#winter work

A bit of a mess. My father planted two hazelnut bushes, which grew very large and tall, a nice apple tree, bittersweet and grape vines (with no structure to support them), hollies, and several shrubs. Many of those things, in fact, weren't even fully 'planted'; he just set the pots down "until he got around to it" and now, years later, the plant has grown right through the pot and into the ground. Even better? The hazelnuts and apple tree died. Don't know what happened to the hazels, but the apple tree likely died because too many vines overwhelmed it (the ones he planted - without any support structure.) It is just a MESS.

So, chainsaw time.

More mess, shrubs, and a tiny 'cottage' that is rotted and needs to be removed. The wooden barn behind the red cottage is in pretty good shape, and will be kept. The structure of the little hoop house could be re-covered in plastic and used in the future.

The white may be where the deer fence ends up going! A huge thank you to Greg for helping get this garden restarted! Also, strawberries have been moved, and one of the garden beds has been refilled with soil from the old garden, finally. I hope to take my class out to plant peas this coming week. Also note the abundant space for, say, a sun flower house, a squash patch, etc.

Busy Monday (I work at home, why are busy Mondays so common?) I did paperwork/billing paying/insurance checking and other small [annoying] tasks early on, then late in the morning I got my gear on for working outside. This reliably puts both dogs into hysterics. It took me longer than I wanted to get heavy jeans/socks/hair-braided/work hat/pruning saw/pruning shears/oops-I-forgot-camera and all the nonsense put together. Scooped up Baxter because he enjoys when I work in the far field. Off we went, a 200 yard commute.

There is a narrow stretch between the field and the creek, and we DON'T want it to become completely overgrown with brush and invasive thorn bushes. My husband got one strip mowed with the tractor and brushhog, and I'm trying to further that improvement with hand tools.

You can see, looking south, that it's quite thick. Not quite impassible, but you'd need heavy jeans and boots to get through there.

The other direction, you can see where I cleared a bit last time I was here. Baxter is helping (yellow arrow).

After an hour and a half, during which time Nutmeg joined us and nibbled things with great interest, I had made some good progress.

Shrubs such as spicebush and elderberry get left; they are both native and useful (to wild birds or to me). I am, as you can see . . never lonely.

Off to the left, at the top of the field . .

It's just about midwinter, here (based on weather, not the calendar) and I'm suddenly craving morel mushrooms. A food that I cannot have, even in the best-case scenario, until late April. I'm going to wallow in culinary sadness for a few more minutes, then go fix the waffles, venison, and gravy for tonight's dinner. It will be savory, hot and good . . but not morel mushrooms. Drat.