2-20-2012- them sludge eating buzzards

    there was 20 buzzards in the tree when i took this pic. and yes they were close to the farm but not actually on it . but i have seen this same flock of buzzards in this area around our farm and the city farm but really doesn't mean much unless you happen to be dead.  they seem to like our area as there is a lot of road kill in our area. also it is not unusual to  see garbage bags of dead deer parts and skin dropped off on the road at end of the lane , or even up our lane. we used to be the prime area for dumping trash , but i have managed to keep the weeds down along the lane and do pursue any person with no real reason to be up the lane. i have chased tire dumpers and others who i knew were violating the land. and to top it off . the worst thing i saw was a bag of dead dogs someone decided to share with me. thanks who ever you were as it was the middle of the wintertime and digging was tough but i still managed to dig me a hole and said a few words over the dogs for you. it never ceases to amaze me how people can take an area of innocence and turn it into a dumping ground. or maybe they were just feeding the buzzards. 

      having an isolated drive is a hard thing to have sometimes, as i cant always see what people are up to. you would hope for the best but expect the worst. we have had cars abandoned on our property and the occasional lovers looking for a place to get away ,  we have occasional walkers , mostly neighborhood people and i welcome them. it is always nice to see them , and i know as long as they are around things will be safe as they will help watch things. 

       

       well back to lake cmich or the lake along side our lane that used to be there. . it was designed and sold to us residents of pike township as a temporary storage facility. it would only be in place till the new sewage treatment expansion was in place. and running , but no longer than 5 years. well it was more like 15 years it was in place and had undergone a metamorphosis of sorts. 

       before they even finished excavating the bottom of the lake, and the sides were barely up , they started in dumping sewage into the lake. a cold spell came up on us and soon they were dumping car sized frozen chunks of fill in the dike that surrounded at least 3/4 of the lake. and the sewage just kept pumping daily soon the bottom was covered and before they finished the top of the dam , the frozen soil melted and caused structural damage to the levee. they had to remove part of the levee and re install it just above the sludge line. before the grass was seeded around the outside of the pond, the pond was nearing being filled .a temporary restriction to stop filling was soon lifted. 

        at first the city workers who once tended the ditches and worked in fields spreading the sludge till it caught fire , now had a new job of tending to the pontoon boat cruising around the lake spraying insecticide , and generally just stirring things up. no doubt in my mind this was a job benefit compared to the shovel they were using before. alone in a sea of sludge just you and 50 trillion flies , how romantic . i digress. 

        this went on for a couple of years and swarms of tiny black gnats would be so thick you would have to keep your mouth closed , or face the prospect of eating them as  we walked alongside that lake on the lane to our farm daily on our way  to catch the bus down on east sparta ave.. after a couple of years you could now see the lake begin to separate into water and sludge islands. birds were resting on these sludge islands,  and flocks of geese would spend nights there . soon deer and other animals including the occasional idiot fisherman would stop by to try and land them a big one. don't really know as there was fish there , but never really considered eating anything associated with the pond. and again i thought , there is no better way to screw up a perfectly good piece of property than what they had there. what a load of crap this was.  

       and soon i believe the city workers  retired as the pond had no visible signs of maintenance for years. then finally after about fifteen years they finally returned to remove the pond. by now it was quite a thriving ecological community, a migratory stop for geese, thousands would stop on their way, and the pond was officially showing up on maps . and is still located there today , yet the lake has been removed. in a way i was kind of sad to see them remove the pond, as now it had become home to a wide range of animals. its rugged straight lines , kinda smoothed out mother nature. and the animals had become accustomed to it. but i was still glad none the less.  

      soon they were draining the lake and removing the sludge and i believe they hauled that to mt . trashmore for disposal. so now you have a bunch of sludge mixed with garbage stewing in the landfill. well they cleaned it all up and seeded it down . this would all be good except for one thing. for over fifteen years they had a pool of sludge sitting on a water aquifer that was sand and gravel . totally unsuitable for a storage facility handling sludge. the weight of the sludge was like a huge hydraulic ram pumping sludge residue into the same water aquifer that a lot of neighboring wells use. ours is above this level but buy bottled water for myself and mom uses special filter to screen her well water to just be safe. with the marcellus shale drilling and strip mine usage we feel it is important to document our wells performance so will be doing well testing soon. the field is wide open at this point , with spotted vegetation but mainly grasses as again it has a chance to heal itself.

      also over the years there has been considerable mining done on this property and there is hardly an acre that has not been turned up side down and around , as they went in 2 different times to an area previously strip mined and recovered coal. then they were allowed to plant only trees with out nuts to avoid transfer of heavy metals to other forms of life. the continued use of the farm over the years as a sludge dumping facility and landfill as this is the place they also dumped everything that came off the screens at the sewer plant. rubbers, seeds,tampons etc were dumped in this one area on the farm. it was like a smorgas board for vegetables . you had sludge watermelons three feet long green and ripe ,pumpkins, cucumbers , muskmelon, if it grew by seed and could pass someones intestines then it was growing there somewhere.  this mining had turned most of the sewage under or spread it around so much it may never be a risk at all. there are areas in the valleys and in the bottom of the ponds where i am sure you will still find sludge residue. 

       the land is quiet again. talks of a park were scattered around and opinion wasn't running high in favor of that . they also found a new piece of land that they didn't screw up and was getting ready to move forward on that also. with the marcellus shale and the farm as big as it is , i imagine soon they will be placing a rig on their land. the city of canton should score big on leasing money. i am sure of one thing , there is no limits as to how far the city  of canton would go to if they thought they could profit off the farm. they dont live here.