This week flew so quickly I’m not sure I remember what we did.
It was spring break for many local school students. The weather could have been nicer, but it was okay. Two of our kids were in Arizona on a mission trip, so that left us with only the youngest two at home. Some yard work and property cleanup made the list. Rachael also recruited some other kids to help mulch the Christmas trees we planted last year. We’re learning as we go but hope that a 12”-15” circle of mulch will greatly reduce weed competition (especially around the trees where it is difficult to mow and where herbicides may injure the trees).
We’re also planning more Christmas trees. Unfortunately, I didn’t get this year’s order placed in time so it will be coming early next week. A couple of nights working after school should be enough time to get those planted.
We didn’t really have a spring break getaway, but Mark invited us to his company’s “Christmas party” where we all had a fun night of laser tag and pizza. (Yes, I know it’s March.)
Field prep underway
Fields began to get fit midweek. I saw a couple guys applying ammonia and one guy chiseling. We were able to get a couple fields spread with chicken litter. We’ve still got quite a bit to go, but everything we have left to apply is under roof so it shouldn’t be an issue to store it a little longer.
Tidying up the fields
Gathering debris from the fencerow and tree line cleanup continued as well. We built a new root rake from an old chisel plow. We welded tubes onto the frame so we can easily pick it up with the backhoe forks and go to work.
We did a second time over on some areas and it really made a difference. I had enough time to get around the edge of some of those fields and run the chisel plow before Thursday’s overnight rain. The goal was to fight any compaction, chop up any sticks that escaped the rake and set a perimeter that is clear of any obstacles, such as tree stumps. We had the remains of some burn piles that we loaded up and moved out of cropping areas. We will have few more days of this kind of work, and we will be done for this year.