The Jeep has become a beast of burden.
The loggers are gone. They left behind a big pile of brush, plus tree-limb litter all over my top acre. There also are a bunch of “spikes,” small trees they ran over that are too injured to live and that look really bad. Fortunately the loggers didn’t disturb much topsoil. There’s an exposed area of soil of about 2,000 square feet where the skidder ran back and forth to the loader, and there’s a spot on the lower end where the skidder got stuck and spun its wheels to get out. It could be worse. They did almost no damage to the road. That’s good, because it means the neighbors won’t be mad at me.
I hauled 12 bales of straw and put straw over the exposed soil. I got a 50-pound bag of annual rye grass seed and spread the seed with an old-fashioned hand-cranked seed spreader, which I bought at the hardware store in Germanton. Next steps: Get a guy with a chipper to give me an estimate on how much it will cost to turn the brush pile into mulch, and get my great-nephew to help me gather up the downed limbs and trim out the spikes. When the litter is picked up and some rye grass is growing, things will look much better.
I’ve been thinking hard about how best to heal and use the upper acre. Right now the plan is to get some wildflower seed in bulk and fling the wildflower seed in April after the danger of frost has passed. Then, at tree-planting time in the fall, I start a little hillside orchard. The area looks bad now, but it would make a beautiful little hillside orchard. The slope and light are perfect for that.
Also yesterday, the electrician brought the temporary power post out, and I helped him put it up. It’s ready for inspection by the county. As soon as the inspection is done, the power company will light up the post, and I’ll have electricity. Once I have electricity, I can put the pump in the well. I think I’ve got to get rid of some stumps before the septic tank can go in, but I’ll talk with the septic guy next week.
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