Since I wanted to keep an eye on the kitties anyway, I decided to see what I could do with the willow branches. After sorting the longest ones out, I started weaving.

This is all of the branches I have so far.

Minus one that was too bent to use. At least here. When we’re ready to weave the ends, we only need pieces less than 3 feet long, so I could probably salvage it.

As we get more branches to weave in, they’ll get pounded as low as we can, with each layer added keeping everything below in place. Right now, some of them just sort of pop back up a bit after they’ve been pushed down. Until it’s all tighter together, it won’t be holding much soil in place! One more layer along the short wall, and I think we can get away with no longer debarking the branches.

I really hope those maple posts that still have their bark won’t start growing.

I’m just itching to get back out there and cut more willow branches for this, but the weather out there really sucks.

I want to keep an eye on the bitty kitties, though, so maybe…

(glances out the window and tries to convince myself the wind isn’t that bad, and it’s not that cold out…)

The Re-Farmer