March 30, 2012 – Procrastination Pays!

The storm last night saved me about $300.  Back behind the chicken coop is a basswood tree that had three large limbs broken off in last July’s storm.  Although they were still mostly upright last week, I had meant to call the tree service over the past few months because it seemed dangerous to have so many unstable limbs high up in the air.

We had a big thunderstorm wind gust last night and it put all three limbs on the ground.  Now, it’s a self-service job –  all I have to do is drag them to the ground with the chain and tractor and then cut them up.  It must have been after we were asleep as we didn’t notice – it also blew over the gas grill on the patio.

March 28, 2012 – Peach Blossoms – 5 Weeks Early!

The peaches are in full bloom.

peach blossom

Flowering is about five weeks ahead of normal. The last two years the peaches were in full bloom on May 8 and May12.  Linda’s walking into class, delivering her lecture and thinking that the class is way behind, because usually when things look like this, it is near the end of the school year.

From the “oh well, good thing I never got around to it department” this cherry tree that was flattened by last July’s storm (and I haven’t got around to cutting “down” yet) decided it feels good enough to boom profusely.  It will be easy to pick cherries this year from this tree!

March 26, 2012 – Skystream Record Day!

I can feel it coming in the air tonight – a new daily Skystream production record in the air today!

Today the Skystream produced 51.4 kwh of electricity. It beats the previous best day by about 10%. We are a lock to beat our monthly record of 622 kwh. If, and it’s a big if, the average daily production of this month holds the next five days, we’ll be looking at around 680 kwh.

Yesterday wasn’t the windiest day we’ve had, but must have hit a high, steady, sweet spot that didn’t trip the wind overspeed shut-off too many times.

March 25, 2012 – Prairie Fire

We helped out at a prairie burn this afternoon at Two Friends farm. I’ll mix it up and take you through the burn backwards.

prairie after burn

At the end of the day, about five acres of prairie is torched.

boy in burnt prairie

Sending Martin out batting cleanup while we go try to find some cold ones (not really).

prairie fire

After setting the backfires, the main fire gets rolling.

ring of fire

A burning ring of fire!

fire flapper

Martin with a flapper to help smother flames along the edge of a fire.

man in prairie fire

Nice flapper work on the right side of the photo!

Starting the fire nice and slow – a back burn against the wind before starting the main fire.

March 22, 2012 – Early Spring Blossoms

The first fruit tree blossoms decided to unfurl the last few days.

This plum is first out of the gate.

Just for a reminder – here’s a shot from exactly today four years ago today!

And this is a shot of our road from earlier in March 2008. All the 80 degree days this March have made snowy Marches a memory.