In the underbrush

Husband and I worked at our property down the road today. We've finally come to the conclusion that we'll never beat the wild mulberry trees, hedge apples, etc. by clearing the land by hand and following up with lawn mowers. It's just too labor-intensive. We can't use the garden tractor to mow because the hedge apple thorns would puncture the tires, so we have to use regular lawn mowers. When we don't get down there for a month or so, the trees start growing back up and the mowers won't handle them. So our neighbor's son is going to go back there with a bulldozer and clear it out.

He gave us a roll of flourescent pink tape and told us to tie it around any tree we want to keep. That's why Husband and I were clambering around in the underbrush today! I really like evergreens, so I tagged any evergreen tree that wasn't dead or dying. We also tagged the oaks, walnuts, and maples. We ran out of pink tape, so after lunch Husband went to the hardware store to get another roll. Meanwhile I took a bucket and trowel and went down there to dig up some ferns I wanted to transplant. When he returned with the tape, we tagged some more trees.

The property covers almost three acres and is five-sided. The side that faces the road is 120 feet long, and the two sides fan out from there. On the right it's 255 feet back to the creek, then a little over 400 feet along the creek. On the left it's 485 feet back to the stake in the ground that marks the property line. From that stake to the one in the hillside going down to the creek is 160 feet, and that's the only line that isn't marked with a fence, the creek, or the road. Several years ago I took a ball of string back there and tied one end of it to the stake on the left side, then hacked my way through the underbrush to the other one, and tied it there. Then I went back and adjusted the string where it went on the wrong side of trees or bushes, cutting and re-tying until it was straight. Well, my string had fallen down but we could still find it on the ground in places, and we decided to re-do the property line in our bright tape. When we were finished we could see where the line was from a distance away, which helped us orient ourselves within the property.

When we'd finished tagging trees and clearing paths, we headed back home. I re-planted the ferns next to the house, Husband watered them and the rest of the flowers, and then we called it a day. I was so ready for a shower! I had my hair up in a banana clip, but it was full of pine needles and little sticks and God knows what. And I'd probably gotten into plenty of poison ivy.

I'm not sure when the bulldozer will come in -- or how the place will look after it's through. I don't think it will all be bare dirt, but it may be that way in places. All the brush will be in a huge pile, which it is our intention to burn. We've got several piles of brush that we've cut down there, that we've never burned, but hopefully when it's all one huge pile we'll burn it and get it over with.