ranunculus

Tuesday I got deisel, cleaned the trap around the fill pipe for the tractor and filled the tractor halfway.  The sump around the fill pipe was full of dirt, twigs water and deisel.  Turns out that the lid is somewhat broken as well.  It works so I'm not anxious to replace anything.  I thought it might have a drainage hole in the bottom, but couldn't see or feel one. 
The grease gun was out of grease so with some trial and error I got a new tube of grease in the gun.  the metal rim goes to the top next to the pump handle and the bottom rod has to sit against the plunger.....  Once it was together I greased up the fertilizer spreader, hitched it up and filled it with about 400# of calcium phospate.  Our soils are so deficient in phosphate that the plants are turning a brassy reddish color.  The serpentine rock also ties up calcium so adding more calcium really helps.  Looking out over the fields it is absolutely clear where I was able to get fertilizer out this fall and where I didn't.  In addition to helping the plants grow better this fertilizer makes it possible for clovers to start.  In the fields where I did not fertilize this fall, but did put out clover seed, I got almost no clover growth.  In fields that did get fertilizer I got enthusiastic clover growth.  Once it is established the clover should continue to grow and enrich the soil.

Several fields at the Red Barn had enormous amounts of star thistle.  I have to spray ASAP for it.  The darn stuff it poisonous to the horses and in the amounts I was seeing in the fields it will produce mats of thistle that you can't walk through.  Grrrr.  I did buy a big mower (6') so this summer we can mow at strategic times and that will help, but mowing doesn't get rid of thistle, just helps if you can mow it on the right day in summer.  I'm afraid I need to spray several of the fields for two or three years and then we can move to pulling and mowing.

I also saw some bunch grass on the fields down there.  The bunches looked too big to be this year's seed (and I did seed with bunchgrass in a couple of fields).  That is good news as the bunch grass can get its roots down to water when other grasses can't.  It is also good feed.  If I can get good stands of bunchgrass and clover our there it will make those fields several times more productive than they are with nasty wild oat on them.

Joe from NRCS, and his boss Patty showed up to look at the riparian planting on Howell Creek.  They were very happy that I was there and involved in the project.  Apparently many landowners use NRCS funding and then ignore the plantings.  I'm enthusiastic about every little plant that survived.  They may help replant two small areas this year.  Even if they don't I will.  One area didn't get enough water early in the summer, and one is being washed away by the stream.  We will see if the willow that is currently in the bottom of the creek survives.