Scenes from The County Line

Hey, it's the Lone Ranger. 

Nope, he had a friend or two. 

These two "bandits" were hanging out in the trees near Peace Creek Sunday evening. They didn't stay long enough to visit before skeedaddling up an old tree and hiding in the upper branches. 

On first glance, they are pretty cute, but the rascals can cause some damage. They steal food from the cat bowls. For awhile, they didn't think we were offering a large enough buffet at the Fritzemeier Farm feed trough. They were bound and determined to get into the wash house to help themselves to the food. They were pulling wood planks off the wash house, so it's still hard to be hospitable to scoundrels that make such a mess (though these particular individuals were probably innocent).

 

They weren't the only wildlife on our drive. While at the Rattlesnake Pasture, we could hear the coyotes vocalizing before their nighttime serenade. The Rocky Mountain beeplant made for some pretty scenery shots.

 

After driving through our pasture, we took a detour home through Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.

The light was just right to capture these two birds and their reflections.

The duck wanted in on the scene.

 

 

The setting sun seemed to be reflected in the goldenrod near the kids' fishing pond, so abundant at this time of year. 

 

The temperature may not reflect fall yet, but the colors are trying to convince us. The milo field across from the house is turning, getting ready for harvest.

It was almost like the colors of the sky were reflected in the ripening field.

 

Not a Good Kind of Rainbow

 

I like rainbows - most of the time. But when "rainbows" are in creek water, it's not a good thing.

We were notified Wednesday, September 13, about an oil spill that impacted our Rattlesnake Creek Pasture. The "rainbow" in the creek water was the sheen of oil floating on the surface of the Rattlesnake Creek. 

Google map - From www.hutchpost.com

On September 12, the Kansas Corporation Commission notified the Environmental Protection Agency of the oil discharge to Rattlesnake Creek in Stafford County, according to Ben Washburn, Public Affairs Officer for EPA Region 7.

Google map - From www.hutchpost.com

An article in The Hutchinson Post said that the responsible party reported 90,000 gallons of brine, or salt water generated during oil production, spilled from a disposal well line that transects Rattlesnake Creek approximately 0.25 mile east of NE 90th Avenue. The brine contained an estimated 600 to 700 gallons of oil.

This Haz Mat vehicle was in the pasture, and we met another Haz Mat trailer on the road as we were leaving.

The oil company and the EPA responded quickly. Once on site, the  EPA On-Scene Coordinator observed areas of sheening and small pockets of oil up to 2.1 miles from the source of the spill, including our pasture. Responsible party contractors have recovered approximately 160 barrels (6,720 gallons) of mostly brine to date. The responsible party contractors are continuing oil containment and recovery operations under EPA oversight. On Friday, small amounts of oil were observed up to 4 miles downstream of the spill location, according to Washburn. They reported no observed impacts within the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, which is a few miles away from our pasture. 

Randy talking with a Haz Mat crew after they'd built a dam over the creek in our pasture.

 To corral the oil, they placed a boom along Rattlesnake Creek to prevent further oil migration. 

The disposal well line that was the source of the spill was isolated and is no longer actively leaking, according to the EPA.

Sunday night, we were back in the pasture to see the progress made.

Ironically, it wasn't the only oil leak in the pasture. We were in Topeka and Kansas City celebrating birthdays when we got a phone call from the Millers, who care for our cattle and their own at the Rattlesnake Pasture. A different pumping unit was spraying oil. Todd got the unit shut off, but it did leave behind some oil.

 

On Wednesday, Randy went back to the pasture and found that the oil company had already cleaned up the site and the well was up and pumping again.

The booms are still in place on the creek, though, and he said there were plenty of Haz Mat Response team vehicles supervising the progress. (Unlike me, he didn't take any photos.) They told Randy that they'd likely remove the booms and the dam in a few days.

 

Man vs. Beaver and Other Varmints

Beaver dam under a bridge on the Rattlesnake Creek

Operation Beaver Dam Destruction is underway.

Randy's efforts to thwart the four-legged construction engineers have been admirable. However, those beavers are persistent!

When we were on a Gator ride to the Rattlesnake pasture in mid-August, we made our customary stop on the bridge. It's my normal spot for taking photos toward the east. It provides an unobstructed view easily reached by a regular vehicle to check the creek level and flow.

But we noticed the water level on the west side of the bridge (the neighbor's pasture) was appreciably higher than on our side. Randy went underneath the bridge to try and learn why. And he found a large beaver dam.

He's taken multiple trips to the bridge to try and dissuade the four-legged Master Builders. 

Jill is not impressed with her dad's idea of retirement.

"I thought you were supposed to be leaving the heavy work to the young guys!" she texted back after seeing the photos of her dad bent over, chucking cement blocks away from the beaver dam.

On the other hand, our son-in-law is ready to make business cards with a catchy title like Randy's Rascals. 

Neither Randy or I could believe the size of the cement blocks the beavers were able to move into their dam. How do these creatures without the advantage of opposable thumbs move the heavy pieces? Some of them were too big for Randy to move by himself. (All I'm good for is taking photos of his battle - not lifting heavy objects.)

Randy's efforts helped release some of the backlog of water. 

But, two days later, they had already moved in fresh reeds and grass. That has been repeated multiple times since.

So far, I think the beavers are winning. 

He hopes he has better luck with some other pesky rascals. Randy's golf cart wouldn't run, so he took it to the repair shop. The guys there found out that a packrat had chewed several wires in two. They'd also left behind a pretzel bag and other assorted "treasures." (Randy doesn't keep food in his golf cart, so they found them elsewhere and graciously "shared.") When he was at golf league on Tuesday night, he learned two other carts in the same shed were also incapacitated by the busy packrats.

We've had similar infestations in the old shop and the shed where we currently store the Gator. Packrats were always a problem in farm machinery, too, despite our best efforts to control them.

Millennials aren't the only ones who watch YouTube. Randy found a video that claims rats can't digest baking soda. The YouTuber suggested putting a combination of cornbread mix and soda in a container with a hole cut into it. The rats are supposed to smell the cornmeal, partake of the special recipe, "swell up" and eventually succumb. 

On our way to an appointment in Pratt, Operation Packrat began.

Randy mixed together the corn muffin mix and the baking soda in a disposable container.

Then, he moved the bait into the golf cart shed. You'll notice that he's standing in the empty space where his golf cart usually "lives." Our cart is still in the shop.
 

He left similar bait traps in both our sheds at home. He's noticed that our cats have recently dined on two rats that they've "graciously" dragged into the yard.

Hopefully, by the time the golf cart returns to the Stafford golf course he will have had more luck discouraging the packrats than he's had with the beaver dam.

Peace Creek Not So Peaceful

Peace Creek at the Zenith Road - August 10, 2022

It's not a good sign when you stop at a bridge and the first thing you see is a vulture perched in the creek bed. (It flew away before I got the shot - FYI.)

This summer in Kansas has not been fit for man or beast - unless you happen to be a vulture, I suppose. We've had more days than usual above the 100-degree F mark. And we are dry. When the weather forecasters were predicting 2 to 4 inches in our area a couple of weeks ago, we got 0.75". We were thankful for every drop. However, the most appreciable rain before that happened at the end of June during wheat harvest.

The Kansas Drought Monitor tells the tale, too. Half of Stafford County is in extreme drought and the other half in severe drought. (And that's better than a bunch of counties in western Kansas.)

At the bridge along the Zenith Road, Randy saw fish gasping for air in the dwindling water. I went back with him, but we couldn't see the fish at that time. However, we saw a bunch of bullfrogs who were still hunkering down in the few wet spots they could find.

 

Two years ago in August, I took this picturesque scene as I headed toward home after running an errand to the field.

Peace Creek at the Zenith Road - 2020

The U.S. Drought Monitor website also had this chart of impacts of drought. As they indicated, the consequences vary from state to state.

Several of these are evident in Kansas and other areas of the Great Plains this year.  (Click on the chart to make it easier to read.) Some field corn is getting chopped for silage, rather than harvested for grain. There are new blue-green algae alerts in the news all the time. Fires are much more likely to get out of hand. Ranchers are contemplating how to feed their cow/calf herds with dwindling pasture reserves. 

This week was again supposed to bring rain. But as this week arrived, the weather maps on the local TV stations started changing to fewer raindrops. So far, we haven't received any moisture.

However, Wednesday was a wonderful respite from the hot temperatures. So that prompted a Gator ride to the Rattlesnake Pasture.

There's still a little water in the Rattlesnake.

It's definitely better than the scene in 2012, when it was dry as a bone.

August 2012 - no water in the Rattlesnake

The cows and calves appeared to be faring well, despite the lack of rain to make the grass grow more abundantly. However, to keep it that way, Tye and Todd have decided to wean the calves from the cows next week and sell them now, rather than wait until later this fall, as is the norm. (Though we've had our farm sale, we still retain ownership in our cow/calf herd, though Tye and Todd do the day-to-day management.)

That will reduce the number of head of cattle in the pasture, with the hope that the grass will last longer for the remaining cows.

 As we left the pasture, we stopped at our customary spot for photos on the bridge.

There's still a little water flow. It's never a rushing river, but here's a comparison from March 2021.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? The Farmers' Almanac predicts our area will have a snow-filled winter. My Grandpa Neelly may have planted potatoes by the light of the moon and the Farmers' Almanac, but I'll believe heavy snowfall when I see it. 

“Get ready to shake, shiver, and shovel!” says the website for that publication, which was founded in 1818 and is based in Lewiston, Maine. That almanac has weathered considerable distrust from meteorologists over its long-range forecasts, which it says are created using a secret formula that’s centuries old. 

Honestly, the Farmers' Almanac can't be much worse at predicting precipitation than the local TV stations.

***

As I wrote earlier this week, I'm sure I'll write about the farm sale. But it's going to take some time and some thought. More on that down the road.