The reality of owning a private forest is starting to come into light. I love every moment of it, but that reality speaks volumes of the labor involved with said ownership. As spring warms up the blooms, the leaves unfurl and the grasses begin to awaken, we are in a pretty serious need of a yard clean up. I’ve gotten a few mows under my belt now with the tractor and vac. While I still have a lot to learn and improve on, the system works great. Grass only covers about a 1/4 of the property tho which leaves a lot to do elsewhere. The ice storm several weeks back left a lasting impact on the land with twigs, branches and limbs scattered throughout. I cleaned up the high traffic areas, only to stack them in convenient piles to deal with later. “Later” officially arrived this weekend so it was time to move the piles to a slash pile that’s more strategic on the property.
To assist with this operation, I knew the pickup was not capable of accessing all the areas I would need to, so I had been searching for a small landscape trailer. Low and behold a neighbor, moving out of the area, wanted his to go away quickly. So I bought a robust little 5×10 utility trailer that checked all the boxes for a mere $175. It’s no pageant winner and needs some work to make road worthy, but for now it’s the perfect yard trailer to tow with the tractor.
Saturday
Brush day, moving several piles to my brush collection area where it will later be chipped or hauled away. 4 full trailer loads. Whew, even with machinery to assist me, I’m popping Advil like Pez.
Sunday
I was back to work on the tree house which still has a little ways to go. The deck is done. Now I’m almost done with the railing posts. Next comes the railings, roof, ladder, and slide. Once again, I used my new wheeled acquisition to haul all my necessary tools to and from the job-site… wow, that saves some time on walking back and forth. The deadline is Ryder’s b-day party in just a couple short weeks time and I have no more weekends between now and then.
… Like I said, reality is setting in.