Michael got to play with the Kubota backhoe attachment yesterday.....he made a nice hole

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All streams begin somewhere. (Don't you love analytical sentences?) Anyway the Fern Valley stream receives much of it's water from old terra cotta drains laid before records were filed. Once in a while we come across one; occasionally they break and a sinkhole situation develops. This is the excavation of one of those holes. Gravel, filter cloth, and backfill, we hope, will allow the water to diffuse into the ground and find its way the 200 feet or so to the stream in the old-fashioned way. No one wants a point source stream!

I hope he was careful because if he injures that massive Quercus acutissima............Joan'll likely put him up for a large cash award. It's a beautiful but Asian Oak essentially abutting Fern Valley. I spent considerable time during my stay in Fern Valley removing the hundreds of seedling that it produced.