The Miller Project

What a difference a day makes… or about seven of them anyway.

Mark (who isn’t related to the Miller family but is always up for doing something if it’s outdoors) and I went up today to spend a few hours clearing more wood.  We wanted to spend most of the day up there but I had things in the morning and we had to get back in the evening to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins in game six of the playoffs against the Capitals (which they lost unfortunately).

We realized though, that it really is a great time to do work up there because despite the wet conditions the logs are all exposed and we were able to get at some that would have otherwise taken a while to get to because of all of the grass and other shrubs.  We were able to clear more area for camping as well as clear a better and drier trail from the Howell/Purpurra property.  We also discovered (or rediscovered if Jonathan already realized this) a clearly defined fence line on the north end of the property.  I think that fences surroud roughly 85% of the property which makes everything a lot easier to figure out.

We went along this fence line and tried to cut through some thick growth from the open pasture part of the land to the more wooded part.  It’s pretty swampy but we got a start.  We also laid some logs over the swampier parts that we needed to go back and forth over like little bridges.

The main difference though from a week ago to today is the water level is a little bit lower and it’s more defined exactly where the water is coming from.  There are actually two main paths the water is following from the high part to the low part of the land and two paths the water is following from North to South.

The water flowing from the high parts to the low parts can be taken care (I think) by digging a french drain (as suggested by Jonathan) along the Eastern edge (the higher edge) of the property and the Southern edge.  The two streams flowing North to South can be brought together shortly after they enter our property and the one remaing path dug deeper and wider to avoid creating the marsh we have now.

I still think it will be at least one more long weekend up there before we’re ready to rent a small tractor to get started on this but I think it’s very feasible.  The one other obstacle in the way right now is the power line running to the Howell/Purpurra cabin is down.  The transformer nearest their cabin is actually sitting on the ground and the power lines sag to about six feet off the ground.  I have no idea if the lines are still live and I’m sure not willing to find out and I don’t know what is going to be done about this but there is no way to safely get any large piece of equipment onto our land with the line down.

Here are some pics from today’s outing.

Despite what we found in the heat of last Summer the land does have a tendency to look a little marshy in the Spring.  So those in the family who believed the property to be a marshy wetland were not entirely wrong.

Wanting to do some camping next week Karleigh and I drove up to the property to scope it out and make sure the snow had all melted.  With the late storms we’ve had here in Utah and the elevation of the ranch I figured there might be a little bit of snow so better safe than sorry and we made the drive up there.  I was surprised and relieved to see that there was no snow on the ground in the valley, however, the mountain right above the property still has some snow and it seems to all be funneling right onto our plot of land.

The lower half of the land that is somewhat wet during the summer from unchanneled irrigation water is seriously a swamp complete with frogs.  The upper half that seemed dry last year is barely better than the lower half.  Our fire pit could be a small bathtub to wash off all of the mud that you get while walking around.

The one positive thing is that with all the vegetation still down for the count it is very easy to see all the logs that are strewn about that need to be chopped up.  I think camping is off for now unless someone has a small houseboat they would like to tow up there but we need a few day trips to begin clearing more wood while it’s all exposed.  I can also now see the definite need to get a little trackhoe of some sort to dig ditches along the upper part of the property to channel the melt water to the southern edge of the property as well as a deeper and more defined irrigation canal through the middle running north to south.  This will, of course, require some money so hopefully we can get the family organized and start working on this.

Meanwhile, take a look at what’s up there right now.

On Saturday February 8th Jonathan, Carter, Mark, and I went up to try and make it to the property and do some winter camping.  We found that the final stretch of road leading to the property was not cleared of snow and had probably three to four feet of an icy snow mixture covering it.

By the time Mark and I made it up there Jonathan was already there and had parked a little ways up the road and hiked in to the camp site.  Despite Jonathan’s warnings being yelled from out of sight, Mark tried to put his truck in four wheel drive low and plow through the snow blocking the road to the property.  This was, in fact, a bad idea.  While Mark stared at his stuck truck I began hiking some stuff over to the camp site and was able to walk on top of the snow without breaking through too often.  When I did break through the snow it went up to my thighs.

Eventually Carter showed up and pulled Mark out of the snow with his truck and Mark promptly got his truck stuck again but much worse this time. So we left it for the night.

We were finally able to haul most of our gear in to the site and had a big fire going to try and stay warm since it was well below freezing.  In the interest of not hauling in too much weight we left some things behind in the trucks that perhaps we should have brought along.

After huddling around the fire for many hours and eating some tasty pot roast that Carter brought and chips that Jonathan brought we decided to try and go to sleep around 1 am.  This, however, did not work so well.  Our tents were set up on top of about three feet of snow and without our sleeping pads that were resting comfortably back in the trucks, it was cold and uncomfortable.  So after three hours of trying to sleep Carter and I got back up, built up the fire, and waited for the sun to rise.

The sun did of course eventually rise, as did Mark and Jonathan, then we made breakfast and then we had an exhausting time hauling our gear back out to the trucks and an hour and half of digging Mark’s truck out.  But of course, fun was had by all and Jonathan and I are ready, willing, and excited to take more people back up to the Miller Ranch.

One last note.  On the previous post, someone commented that they might be related to the Stewart’s and their comment was heartlessly deleted with all of the spam.  If that person should happen to stumble back this way, please post another comment.  Sorry.

Well, we’re not actually sure if it’s considered the first snow fall since it didn’t really cover everything on the ground, but either way it was indeed snowing.

After hopes of getting more people to come up to the ranch with us it ended up being just the regular three going up.  We went up just for the afternoon to continue clearing more of the fallen trees.

With the snow on the ground we weren’t able to clear any overgrowth so we just started a fire and got the chainsaw revved up.  We just started clearing everything around the existing camp site.  When it was Jonathan’s turn to use the chainsaw I think the exhaust fumes got to his head and he went around cutting everything on the ground.  It worked well though, we got a ton of wood cut but then the chain got too dull to cut anything else and the sun was setting anyway.  There is now plenty of firewood up there for anyone who wants to go up and spend the weekend.