Weekend progress...

Well, winter came and went in 2 days. This week we will have 50 degree days again. I was gone all day Saturday, and when I came home, I discovered some progress in the jungle! My husband and son went at it with a chain saw. I am impressed with the speed things go when you have a tool like this! I have been using a long handled branch trimmer - 1 twig at a time! :-) Here is a photo of their progress. Amazing! What you don't see is the huge pile of branches and vines that were removed. We will need to rent a chipper to get rid of those - we have lots of uses for wood chips.

Winter is coming...

Well, finally, just a week before potato planting time, winter is coming to Oklahoma! Tonight we are supposed to get a hard freeze (good-bye peaches) and the schools are warning the children to watch the weather for Monday. Hopefully this will pass quickly. I insulated my garden, hoping to save the new little plants that have emerged. We shall see... Meanwhile, I noticed that the periwinkle are in bloom. What a great plant for areas where nothing else will grow!!

Day 3 - Free the Tree!

Today I worked for almost an hour just to free this oak tree. The briars were 20-30 feet long up in this tree. The two small cedars in front of it will be cut out eventually...maybe...

Signs of Spring

I have been waiting with bated breath for winter to arrive in Oklahoma this year. The mild weather has me just waiting for the other shoe to fall...When it did not come in January, I decided to put in a few cold weather crops as an experiment to see if they would survive. The peas and lettuce are up now, and tonight we are expecting a cold snap. The sad thing is that the peach trees are budding. I am afraid tonight will be the end of our peach crop. Maybe there are still some buds that are not quite out that will survive.

The lilacs are budding too.

And the bulbs are pushing up through the oak leaves...

Day 2

Okay...day 2:

I have a path cut out almost to the pasture!

Taming my wilderness...

I am an artist. My studio windows face south and east. To the south is beautiful pastureland, but to the east is almost an acre of JUNGLE!! It is made up of a few large oaks, a couple large cedars, MANY small cedars, sumac and tons of briars winding their way up and around all the other trees....oooh....almost forgot the poison ivy!! The photo to the right is the area.

I have been wanting to tame this area for several years, and have actually had people come out to give me an estimate to brush hog it. No one will touch it. They are afraid that it will have large rocks and stumps that will destroy their equipment.

My second thought was to hire several people to come in and cut it down by hand. My third thought was to get my body out there and do it myself (hopefully with the occasional help of my husband and strong sons :-)

Well...I put it off for long enough. This week I decided to just stop waiting for help and do it myself. I figured I could give 1/2 - 1 hour a day to work "casually" at it. Considering the fact that I could be classified as an antique, this is not a small undertaking. But, I figured that the sunshine, fresh air and exercise would be a good thing for me, so out I went.

My first day (about 45 minutes of work) was encouraging to me. I know it may not look like much, but it gives me hope! :-) See that bare spot? That is what I did!! Woo hoo!

My plan is to cut out all the small cedars, underbrush and briars. I want to leave all the large oaks. I am considering leaving a couple of the large cedars. I do not love cedars, but I think they may be something the birds like to nest in. I will have to do some research on that.

I am also leaving some of the old rotted oaks that have been on the ground for quite some time. I am hoping that they will encourage some mushroom growth. My neighbors have lots of morels growing among their large oak trees. I would LOVE to start finding some of them in my back yard!!