Rewarding Work
Taking advantage of Asher being occupied at a doggie daycare appointment yesterday, I jumped into outdoor chores that the warm November has graciously continued to make possible. First on my agenda was the most visible out the front door.
Leaves have been blown into every nook and cranny around the house after several days of crazy gusting winds. It clearly reveals air patterns as they move around objects. Massive piles of leaves accumulate in certain areas beside spots that are blown bare even though we wish a mulch of ground cover would remain.
Clearing the mat of leaves off the lawn grass offers a wonderful visual reward. Bring on the snow.
After raking, I headed into the trees to finish my annual survey for Common Buckthorn sprouts. After all the leaves of desired trees have disappeared, the Buckthorn leaves that hold their green later in the season become easy to spot.
My slow and steady method involves cutting existing trees that were too large to pull out by the roots. I saw them off at an easily visible height, returning every year to trim off the sucker sprouts that try to salvage some future life.
It only takes a year or two before the root structure gives up trying. I admit to experiencing a mean sense of enjoyment over the invasive wasting its energy on a lost cause. Instead of the root structure sending out new sprouts across the ground, it tries growing up the severed trunk.
This keeps the new growth localized and easy for me to control. Any new sprouts that I see in different locations are easy to pull by the roots at this point. I’ve been patrolling these woods for 11 years now. Buckthorn growth is doomed on our acreage, despite it having a strong presence in the neighbor’s woods surrounding us.
The success I have achieved in eliminating the invasive shrubs/trees in our woods is one of the more rewarding of my forest management accomplishments.
Today, we stay out of the woods for a week and a day while orange-clad shooters try to reduce the size of the deer herds that roam. This morning, we were greeted with three gunshots down the hill near our bedroom window before we had even gotten out of bed.
I don’t venture out to learn if the shooter was successful or not. Staying away, and keeping Asher leashed, are my responses to the presence of hunting rifles.
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Relative Something 
Re:a doggie daycare appointment – what does that mean exactly? Otherwise, it is something that you’d remove all those leaves? Did you really rake up so many, manually? What did you do with the leaves? Use them to make compost? When I read about all you do, I wonder if I am not getting lazy. That said, I guess, I have / had been influenced by the Chinese notion of doing nothing and everything getting done. And it worked for a long time, but somehow I feel the need to reconnect, to live again first hand – like you do. Maybe turn things back into a productive sustainability. I have rejected what I see as the commodification of life for so many year now, but what about those to come? How are they going to maintain this font of endless bounty… I fear the obvious – killing the golden goose tends to be the easy short term option, which has lead to the impoverishment of our world globally. Couldn’t I help create something less severe and endlessly fruitful? I guess we are in the same boat although on opposite sides of the world:-)
Ian Rowcliffe
November 19, 2023 at 9:24 am
Cyndie wants Asher to learn to socialize well with other dogs and this place lets dogs play together in a supervised environment that gives them a full day to just hang out together for quiet time, too.
I don’t rake all the yard but that spot near the house was easy to just sweep the leaves off the grass to “mulch-type” piles around trees and into the wooded area bordering the grass.
johnwhays
November 19, 2023 at 10:31 am