Neighbors, growth, fence, and beaver

36 miles. That is the amount I rode today. In the early afternoon I put on some miles running errands. In the evening I rode downtown to attend the latest Growth Policy comment meeting.

Neighbors

After running errands I stopped on the way home to chat with Bob and Jan. Their daughter-in-law, Stacie, was there with her almost newborn daughter, Raimey. Stacie was sitting on the couch chatting to Bob when I came up the stairs. I peeked around to see Raimey, leaned in and - opps! - Raimey was feeding.

Then I visited my neighbor with the apple trees. I hadn't gotten the fallen apples yesterday and today I had to make two trips to carry the apples home on my bicycle.

Growth Policy

I hadn't eaten since breakfast and decided I needed something to eat. I ended up being almost an hour late for the 6 pm growth policy meeting. The meeting lasted to 7:30 pm so I only heard the last half hour.

This meeting was for public comment on the planning staff's recommendations regarding the earlier public comments. By the time I got there people were rehashing old arguments about the growth policy document. Linda told me that many comments from the first hour were actually about the planning staff's recommendations.

Most comments made when I was there were to delay the document as 'several months over a busy summer was too short to review the document'. Of course I've heard a similar argument other times of the year for Planning Board agenda items. Linda swam against the tide again and defended the document and Jeff, the Planning Directory. I didn't speak at the meeting.

The poor planning director. His face was red at the meeting. I am not sure why. Whether he was mad, or upset in another way. Or maybe he had too much sun over the Labor Day weekend.

Fence

I actually did a little work today as I straightened the fence along part of the river in the middle pasture. Bank erosion from this year's peak streamflow caused a number of posts to lean or get exposed and hang suspended by the barb wire. My wrist is well enough that I was able to use a sledgehammer to pound the posts straight or in a new location. The fence now seems good enough to last till next year's high water.

I also pounded in a few boards around a few trees starting out. This is to protect them as the cattle love eating willow trees. These 'newby' trees are fallen willow branches I stuck in the moist ground near the river. A few branches sprouted roots and leaves.

Beaver trap

Daryl and I checked the beaver trap late this evening. The dam was rebuilt, although not 100%. The trap was sprung, and after Daryl got it out of the rebuilt dam, we found it to be empty. We made a breach again and reset the trap. By now it was dark and we worked by flashlight and his pickup's rear bed light. It was too dark to see if the trap by the trail on the other side of the creek was sprung. You know summer is ending when it gets dark before 9 pm.