Channel cleanup continued

As mentioned in an earlier post, the neighbor across the way scraped and leveled the dry as a bone channel in preparation for the fall rains.....assuming we get any.  Seems to be a drought year!

I decided there was no time like the present to get my own irrigation pipes laid.  If I waited too long and we encountered an unexpected rain bringing lots of water, it would be a once in a five or six year opportunity lost.  So, I trouped off to Lowes and purchased 230' of 2 inch pipe.  

230' of pipe is probably overkill but today the water is 300' or so away.  230' would maximize the available irrigation water during a drought year.

It seems everyone has the same idea:  extend, extend, extend.  2" and 1.5" pipe and connectors in that order is a HOT commodity at all of the local hardware stores this year.   Everyone is extending their irrigation lines as far as they can afford to so pipe and connectors sell out almost they day they are restocked.  I figure it's better to overkill now than to regret later not having done it when I had the chance.  I'm not going all the way to the current water's edge....that would be overkill!  A drought like this doesn't happen to often....still....with global warming........

Dressed in jeans and long sleeve shirt on a 100+ degree day, I started clearing a patch at the proverbial water's edge where I plan on placing the 2hp irrigation pump when the time comes to buy it (no need now, no water!).  It was potentially dangerous work (for me) because the vast majority of the vegetation appeared to be Poison Ivy hence my stifling attire.  In fact, the lot next door which I plan to buy is nearly all poison ivy.  I'll have to get someone else to come in and clear it....but....I digress.....

Just as I finished I clearing a patch down the embankment, I found the official property marker stake.  Oops, three feet too far to the right.  Well, one thing led to another and I decided to clear all of the underbrush from the right side property line left all the way over to the concrete walkway.

Clearing the underbrush out removes any eye distraction between you and the water.  It looks good.   Later when I buy the lot next door, I will clear out the sightline between the back porch and the channel entrance.

The neighbor' soon to be boat house

The neighbor probably won't be too happy with me when he gets home to see three piles of debris in his freshly scraped channel but he'll have to get over it. It's at my end anyway.  When the burn ban is lifted I'll burn the piles down (we can do that here in semi-rural Texas).  They're mostly leaves, vines, and small shrubs.  Hopefully when the first rains come, as much as it's needed, I'll have time to burn them rather than having to manually move the piles elsewhere to dispose of or burn them.

Since the usable channel/creek pretty much ends to the left of my lot, I don't plan on clearing the underbrush left of the sidewalk leading to the water's edge.  When sitting on the patio, you tend to face towards the right side of the sidewalk towards the logical view which is out to towards the mouth of the channel.  When I pickup the lot to the right and clear the back portion, for sure, that will be direction everyone faces.

The view from the patio

Nothing between me and the imaginary water! 

The view from water's edge

Uh oh, there's the Boss

 The "Boss", forever doggin' my trail.

The Boss approves!  Phew!

In-spite of all my efforts to protect myself, I STILL managed to get a 4" stripe of poison ivy on my inside forearm.  JEESH!!  Glad it was only 4"!  I've had worse.