The Kubota was kind of a bit player but an important one today. Had a bit of freezing rain and we were right on the edge of enough to cause damage. When it started melting, even though it was still raining, went out to check the buildings and beehives to make sure no damage worthy of immediate attention. All was well except this one tree at the near end of the dam and
the filter bucket on top of the pond drain had a turtle stuck in it, partially occluding the pipe. First thought was that might need to come out but it looks dead so being it’s a recovery, not a rescue, I can probably find a better day to get it out.
Then I got to thinking about the yellow cat incident a few years back. There was a big yellow cat that we’d see around once in a while; no clue who he belonged to, if anyone. Last time we saw him, sadly, he was floating dead as a door nail in the pond. Figured the fish and turtles would take care of disposal duties. Couple days later it was gone, so it all worked out. Of course if that was true I wouldn’t be typing this. About a week later, the pond level is about 6” over the drain pipe and rising. Nothing coming out of the tailpipe. Drain pipe is an iron 8” vertical pipe about 20’ long on the pond side with an L at the bottom and tailpipe running through the dam and out the back. Took the boat out to the drain pipe with a frog gig on a cobbled together 25’ pole. After rooting around in the pipe for a bit, started pulled chunks of something out and of course most of it had yellow cat hair on it. After about 30 minutes of blending, pulvering, and removing dead cat there was a sudden uncorking and we knew we were done. Checked the tail race by the tailpipe and sure enough there was about half a cat 20’ downstream. Now if we see some bloated dead animal floating in the pond, we shoot it with birdshot to perforate the guts so it will sink (release the gasses causing the buoyancy with enough holes to keep it from building up again).
Anyway, back to today. I didn’t care for a repeat of the cat issue with a turtle standing in for the cat. From a 100’ away couldn’t tell if it was too big for the carapace to get jammed in the pipe or not. So off to get the tractor to pull out the boat and launch into the pond. Turtle was dead and half rotten already. Popped him out with a paddle hoping he might sink but he floated like a cork. Didn’t bring a shotgun, so the scuttling via birdshot procedure wasn’t an option. He’s now ignominiously resting down below the wood lot in a gully that leads to the creek but NOT the pond.
We’ll get the Kubota out again tomorrow to at least get the trail cleared if it will quit raining/sleeting/snowing for at least 30 minutes.
After removing the grapple following tomorrow’s tree removal, also need to put the forks on the front to get ready for the delivery of a PTO drive generator sometime Tuesday. I know PTO generators aren’t for everyone, but seems a good fit for us. Looking forward to having a better plan for power outages.
Picking up a replacement next week.
