[AT] Ralph, do you only have one enormous field in Canada?

[Indiana Robinson]

On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 8:21 AM, charlie hill
<charliehill at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> Just about the same size and temper as a deer fly but with a bright yellow
> body rather than dark like a deer fly.
>
> The land over on the beaches and along the sound and river shores was
> selling like hot cakes for the last 15 years or so up until the recession
> hit but the area where that farm is would require a significant amount of
> infrastructure improvement to build on.  The flies and mosquetoes could be
> controlled but the land is highly organic and damp.  The water table is
> usually just a foot or two below the surface.  Septic tanks generally don't
> work.  Houses that locals build in that area have to have mound systems
> (mounds of sand somewhere in the yard above normal grade for septic drain
> fields) and septic tanks that are sealed and use pumps to push the effluent
> to the mound.  The deer, bear, bob cats, opossums, raccoons, turkeys, quail,
> and occasional panthers would just as soon the houses stay away too.
>
> Charlie
>
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A lot of the nicer new houses built around here in the last 30 years
have been built in 5 to 20 acre wooded areas that are only still woods
because they were too wet to farm. Common practice now is to scoop out
a pond in or near the woods to drain to. Most still have to have sump
pumps (and a 12 volt back-up if they are smart).
I have one 100 year old barn where I have a few old tractors
(obligatory antique tractor reference) that is now lower inside than
the ground outside. It tends to stay a little wet in rainy weather so
I am going to run a drain line under it. It is a combination of the
barn sinking a little, the ground outside building up a little and the
fact that the spot where it sits is just naturally wet. My neighbor's
house about 200' away from it had a wet crawl space when he first
built it. He had a drain but it was not deep enough to get enough of
it. I forget what he had to do to correct it but I know it took extra
drainage work.
I don't mind seeing a house in the woods. If most of the local farmers
bought those small woods they would have them dozed and drained for
planting corn. While much of southern Indiana is forested we don't
have a lot of woods to spare in my part here on the edge of the
prairie.

-- 


Be tolerant of almost everything but intolerance...

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com