Cleaning up

The weather was warm and pleasant yet with a touch of early fall in the air for a couple of weeks.  Dry, dry, dry though. There was sufficient rain earlier in the summer but very dry for most of the later summer and now.  We have been taking advantage of this weather to work around the property trying to clean up the over grown areas.  It's a lot of work but satisfying because there is such of huge and obvious improvement as each job is done.  Right now it's cool, blustery and rainy.  The rain is so important and needed for planting the soft winter wheat crop soon.

before

before

after

As is so often the case, the landscape shrubs in front of the house were planted way to close to the foundation.  All will have to be removed and relocated or replaced.  I'm thinking azaleas along the front of the house?

before

after

 This area was not cut by my neighbor Joe because of the trash and bits remaining on the ground from the small barn/shed that used to stand on this spot when he generously mowed almost the entire property.   The old propane tank belongs to a company that I am not doing business with and will be removed by them eventually after much prodding, I am told.  The compost piles will be in this shady area.  You can see some of the tin roofing from the shed in the background as well as  the beginnings of the first compost pile.

controlling the ivy invasion

We removed a jungle of ivy in this corner to find the heat pump for the 2nd floor, an old unused fuel oil tank, and the propane fueled 'gas-pak' furnace/AC unit for the first floor.  It was like an archeology expedition finding a lost city in the jungle.  The old fuel tank will be removed and scraped and the area,  including the new propane tank just off screen right, will be fenced off from the dogs, chickens, and other critters and eventually include a large water tank for rain water collection from the roof for watering the garden and orchard gently down slope from this spot.