Watershed Improvements

Jason Abell's farm is one of six Bradford County farms benefiting from funds made available through the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST). A major part of the project is the construction of a concrete barnyard to be used for feeding cattle and reducing waste run-off in a nearby stream.


Jason explains how the system works.


The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is also providing funds to help reduce nitrogen and phosphorus run-off and sediment into local streams. Additionally, funds from Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) will pay for native trees and shrubs to be planted along a stream on the Abell farm.

Hunting for dinner

While checking for spring turkey activity I spotted this fox hunting for its next meal.


Not only was I watching the fox, but a hen turkey (upper right) was also keeping an eye on the fox.


After several minutes the fox successfully caught a mouse.

Animals on the move

The warm weather of spring has increased the animal activity in the neighborhood. I was at the farm yesterday afternoon and spotted a small flock of turkeys feeding. A big tom turkey was in full strut trying to impress the hens. While the turkeys feed they were joined by a couple of deer that joined the flock and grazed in the middle of the flock. I was was watching the turkeys and deer with binoculars and almost missed seeing a family of bears past within a 100 yards of me.



A mother bear and two cubs walked between me and the turkeys. These bears appear to be the same ones spotted at the farm last year.

Out of town

We have been out of town for the past few weeks on a cruise. Check out some of the places we visited.

http://southeast-asia-cruise.blogspot.com/

Digging Out

We haven't had much snow this year but we finally got enough snow to bring out the snow removal equipment. This wasn't a record snow fall but in the past 2 days we got between 16 and 22 inches of snow with some drifts over 3 feet high. Brian Hopkins tried to push the snow with his ATV plow but quickly changed to the front end loader to clean his driveway.



I got our driveway plowed in the morning before it had finished snowing. By the late afternoon the Sun came out and we saw some blue sky.


At the top of the hill, at Gordon and Barb Secor's, the snow was deeper due to the drifting.



Not everyone spent the day removing snow. The tracks of a snowmobile can be seen in Jason's field.

Maintaining Joyce Road

Gale Bowen, Rome Township Road Supervisor, and Jason Petlock of the Bradford County Conservation District were inspecting sections of Joyce Road today. In the following photo they inspected a section of drainage ditch along Joyce Road for damage from the recent flooding. In the past, this section of ditch received severe erosion from heavy rains and caused flooding along Joyce Road. Last summer, Rome Township lined this section of drainage ditch with flat, angular rocks to control erosion. The rock lining has preformed very well in controlling erosion and stabilizing this section of Joyce Road.



This inspection also looked into the future impact of increased traffic on Joyce Road as a detour during repairs to Gillett's Bridge.

Keeping warm

We may not have much snow this year but the weather has turned colder. Jason and Mary Abell took advantage of the lack of snow and frozen ground to stock up on firewood.

Foxes on the move

While sitting in our kitchen drinking coffee, our neighbor Harley noticed a young red fox in the field across the road. The fox slowly trotted across the field and into the woods before I could get my camera. Within 20 minutes a second, larger, fox appeared in the same field. It's the mating season for foxes and this fox "zigzagged" across the field allowing me to get some pictures before it disappeared into the woods. A couple of hours later Harley spotted a fox crossing his lawn.

January Thaw

Wikipedia defines "January Thaw" as an observed but unexplained temperature rise in mid-winter around January 25th. It looks like we are right on schedule this year. So far this year we haven't seen much snow fall and the recent predictions of flooding from the National Weather Service seemed to be unfounded, but correct.

The rain started yesterday afternoon and continued overnight. By early morning the local streams were running full and some flooding started.

The small stream by Saylor's

The approach to the Wysox creek bridge was under water and closed to traffic.

The bridge leading to May Cook's.

Snow Fleas

While walking through the woods after our last snow fall I noticed several dark areas of snow. A closer look reveled hundreds of little oblong specs, 1/16 inch, that sometimes moved/jumped. These little specs were "snow fleas" (Hypogastrura nivicola).



The "snow flea" is not a flea at all, but instead is a species of springtail (Collembola). Snow fleas eat decaying organic matter as well as bacteria, fungi and algae. They need not be of concern to homeowners, as they do not cause any damage.

November Rainbow

When you think of rainbows the image of warm spring and summer days comes to mind and not late November. While checking a local pond this afternoon I took this photo of a November rainbow.

Karson's web site

In September Brian and Atisha Hopkins' son Karson was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma cancer. It's a childhood cancer that is somewhat rare and he has been receiving chemo treatments at Geisinger in Danville.

The Brian and Atisha have created a website for friends & family to keep up on Karson.

Link to Karson's web page
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/karsonhopkins

Seismic Survey part 4

The Geokinetics' crew was back in the neighborhood for the next phase of the seismic survey. The crew tested the geophone cable connections prior to exploding the seismic charges.



Muffled bangs could be heard when the first charges were exploded in the neighborhood but the sound increased as they worked down the valley behind the house. We watch the crew connect the wires on the explosive charge behind our house and waited for the explosion.



The seismic charge was about 80 yards from the house and had enough force to lift the ground above the explosion and scatter leaves. It sounded like a very large rifle going off very close and shook the house.

Signs of Autumn

The first snow of the season came and a couple of days later the temperature was back in the 70's. The cold and snow must have triggered the geese to head south and hundreds of geese can be seen on Miner's pond.



The early snow may have forced many of the trees to drop their leave but I did find some Autumn leaves at a local pond.

Seismic Survey part 3

The Geokinetics' helicopter was back in the neighborhood delivering equipment to the workers as they connect the network of geophones for the seismic survey.



The following photo is the equipment bag that was dropped off in our lawn by a helicopter.



This photo shows some of the geophone placed on our property. This location, in our lawn, has six geophones (the blue dots) and the cable network that sends the collected data to the transmitter unit.



This photo shows the data transmitter (box with yellow antenna) and the battery pack (red box). When the seismic survey is conducted, controlled explosions will be detonated to create a seismic shock wave that will travel through the underlying rock and be reflected back to the geophones.

The triggering of the explosive charges and data collection for this area is done with radio signals to/from a command center located in a truck on route 706 near Camptown.