That is some really tall lumber, Gene.  We have the same tree families here, but I am not sure they get as tall as your area.  I am not real informed on the subject but 60 to 90 feet seems stuck in my mind as average.  They have to have a monster root structure under ground to keep them standing.  Following our massive ice storm of 1991. I removed two old Box Elder trees (30-36 inch trunk diameter) that grew about 25 feet from the house.  About all that did not go down during the storm was the main trunks.  Fast forward about ten years and I laid patio blocks over both areas where those trees were.  Three or four tears later, the blocks right where the trees stood settled to about three inches lower than the grade of the rest.  I took up those blocks and excavated an area at least three feet round by three feet deep.   I cut out any remaining tree roots, refilled and reset the blocks.  To make a long story short, in another three years I had to do the same thing again.  Now, yet a third time the same spots have dropped and are low spots.  I have concluded they will keep sinking for probably 25 years or more from root decay below grade.  Again, the root system must be massive under a 50 or 100 year old tree.

Our weather this week is mostly dull and dreary.  A mix of light rain and snow off and on with temp. mostly above freezing but still in the 30's.  Some breeze mostly from the SE to E to NE.  Not overly pleasant,  but we have all seen a lot worse.  

It has been a turmoil in NY State for a month since the overly liberal governor presented to the legislature  a very restrictive and unconstitutional "gun control law".  Yesterday more than 5,000 (some reports say 5,000, others 10,000) descended upon Albany in protest of this law.  In order to not have much resistance to passing the law, it was introduced as an emergency measure.  That made it exempt from any review and discussion period in the State Legislature.  It was voted on and signed less than 24 hours after it's introduction.  To date, more than half of the counties in the state have passed resolutions in disapproval of this legislation. With Liberals having a majority in the legislature, it is unlikely the law will be turned over there.  The big hope is that the courts will throw the entire thing out on it lack of constitutionality.  

Until better days,

Charlie V.

March came in like the proverbial lamb in the old saying today. There was actually a bit of melting off the roofs today as the temp hit 31 and the sun almost shone this afternoon. I was kept busy on the Cockshutt 40 again blowing snow away from the grain bins, digging out an old grain auger and a hopper wagon getting ready to put some oats through the hammer mill for cattle feed. Started late, various holdups like a stubborn starting auger engine, etc. so I only got the wagon loaded ready for tomorrow. More snow predicted for Sunday so its not over yet..

Got the oats through the hammer mill on a beautiful day. I think you already have seen the video of it on youtube. I took this still shot of what I think might be a "mackerel sky". Weather changed abruptly in less than 24 hours after that.

That would be called the same sky here. Always a sign of worsening weather. Our weather yesterday was a delightful day for late winter. By evening the smoke from the chimney was coming down to the ground, a sure sign of changing weather. Woke up this morning to 3 inches of wet snow. Soon after daylight it had started melting and by 11:00am it had changed to rain and 38 degrees and now at 12:30pm it is cooled off to 32 degrees. Roads and driveways are clear from melting. More snow is predicted for tonight.

The trees you noticed in my pictures are what Ohio was before the land was settled. Estimated at 70 percent was forest land. Lots of hard work by the homesteaders clearing the trees for farmland. Estimated at 30 percent forested now. Generally the woodlands are low, wet land or land too hilly to farm. Still some of the land being cleared with improvements in drainage. The early homesteaders had plenty building materials for their barns and houses and still a few of the old rail fences. Rock piles are common on a lot of the farmsteads too. Still have a couple early cemeterys with rail fences.

Gene

Gene, with high land prices like you have there I can see why most of the land was cleared for cropping. We have seen a lot of clearing in here starting in the 1950s. This used to be called the parklands since every low spot was a slough surrounded by a ring of aspen poplar trees. The prairie was frequently burnt off in the years prior to agricultural settlement. The natives followed the bison and had no buildings to burn. Plus the fires encouraged new grass growth. Consequently there were not enough big trees here to build a log cabin when my grand parents arrived in 03.
With our recent jump in farm land prices I think we will see even the last surviving bushes cleared out as everybody wants to get the maximum dollar out of their high priced land. I'll hang onto ours as long as I can since I like the trees.
You can see some of them at my grandfather's farm at this location on google earth if the link will work.
51°03'31.99" N 103°50'02.22" W
A friend flew over taking some aerial photos last year and he said that treed land stood out like a green oasis as they were approaching it. Plenty of hiding places for the moose.

Ralph

I checked your grandfather's area and can see all the slouths there. Good evidence of the weight of the last glaciers. I also looked at a couple areas, one to the northwest with a lot of lakes and many trees, also an area southeast of there with a couple big lakes. Was wondering if these areas are agriculture or they like our national forests or wetlands?. The one near Rt 310 looks like it could be farmed between the slouths, but would be some small and odd shaped fields.. I have taken some aerial pictures of some of the wooded areas here in Logan County and Hardin County to our northeast. Will look them up and see if I can send them to you. Not many slouths around here, but are a few. The area around Bowling Green, north of us was originally called the Balck Swamp and was mostly ignored by the early settlers. Many drainage canals were dug and then ground was tiled. This land is now the richest vegetable growing area in the state. Sciota Marsh in northern Hardin County was the same. Very wet muck land. It was also drained by canals and tiling. Was a rich soil till the muck oxidized and blew away. Now they are farming clay soil 3 feet below the original muck.

I really need to take time and learn how to post photos to the forum.

Gene

Gene, its mostly all cultivated farm land around here.  We just farm around the water holes and bushes here. Probably a different type of terrain than your level land. The lakes you saw to the south of me are the Qu'appelle lakes. A pretty popular spot in summer. Good ice fishing all winter too.
Here is an aerial view of my yard in spring of 2011, wettest spring ever. A lot  of acres did not get seeded that year. We might be looking at the same situation this spring as I hear we are near record snow levels and about to break the 1955 record.

Ralph;
I remember your posts from 2011. Videos of working around the slouths and the stuck and troubled machinery. I sure hope you get an early spring and the water dries up.

We had 8 inches of very wet snow Tuesday night and warm afternoons that has helped melt the snow. Also the ground is unfrozen, so areas under the snow is pretty wet and slimy. Haven't checked the frost depth, but is probably mostly all gone except where the ground was bare during the last hard freeze. Amish are getting anxious to get oats in and this snow will delay that for a couple of weeks.

Gene

Being about 200 miles to the south has it's advantages, Gene.  I think it will be unlikely to see Oats being seeded here before about mid May.  If someone has high and dry land, as some do, and weather conditions allow earlier fitting of ground, an early crop is risky in my opinion.  Too often we will have a couple of weeks of cold wet rain in May or even early June, so the seed could drown out and never germinate.  We sure saw that type year last year with very warm, dry early April weather, then very cold and wet through part of May and into June.  Some corn planted at just the wrong time laid in the ground for quite a period.  When it finally did germinate, the crop was sparse.

The weather front which gave the mid West all the snow went well south of us, then up the East coast.  It stayed east of I 81, so at least 60 to 70 miles to our East.  I for one did not miss it at all.  I guess we will finally warm up a little with the promise of 55 F. on Sunday.  Even last evening a cloud front was forming North of Buffalo over Lake Ontario.  The effect was on a SW pattern from there.  Here, we were on the trailing edge so the clouds dumped little white ice / snow balls for about 1/2 hour.  Just barely enough to cover over Concrete blocks, but it still keeps trying.  We did have a little more after this picture.

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I watched a video on utube last night showing D-8 Cats owned by a company that hires out to rescue other heavy equipment which is stuck in variouos situations.  I think they were located in British Columbia.  Seeing excavators and such deep into quarry mud, Etc., brought to mind Ralph's 2011 Summer.


Charlie V.

Field work seems far away just looking out the window right now. I don't know if I should hope for a quick thaw or what. A fast thaw means the water runs off the land and accumulates in the low spots or runs  down the small creeks. That happened in 2011 spring . My small machinery getting stuck is not too bad to get out but I hate to think of getting some of the 50+ foot drills stuck and then hooking on with two four wheel drives to drag it out. Things tend to bend and break.  The guys in this video were lucky to get out in one piece. Impressive video quality.
[video=youtube;G3jvWR06NR0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3jvWR06NR0&list=LLZfh8ayAyV1d-LZm7wpneMA[/video]

Ralph,

I could move just like the guys in that video when I was young, but not any more.  :rolleyes::cool:

I noticed in the video that the thing really holding the planter in the gumbo was the packed up mud in the two sets of front duals.  When I first bought my 560, the wheels were mounted to give a narrow set (narrow front end tractor) with only two or three inches in between at the bottom of the front tires.  They would pack with mud, snow, or anything else that got in the way.  Once packed, they could not turn due to hitting the center steering post.  Oh darn.  Stuck again.  Once I figured out what was going on, I pulled each wheel and turned it around to get a wider set as the dish in them favored one direction.  It doesn't look as "cool" this way but has not been stuck since.  I think if the duals on that planter were spaced out to give at least a foot between the tires it would have pulled out much easier if it even got stuck in the first place.  Notice that the planter did not really start to move until the two sets of dual tires started to roll.  A familiar scene to me from my experience.

Charlie V.

That  makes sense too Charlie but I think the bottom line is it was just too wet to be out there with an air drill. It looks to me like they tried to pull it backwards first and sunk deeper. What amazes me is that there is no water in sight anywhere and the land looks fairly level. You wouldn't know where it is safe to drive there. At least here we can avoid the low spots where the water is and usually get by (not always).

I sure can not dispute the fact that it was to wet to be on the field in the first place, Ralph.  Looks like those fellas found out the hard way.

Charlie V.

Wow Ralph, looks like you have a spring day today. At 34 degrees, you are 10 degrees warmer than we are in Ohio. Bet you left your mittens in the house today!!!;). We have had strong winds and snow flurries all day, but no accomulation. Wind gusts to 37 MPH.

Got a new pump for my pressure washer today and got it mounted. Waiting for a warm day to clean up a couple tractors to get them ready for spring work. Ordered the pump on ebay on Friday and got it today, so thought that was good service.

Hope the weather holds for you in Sask.

Gene

As we approach the first official day of spring (according to the calendar) I can barely see a quarter mile in snow and blowing snow. Temp down near 0 with quite a wind chill factor. No doubt I am facing another blown in driveway with no hope of driving out after this settles down. It looked good a couple of days ago when I shot this video.
[video=youtube;6C9YrPALWgg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C9YrPALWgg&feature=youtu.be[/video]