Give me the machines!

 It feels like forever that we've been waiting for Spring to come, a true Spring. Here it is already May and I feel like we are still fighting the end of Winter. So many days of dreariness, of chilly or downright cold temps. The older I get the more impatient I get for warmer, sunnier days to take hold. But we can't wait for warmer temps to start on the land work, Mother E has her own clock and calendar that we need to follow. 

We headed to Das Zem this past Wednesday to start working on clearing up the ditches. I think Woodchuck is a little overwhelmed and scattered, and I am right there along with him. He thought we could use his new Brush Grubber to easily pull out the invasives overgrowing the ditch, but quite literally he got his ass handed to him. It was decided that I would be on the tractor, Ginny. It was decided for me, I might add. I get it, he didn't think I could handle the tension strength of the Brush Grubber and getting it on the branches, but we all know some previous emotions I've had about being on the tractor and a near miss of running him over because I had my foot on the gas, which is next to the break, but in between the back up and brake pedals. Tractors are confusing when you've only driven a car.

So we get started, and I'm doing really well I must say! But the bushes are much bigger and established than we expected and that Brush Grubber was no match for them, nor was our tractor. Nor was Woodchucks back! What ended up happening was each branch of the bush honeysuckle had to be pulled off on its own, with some of those having a dozen branches, it took awhile to just get a couple of them de-branched. Although I had a nice spot, it was bothering my newly fixed hip to have my leg out to the side, so I had to turn in the seat to be facing more of where my leg was going. I was still way more comfortable than Woodchuck though.

I should add here that earlier that morning he had about an hour long surgical procedure to remove a large cyst from the back of his head. As usual, the doctor said he had never seen one like that before. With 6 stitches in the back of his head, he was getting poked and prodded in the head, ears, face and neck by the bushes. I was waiting for it all to go horribly wrong and for him to bust those stitches open.....or fall down in the ditch. Luckily neither of those things happened. But after struggling with two bushes, we called it quits over here. It's clear that we will have to don waders and get down in the ditch, cut the branches off and treat the stumps. On to the next project!

We finally found what the Brush Grubber DID work well on. The line of bush honeysuckle lining the driveway and underneath the red maples. I forgot to get an after picture, but here's the before.

Here's what they looked like last year when all leafed out. To the very left of the picture. 👇

We headed up front and into the cold winds and poor Woodchuck looked like he was going to keel over. Bending over to attach the tool, then bending over to remove it, move the brush, and then attach the tool to the next bush. I offered many times to trade places, but he wasn't having it. When it got to the point where the piles were big and in the way and I thought he was going to collapse, I told him to take over on the tractor and move the brush to the burn area. I figured that he wouldn't argue with me then if I made it still about the work and not about him needing a break!

So while he made a couple of trips with the tractor, I walked around the area hand-pulling baby bushes and found this lovely, lone tulip that was *just* over the property line. Still beautiful to look at!

Once Woodchuck came back from dropping the piles of brush, we called it quits. My hip was tight and his back was hurting and we still needed to load up Pink to take her back home. No more 1.5 hours of push mowing! We don't have the physical stamina right now, nor the time.

 Some times I think we entered in to this being too old and injured and I keep pushing that thought away. We are worthy, we are deserving, we are capable. 💚 )O(