Catching Up

The winter is a slower time on the farm and is often used to “catch up” on non-important things that slip through the cracks when things are busy. And Greg and I have been doing just that, catching up.
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We have been nailing some lose tin back down on several barns around the farm. There is always fence to fix and equipment that needs maintenance. And we have been rehanging some gates that needed it.

​This past week had some really nice weather, so we decided to clean up some trees around our hayfields. This tree had fallen last fall and was lying directly in the hay field. We cut it up and stacked it for firewood.

​We recently had some 70 MPH wind gust that brought a lot of limbs down all over the farm. This tree lost a lot of limbs, but did not blow down. There were limbs on the ground nearly 100 feet from the tree.

​We also went around all of our hay fields and cut back limbs that try to break the tractor mirror every year when we mow hay. In this field we cut several trees that were leaning out into the field. You can see here just how much space we had to give up to mow around the leaning trees. Under those trees there were some Himalayan black berries that were starting to get established. You can see just how much production we were losing.

​Being that we had the chainsaw warmed up we decided to trim some trees along Eden Shale Road. The limbs were just starting to grow out into the roadway. If you met someone here you would have to drag your mirror through the limbs making one heck of a racket. I’m sure the daily commuters will appreciate it, and it looks a lot nicer.

​Before you know it, calves will be hitting the ground and things will be running wide open again.  So I hope that in between the normal chores you find some time to “catch up” around your place this winter.