On Yard Maintenance …
Our property is a little over 10 acres and mostly wooded. Last summer we cleared about three acres [YouTube] in order to have a garden and to allow sunlight to shine on our driveway—lest we should slide down the icy steep slope.
Despite the size of our plot, we only mow a small portion of the yard immediately surrounding the house. Notice I used the word “yard” and not the term “grass,” and certainly not “lawn.” From a distance our yard may look like grass, but it is mostly made up of many grass-like plants. Not being a big fan of the work (or chemicals) involved in maintaining a real lawn, we are happy to let the yard go au natural. However, not so much that the house is obscured by the inevitable not-really-grass forest.
It doesn’t hurt that the “lawn” mower is incapable of the stamina required to mow more than we currently do. The mower we have was a housewarming gift from my father, leftover from our house in Maryland where we had a postage-sized plot which could easily be mowed in under 30 minutes on one charge.
Yes, charge.
Stump the Chumps …
Months of rain delayed this part of the clearing project, but now Bob Osgood is on site to stump the lower field. Bob will push over the stumps in the north field, rake the debris, and then bury what he can around the perimeter of the cleared space. The southern field was cleared mostly to get sun on the driveway and therefore keep it from freezing up in the winter—in addition to helping to open the view—but Bob will rake the debris on that side and get it ready for field grasses. We don’t have any plans to plant anything on that side; however, we may see if any of our neighbors want to graze their sheep on that side and save us from having to mow it.
While it isn’t necessarily as exciting as the logging part of the project, if you are interested, you can watch the excavation on the webcam.
If you have sheep you want to graze in our field next Spring, contact us.
