Tuesday, March 31, 2009

At last, a tree picture...

These pictures will probably be boring to you, but here they are anyway. Our woods are so deceptive looking, it looks like you could just skip down to the creek with ease. Not so, these are woods, as in forest. The ivy that the previous owner planted in 1969 takes over and hides all kind of booby traps. It really is hard to maintain and this is just the latest stage in trying to keep it manageable and asp, rodent and bee free.

Remember you can click on any of these pictures for a better view...

So this is a before picture. Notice the broken tree, way down the hill. Things like that are the main reason that we are trying to tidy up. For some reason, I feel like I need to keep apologizing for having our trees cut down, but there were just so many of them. I hope my tree cutting doesn't offend anyone. I think it did, in the past, bother some of my neighbors. This is the third major tree cutting that this company has done for us over the past seven years. I guess we have probably taken down 40-50 trees, just to get it to this point.

While it is extremely uneven terrain, fortunately, it is not a complete incline, in that there are two flat strips that run the width of the property. That is what gives me hope for having a manageable area (and the horseshoe pit). It will remain a work in progress.

Here is a shot of some of the guys, operating the equipment. This is such a dangerous occupation. Today, my heart went into my mouth several times. The ground was still soft from last week's rain, and the tractor wheels spun and lifted up from the ground, and it looked really scary. They are professionals, though, and always figured out the safest way to move the logs after they were cut. They had to put chains on some of them and drag them up to where they could then be grabbed by the front part of the tractor and lifted into a huge trailer (parked in our driveway) to haul off.

They will be back on the next dry day, to bush-hog and clean up as much as possible. I could hardly wait to get my big red walking stick and walk down towards the creek.

So this is the after picture. If you look slightly to the left of this shot, you should see a red "x" that I photoshopped in. This is where we were headed. DH wanted to clear some debris from the creek which was causing a bit of a dam. I still can't make it down that far, too many stickers. He dropped out of sight several times, but he always answered when I called to him, so I didn't freak out too much. Come to find out, he somehow ended up ankle deep in the creek . We had a bit of a giggle over that. (I did, anyway)

No art to post, but I have been working on a new pillow, that I will post as soon as it is completed. Take care and beware of April Fool's Day. Watch out for viruses and sugar in the salt shaker.

Also, I wanted to apologize for not staying current on commenting on my favorite blogs. Everyone has been so prolific lately, that I have gotten behind. I'm still reading them all and loving them, as usual. Hopefully, I will do better.

So that's it for today. Have a great rest of the week and keep sunny thoughts, as I need one more sunny day for the last of this tree work.

TTFN

9 comments:

Kristen H said...

My Uncle Bill's yard was like this, and it took years to get it a working landscape. And lots of maintenance. People think when you have a wooded lot, it must be nice to not have to mow a lawn. I think wooded lots are more work than grass lawns. We have a cement yard. The expressway is visible from my porch, zero maintenance! LOL. City living at it's finest. Zoom Zoom.
My dad was a lumberjack until he got into printing and half my family cut trees for a living. True tree huggers should know it's good for the trees to thin them out (it's not like you're leveling a forest). You aren't doing anything wrong.
Happy April Fools!

angela recada said...

What a beautiful property you have!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

How nice to live in the woods! It's lovely.

suze said...

Beautiful tree's but did you know that all of them are broken? You almost had me...I said "what?" then remembered the date.

Countryfolk Keepsakes said...

It looks fantastic!
We had to cut down an 85 year old maple that was too close to our house. As horrible as I felt, I knew it had to be done. Even after its "death", I was grateful because it kept us warm the followin' winter. :> )
~Peanut

Susan said...

Suze, you are too funny. Almost gotcha!

vivian said...

great property! I think I could live with out the Asps though! I would love to have some woods and a creek. but I have to admit, that when it comes to yard work, I am lazy! so the upkeep would be a problem!
hugs
vivian

Kims Art said...

It looks like a great place for a secret garden or an outdoor room. A place to draw and think.

Suzie said...

I love your x I cant seem to photo shop anything