In the fall of 2005 we began the quest to make the back 4 acres of our property (we habit the first acre with home and gardens) ready to create a world for the bees and more useful agricultural area. It began with a friend of my son-in-law's who came in with a small bobcat and began levelling some areas, removing some pretty dense undergrowth. Our intention was to remove the trees that made the denseness of the property unusable because of shade. This was done. We left many of the coniferous trees in groves, to maintain a park like setting and it was accomplished with finesse with the work of the tree faller and the excavator man.
About February of 2006 we had another friend of his come in a cut down almost all of the hardwood deciduous trees in the wished to be cultivated area. Leaving many of these species of trees intact along the perimeter of the property.
Shortly thereafter another friend of his came in with his hyhoe excavator and stacked the timber, cleaning up the left over debris and placing it on a burn pile at the very end of the property. Our property was allowed to replenish itself over the course of the summer.
In the late summer the excavator came back and finished the job by raking up all the large debris and stump removal, all put onto the big burn pile. Once he was complete his work. Then our work began. We spent about a month with many of the children picking up the smaller sticks and putting them on the burn pile.
The last part of the landscape was my husband spending days raking the property with a pronged chain device that he pulled behind the quad. That was the hardest, backbreaking part.
This year in another month, I will be preparing to set the seed of the myriad of seeds that I had spent most of last summer gathering and storing, along with purchased grasses and clovers. This will be a lot of work too. But when May comes, the land will be a place of beauty.
I have assembled some pictures that will give a slight glimpse into the project from the start to end. Which is what we see now when we look out at the back of our property.
This first picture was what the property looked like before the clearing began at the back. If you look at the picture you will see the leafless branches of the deciduous hardwoods removed. These trees shed so much shade that the property never properly dried out, was always mucky in summer and would never support any kind of agricultural uses.
What the property looked like after summer growth, just prior to the excavator coming back in to do stump removal and more levelling.
A small pile of debris. The u-shaped log will be saved for some kind of picturesque use on the property.
My oldest grandson off into the wild blue yonder on the quad.
The eventual end product. What it looks like now. All of the back property is groves of cedars and hemlocks, beautiful and flat, dry and not mucky and boggy like it was prior to all the work.
The timber that was removed, there were two other piles as well of the same size. Brought in some good money.
Hope you enjoy the glimpse into my part of the world. If there are any tree huggers out on the forum, I apologize, but this was necessary to make our acreage a usable piece of property. Greatest of days. Cindi
Topic: We did it for the bees (Read 1990 times)