When Mother Nature takes back the land

[ovrszd]

Not familiar with your particular species of pine, but here we are being overran by Eastern Red Cedar. My goal is to eradicate them from my 150 acres. They spread thru their roots, underground. When I was a kid (50 years ago), we would try to find one for a Christmas tree. On our farm we were lucky to find a good candidate. Today you could cut 30 easily. I hate em.

My wife, not a farm girl, struggles to understand why I spend so much time and resources maintaining the farm. It had been allowed to go into neglect by my Brother who farmed it for the last 20 years. He never cut a tree or rarely ran a brush cutter. The fields just kept getting smaller. In the last 4 years I've reclaimed about 15 acres. As a Vet friend of mine once told me, if you are going to own pets, take care of them. I feel the same way about land.

 

[Red Horse]

Interesting stories-for sure Mother Nature does work- And Westcliffe-10-4 on the Autumn Olive-at least that is what my wife says it is-you can't get through it in some spots. Interesting thing is in the "mature woods" you don't see it-but in this area that was like I said planted regularly 25 years ago, absolute jungle.

 

[Thomas]

Between mother nature and father time seems like a never ending up keep.
Glad old man winter hadn't shown up before your task.

 

[Red Horse]

Between mother nature and father time seems like a never ending up keep.
Glad old man winter hadn't shown up before your task.

Exactly-I picked a good day-ground wasn't even frozen in all that cover-I actually made a mess so I took the grapple off, put the bucket back on and backbladed my way out so I didn't leave a bunch of deep "ankle buster" ruts when the freeze returns-like tonight!

 

[MacLawn]

Growth! Ain't that the truth. Around me place in Georgia, ye stand still too long and something will be trying to eat you, suck ye blood, and grow up around ye throat trying to choke ye to death. Why just last summer, two mosquitoes grabbed me one each by a shoulder and started flying away with me. I heard one yell to the other, "Hey Joe, should we take him back to camp or eat him here?" To which old Joe replied, "We'd better eat him here. If we take him to camp, the big boys'll take him away from us."

 

[JSanders10]

Growth! Ain't that the truth. Around me place in Georgia, ye stand still too long and something will be trying to eat you, suck ye blood, and grow up around ye throat trying to choke ye to death.

Such as kudzu? Yes.

Six months ago I purchased an adjoining 45 acre poultry farm which had gone into mortgage default, three 40'x500' 15 yr old broiler houses and all they include. The farm had been out of production the past five years and I am in the process of cleaning up saplings, brush, over and under growth, field edges and you name it.

Likewise about submersible pump wells (three here, one 1400' deep!), septic lines, water lines (only God knows where some of them are) and buried electrical lines to the incinerator and such. Luckily, the county health department had a rough sketch of the septic lines, that helped... the rest is only discoverable with care.

I need to put all of it on a map with GPS, thanks for that advice, CobyRupert!