternoon. At least 70 if not more. That started while I was scrubbing the corner well pieces.

Not doing too bad with them. Just some stubborn spots that I can live with as far as aesthetics is concerned. I just have to get the edges clean so I can reattach them to the walls of the tank. Then I’m going to fill them with filter media and have a line from a pump—maybe two pumps going up and elbowing over the rim of the baffle (there is a place for that) and down to the bottom and then let it up flow through the bio balls and shredded plastic. In the future I’ll plumb it into one of the bulkhead drains which I’ll connect to the other to up flow and there will be a T on the bottom with a ball valve to flush and drain the wells.

There is a lull in the flower show with the daffodils fading but the early spring flowers are gearing up and there are bloodroots and trilliums coming into bloom.

Southern Toadshade Trillium (cunneatum) comes up a little earlier than the native Toadshade (sessile). There is a lot of that nasty giant chickweed spreading into that bed and it along with the Rhyming Bamboo are going to be the major focus of my eradication efforts at this site this season.

I will probably write an article about it and the rest of the Dirty Dozen on the property.

That includes also the Blue Periwinkle, Japanese Stilt Grass, Hosta clausa, Hosta ventricosa, English Ivy , Pampas Grass , Multiflora Rose, Garlic Mustard, Japanese Honeysuckle and Common Chickweed.

I was going to include Asian Wiggly Worms and stink bugs but those I have no hope of ever getting rid of. The worms I can exploit as a food source for the turtles and the stink bugs are turning out to be less of a nuisance over time—though I did kill a few this evening that came buzzing around while I was typing this text!

Upper pond has the liner pushed up by ground water. It looks like I’ll to put a French drain underneath to solve that problem.

May need to replace the timbers in this pen because they are rotting away.

And a fresh pile of deer turds. Going to have to do something to chase them away!

Shifting ahead through the week I’ve been working on the 150 project. Shoring up the original birchwood stand by adding some 2x4s and I spent much of my Saturday—after a quick run out to one of the local reptile shows to get some feeder mice—sanding and painting with redwood stain. Escaping the dreary weather here and the depressing news that’s become such an outrageous Disasterville that I’m getting too burned out to care anymore—beyond daring to hope that the democrats have given the country such a wake up call the likes of the early 1980s. As a stream the upbeat music of that era to my Bluetooth speaker in the Florida Room.

Nice atmosphere to finish sealing the stand. Hoping to be ready for another water test by the end of the coming week!