Nature Abhors a Fence

Weekly update: Nothing ages well in the sun and winds of northern New Mexico.  Photographs of wizened faces of natives and farmers are common from the early twentieth century.  The elements treat wood no better.

My southwest-northeast fence was built in two in two sections.  Around 1992, my neighbor erected the first one section by cutting notches in 4'x4' treated posts to hold horizontal rails.  He attached 4" wide, dog-eared pine pickets to it.

In 2001, Carlos Archuleta extended the fence to the south and north boundaries of my property.  He embedded steel posts in concrete, and attached galvanized brackets to hold the horizontal boards.  He used 6" wide pickets.

My neighbor’s mistake was using bare, steel nails.  The iron interacted with the wood’s chemicals.  Within a year, holes developed around them.  When the winds blew, the boards rattled and bowed.  Each year I’d get my neighbor to put some deck screws in the ones that no longer were attached at the top.

When the winds hit the metal-post section, the horizontal rails vibrated, and eventually worked their anchoring screws loose.  My neighbor had a heart attack, and no longer could work on the fence.  I began using plastic-covered, copper wire to tie the fence together.

Then we had the big wind last year that brought the tumbleweeds.  It also blew one section of my fence loose from the four brackets.  In the fall, I started calling local landscape companies, and got the usual responses: no call backs or bids that were outrageous.

Things hobbled along until April 19, when the section came down, and I couldn’t keep it up.

Monday, I started making phone calls again.  This time I looked online for companies that did fence repair.  Some were organized enterprises with 60- to 90-day backlogs.  Others were small operations, often with phone numbers that no longer were active.

I got lucky.  One small company sent someone out on Tuesday to give me an estimate of $2,000 to do everything.  I gulped, but remembered it had cost $3,106 to build the fence in 2001.  A 4" board had cost $1.49 in 2013.  Today, a 6" picket cost $5.72.   It would cost at least $3,200 to replace all the boards, and men seem to expect $1,000 a day for labor.  I was going to pay the standard labor rate and about $300 for drywall screws and replacement boards.

These men were willing to rescrew every board and bracket.  It’s actually more difficult to repair something than to replace it.  They not only had to install two new screws at the top, and two at the bottom, but they also had to hammer in exposed nails.

They started on Wednesday, and were finished on Thursday.  In the process, it became obvious more than wind had been a factor.

The wind had been depositing dirt at the base of the fence for years.  You can see the difference in the following picture.  My neighbor replaced a board by placing it on the surface.  It is several inches higher than the surrounding ones.

Apparently, during the winter, when the ground froze, the extra dirt began pushing upward.  In the above photo of the bracket and wire, you can see that the rail has been moved at least half an inch, and been thrust in front of another picket.

These men removed the one board, removed dirt at the base, and were able to reinstall the rail into the bracket.  They used two to three screws where Carlos had used one.

Below ground, the boards were slowly rotting.

They had to dig out an opening wherever they had to replace a board.  Finally, one of the men took a shovel and dug dirt away from the fence from the downed section south.  You can see the trench in front of the section they needed to replace.

When I said I got lucky, I wasn’t just referring to the price or their willingness to start immediately.  The older man was able to recognize root causes and fix them, although that wasn’t specified in the estimate.  That’s the mark of a master craftsman.  There are very few with both the experience and the willingness to continue working hard after they’ve reached middle age.

Weather: When I woke Friday morning, gray clouds were everywhere and an Alberta clipper was expected to send some rain our way from the northwest.  It would have been the first in more than a month.

I needed to plant some native grass seed along south fence where I have been working to stop erosion around the anchoring end post.  The low areas had been filled, and stones dumped along the top.  All I needed to finish was some rain, since the area is beyond the reach of a hose.

So, I went out as the winds started, and began scattering seeds on the stones, and covering them with sand.  By the time I had finished, the rain had started.  Now, all I can do is hope some will germinate.

Last rain: 4/28/23.  Week’s low: 27 degrees F.  Week’s high: 74 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 45 mph in Santa Fé on Friday.

What’s blooming in the area: Apples, sweet cherries, purple leaf sand cherry, flowering quince, other pink and white flowered trees, forsythia, daffodils, lavender moss phlox

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Purple and tansy mustards, fern leaf globemallows, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, purple mat, western stickseed, bractless cryptantha, dandelions, cheat grass, moss

What’s emerging: Stickleaf

What’s blooming in my yard: Flowering and fruiting crab apples, sour cherry, sandcherry, Siberian peas, lilac, tulips, grape hyacinth, stars of Bethlehem, blue flax, vinca

What’s emerging: Grape vine, Pallida iris, lilies of the valley, Mönch asters, chocolate flowers, Ozark coneflower

Animal sightings: Humming bird, western chickadees, geckoes, small bees around Siberian peas, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants

Notes on photographs:
1.  Flowering quince (Chaenomeles rubra) with leaves of white yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), 29 April 2023.  

2.  Wooden-post fence, 26 June 2013.  Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) got started behind the fence on my neighbor’s side.

3.  Metal-post fence, 26 June 2013,
4.  Nail hole in wooden-post fence, 26 June 2013.
5.  Loose bracket in metal-post fence, 27 April 2023.
6.  Metal-post fence repair, 29 April 2023.
7.  Repaired bracket in metal-post fence, 27 April 2023.
8.  Rotting pickets in metal-post fence, 23 April 2023.
9.  New section in metal-post fence, 27 April 2023.

Russia Thistles Again

Weekly update: Another major wind storm on Wednesday dumped more tumbleweeds in places I had just cleared from the storm of April 4.  This time, more Russian thistles were caught in shrubs and along the east or southeast side of the property.  One time when I looked out, I saw dust and thistles rolling through my southwest neighbor’s yard.  The winds shifted, and the thistles hopped the fence and headed toward me.

Later, winds came from the northeast and blew the ones I hadn’t removed into new places.  There were times when I could only remove the ones behind the house because the winds were blowing toward me.  Any I removed toward the northeast front side of my land would have blown back into the driveway.

Each storm is worse, because the thistles get moved, stopped, and then moved again.  I counted 1,840 from the February wind, and 3,286 from the early April one.  My total of thistles removed so far this year is 7,186, and I haven’t started clearing the fences.  It’s later in the season and my first priority has been keeping the beds clear that I water.

The air has been dryer than earlier, and the carcasses are more likely to drop small pieces that will produce seedlings when the parents have been removed.  Seeds already are sprouting in the dry sand along the fence across from that neighbor.

I think the increasing fragility of the tumbleweeds has created another problem.  When I go out, I wear a heavy sweatshirt, thick sweatpants, and rubber boots.  I add rubble gloves for the stickers and a paper mask to keep dust out of my lungs.  My glasses usually keep it out of my eyes.

However, the past few days the areas around my eyes have been itching, and nothing seems to have helped.  Washing the area with water or alcohol did nothing.  Various salves didn’t help.

Russian thistles contain noxious chemicals related to sodium carbonates.  I’m thinking these have been released into the air when the carcasses break up, and land on my skin.  The wind imprints them into the surface of the skin.

This isn’t a single weather event that makes the news.  Southern tornadoes, which follow our high wind periods, rightly get more attention.

However, peoples’ reactions to their own situations are more important than the number of disasters recorded by the weather bureau.  In a recent poll, 79% said they had personally been affected by what is euphemistically called extreme weather in the past five years.  55% cited hot weather, 45% cold weather and bad storms, and 30% drought and water shortages.  The headline catching hurricanes and fires were down the list.

This problem with Russian thistles began with recent droughts that suppressed native vegetation that let invaders like the member of the Chenopodium family get started.  Over a few seasons, individuals cut them down, and let them blow where they seeded new areas.

Last year we had one serious wind storm, and another smaller one later.  They planted more seeds, and this year we not only have had more wind storms, but more plants have been available to blow around.  Most get stopped by barriers, but it takes one a few gusts to lift them free and over fences.

There are things that are more important tasks in the spring than removing tumbleweed carcasses, but a definition of a crisis is something that forces one to stop doing what is critical to deal with something worse.

Before the storm, I was able to spend a little time siting some of the 3"x3" post I’m laying in front of my east fence to prevent flooding.  I even had time to tie some of the loose boards in the fence.

Yesterday morning I had all the beds cleared, and was able to spend a little time planting the bare-root trees that arrived in the mail the day before the storm.  They spent the week in my bathtub, with water dumped into their plastic bag.  

In the afternoon, a wind blew down one section of the fence, and all I could do was get it to lay flat in my east neighbor’s yard so it wouldn’t destroy the plants in front of it.  This morning, instead of working on the posts or removing tumbleweeds from my backyard, I struggled to get the fence section propped back in place.

I know from the past few weeks how many hours I will have to spend removing the remaining tumbleweeds, but I may be able to pace myself until it becomes clear real rain may arrive and encourage some of the seeds.

But I know that part of every day this year will be spent dealing with acts of God abetted by my neighbors near and far: picking dandelion flowers, watching for Siberian elm seedlings, and dealing with Russian thistles.

Weather: The first fire weather watch of the season was on Wednesday, before hurricane season officially opens.  These have replace spring with its tornado season.

Last token snow: 3/21/23.  Week’s low: 28 degrees F.  Week’s high: 78 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 47 mph in Los Alamos and 51 mph in Santa Fé at the time I was watching tumbleweeds roll in my neighbor’s yard on Wednesday.

What’s blooming in the area: Bradford and fruiting pears, sweet cherries, purple leaf plums, flowering quince, Siberian elms, forsythia, red tulips, daffodils, moss phlox, donkey tail spurge

What’s emerging: Apples leafing; purple salvia and pampas grass emerging

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Purple and tansy mustards, white tufted evening primroses, alfilerillo, western stickseed, bractless cryptantha, dandelions

What’s emerging: Sandbar willow, fern leaf and leather leaf globe mallows, Russian thistles

What’s blooming in my yard: Sour cherry, sandcherry, purple leaf sand cherry, stars of Bethlehem, vinca

What’s emerging: Peaches, Bradford pear, sweet cherries, cottonwoods, beauty bush, forsythia, and snowball are leafing; Asiatic lilies, Bath pinks, baptisia, sea lavender, wintered over snapdragons, and larkspur from seeds are coming up

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, geckoes, cabbage and black swallowtail butterflies, small bees on sandcherry, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants; hear quail

Notes on photographs: All taken 23 April 2023
1.  Vinca (Vinca minor)

2.  Tufted white evening primrose blooming on the other side of my fence (Oenothera caespitosa)

3.  Purple leaf sandcherry blossom that has been battered by the wind (Prunus cistena)

End notes:  AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.  “Attitudes Toward Climate Change Continue To Be Divisive.”  Its website, 22 April 2023.

Russia Thistles Redux

 

Weekly update: Gardening is usually an act of creation and pleasure.  However, when the weather turns hostile it can seem more like masochism.

It was the usual pattern with the apricots.  Afternoon temperatures in the high 50’s coaxed them into blooming on March 23, then morning temperatures fell to 18 degrees on March 24.  Each day would tempt a few more, and mornings would kill them.  It was 10 degrees on March 28.

Temperatures got into the 80’s this week.  The peaches are blooming and the sweet cherries are beginning.  Saturday morning the temperature was 24 degrees.

I’ve gotten used to this, even if the fruit trees still follow false signs.  I’ve even grown accustom to no rain.  The last real moisture was March 21, with bits around March 25.  The ground underfoot is dry, reddish sand.

Although other things needed doing, I spent my work time last Saturday and Easter running water for the first time.  Thi always involves replacing hoses that failed and valves that are leaking.

That, in turn, means discovering if anyone is offering decent replacements this year, or, if like last year, everything is worse than before, but at a higher price.

What I have not gotten used to is the wind.  Last year we had two bad winds a few days a part in April that brought Russian thistles into the yard for the first time.  I had removed more than 300  by the end of the month.

The drought had suppressed the grasses, and thistles had taken over.  When the winds were over 50 miles an hour in places like Santa Fé and the carcasses were over the top of the cottonwood and catalpa, they could have come from anywhere.  I spent the rest of the summer removing them, but in the end the ground was cleared of seeds in many places.

We had a strong wind this year on February 22.  There were more than last year, because the ones from last year had dropped seeds that germinated when we finally got some moisture in late summer.  People to the south and southwest probably cut theirs down – the stems don’t break that easily – and left them to blow away.

By March 29, I had removed 1,603, mainly from my back yard.  They weren’t just laying around like last year.  Many had been blown into shrubs and trees.  I used a small rake to snag some.  Again, I had managed the clear the mess, but expected I would be spending part of each day this summer dealing with seedlings.

Then, more strong winds on March 30 and April 4, with gusts every day.  This time some of the winds came from the north, and the carcasses were piled 6' deep against the back fence on grasses that had never seen a thistle.  As of yesterday, I had cleared 3,281 since I had declared partial victory.

That’s 4,884 so far this year, and they still are piled into the salt bushes.  I couldn’t clear the drive yesterday, because the winds were blowing them back.

I don’t keep count for fun.  What else can you do, when you are making 180' round trips from the yard to a location along the western wire fence where it is safe to drop them.  If I go to the nearest point, they cluster against the fence, and I have to go out later and rake them into the ranch road.  If I walk farther north, the angles change enough so that the wind picks them up and send them onto the paved road where they become someone else’s problem.

Many times this week I’ve felt like one of those horses or oxen that used to be harnessed to wooden arms connected to mill stones.  They would plod for hours in a circle.  At least, they were grinding grain.

Weather: The ditch was running in the village on Tuesday.

The heat hasn’t just tricked the fruit trees.  On Thursday, the weather bureau issued a warning that the snow pack in the mountains was melting faster than usual, and threatening to overwhelm streams.

I suppose that escaping moisture explains some of the clouds we have had this week.  There are no clouds bringing moisture from the Pacific.

Last token snow: 3/21/23.  Week’s low: 24 degrees F.  Week’s high: 83 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 46 mph in Los Alamos on Friday.

What’s blooming in the area: Apricots that survived the cold temperatures, peaches, Bradford pears, purple leaf plums, forsythia, daffodils

What’s emerging: Spirea, globe and weeping willows, lilacs

What’s already revived: Roses, arborvitae, bearded iris, daylilies, yellow yarrow

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Purple and tansy mustard, alfilerillo, western stickseed, dandelions

What’s emerging: Russian olives, white sweet clover, strap leaf asters, goat’s beards, ring muhly grass

What’s already revived: Apache plumes, Siberian elms, skunk bushes, four-winged saltbushes, winterfat, alfalfa, bindweed, yellow evening primroses, white pigweed, broom snakeweed, goldenrod, purple and golden hairy asters; needle, June, brome and cheat grasses

What’s blooming in my yard: Sweet cherries, sandcherry, white violets, vinca

What’s emerging: Choke cherries, sour cherry, flowering crab apple, raspberry, Siberian peas, chives, red hot pokers, peonies, smooth and foxglove beard tongues, Johnson’s Blue geranium, catmint, Rumanian sage, Maximilian sunflowers, Silver King artemesia, coreopsis, buffalo grass

What’s already revived: Fruiting crab apples, yellow potentillas, tulips, grape hyacinths, garlic chives, coral beard tongues, golden spur columbine, Maltese crosses, David phlox, bouncing Bess, snow-in-summer, hollyhocks, winecup mallow, sidalcea, Dutch clover, blue flax, pink evening primroses, ladybells, Queen Anne’s lace, Mexican hats, Shasta daisies, chrysanthemums, anthemis, coreopsis, tansy, white yarrow

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, gecko, black swallowtail and cabbage butterflies, small bees, sidewalk and harvester ants; heard quail

Notes on photographs:
1.  Elberta peach (Prunus persica) on 13 April 2023.  The tree was planted in 1997, got invaded by aphids and has had dead limbs removed.  It still blooms and still manages to take on a shape like that commemorated by Chinese artists.

2.  Russian thistles (Salsola tragus) blown against the fence and four-winged saltbushes (Atriplex canescens) on 31 March 2023.

3.  Same area on 13 April 2023.  In four hours I had removed 650 tumbleweed carcasses.