Cleaning Up

We're still working on clearing the future pasture and pond area, sorting through the limbs of the multiple trees that were felled into the natural basin.  The timber was taken away, but the tangle of branches remains - some the worse for wear as they were ground into the mud by the heavy machinery.  Some of the twisted branches pierced the earth by several feet under the trees' own weight coming down.  We're racing to beat the wild blackberry brambles, whose new growth is twining through the boughs and under the mass of pine needle litter, making clearing a frustrating procedure at times.  The piles of salvageable lumber are growing, and the piles of waste wood and twigs are getting smaller as we burn what we won't be able to use.

We've been lucky enough to have several friends come and pitch in for a day, and the neighbor has dropped by more than once to lend a hand tending the fires, so we just keep moving forward bit by bit.  Next, we'll clear the loop around back of the outbuildings and kitchen garden.  We might just get that 6-foot fencing in before the deer can do too much damage to the new growth in the orchard or eat any seedlings I plant out in the garden.  The tomatoes are starting to put out their second set of leaves.

 The before picture, These trees where throwing vast shadows and dropping a lot of needles and branches. Moss, weeds, blackberry brambles and patchy grass were all that was growing for about 30 feet in any direction. In order to have more garden area and to let the light reach a smaller secondary orchard, they had to go.

Which left us with quite a bit of work.

We're getting the hang of burning the brush that can't be used, and the wood we're salvaging from just the limbs of those huge trees will fill our (future) woodshed.