Don’t let my lack of posting let you think we haven’t been busy or that I don’t have TONS of things to blog about. I’ve just been in a bit of a blogging funk I guess and also have been having a hard time finding time to sit down and git ‘r done. But I’m trying to get back on track and finish a few of the dozen or so drafts I’ve started…

We went down to the orchard a couple weeks ago to try to get a handle on the grass and weed situation. Things were starting to get out of control. I can’t promise that things are looking any better now after another few weeks have passed with no work, but that’s another story all together. Some might say we shouldn’t have taken on the orchard at this point since we can barely handle everything we have going now. But eh, you only live once!

Before we headed out, Stefan did me a huge favor and trimmed my hedge sheers. Is that even the right name for them? At any rate, this old sharpening wheel was here at the farm when we moved in. We figure it weighed too much for them to want to bother with it. We’re going to have to rebuild the frame at some point, but it still works quite well.

We loaded up the wagon with everything we’d need for a few hours work out there. Lots of liquids, sandwiches, chips, cookies and fruit were piled into the cooler with a few cool packs to keep everything chilled. We also had a big water tank with us so we could spray all the trees with neem oil. Turned out that 5 liters in our sprayer would have been plenty…but at least now we know. We also took the rake and scythe on the wagon, strapped down with bungee cords. It worked pretty well until we got closer to the orchard where the ground gets a bit rougher – but we’ll get more used to the terrain out there as time passes. 😉

Yikes! Will you look at that place. Pretty sad right? At least we have a stinging nettles force field to keep people out. That stuff is the worst. A far cry better than poison ivy, I’ll definitely agree, but still not fun at all. We’ve got it everywhere so it should be a lovely battle.

This next picture is after about 2 1/2 hours work. Can you see the difference? Scroll up and down a few times if you need to. Maybe I should have put the wagon in there before as well but trust me, the grass was well over the handle. We got about one-third of the area cut.

I saw “we” but I really mean Stefan. Mackenzie was sleeping a little bit during out time out there, but we had quite a bit of fussing going on too so I was mostly helping her and not him. Although not having to listen to her yell was helpful to his sanity…

It was quite hot out there and there’s not much shade where he needed to cut. Thank goodness we had all our provisions there and a shady corner where we could rest. We’re most likely going to get a gas powered scythe to speed up the process down there. While it may be a great workout to do it the old fashioned way, it’s painfully slow and we have far too many other things to take care of.  Plus if we can find a gas scythe with a weed trimmer attachment, it will come in very handy in the garden behind the barn too.