Working its way along the ditch that was a creek.
It will be beside the house sometime today. It will pass through, hauling slime and muck and rubbish and dead things up out of the ditch and slinging it down into the grasses where the pheasants are nesting and all manner of other creatures live. Where I work. It will be a big heaving stinking mess. He rips out all the trees in his way and will destroy our pathway along the bank.
All along the bank that we see in the background here he will dump the filth in great uneven bucketfuls. He is aimed straight for the beavers damn of course. There is nothing like a natural made blockage to raise the ire of the farmers here.
I am going to lay in wait for him today and try to get the driver to come down out of his stronghold up there and talk to me. I am going to gently ask him to please avoid yanking out all my trees. Not throw shit on top of the Fellowship forest. Try to avoid the asparagus. And why not a truck to take this crap away. People throw bags of trash into the ditch from the bridge – all that will be brought up and dumped in my backyard. And I am going to ask him if he can not wreck the path that I walk when I go to the other barn every day. Sadly, I will have lost the moment I open my mouth.
Knowing all this, I sat and watched him for a long time yesterday trying to put a positive spin in this. Trying to say – Excellent here is the problem – what shall I do. It is true that the water will move faster for the farmers who want their land to drain better. The Fellowship Forest is still just far enough away to survive I think and all the trees have very obvious guards on them. But losing the bigger wild trees and the milk weed is awful.
Thankfully the trees that survived the fire last spring are on the other side – so as long as he does not turn around and go back the other way – one whole side will be ok. This is good. Just not the house side sadly.
Then a really positive thing came to me. Last year one of the fellowship and frequent commenter, Pat Rousseau, donated a considerable sum for wild flowers along the bank. I had another patch picked out and was going to sow the seeds next week. But now I think I will try and work with the dense tailings. Once it is dry I will go through and pick out all the rubbish, then till it, then sow her wild flowers into this stretch behind the house.
Maybe this is a way to make a little lemonade from these lemons.
At the same time I am going to plant more native fruit trees into this space to replace the ones they have yanked out of the bank. Don’t they know that trees and their roots are imperative to movement of water and drainage AND hold the bank up – then there would be no need for a digger to keep digging it back out. River banks in nature are lined in trees. Wild flowers for the bees and birds and butterflies – these work together to form a critical component in a land mass ecosystem.
Anyway I cannot let myself focus on the destruction, I cannot stop them, I have to work with the mess, so my thought is that if I plant more trees and more flowers into the muck they leave behind; maybe when the ditch digger passes again ten years hence my forest will be so established they cannot bear to pull it down.
It will look like a bomb site for a long time though, and the nice walk to the other barn will be gone. I am never walking it again. I am not walking through rubble. We will walk the long way – around the road.
I thought we owned the land to the ditch, we do own it, but we own the land the digger wrecked two years ago when he dug out the ditch by the road and threw the tailings into my hay field and that did not stop them. Hugo and I spent weeks cleaning that up. They do not ask and do not care.
I am firmly told that I cannot stop them – it is the way things are done here. Makes me want to go home.
The beavers will hear him coming and escape – the men dug them out last summer and they returned so I have faith in the little animals to get clear. They will have plenty of warning. The digger is methodical and slow. But I mourn for them already for all the animals and birds affected.
Helplessness will follow me today.
But after the monster is gone I will come back out and begin again. The beavers and I.
Love celi
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
98 responses to “See this big digger?”
What a horror to watch, and as so many of us agree, so unnecessary. Their are those that clearly are driven to fulfill their own needs though, with total disregard for others. I hope you think about some of the suggestions from farmy members, many sound well worth trying to bring hope for the next time the awful machine is thought to be the only answer. Hugs Miss C.
Replanting is the best idea for sure .. c
OH! this is so upsetting- I am so sorry for your peaceful place about to be mucked about. and I am so sad for all the wildlife and
all the plants and trees. Shame on them not to take a more gentle approach.
I guess it is pretty hard to clear a ditch gently – the way things are set up with the drainage ditches they have to maintain them or there will be flooding somewhere back upriver. He has worked past my fields now and there will be a clean up but it is doable. c
Oh Celi, what a rape of your landscape, and the home for the small creatures… In your position, I think I’d find the inability to change the inevitable almost the hardest thing. Such a pity you don’t have several hives of bees along there. He might pause before ripping into their territory.
Some things you cannot fight – it could be worse – c
That’s awful! What’s wrong with these people have they no respect for wildlife. Try to stay positive.
I am feeling positive – no worries there – thank you janet!
First, I must say that I never noticed your inviting words for comments, welcome to the lounge of comments. That is lovely and makes me smile. But now onto today’s posting. So terrible that ‘progress’ even moves to ditches … It makes me think of stories of how mother nature recovers so much more beautifully when it is left alone to recover for decades. And then there is balance returned. I am sorry that this is happening and ‘government’ doesn’t look first. I will stand beside you as you belt it out at that driver (at least belting is how I think it should be done in my activist mind). Your plan for the aftermath is a good one and your friends have great ideas for going forward. I am sorry. Faye from Ontario
This ditch was first dug by Johns great great grandfather so it is not a modern idea – I spoke with the driver and he is being careful not to disturb my trees.. c
glad to hear the visit went well, its always hard when they come and do what is “norm” when they are edging our land..
There should be a very good supply of topsoil in that ditch; I’d make an effort to reclaim it.
It is being dumped right in my yard so no problem there.
In the wake of such physical and emotional devastation, it is difficult to find anything positive, but please take heart. In spite of man’s influence, if given time, nature will prevail and repair itself. It is early, the pheasants will find new nests and the beaver will rebuild. The muck thrown on your property will become nutrients that your wildflowers will thrive in. Alas the poor trees, that is the saddest tale of all. However they will also come back. Perhaps when they do some of them can be moved farther away from the edge of the ditch so they too can survive. It’s the old story of when you are given lemons……..throw them at the driver of this horrid machine.
You are very right of course – it is soil after all and will become a new challenge.. c
My heart is heavy. There are so many that just don’t want to know what they are doing is harmful.
The water in these ditches does need to keep moving which is of course the objective. My trees are safe now so I will deal with the aftermath in due course. c
I’m sick at heart too. This is crushing . And so hard to “make lemonade” out of it. Just so damn hard.
As the day has worn on and the man and I have worked towards a compromise I think we got off better than expected.. c
Well, i did a deal with the man. Very nice man who I spoke sternly with last year. So, (Just for the patch of land that I own) He can leave the sludge on my grass if he leaves my trees alone. Deal. Plus he can run his machine along the pathway if he makes sure not to drop muck all over it. Deal. He will come back and level it all out when it is dry and then I will sow my seeds. There is stuff in his way so he will just have to avoid all that stuff. Now I am going to be busy in the back yard just to make sure! back soon.. c
Excellent news! You rock! Now you can plan to prevent this happening again. Take pictures of the damage and make permanent signs to post along the ditch. They seem to respect signs for some reason.
Hallelujah! To save the trees is a massive win… makes me feel so much happier. I know your pathway is important to you also, so that’s good… but my huge heartache was over trees lost. Yippppppeeeeeeeee ! 🙂
Just saw this!!! Fantastic!
I was hoping for this. Yay!
☺
I was so pleased and quieted down to read your update. This has been a stressful day for all of us readers, but your determination coupled with your understanding of the background of the ditching project helps lessen the frustration. I do hope you are feeling better about this tonight.
You know that expression – it is what it is – an expression I hate by the way – well it pretty much sums up my feelings now. It is just the mans job and he was happy to talk to me.
We have that same problem with the Ditch company…every year! That’s why I try to keep the canal bank slick and clean so he can’t do it—but he does anyway. Terry has even gone up to the office and complained. I so understand your misery!
Plus the man across the ditch is still burning stuff off – makes one feel a little invaded – c
These are the terrible downsides of spring…add in the wind and SCARY!
I love the rescue plans all are offering here along with your own, and hope that they will do much to mitigate the frustrations and ugly realities of uninvited predatory digging.
I’d certainly vote for the Lemonade approach, myself. Yes, it will take much effort on your already overtaxed part, but the long-term payoffs will undoubtedly soothe the earth and, in turn, your spirits. Too bad that whoever ‘commissions’ this clearout/digging doesn’t have the decency to meet with the affected landowners and users beforehand and work out a mitigation plan in the first place! Imagine, if the price of being allowed to do the ditch clearing were to roughly clean and till in the removed soil and rubble to create a better, healthier bulkhead between the ditch and the adjacent properties. Planted with native prairie grasses (the deepest rooted natural plants on the American plains, the removal of which in the great agricultural expansion across the middle of the country was a major contributor to, if not cause of, the Dust Bowl disaster), or other native seed, alone, these could gradually become a huge protection and cleaning system for the ditches *and* the adjoining properties.
Planted, in addition, with native wildflowers and appropriate varieties of saplings, properly placed, they could become both the healthy infrastructure and the crowning beauty of the area.
My favorite seed source, because they provide pure (filler-free) and carefully curated seed in both single-species bulk and regional or situationally designed mixtures, is http://www.americanmeadows.com. I’ve bought from them with great success and satisfaction and trust their ethic and their product. If and when I ever have land beyond my porch planter again, I will go back to this treasured approach of creating diverse and integrated native plantings that encourage the pollinators, wildlife, and local ecosystems to thrive as they should.
To that end, I love Jan Sheets’s suggestion of finding out whether you have access to governmental support for creating such natural systems on your property. Funding, designated protections, and/or materials and labor would all be particularly welcome assets for an independent farmer on a shoestring, I’ve no doubt, and your responsible approach makes you a perfect ‘poster child’ for their resources if they are available to you. I’d think it worthwhile to see if any local schools, scouting programs, homeschoolers, FFA, master gardeners, or any other such environmental programs might be able and willing to partner with you and your wwoofers to help create such post-apocalyptic (-digger!) healing projects—either as a one-off or on a periodic basis—in exchange for your giving a workshop or two on what you do with your land and animal resources and why you do them. You certainly have all of the chops required: along with your farming experience, you have the teaching, writing, and performance skills to create a remarkable and deeply affecting event that could inspire a whole generation of people besides just us your faithful Fellowship to respect and tend the earth and its inhabitants with wholesome generosity.
Hope the noisy monster’s invation of your life fades into history quickly, no matter what you decide to do!
Love,
Kathryn
What a very informed comment. Lucky for me Pat has already supplied funds for the seed and I have a tractor a tiller and a seed planter. No need to get any government departments involved. So my little corner may even end up looking better. My trees are saved and that is the main thing.. c
Oh YUK! We have a program here that goes along our beautiful country roads and tears the limbs from any trees that hang toward the road … tears them … twists and strips them with an ugly machine that looks like monster cuisinart kitchen blender on a mechanical arm. I cannot for the life of me understand why. They then go along and burn and spray the roadsides (one reason is the hogweed that is spreading through here … and is giving people reasons to show up at hospitals …). I think the weeds that are choking the roadsides would be less prevalent if they left the trees to provide shade and make it unwelcome for sun loving tall weeds. The one consolation is that after an entire year of waiting – of living with the scars – things tend to get covered up by new growth. But never do the big trees get those limbs back …
It is true about the sun. The only place we grow millions of dandelions in the path to the other barn that we keep mowed. Most weeds love sunshine and hate competition..c
Oh my, they have that same awful machine here. Looks like a lawnmower on a long arm! While the new growth does cover the scars the ripping and tearing serving as ‘pruning’ makes for deformed looking new growth. Fortunately as long as we keep the area of our property that borders the road trimmed back they don’t chew up the brush and trees.
Men and their machines. So very sad. I’ll give you a silver lining – more steps on the longer trip to the barn……
Yes!! ha ha – and a very clear space to plant your wildflowers! Thank you again for that! c
I can only imagine how I’d react to something like this. I know a few years back I cried when the arborist came to severely cut back the massive tree we have in the back garden. I do have rather mixed feelings about the beavers though… those little devils are notorious for cutting down trees, even ones you think are well established. As someone else has suggested, the wildlife will settle back in again without too much problem. The pollinator programme sounds like a great idea but not sure that maintenance of flood control measures would be stopped… worth a try though, that’s for sure. My heart is with you on this one for sure and makes me sad to think we are forced to deal with these ignorant methods. ~ Mame 😦
The native plants that i have in mind will all flower so lets hope they grow into a wonderful wild garden patch from this ugliness. c