Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Woods Work

In the woods out back of the house, we have loads of deadfall.  It's pretty much everywhere.  Some of it is there because trees die and fall over.  Some of it is there because the previous owners of this place made carved signs out of the cedars, so he cut the trees down, took the fat part for his sign business, and left the rest of the tree just laying there. 

If you've been around the blog for a while, you know I like to go out in the woods and make trails.  I skirt around the piles and the deadfall, snaking my way from the top to the bottom.  This year, though, we're changing things up a bit.  We're moving the deadfall to a few centralized locations.  We started yesterday.

Lemme back up a bit.  First, I need exercise, but exercising in the house or going for walks becomes tragically boring after a while and then I don't do it.  Hubs also needs exercise and he doesn't go in for actual exercising.  (And he, too, is bored with walking.)  I got a wild hair to go make trails yesterday and Hubs decided he'd help.  But then while we were out there, we changed our minds and started dragging deadfall to the woodpile.  Then we walked the property, taking note of all the crap laying all over everywhere.  Tada - new plan.

Now, there's a dude here in the neighborhood who routinely cleans out his property and then burns it.  It's very clean in there.  We don't want that.  Too stark.  Plus, where would the critters hide if they needed to?  Nope, we just want to pick of the big stuff and centralize it in a few key piles.  That'll help the small critters find hiding places and homes, and it'll leave a lot of low lying bushes for the big critters to hide in come summer.  We also figure if we clean out some of the dead crap, it'll let the small trees grow better. 

And we'll get our exercise.  Win win.

So, yeah, we were out there yesterday afternoon, picking up sticks and limbs and logs and stuff - carrying or dragging it to where we wanted it.  I'm a little stiff this morning, but Hubs says he feels fine.  Either way, it's a good thing. 

As long as the weather holds and it doesn't get too warm, we'll be in the woods as much as we can.  (Warm = snakes and ticks in the woods, so we stay out when it's warm.)  I really do love it out there.  =o)

2 comments:

  1. Snakes hibernate in some of those deadfalls so be careful. They can wake up. You know this but I thought I'd throw it out there.

    There are times I wished we lived in the country. I like the woods and water. But...I also like my conveniences. Go have fun! It's gonna be 63 here today.

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    1. Yup yup. Bein' careful out there. And I have a big metal rake handy in case. =o)

      I hear ya. I have been craving a BK Whopper so bad! It's been like 5 years since I had one. I think it made like 48 here today. Not warm, but warm enough.

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