Thursday Thirteen #365

These are some photos I took yesterday afternoon when I went after the mail. They are shots taken from various locations around the farm.

1. This is from the front yard; it's the view out my office window. The silo off in the distance belongs to my husband's cousins' family.

2. This is the "big hay field" looking back to the west towards our house. The road going up the hill is our driveway.

 

3. This is part of the farm; the hillside is used for pasture. As you can see, the farm on that side is bifurcated by power lines. And then the road cuts the entire place in half yet again.

 4. A closer look at the hillside with a little Autumn color.

5. This is the other part of the hillside, more to the south.

6. The mountain in the background is called Tinker Mountain.

7. Another shot of the woods and our driveway. You can't beat the Blue Ridge Mountains for beauty, regardless of the time of year.

8. A look towards what I believe is North Mountain; that division there where the mountain slopes on the right is called Stone Coal Gap. The next mountain is called Caldwell Mountain. I hope I have that right.

9. This is my father's house, which is about six miles away by car, from the top of one of our fields. Oddly, after 27 years, I just realized that we are actually facing one another on opposing hills; there is vegetation between us that keeps me from seeing the house, plus I think my place is just a bit lower in elevation.

10. The neighbor's barn and cattle as seen from the hayfield. That tiny little house in the far back is where my husband and I first set up housekeeping 31 years ago. Tiny little four-room place, colder than icicles during the winter.

11. A little different angle at the hill where my house is. My house is to the left in the picture.

12. Nice overview shot showing the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west, looking toward Bedford County. That tall mountain in the clouds on the left is the Peaks of Otter. You can see the roof of my house in the woods on the right.

13. A closer shot of the trees.

And an extra picture just because.

Beautiful, isn't it?



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 365th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Tree Lines, Sky Lines, and Power Lines

Took a trip on the utility vehicle across the top of the hill on the farm the other day to check on things. I snapped these shots whilst riding along, so they aren't of anything particular. Just some different views.

 

What's left of the forest behind the house.

 

 

Before the logging in 2007, this was a much thicker stand of trees.

 

 

Blue skies!

 

 

Lots of thistle up top. There were butterflies everywhere but I did not stop for photos.

 

 

 

On a clear day, I can see forever. Or at least to the first mountain.

 

 

 

I love the rolling hills.

 

 

Power line and fence.

 

 

Note the two butterflies in the middle of the photo.

 

 

This large power line traverses the farm.

 

 

The tree line of the forest behind my house as seen from the west.

Man Mashed in Machinery

FINCASTLE, VA - A Botetourt County farmer mashed his left arm and hand in a hay baler in a farming accident on Saturday, July 5.

The incident occurred around 2 p.m. James F., (blogger's husband), a 55-year-old local cattleman who has been farming all of his life, caught his arm in a John Deere round bale hay baler.

Mr. F. said he had left the tractor idling and the baler running while he used an air compressor hose to clean out the round baler after finishing up one of his hay fields.

"That's where I messed up," Mr. F. said. "I should have cut the machinery off."

The air compressor hose was sucked up into the revolving baler belts, taking Mr. F.'s arm with it. Mr. F. was trapped between the belt and the roller. Because of the force exerted on Mr. F.'s arm, the baler hung up, causing the tractor to stall, momentarily shutting down the baler. At that moment, he was able to pull his arm free. 

"I had my pocket knife out, hoping it was sharp enough to cut the baler belts," Mr. F. later said. His pocket knife and a broken watch were later found at the rear of the machine.

Mr. F. rinsed his arm off, wrapped it in a sheet, and drove himself up to his home, a distance of about a half-mile, on his utility vehicle. He went inside and told his wife he need to go to the urgent care facility because he had cut himself on the baler.

At the urgent care, medical personnel quickly realized the extent of Mr. F.'s injuries and called the local rescue squad. He was transported to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Around 9 p.m., Mr. F. was taken back for surgery to his forearm and hand. He sustained a severe laceration at his thumb, as well as a broken thumb, and the intense pressure on his arm mashed the muscles and blood vessels, creating a serious and life-threatening condition called compartment syndrome. The wound also had severe contamination from the farm equipment.

Swelling in the arm forced surgeons to make an incision down the inside of Mr. F.'s arm from his middle finger to his elbow. The incision was left open and a vacuum pump installed to withdraw fluid in order to save the arm and expedite healing.

Mr. F. underwent a second surgery Monday afternoon so surgeons could inspect the arm. The swelling had subsided significantly and the surgeons were able to close the incision. Mr. F. was released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon with a good prognosis.

Mr. F. and his wife would like to thank family and friends for their prayers, phone calls, and other assistance during this difficult time.


Bloggers note:

I'm a reporter by trade, and while I was trying to process what happened, I wrote some of this out when I was sitting by my husband's hospital bed. It's easier for me to be objective in "reporter mode." I know folks have been keen to know what happened, so here you have it, just the facts.

Farmer 0, Tractor 1

Or maybe it was the creek that won this round?

 

Not my farmer nor my tractor, but a neighbor's. Oops.

 

First Cutting 2014

While other folks are grilling hot dogs and swimming in the local pool, around here, this weekend is usually haying time.

Alien Writing in the Rye Field

Recent winds and rains left eerie patterns in a nearby rye field. Almost like crop circles. Or maybe somebody is trying to tell us something.

Ailing Blue Spruce

In February, we noticed our blue spruce trees were looking thin and scraggly.

 

My husband put some fertilizer around them, but it didn't help.

 

After the weather warmed, we realized that the trees had some kind of fungal infection. We looked up the symptoms on the 'net.

 

 

My husband lopped off about three feet of branches from the bottoms of the two trees that were the most infected.

 

 

I really hated to see him do that, as we planted these trees when we moved here 28 years ago.

 

 

This might give you a better idea of how bad the lower branches were looking prior to cutting.

 

 

 

From all indications, this is the result of the wet spring and summer we had last year. 

 

 

The poor trees scarcely had any needles left on them on some branches.

 

 

This is one of the healthier trees. We sprayed it with a fungicide, as we did all of them.

 

 

This tree, which is the furthest away from the others, seems to have been spared most of the damage. It is being sprayed with fungicide too, though. 

 

 

This leaking of white sap is a tell-tale sign of the fungal infection.