Escape From the Prison Planet

[DRIVEN]

Remember back at the end of October when I mentioned my well pump switch went bad and I had the well guys replace the it? Well, they left a hose hooked up to the hose bib behind my well house with the valve open when they left. No big deal until I turned the lower water line on a couple months ago when I did my first burn pile. Just discovered it today.


Guess that explains why the canal never dried out. I'm afraid to open my power bill.


Fuckers!

[wayno]

Wow, the water was flowing for a couple months, that would have cost hundreds of dollars for the water here where I live, don't know about the electricity, I have a pump running 24/7 for my pond, but it is an efficient type pump, costs about $10.00 a month to run, but it is not lifting water to great heights either, just about 6 feet high to get it to my biological filters, gravity takes over from there, yours has to lift the water out of the ground from whatever depth the well is.

[jtinluvr]

Could be worse, it could have been connected to a municipal water supply. Imagine the water bill!

[DRIVEN]

I moved a bunch of dirt today. 7 hours on the tractor. I started with the area under my big weeping willow. Previous owner mad a poor attempt at creating a pond so I knocked down all the berms and dirt piles.


I pruned the apple trees and Asian pear last week.

Then I carved out my driveway and cleaned up some of the drainage. It's not completely done but way closer.








Then I swapped the blade for the brush hog and mowed the lower pasture. After that I mowed the lawn down there. Long day but I got a lot done.

[DRIVEN]

Did some more antisocial distancing yesterday with my dad and a few of his buddies. Toooo many grandpas. There were 3 of us that wanted to cover territory and the other 3 just wanted to cruise at about 15mph so we didn't get nearly as far as we'd planned.




140 year old cemetary in the middle of nowhere. Old school house in the background.


We rode through the wild horse range. This one stallion was the only one I saw all day.



They're starting to fill some of the irrigation canals so it won't be long until the farmers start watering. That means the runoff will soon be flowing through my ditch. Today I removed 2 little walkways / bridges that are no longer necessary, leaving one that's wide enough to drive the tractor over. That left me with 2 8' long 12" culvert sections. I decided to use the nicer one to piggyback the culvert that runs under my driveway and is the further most upstream on my property. After cutting 2" off the end, I attached it to the existing culvert with some metal straps. Then I encased the joint with quickcrete and buried it. Brown dog was ever vigilant but not terribly helpful.





I had these short leftover railroad ties so I made a little bridge about halfway down.


When I'm done pushing dirt around and building fences, the culvert and bridge will both be inside the lower pasture.


Finished the day by washing a couple motorcycles and taking a short ride on the Indian. Still haven't dropped the carb and cleaned the jets on it. Probably getting the garden set up next.

[DRIVEN]

Neighbor and his helper tried to burn me out again yesterday.



No real damage done. Truth be told, burning up that scrubby thorn tree did me a favor. Now it'll be easier to cut back and give me more room for my garden. I walked down there and talked to them as they got it under control. They were pretty worried about the power pole but my concern was the tractor. I've talked to the old hippy farm hand before but hadn't met the boss as he lives a mile or two away. Seem like good guys. They're getting ready to start irrigating the hillside next to me so I'll probably see cattle there more regularly now.


Got a late start today but put some fresh gas and a jump box on the BroHauler and it fired right up. Dragged my driveway again then mowed the lower lawn. Also started rounding things up for the garden and making my plan.

[wayno]

What were they doing that they caught your land on fire?

[DRIVEN]

They were burning the dry brush along the canal bank because they are going to move their fence a little closer. They actually had started at the other end and the win was blowing it my way. I guess they had planned to do a backburn at the property line but it got away from them. That trailer has a propane tank in it and you can see the lit torch laying on the ground.

[DRIVEN]

I finished the culvert and moved more dirt around.

Then I mowed the lower pasture area. Hard to believe half of this was chest high grass and brush and the other half was a gravel parking lot when I bought the place. Almost ready for fence and irrigation.




Today I antisocial distanced in the hills.



6 feet apart, you irresponsible fuckers!

[DRIVEN]

I actually have been working on garden stuff but hit a roadblock yesterday afternoon. When the sun came up this morning it was just too nice to work. I did an impromptu solo ride. I had a route in my head but when I hit an unexpected 30 miles of gravel I decided to call an audible and double back then reroute. My 300 mile ride turned into a 396 mile ride in the opposite direction. I didn't ride through any snow but rode next to plenty. I probably should have been wearing gloves.

Hills, then desert, then more hills, then valleys, then more hills, then desert, then river canyon, then farm land, then home.









Didn't fall off, didn't break down, didn't get eaten by sage rats. 48mpg. It was a pretty perfect day.

[wayno]

That is a lot of miles to ride a motorcycle, you must have been tired by the time you got back home.

[DRIVEN]

Mostly sunburned.

[wayno]

I rode motorcycles for around 10+ years, 3 or 4 of them years was year round, I remember being cold to the bone a few times, I remember one time not driving my car(63 Ranchero) for almost a year and I could hardly believe that it started, it felt weird to be inside a vehicle(it was a very strange feeling), I have rode a long ways a couple times(5 or 6 hours), I was very happy to get home.
I have flown a hangglider longer than anything other than driving a vehicle, I have been in the air east of Lake Chelan on the flats of eastern Washington for over 8 hours(one of my awesome flights), other than my legs not working when I landed I felt way better than them long motorcycle rides and there are no breaks when your flying a hangglider, you fly until you land.
396 miles is a very long ride, unless you riding it like you stole it you were likely riding for over 8 hours.

[DRIVEN]

That's about how long I was gone today, 8 hours. I don't really get too saddle sore. I do lose circulation in my hands though and need to shake them out occasionally. Longest day I've done was just over 750 miles. I've done plenty over 600.

[wayno]

That loss of circulation in your hands is likely due to you turning wrenches for years, stuff like that takes its toll on our bodies.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, that and a bad back/neck from a car accident 20 years ago. I'm sure riding position comes in to play too. I don't know how those guys with the shoulder high ape hangers even ride. My hands and arms would be numb in under a minute.

[jtinluvr]

Back when I rode more, I was never really a long ride guy. My tastes were in the canyons so it usually short, fast bursts with a lot of adrenaline pumping so after about an hour of backroad charging I needed a break. I actually thought that was a lot of work until I started racing motorcycles. That was way tougher on the body than the canyons just due to the extreme difference in speed, braking, and cornering forces.

[DRIVEN]

I've got the garden 75% planted. I'm going to pick up a bunch more strawberries and plant a couple rows of corn when my new rototiller carb shows up. In the background you can see what I left of that tree the neighbor burned up. If it comes back, cool. If not, I'll cut it down too.


Finished yesterday mowing everything and trimming some trees.


Also, these idiots are back. Four females and one male.




Today I rode in the hills with other old guys..

[DRIVEN]

A little more on the garden stuff since I didn't really post anything before. People were telling me that Home Depot was a shit show right now so I just repurposed some stuff I had kicking around. The beds are a little more shallow than I would have wanted to build but seem to be okay. I ended up with (2) 4'x8' and (1) 3'x8' along with 3 old flower boxes from the single wide.

I hauled a bunch of dirt from the other side of my shop in a wheelbarrow. No idea how many trips but it's about 120 yards each way. Then I got a half trailer load of goat manure. It was about 2:1 ratio when I finished.



I chose the area behind my well house for a few reasons. It's mostly level but has a slight slope so I can use a more simple system to irrigate. It's close to my hose bib (the one that got left on all winter) and electricity so I can eventually set up an automatic system like Wayno. Watering by hand for now. There is full sun almost all day long. It's shaded for about an hour after sunrise. Then for about an hour around noon by a tall tree top to the south. As it gets later in the year the shadow gets shorter and eventually I'll have full sun all day. Lastly, it's in the corner of a fenced pasture so I'll easily be able to separate it off and make it part of the yard where the fruit trees are. I'm playing with the idea of surrounding the garden with the cyclone fence panels that the previous owner used for dog kennels. I have more than enough.

[wayno]

The fencing will keep the unwanted critters out.