In today's terminology the term mattock is used interchangeably with the pick axe. However, they are actually different tools
Although there are many uses for the pick mattock, this tool is commonly used when trying to break up rocky soil and dig trenches. The pointed end is ideal for breaking up the soil and the adze end is mainly used for clearing out trenches etc...I saw snakes - garter snakes and 3 kinds of frogs and 1 toad. Blue Herons about six times - and I heard both the Veery and Swainson's Thrush. It's a very beautiful farm on 160 acres of lush pasture that is being restored by carbon capture intensive rotational paddock grazing. There's sheep, cattle, pigs and guard dogs. There's a big field of Milkweed that attracts a lot of Monarch butterflies. The land with the sun rising and going down, with the dew and fog filling the low areas, and the mini-forests interspersed with wetlands and happy grazing animals, free range, is some kind of Shangri-La.
My friend and his wife (the actual farmer) fed me deliciously rich gourmet meat meals with organic greens - and best of all - fresh wild strawberries harvested by his wife. Yes I was amazed at how "full" I felt with so little food but it had intense calories - and then basmati rice. We had corn tortilla and avocado and salsa with cilantro. It was really amazing food - even peanut butter coconut cookies were made with maple syrup! I just had one since they were so rich but for the final day I feasted on a bag of organic cherries (that had not been "presorted" - there were a couple bad cherries but that's fine). On the first day we feasted on watermelon that was so good - it keep me working for the last final couple hours. One of our bonding moments was our mutual recent discovery of the term "reverse searing" that corroborated our mutual approach to grilling meat.
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| Maybe it was a Green Frog, not a Bull Frog |
I got to cut up the organs of a steer - just the liver and the lungs - for the dogs. While the steer itself is being butchered and I'll get a quarter of it for my family. So I could see and feel very close that the internal organs were very healthy. The steer are graded - from lineages going back to the 1600s! I never realized lungs felt so spongy and squishy. They are literally filled with air deep in the vacuoles and there's not a lot of weight to those healthy white organs (unlike many human lungs that are not as white).
One of the dogs had been barking at me whenever it saw me, but as I cut up its dinner, the dog could not wait. It subtly and very submissively "seduced me" into letting her feed herself on the liver chunks. After that the dog was in my face happily wanting me to scratch her and pet her - after I had finished cutting up the organ parts. And I really thought the dog would remember me feeding it - but no, the next day she would bark, at least until she got a good whiff of me, to identify me. Some of these dogs are actually ancient in dog years.
The cattle were actually following me around and I had to stand between them and the newly trenched pipe, so the cattle wouldn't break the pipe, while my friend brought, with the tractor, loads of sand and gravel. At first I tried to shoo or scare off the cattle but they were just too curious about the new pipe (and me). So then I had a "staring" contest with the alpha steer leading the herd. Amazingly this seemed to really calm the whole herd down. Then something strange happened - each cattle was alternated head to back, for the whole herd. So my friend said this was their "keeping watch" formation. Then the cattle began lying down and really calming down. Finally they just walked away.
When the cattle eat fresh grass then their fertilizing manure just flies out the backside which is pretty hilarious (but don't get too close!). I'm told when they eat silage (hay), then its drier (obviously). So cow manure in India is actually considered medicinal. But you could definitely see the grass growing back very strongly and they were restoring the soil. The area was actually studied by a University professor due to having so many different types of soil in such a close space. A local lady organized "bake offs" and other fundraisers to get an environmental assessment of that land - to stop a planned "industrial dump." So I'm sure she was very happy when my friends got the land to restore it for organic farming.
We had a fun time - my friend introduced me to his parents who helped take care of his son. I was fed the gourmet pasture-raised regenerative agriculture beef. I got to talk a long time about myself to his parents and they fed us also. I laughed extremely hard - so hard it hurt my muscles - at my friend's mom's story. My friend's dad has this amazing knack for technical and mechanical knowledge, so this explained to me how my friend can similarly seemingly build and fix anything. So it turns out that my friend's dad literally had my friend rebuild a car engine on their kitchen table to earn his first car as a gift from his grandfather!
So my friend and I had long talks while we worked and he taught me many practical things and so it really was an educational hands-on training. My friend has this amazing ability to mimic any accent (Italian, Russian, Indian, Chinese) and he does "fake" languages also - he majored in theatre but he's also built three houses - plus other buildings. He's done tons of work since I've known him - and traveled a lot also. So he is very entertaining but also very intense - and usually he's too busy just doing his visionary hard work. He had to fix his tractor a ton this past winter - along with dealing with severe weather conditions that totaled one of their trucks. Luckily no one was hurt but it was very trying on their spirits.
This is a community supported farm so I was just doing my part to support the farm to store carbon and also to learn again for then transferring to my own farm experience. My friend's wife is the actual official farmer who started the project. So she manages the overall activities. Their son is considered the "Master" of the house by my friend's extended family, just as my friend was the new "Master" of his family. And so their son wanted me to read to him and he explained his farm toys to me (he knows way more about farming than I do and he's only two years old!). One of the examples was that their son insisted my name was something different - and so we just started calling me by the name that their son calls me. Now it's a kind of either/or name situation. I have my "farm name" now.
I slept out in a tent - and the last night in the car. So I had my camping gear for my personal needs. This enabled me to give them a break from my eccentricities. haha. Everyone was working too hard and got tired but we also had good laughs - and maybe a few cries.
I did get shocked on the electrical fence - and this caused me to cry out that I have found the lord!! That "wakes you up" as my friend says. I could feel the shock go up my arm and I guess it unsuccessfully stopped my heart - and then went into my brain I suppose. I was pretty leery of the fence after that - as my friend says about the cattle, the fence is "psychological." indeed.
Now back to our original question…are 7,000 volts and 2 amps good readings for an electric fence? Based on my findings, I would say no. You should actually have less amps!So my friend built the house and a big deck extension - and put up the storage shed and lots of other structure and shelter. It's quite the operation and the animals are very happy to have such beautiful pasture. In the morning and evenings you can hear all the animals - birds and frogs - and the dogs chased a black bear recently (away from the sheep). Yes the fog settles through condensation in the lower parts of the land through the rolling hills. It is a very pleasant area and contains even an endangered plant in their wetland.
In reality, a good solid fence should have high voltage, and low amps. Although our comparison of water and electricity shows more amps = more power, when it comes to electric fences, more amps = more power = a fault in your fence line.
So now I have lots of beef on order - and I have been asked to help out some more in over a week. I will probably go up north in the mean time to soak the mushroom logs (which will seem very pleasantly easy in contrast to this water underground pipe project). But if the water pipeline project works that saves the farm from having to make 4 trips a day to haul 100 gallons of water for each trip, to fill the soak tanks. It's a lot of work that can be avoided if our project is completed. My friend needs to complete the pipeline by putting in the connections and making sure the "highs" and "lows" will clear out the water properly - along with some finishing of the fill on top of the trenches.
He used a rented "trencher" but sometimes it compacts the soil as it makes the trench, so there's not enough soil to then fill the trench back in. So then he hauled sand as the primary fill into the trench - this was slow although steady (as my personal mantra is for working). The first night I put on my headlamp to roll out another 300 feet of pipeline, and then filled in the trench. But the "high" or "low" spot will require that line to be cut - and how to fill the sections without any slack may be a big issue. I suggested just making sure the adapter was long enough or longer, but that connection is the weakest point. so then the plan is to build "boxes" or buy some that will secure the connection from the cattle.
So as you can see there's a lot of details to work out. There were connections every 300 feet - so also the low and high spots. I am not sure - over 25 connections will be the total. So there's still a lot of work on this pipeline before it can be tested out - and also maybe I will help out, but probably not. Instead I am to help with a gravel foundation for a "pad" for the cattle. We shall see what happens. Right now I'm in rest and relaxation recovery mode.
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