When dad was fixing up the mountain for the deer, he had to clear cut a meadow for their buckwheat and clover graze.
Naturally, there was a lot of small branches that the pulp wood buyers did not want so he threw them into the ravine, thinking nnothing of it.
The EPA came buy and told him he couldn’t “foul a waterway”.
We all said WTF?
Turns out that over a two centuries ago, according to a 1789 map, the ravine was once a small stream.
There are hundreds of constantly shifting underground springs here and they come and go, over time.
But once they’re gone, they’re gone and nothing is left but the gully.
We all found this fascinating and he continued to throw brush into the ravine.
The EPA came again.
This time, dad met them with his rifle slung over his shoulder.
[coyotes and bears ya know, can’t be too careful]
Words were exchanged and the EPA dweeb never returned.
The brush is still there, along with the shrubs that grew up around it, after all these years and lots of wildlife uses it for food and shelter.
For myself, there’s gun and Doberman signs on the front fence.
I have not seen one pencil pusher in at least 20 years.
The last one I do recall was a 1990 Census taker.
She showed up while I was cleaning a 30.30 on the front porch with my yard Dobes laying at my bare feet.
I did not get enumerated, that year and have never gotten a form in the mail, since.
I must have impressed her.
the water table was high and the old well was only 8 foot below the old Michigan basement. Then one of the neighbors decided to turn part of his property into mine for construction sand. It ended up 10 acre pond and 15 feet deep. It became a problem for the big trucks to dig out sand. He decided to pump out all the water and every ones wells went dry..I had to have a pro well digger dig me a new well. Woke up one morning and no water. Made it difficult to water goats and various other things on the farm....Talked with the old guy we got our hay from and he taught me how to be a dowser. I had a dowser out to help find a good place to start a new well, and he came up with spot and it was only 4 feet from what I found...he asked if I had another dowser out and I proudly told him it was me...The well digger hit water at 45 feet. It pumped out 15 gallons a minute....
I asked him how he determined where to dig a well and he said he threw his hat in the air and where ever it landed he dug...a dry hole cost the person 1/2 of what the bill was..If they told him where to dig, and it was dry, they paid for the dry hole and they would try someplace else. ,p.
My dowser told me he was heading for a farm that had 5 dry holes and was told about my guy. It was great watching him walk the property looking for water. His trunk was full of several dousing branches he used...the old fashion way with the forked fruit trees.He asked me about having someone out before him cause the place I had picked I put a rock....the only rock on that part of the grassy area... I used 2 wire hangers cut in a certain way like I was shown. Loved living on the farm, but when my husband died and the goat # was up to 80, the house was beautiful but 100 years old and it took a man to deal with the upkeep. Very little was up to code including septic and electricity etc. etc. Everything had been fathered in when codes were written.. GG