Clearing Brush

Over the years our pastures have been encroached upon by the brush growing out of the woods. We can probably increase the size of our grazing area by at least 15-20% by clearing back the brushy areas. We already cleared a good bit of brush before the fencing was installed. Now we need to get to work on the main pasture areas. Time for the goats and sheep to get to work!
Here is an example of one of our areas in need of clearing (probably a good 25 feet wide and 10 feet tall and many, many feet long):

The first area we put the goats to work on is now looking like this:

We have to pull up the stumps and roots and seed but already the pasture looks so much bigger!

Let the Shedding Begin

Moose has begun shedding like crazy.

We are able to pull out big clumps and she will happily stand there.

This is why I wanted hair sheep. It is easier and cheaper than having to shear them!  I think we may have the most padded birds' nests around this spring! But I am starting to wish for a bit of wool to play with.

Stream Work

The stream has been eroding its banks since we moved here and today Alan had a chance to work on diverting the stream. Here are two examples of the worst of the erosion.

It was amazing how quickly Alan was able to begin to change the course of the stream.

In the photo below the new stream course is to the left and the old to the right.

We thought the stream originally followed the course to the left and after a few hours of water movement the stream found the old stream bed and the water was running clear again.

Now very little water is flowing through the old sections of stream and the new (old) course looks great. Now I just have to wait to see if any of my yellow flag irises were disturbed.

Gate Work

Our new gates worked great when first installed, but gradually over the winter the one we use the most became harder and harder to operate. Finally, I couldn't even close it from inside the pasture.

The top hinge pin was nearly out of the hinge and the bottom hinge had slid down on the gate. This left the hinge side of the gate sitting on the ground. To close the gate one had to back up the the gate, lift the gate up onto the latch and then push with your entire body to close it.

It took a bit of levering, adjusting and wrench work to raise the gate in the bottom hinge and straighten out the top hinge pin but now the gate works perfectly!

My Own Heron

The gift shop at work sells some very nice items. I spotted two heron sculptures a few weeks ago when all the spring merchandise began arriving. Unfortunately, they were pretty pricey. Wednesdays are usually special sale days and this past Wednesday was 20% of all Spring merchandise. So I asked if the heron (by this time my favorite one had sold) would count as spring merchandise and the ladies running the shop said "Of course!"  So he came home with me!

I couldn't get him to stand next to the stream since the ground is still frozen and the spike to hold the heron upright wouldn't go into the ground. But the leafy debris under the Rhododendron would accept the spike, for a little while, so I could see how the heron would look.  We are wondering if he will attract more herons or scare them away!

Frost Seeding

With the snow fall we had on Friday of 7-8 inches, and the rapid melting immediately after, Saturday was a great day to frost seed.  We bought an Earthway broadcast spreader and the snow cover, down to 3-4 inches by Saturday afternoon, helped me learn to use the spreader's settings and tell where I had already seeded. I could get a nice even spread over about a 6-8 foot swath as I walked along. The hardest part was not slipping all over the place and dropping the spreader since I had the slippery melting snow to contend with. And our property is mostly hills making footing even trickier.

The Earthway spreader is a pretty neat gadget; very easy to figure out the settings and easy to operate. I was really happy with the coverage I was able to obtain. 

Spinach

Yesterday, before the snow came back, I found this row of spinach in the garden.

I have been able to overwinter spinach in the hoop house but never in the garden. Hopefully I can remember this and plant more spinach next fall for early spring harvest.