Taming the Forest

While I'm waiting for parts to fix the bulldozer I've been catching up on other mini-projects such as finishing the treehouse, planting grass in the cleared areas and surveying the barn site to make sure it's level.

The pic below shows the tools-of-the-trade we hauled down on Saturday to work on the projects.  Grass seed.  Check.  Goat feed.  Check.  Cooler with Diet Coke.  Check.  Lumber. Check. Football.  Check. Transit.  Check, check and check.

From 2012-09-14

I'm a sucker for gadgets so as soon as I heard about a quad mounted harrow, it moved to the top of my "must have" list.

Since a tractor would be overkill at this point (plus I don't have anywhere to park it) I needed something to break up the topsoil in the cleared areas so we could start planting grass.

The harrow worked great at tilling up the top layer.  Well worth the cost and a lot more fun than getting beat up by a rototiller.

From 2012-09-14

One of my goals has been to get grass growing in and around the pond, so the water won't be so muddy from runoff and erosion won't wear down the dam.

From 2012-09-14

It's tough to disc the side walls so I went as high as I could with the quad without tipping over, then covered the rest with straw to help hold the seed in place.

From 2012-09-14

Unfortunately we had a huge rainstorm the day after I put the straw down.  It was great that the pond was filled up (to the the burned stump in the foreground), but bad because there were about 3 strands of straw left when it finished.  I guess we'll just have to try again.