The weather here has finally improved enough that I was able to spend two nights at the farm already this week. That is a good thing, since my little sister volunteered the place for a Memorial weekend get-together with family members from out of state and there is plenty of work to be done.
Thank goodness my friend Shag likes to hunt deer at the farm and loves to mow using my old tractor and bush-hog! Next week his wife will come with him so we can pick out a garden site for them, since their yard is way too small for more than a couple of pots.
Using my farm time wisely, I began working on a big hugelbed / keyhole garden / pond that will be several years in completion. The site is down hill from where the house will go, near to the proposed driveway entrance into the woods. It is between two drives, which limits the north/south aspect, and the opening is facing north. I want it to be a food forest as well as meditation garden, in memory of my son who didn't like outdoor work, but really liked fruit. Later in the year (after spring soccer season) my grandson will be joining me to help divert the flow that comes down the gully in the hillside so that we can direct it into the pond we will dig,
I don't own a chain saw that I can pull start so this is what I had to work with earlier this week...
and it goes on top of this...
It is coming together, slowly so far. If Kathy and Terry make it down for even a few hours this weekend, the help will be invaluable. I've been playing pick-up sticks with the loose stuff, which I would like to have cut into smaller chunks so the bed has a more rounded shape than I can get with these long trunks. There is plenty of deadfall in the woods that can come out, if there are two people to work it. The hillside is too sloped for safety without a buddy on the ground to control the drag and be there in case of emergency. The volunteer woods need someone with a chain saw to drop a huge amount of standing dead stuff, so I'm not digging holes all over the place by pushing them over!
By chatting with neighbors and bartering the use of my backhoe, I will be acquiring a bunch of well aged horse manure and an unknown amount of spoiled hay this weekend. The space inside the logs will ultimately become a pond, so that is where I'll be grabbing top soil to finish everything off.
Talking with a guy at the pumps while I was getting mower fuel will result in a face-to-face meeting with a fellow that was a logger in WA before moving here. I want/need some pine trees taken down at the top of the hill and hope to be able to afford to hire him to drop them. Or maybe he can girdle them for me at least so I can get them down next season, or next year, or ... My walnut and oak trees will never get any girth on them if the pine trees don't get removed.