Vineyard Spring

In like a lamb out like a lion? This is what we woke up to this morning:

Dusting and should be gone quickly

We received a dusting to an inch or two of heavy wet snow. Not uncommon just a pain, especially when we did not get much snow all winter. This has actually been an interesting week. We started off with the delivery of our plant control products aka fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, plant growth regulators and other liquid fertilizers, wetting agents etc. Like the fertilizer we received last week we set up a planner at the end of the year after reviewing how the season went and what issues we had and what worked and what did not. We might purchase a couple of items during the season but most is in the planner and delivered all at once. It takes a fair hand at organization and spacial relations to get it to fit in the building and have it workable. Later that day it snowed as we moved the drums of liquid fertilizer into the pumphouse. We discovered some rats had made the pumphouse their home over the winter. They like to hang around the dumpster and under the clubhouse porch and love the seed barn but never in the pumphouse before, what fun!

fully stocked chemical storage bldg

On tuesday we all headed off to the cape for a training class on our hoisting license. this is a Mass DOT license needed to run a bobcat, forklift, backhoe, excavator, trencher etc. We will be assigned dates for testing much like jury duty notifications. We had to get special physicals and have to carry a health card as one of the requirements with this license. It covers hoisting, excavating and all the rules and safety measures dealing with these categories. One interesting new change is the push for the need to call dig safe by everyone whether public, private, homeowner comercial. The majority of incidence hitting utilities is from homeowners apparently. It used to be you did not have to call them on private property. The penalty for hitting a utility if you do not call dig safe is $10,000. It does not cost anything and they come out and mark the utilities. You cannot start work for 72 hrs after the call and must re-call after a month if you did not perform the work and wish to, in case something has been added in that time. Might be worth clicking the link above to get aquainted before you set that next fence post or plant that tree.

Will on left Kevin on rt.

Not being an exact science there are issues that arise so there is a cottage industry set up to protect yourself. On the table is a kit you can buy which labels the paint mark and your edge of the trench with a ruler on the bottom and as long as you are the required 18", I believe, away you are ok. As the instructor explained it could take years for an incident to come to court and you have tons of pics of the broken utility pipe, wire, etc but that is not what's in dispute. It is who's fault it is that it was hit. A picture above the ground proving you were the correct distance from the paint mark is what you need.
One more pic from my walk to see if the osprey is back yet. He/she normally comes about this time of year.

sticky wet snow makes the best pictures, right before it breaks the branch that pulls the wires down!