March 5, 2020: From fall 2018, clearing the woods

Having our woods cleaned was almost as great a feeling as mastering the emerald domain.

In my previous post, I mentioned and showed photos of the woods behind our house. The photos here are of the woods near the end of our stay, the clearing courtesy of our local handyman, Kenny Carter. This was the final step of a twenty-year process of clearing the woods.

When we moved to Oak Farm Court in 1996, the woods was an almost-solid green barrier at the edge of our back lawn. After some time, I purchased a gas-powered trimmer with a almost-square metal cutting blade that allowed me to cut through brush and even saplings up to an inch in diameter. I probably made tow efforts at different times before putting aside the trimmer for good. I don't recall how or even if I removed the cut brush and saplings. If we were back in Eden, Ed would have had us immediately clear the grounds well enough to mow it, hoping for a primitive lawn to arise from the raked and cleared ground. Instead, over time, I would edge the mower further and further into the former woods, capturing some more surface for crude lawn. This increased the 'walkable' area of our property but did not fully clear the woods.

Lightning dropped one good-sized tree. I hired someone to cut it up but the trunk sections and branches remained in the woods. This action also helped me to appreciate that the boundary of our property included a wire fence with rotten, broken and embedded wooden posts. Moving this was going to take significant efforts and more tools and I chose to pass on that task.

A second tree hot by lightning yet still standing led me to hire our landscaper, Joe Henson, to take it down. I have videos of his work. He cut the huge trunk into two-foot sections and alongside them left six- to ten-foot branches piled nearby. I would need significant help later to remove the accumulated tree debris. I had an estimate from a workman referred by the Kellys, but I found it not to be a good value and passed.

That help came in the next-to-last year of our stay at Oak Farm. Kenny had done significant yard work in the neighborhood. I showed him the woods, told him what I wanted done, and asked him if he was up to the task and at what price. He was eager to take on the work and, along with two associates, did a remarkable job of clearing out the brush, the trunk sections, the tree branches, the fence, and the wooden posts, ending up with a completely cleared grounds. It put a smile on my face and made me feel that my work on bringing about the best from our third acre was complete.

Don't estimate the joy and intrinsic satisfaction of yard work.