Sunday August 18, 2019 Guerneville CA.
More work on the spring tap project
The first thing I did today was put a handle on the bucket I was using to haul clay to the spring tap dam. I found a piece of hose and taped it on the wire handle so now my hand will feel better not having that wire dig into it.
Gas fumes work great to kill bees
The next thing I did was round up my garden sprayer and some gas. My method of killing bees is to spray the nest with gas. The gas doesn’t kill them but the gas fumes sink into the nest and kill them fairly quick. I use about a quarter cup of gas to do that. I usual spot the nest hole in the day time and go back at night and dump the gas in the hole with a coke bottle when they are all in for the night but this one I decided to spray it in the day time as I didn’t want to be up here at night.
I loaded up the quad runner with the stuff I thought I’d need today and rode on up to my work area.
Blue clay is the best
I needed more clay for the spring dam so I dug around and finally found some nice blue clay. Blue clay is the best clay for this task as it’s the stickiest and better clay then the other stuff. So if I can find it I use it. There’s a pretty good deposit of it just behind the shovel. Spring water running down the hill through the years turns the dirt into clay given enough time. The new bucket handle worked out well. The clay is wet from a small spring so it’s fairly easy to dig .If it was dry it wouldn’t dig easy at all as it’s be hard as a rock.
I hauled about 6 half buckets up to the dam and dumped it here ready to use. I use my hands to put the clay in around the water outlet and to form a dam.
Damming it up
Here’s what I got done today but it’s not finished yet as it needs more clay but it coming along nicely.
Here’s a close up of he water collector. I will build up the dam now when I continue with this project. This tap has to be good now and also good this winter when the water flows during storms.
Working on the trial down
Once I was too tired to do more clay hauling I worked on the trail down the hill for the water pipe from this spring.
Here’s the water coming out of the pipe. I didn’t get far with that but far enough for now.
I continued working on the trail a bit.
I’ll work on the trail more this winter when the ground is softer. It goes through these ferns.
Looking for the nest before they found me
I was looking for the yellow jacket nest as I didn’t really know where it was as I left in a hurry yesterday.
Looking for the place I was working on the trail when I got stung yesterday I stepped up by this stump and yellow jackets started to come out of the top of that stump up there so I retreated and got my sprayer with the gas.
The nest
Here’s a close up of the stump where the nest is but I couldn’t exactly tell where the hole was but they were certainly yellow jackets buzzing around the top of the stump as I watched. I got to within about ten feet of the stump and sprayed the gas on it. The gas keeps the yellow jackets busy so they don’t go after me.
I left and will go back to check to see if I got them all tomorrow.
Break time
I was pretty worn out so once home it was break time for quite some time before I could get back out and enjoy puttering around the yard.
Here’s one on my best hens taking care of her little ones just before bed time.
I enjoy working on trails in the woods and the time went fast today. The trail I’m working on is really just an old animal trail. Deer have small feet so they don’t need as much trail as I do so I have to dig a bit which I usually do in the winter time when the ground is wet and easy to dig.
Anyway I got a lot accomplished but still have a lot more to do before I can get this water into our water tanks.
Nice day working away.
