South fence line on the back 40
On Thursday morning I was up at 5AM and got my post up, then got ready to go out to fix fence and clean up the downed wood in the back 40 pasture. My general helper arrived at 6:30AM and we headed out.
She would be carrying the tool bucket as it was heavy and beyond me this time around. I’d carry the wire and the water jug.]
We’d start on this north tree line because it’s the worst for downed wood. I’d repair the fences and pick up wood near the fence. She’d keep the bucket moved with me and pick up the wood out to 30’ from the fence.
It took us a couple hours to work our way down to this:
We been able to move the many large branches but this tree defeated us. So we stopped, went to the barn to see if we could get a chainsaw running (nope) and then decided to head west and south along the fence.
The poison ivy was everywhere, very thick and deep. There was no avoiding it. The cows used to keep it knocked back but it’s been more than 5 years since they were on the pastures. It really shows. They are full of weeds and ferns where there had been nearly none.
We worked down to the top of the sandhill and I had to stop. I could barely walk back to the barn.
Back at the house we’d set up a protocol for dealing with being covered with poison ivy. We’d touch as little as possible and then wash down what we had touched.
I’d gotten everything ready so we could strip off in the laundry room, and go right into the bathroom and shower. There we would take 2 showers each, with dish soap, and wash carefully including hair. The towels went into the washer and it all got washed and dried.
I did this last year when I did all the fences by myself and didn’t get poison ivy. So I’m hoping it works this year too.
She left and went home and took a 2 hour nap. My helper friend arrived at 11:30AM and went to the store for ingredients. I got to rest a while longer while he was gone. The plan was to make at least 2 loaves of zucchini bread. We ended up making 4 of them.
Once the last 2 were baking, we cleaned up and still had time left. I’d wanted to do something simple with the chokeberries we’d collected on the weekend. In the end we decided on syrup.
I had orange peel I’d dehydrated last year and we put it in a coffee grinder and sifted it. But what was left was so small we put it in anyways.
I used organic sugar as I didn’t have enough honey.
We got out the Squeezo even though it was a small amount. I’m glad I did. It only had a tomato screen. I’ve tried a couple times over the last 7 or 8 years to order the berry and pumpkin screens, but they never shipped. So I tried again as the company had been sold again and it said it would be 26 weeks for delivery. Sigh….
So we ended up with 1½ pints of syrup and it is really good!
I was beyond exhausted by the time my helper friend left and struggled to stay awake until bedtime.
On Friday we again, my general helper and I, head out to the back 40 and I hope to finish it. My brother never cut up the downed tree, so we will work to it. I also hope to get the section of the middle pasture that has poison ivy done so we are finished with that!
There’s nothing in the afternoon so I can rest.