The Work House

These are photos of the Work House.

I was told by a present owner that the Work House was moved from across the street.

The Oldest House - A primitive Stone House -- An Ancient Dugout Home?

White House with Cottonwood Trees

Also a few Russian Olive Trees.

View from end of the Workhouse Driveway facing south

View of the Workhouse from Highway Gate

The property has a gate.

Cover Slough that borders the property with the hot spring water

Here you can see the cover slough that borders the property, and the hot spring water that runs through the canal.  The designated wet lands are just beyond the cover slough.

Definition and Synonymns for Slough, Origin of the Word Slough, & an Ice Slough in Wyoming

The land is located in a cover slough.
The definition of a slough is an area of soft, muddy ground; swamp or swamplike region.

Also another definition of a slough is a condition of degradation, despair, or helplessness!!!

Can this land be salvaged?
Is it in such a sloughed condition that it has been degraded by trash and disrespect for it that it is in a hopeless condition?

Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English slōh;  cognate with Middle Low German slōch, Middle High German sluoche ditch

Related Words for slough:  exuviate, molt, moult, shed, gangrene

slough

² [sluhf] 

 

noun

1. the outer layer of the skin of a snake, which is cast off periodically.

2. Pathology . a mass or layer of dead tissue separated from the surrounding or underlying tissue.

3. anything that is shed or cast off.

4. Cards. a discard.

 

verb (used without object)

 

5. to be or become shed or cast off, as the slough of a snake.

6. to cast off a slough.

7. Pathology . to separate from the sound flesh, as a slough.

8. Cards. to discard a card or cards.

verb (used with object)

9. to dispose or get rid of; cast (often followed by off  ): to slough off a bad habit.

10. to shed as or like a slough.

11. Cards. to discard (cards).

 

Verb phrases

 

12. slough over, to treat as slight or trivial: to slough over a friend's mistake.

Also, sluff.

Origin: 1250–1300; Middle English slughe, slouh  skin of a snake; cognate with German Schlauch  skin, bag

Synonyms

6. molt.

 

 

slough 1  (slaʊ)
— n
1.	a hollow filled with mud; bog
2.	( US ), ( Canadian )
	a. (in the prairies) a large hole where water collects or the water in such a hole
	b. (in the northwest) a sluggish side channel of a river
	c. (on the Pacific coast) a marshy saltwater inlet
3.	despair or degradation
[Old English slōh;  related to Middle High German sluoche  ditch, Swedish slaga  swamp]

slough 2  (slʌf)
— n
1.	any outer covering that is shed, such as the dead outer layer of the skin of a snake, the cellular debris in a wound, etc
2.	bridge  Also: sluff  a discarded card
— vb
3.	( often foll by  off ) to shed (a skin, etc) or (of a skin, etc) to be shed
4.	bridge  Also: sluff  to discard (a card or cards)
[C13: of Germanic origin; compare Middle Low German slū  husk, German Schlauch  hose, Norwegian slō  fleshy part of a horn]
'sloughy 2
— adj

Slough  (slaʊ)
— n
1.	an industrial town in SE central England, in Slough unitary authority, Berkshire; food products, high-tech industries.
2.	a unitary authority in SE central England, in Berkshire.  Area: 11 sq miles

 
 Word Origin & History:

slough

"muddy place," O.E. sloh "soft, muddy ground," of uncertain origin, perhaps from P.Gmc. *slokhaz. Figurative use, e.g. of moral sunkenness or Bunyan's "Slough of Despond," attested from mid-13c.

 
Medical Definition:

slough  (slŭf)
n.
 A layer or mass of dead tissue separated from surrounding living tissue, as in a wound, a sore, or an inflammation. v. sloughed , slough·ing , sloughs
 To separate from surrounding living tissue. Used of dead tissue.

Scientific Definition:

Noun The dead outer skin shed by a reptile or an amphibian.

Verb To shed an outer layer of skin.  

Slang Definition:

sluff (off) definition

and slough (off)

1. in.
   to waste time; to goof off. :  Watch him. He will sluff off if you don't keep after him.

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The sources of these definitions are from:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slough

 

American Psychological Association (APA):

sluff (off). (n.d.). Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions. Retrieved October 15, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sluff (off)

Chicago Manual Style (CMS):

sluff (off). Dictionary.com. Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sluff (off) (accessed: October 15, 2013).

Modern Language Association (MLA):

"sluff (off)." Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions. 15 Oct. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sluff (off)>.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE):

Dictionary.com, "sluff (off)," in Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions. Source location: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sluff (off). Available: http://dictionary.reference.com. Accessed: October 15, 2013.

BibTeX Bibliography Style (BibTeX)

@article {Dictionary.com2013,
    title = {Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions},
    month = {Oct},
    day = {15},
    year = {2013},
    url = {http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sluff (off)},
}

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The website Elkhorn Slough (http://www.elkhornslough.com) defines the word slough as 

"A slough is a narrow, winding waterway edged with marshy and muddy ground. It can be saltwater or fresh, open to the sea or apart from it. "


Urban Dictionary has some interesting definitions supplied by laypersons:

"To just one day out of blue, with no warning, up and leave without saying good bye. Leaving your friends to wonder if your here or there, alive or dead.

I havn't seen him in at least six months, I think he pulled a slough."

 

'The place where the rubbish dump, is, bizzarely, the cleanest place, and there is no school, only rehab.

I hate slough, it is a pile of shit."

 

 "a way of comparing something really bad.

ted: woah, this place is really squalid!
jez: yeah man, its worse than slough
ted: no way..nothings that bad!
jez: lol"

 

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Synonyms for Slough:

 

mus·keg

 

noun

a bog of northern North America, commonly having sphagnum mosses, sedge, and sometimes stunted black spruce and tamarack trees.;
undrained boggy land,
2. a bog or swamp of this nature 

 

quagmire

 

 

noun

1. an area of miry or boggy ground whose surface yields under the tread; a bog.

2. a situation from which extrication is very difficult: a quagmire of financial indebtedness.

3. anything soft or flabby.

 

 

holm

¹ [hohm] 

noun British Dialect .

1.

a low, flat tract of land beside a river or stream.

2.

a small island, especially one in a river or lake.

 Origin:
before 1000; Middle English; Old English holm;  cognate with Old Norse holm  islet, Danish holm, Swedish holme  a small island,

1.	an island in a river, lake, or estuary
2.	low flat land near a river
mire      noun 1. a tract or area of wet, swampy ground; bog; marsh. 2. ground of this kind, as wet, slimy soil of some depth or deep mud.   bot·tom [bot-uhm] Show IPA noun 1. the lowest or deepest part of anything, as distinguished from the top: the bottom of a hill; the bottom of a page. Synonyms: base, foot, pedestal. 2. the under or lower side; underside: the bottom of a typewriter. 3. the ground under any body of water: the bottom of the sea. 4. Usually, bottoms. Also called bottom land. Physical Geography . low alluvial land next to a river.    moor     noun 1. a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often overgrown with heath, common in high latitudes and altitudes where drainage is poor; heath.    moor tract of open country that may be either dry with heather and associated vegetation or wet with an acid peat vegetation. If wet, a moor is generally synonymous with bog (q.v.).      mo·rass [muh-ras]  noun   1.a tract of low, soft, wet ground. 2.a marsh or bog. 3.marshy ground. 4.any confusing or troublesome situation, especially one from which it is difficult to free oneself; entanglement.   1. a tract of swampy low-lying land 2. a disordered or muddled situation or circumstance, esp one that impedes progress morass "wet, swampy tract," 1655, from Du. moeras "marsh, fen," from M.Du. marasch, from O.Fr. marais "marsh," from Frank., possibly from W.Gmc. *marisk, from P.Gmc. *mariskaz "like a lake," from *mari "sea." The M.Du. word was infl. by Du. moer "moor" (see moor (n.)). Fig. use is attested from 1867.   bog   Use Bog in a sentence bog 1 [bog, bawg] Show IPA noun, verb, bogged, bog·ging. noun 1. wet, spongy ground with soil composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter. 2. an area or stretch of such ground. verb (used with object), verb (used without object) 3. to sink in or as if in a bog (often followed by down  ): We were bogged down by overwork. Verb phrases 4. bog in, Australian Slang. to eat heartily and ravenously.   Scientific:   bog  An area of wet, spongy ground consisting mainly of decayed or decaying peat moss (sphagnum) and other vegetation. Bogs form as the dead vegetation sinks to the bottom of a lake or pond, where it decays slowly to form peat. Peat bogs are important to global ecology, since the undecayed peat moss stores large amounts of carbon that would otherwise be released back into the atmosphere. Global warming may accelerate decay in peat bogs and release more carbon dioxide, which in turn may cause further warming.     swale [sweyl] Show IPA noun Chiefly Northeastern U.S. 1. a low place in a tract of land, usually moister and often having ranker vegetation than the adjacent higher land. 2. a valleylike intersection of two slopes in a piece of land. Origin: 1400–50; late Middle English;  originally a cool, shady spot, perhaps < Old Norse svalr  cool, or svalir  a covered porch    swale  (sweɪl)   — n chiefly  ( US )   a. a moist depression in a tract of land, usually with rank vegetation   b. ( as modifier ): swell and swale topography swale "low, hollow place, often boggy," 1584, special use of Scottish swaill "low, hollow place," or dialectal East Anglian swale "shady place" (c.1440); both probably from O.N. svalr "cool," from P.Gmc. *swalaz.     polder Use Polder in a sentence pol·der [pohl-der] Show IPA noun a tract of low land, especially in the Netherlands, reclaimed from the sea or other body of water and protected by dikes.   polder tract of lowland reclaimed from a body of water, often the sea, by the construction of dikes roughly parallel to the shoreline, followed by drainage of the area between the dikes and the natural coastline. Where the land surface is above low-tide level, the water may be drained off through tide gates, which discharge water into the sea at low tide and automatically close to prevent re-entry of seawater at high tide. To reclaim lands that are below low-tide level, the water must be pumped over the dikes. If a sediment-laden stream can be diverted into the polder area, the sediment may serve to build up the polder bottom to a higher level, thus facilitating drainage.      slouth: muddy or marshy area type of swamp or shallow lake system secondary channel of a river delta   --------------  Upon further research, I found there was a famous slough in Wyoming which is now pretty much bone dry:     An Ice Slough!   Here is a link with the history on it:   http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/iceslough256k.htm    ---------------