And I'm Off

Off in a totally different direction.  Ah yes, YADD.  Not only is this how we New Englanders pronounce the word "yard", but it also stands for yard attention deficit disorder.  I start one project, get sidetracked, and wind up with ten different projects going at once.  It's a gift, really.

We finally had a relatively warm, dry weekend on the horizon, so I thought I'd work on the tiered garden.  What ended up happening was that my string trimmer was fixed and delivered, and I was also loaned a piece of equipment that would make brush cutting child's play, so I decided to tackle the overgrown bank near the tiered gardens while I had the machine.

I absolutely detest burning brush, and I knew if I hauled brush to the dump I would have about twenty trips ahead of me, so I decided to pile the debris in an unusable corner of the property instead.  I made myself think it was fine by convincing myself the massive piles of brush wouldn't be so much of an eyesore as an exercise in eco management; brush piles create cover for small woodland creatures like chipmunks and rabbits and heffalumps and woozles.  The only problem?  In order to create an area to pile brush, I needed to clear it first.

I can't win.

So I spent a few afternoons making a space for the brush piles.  Saturday came and I began hacking away at the brambles and bittersweet along the bank.  It was a lot more work than I'd imagined.  In a four hour period I only opened up about a 15 square foot area.  But it looked fantastic, and I was spurred on.

These are the only before pictures I could find of the area I worked on.  True to form, I wouldn't be so pedestrian as to start on the END of the area, I had to start in the MIDDLE.  Of course.

And behold, the after photos.

Insanity.

I quickly discovered that the only real way to clear out the bittersweet that had enveloped every single bush, sapling, and tree was to clip it by hand, then rip and pull until about thirty feet of vine was piled at your feet.  What a mess!  Mixed in was some kind of invasive climbing rose that attacked me at every turn, and many of the saplings were young Russian Olive trees with thorns like so many tiny hypodermic needles stab, stab, stabbing.

But it looks so good.  I'm really happy with this excellent beginning, but I was exhausted, so I decided to work on something that was a little easier for a few hours - slicing down saplings.

I spent a few hours cutting and clearing, then mulching leaves with the push mower.  The goal is to clear this section to the stone wall, removing all trees under 6" in diameter.  This was a good start.

So I didn't work on walls, but I did get a lot done.  Sunday I switched gears and installed my mail box at the road, raked the waste hay from the mule paddock, and cut a few small trees on the bank. I'm motivated to keep going with the clearing project, and have put the other gardens on hold for now.

At least until something else shiny distracts me.