My plans to continue mowing and, hopefully, reclaiming more overgrown areas nice and early got delayed a bit. We had an unusually heavy dew this morning, and cooler temperatures kept it from evaporating until well into the afternoon.
However, progress was made!
Remember this area?
I hiked up the lawnmower, and was able to clear the area all the way to the storage building around behind the pump shack that’s in the photo.
Eventually, I will continue on beyond this, making access to the back gate, but for today, I focused on the area around the maples.
The last time any of this area was NOT overgrown was when the renter’s cows discovered his electric fence wasn’t working, and broke through.
Two years ago.
By the time they finished grazing, the entire outer yard looked awesome! 😀
When I was a kid, the fence to the inner yard at this location was on the other side of the maple trees. There was a small gate near the pump shack, for when we went to get water for the house, or took baths with water heated on a wood burning cookstove that used to be in there. When the chain link fence was installed, it was done in a straight line, rather than turning a corner to include the trees.
I miss having a gate there!
I had to be really careful working through here. I’ve tried to keep up on removing any fallen branches over the past couple of years, but knew there had to be more, hidden in the tall grass. Plus, who knows what else would show up.
Like the lone brick I found, half buried in the dirt.
Thankfully, raising the lawnmower meant I didn’t hit many of the larger buried branches, like the one in the photo above, that I pulled out of the thatch.
It’s only a start. We’ll have to go through the area to clear out any other branches and whatnot that is still buried in there, prune back the trees (there is now lilac growing in the space we used to walk through to get to the pump shack), and get in there with a weed trimmer. Some of the trees have fence wire around them, though one of them is just a stump that has some suckers growing out of it. Since we don’t have to protect the trees from cows, I want to clear away the wire, and salvage it for something else.
I’ve been wanting to get into this area for the last two summers! It feels so good to finally start cleaning it up. 🙂
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
Looks much better. 🙂 You’ve taken a huge step in fire prevention too.
You could save on all that gas and mower repairs if you’d just get goats though. 😀 😀 😀
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Yes, getting rid of the fire hazard is the main reason I want to, eventually, get all of the outer yard cut back. Even if it’s just once a year.
Goats would definitely make the job easier! LOL I might borrow some from a friend. 😉
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It’s becoming pretty popular as an option in California. There are farmers that rent out herds to clear fields. 🙂
All it takes is a little dry weather and the blade of a lawnmower sparking against a rock it hit and you have a potential fire. Not mach risk as green as that grass is in your pictures, but in a state as weary of fires as California is, you can see why some folks would like the idea. 🙂
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Oh, my, yes!!
Our first spring here, there was a major fire nearby that claimed a home. We were prepped to evacuate for that one. Shortly after, another fire claimed a nearby home. This was shortly after the Fort Mac fires (that didn’t get out out for almost a year).
And my family couldn’t understand why we didn’t want them coming out and burning things. !!!
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