A Yard Full of Life

A Yard Full of Life 

School was really busy there for a hot minute, so I am behind on showing you all some of the cool stuff Sam and I have been up to the past TWO weeks. 

 Last weekend Sam and I decided to start on a project that has been bothering us for a while! We decided to clean out part of the woods right behind our house. As a biologist, it hurts my soul to clear out the forest floor but luckily, we were working in the pine forest section of our woods, so the floor was already brush free! We just removed all of the dead baby pines that had been chocked out by the elder pines. We also took down a few of the smaller trees that were trying to grow too close or through other pines, AND removed a few invasives (which I was very happy about!). We had to drag these trees to the other end of our property where we have a brush pile and a “to be cut up one-day into firewood” pile. I have never been so sore in my life!! Okay, a bit of an exaggeration….but after contra dancing the night before for three hours (not having been since October last year) and then dragging those trees, Monday came around, and I felt like I had been hit with a train. Oh well. Worth it!!

Here’s the before and after!

And look what we found while we were working. I rescued one of them from the dogs and scooped this little buddy up before he could run into the brush pile. So cute!! 

This past Sunday, Sam and I put the last gate onto the garden fence.

All done now!

Well except for the larger deer fence which will come after we’ve built a chicken coop (kind of a priority at the moment).

Our chicks are growing super fast! They are going through their ugly phase at the moment where they look like odd dinosaur birds. Their down is falling off and their feathers are coming in, but they have a few bald spots here and there. Oh, and they have discovered how to fly! Both a good and a bad thing. They’ve yet to fly out of their brooder, but I know it’s only a matter of time.

We also made a compost bin this past weekend! Super easy. Four u-posts wrapped with chicken wire, and ta da! No more dogs, boars, deer, raccoons, ‘possums and who knows what else eating the compost. Well, I’m sure it won’t keep out the very determined raccoons and ‘possums. Crafty little buggers. But at least we cut down on some of the wildlife we were feeding. 

Our garden is growing so fast! I think we are going to be able to eat our first salad tonight…shhh don’t tell Sam.

 And these little guys popped up after the heavy rain storm we got last evening.