Jassanja

Rode the Split Rock circle with Dave and Lisa this morning. Lily let me use Beau.  Unlike Firefly, Beau poked along on our way out and had to be encouraged to step out all the time.  Going home he was walking really fast.  It was a nice ride. Lots of pretty spring scenery.  Cows with little calves. 
When we got back I switched to going over and working with the basket weaving ladies. This was our second go at clearing out and cutting back some willow. We have one small area pretty well cleared. It had a lot of blackberry in addition to the willow, much of it dead but still vicious with thorns. Most of the willow there is grey willow, I'm going to cut back some of the willow near the pond which should make good long willow shoots. 
Finally got the last of the compost out of the uphill compost bin and refilled the bottom with manure from the corral. Firefly is undoubtedly grateful to have her corral clean.  Now to fill up the bin with all the stuff that has piled up and is waiting for a chance to compost!

Took till about 2 pm but all of the brush from yesterday's activities has been burnt up.   I got pretty hot and tired.  Drank about a gallon of water/gatoraid.  Missed the rock show/conference in Willits.  Oh well, next time.  
Tomorrow is planting little plants in the garden, finishing the compost bin cleanout and cleaning the filthy horse corral. 
There are still broccoli plants to put out, some pink mitzuna and dill that really wants to be planted out.  I'd love to transplant some of the baby marigolds but don't think they are quite ready yet, we'll see.  I might even risk planting out squash and cucumbers...
There is a big kerfuffle going on down in SF about doors.  All four of the doors that lead to the garden need replacing.  The bottom of the downstairs flat door was substantially rotted with the exterior face peeling off up about a foot. ICK.  We like getting lots of light into the house so chose doors that were 3/4 glass with about 18 inches of wood on the bottom.  Sadly they don't actually make that door in an exterior model. These are aluminum clad doors that come with an exterior finish that matches the windows.  We thought we might use a different manufacturer but of course the finishes don't match. In fact the color pallets were so different we couldn't even see a contrasting color we could use. Sigh.  So full glass, double pane doors. They have a coating on one pane that is virtually unbreakable so no security worries. 

Just after 8 my phone dinged and reported that Mark O would be at the house in 10 min. Oops.  I sprang out of bed where I was finishing my morning coffee, Yanked on work clothes and went out to say hi.  Breakfast was eaten at the speed of lightning while filling nalgene bottles with a dilute gator aid.  Thus provisioned we got in the Gator and went down to the pond (Norgard's Pond) to continue my clearing out of vegetation. On the way we stopped to pick up the last of the pile of brush that I had abandoned due to it having a rattlesnake in it.  I looked carefully where the rattlesnake had been, didn't see any snake so we started pulling out the last 4 or five small pieces of brush.  One was kind of stuck in the ground where a gopher had pushed up dirt.  I yanked on it, then decided to get a different grip. On my way to a new grip I looked down to see the snake about 18 inches away.  This produced a scream and a leap away.  We stood on the road and looked down where the very, very cold sleepy snake was. Mark said: where is he, I cant see a snake.  Right there, 6 feet away,  under that little poison oak branch!  Super hard to see.  Should have taken a picture.  Mark was brave enough to go get the last two pieces of brush, staying at least 4 feet away.  The poor snake never rattled, and almost didn't move as we pulled a branch out from underneath it. 
We fastened the 4" x 25' strap  around the brush and drug it down to the turnout by the pond. The one I just cleared by burning for two days. The rest of our project was to clear the next 100 feet of roadside.  Mostly we were cutting down young live oak trees that had sprung up on the extremely steep bank between the road and the pond.  They all got dragged back to the turnout and cut up so I can burn them.  Tomorrow if possible. 
We were working very close to the place where our road Y's  with one side going up a steep hill and the other out around the pond.  About 25 feet beyond the Y there is a huge tree, a valley oak I think. It has road signs nailed to it.  Several years ago a live oak seedling began growing up in front of that tree. It had gotten big enough that it obscured the signs and thus frequently confused UPS drivers who then often delivered packages to our gate.  Said young tree is gone now and the signs are once again in full view.  Better for UPS drivers and for emergency vehicles.   

Thursday was dentist day.  An absolutely routine cleaning. 
Friday was go to Fort Bragg and see Richard day.  He fixed both Donald and my backs.  As usual I went in with pain and emerged an hour later pain free. Nice drive, easy and almost traffic free.
Garden.  ( Cut for pics )