Does This Driveway Ever End?

I took another shot at clearing the driveway today. Lee had to go get the Farm Use truck inspected, so I started by myself. I think this is where I gave up last year. It is absolutely covered in vines and locusts.




Locust trees have thorns. They can get over and inch long. They punch holes through leather gloves and then through skin with no problem. If you leave them alone they bring their friends and set up camp. Sort of like the Occupy Wall Street movement. If you try to make nice you soon have your yard taken over by pests.

So you have to cut them down. And when you do you have to be very careful because they can land on top of you and all that piercing is not fun. You have to be careful how you grab them to put them in the truck, too!

The vines need to be cut WAY back from any tree that you like. It will girdle the tree and when you try to pull the vines out of it, you will most likely break the branches you are trying to save. An ounce of prevention....

When Lee got home he got out the chainsaw and we managed to clear one small section of land. I think my timeline of how long this project will take will have to be revised. Two hours of work over filled the truck and we called it a day. I still had some battery life in the second battery pack for the Black and Decker trimmer, but the battery life in Rebecca was mostly discharged!




Here is the before.




And here is the after.




So this is the result of two partial days of ground clearing with a lot more to do. Then we have to burn it. This land ownership is not as easy as it sounds. Maybe that condo in a big city isn't ALL bad!




And then the really fun part begins. You have to check yourself all over and examine all the bloody spots and dirt dabs to make sure you didn't pick up any ticks. And when you do, and you will, you have to get the tweezers and pull them out and flush them away. I'm going to spare you the picture of THAT, too.