More Chopping!

This was the sad state of the shop and old single-car garage this morning.  See the vines? 

Keith asked me to pull them down, please. 

They were also growing up the side of the larger of the two storage buildings. 

Folks, we have not lived there now for almost six months, and the place was slowly going back to 

nature.  You couldn't even open the shop doors at this point. 

Do I need to tell you that wasps were flying in and out of the foliage, and I 

probably saw 50 fly INTO the shop through the door. 

This area, on the left, is where Chris was stung so badly a month ago. 

So...

I proceeded slowly. 

I used the wasp spray, too... spraying where I was going to work.  

I started with the vines... and chopped them at the roots.  I pulled a few down, but 

you will see in a minute what is left. 

Now you can see the front of the shop.  One of our last tasks will be to rebuild the 

door on the left, it has rotted out. 

All that stuff had to be dragged across the yard. 

Do you see where the roof is wet along the edge?  I would spray, step back 20 steps (to the chair you can't see, sitting in the shade of the old walnut) and wait for the wasps to die down. 

I cut a ton of saplings out of here.  

The green on the right is intertwined with an old fence that 

has rolled on itself, and lots of bristly greenbrier.  I'm going to 

spray it. 

I was able to loosen some of the vines you can barely see on the wall... but 

I left the rest for another day.  Too many wasps! 

This is the old walnut tree... see how few walnuts are on it this year? 

Here's the west side of the house... I showed you the east yesterday.  Brandon will finish off the north end this weekend, then we'll go to town on painting, the deck railings and windows.  We'll put up new trim, too. 

We're going to have to get a dumpster to haul off the C and D. 

I haven't been able to show you this for about 3 years now.  A young farmer west of Tongie plants 40 acres to sunflowers.  The last two years, he has planted soybeans on this acreage, but this year, he put it back into sunflowers.  He sells the seed.   People come from miles around to take pictures of it, and Chris and I stopped for a few minutes on our way to Garnett this morning to take a few. 

The People.  Coming from miles around.  Seriously. 

See down the road?  A guy down there is renting his front pasture for parking for 2.00, but 

we were so early, we were shocked to find people there already. 

We found a roadside spot. 

Someone was flying a drone over the fields... how cool!  I'm sure they got great pictures. 

People actually wade into the fields to take pictures... some bring ladders... some bring very expensive equipment. 

Kids can get lost in there, and I'm not kidding.  Chris had never seen these fields blooming, and he was very surprised. 

On and on and on... wow! 

Tired tonight... from two days of hard work. 

More tomorrow! 

A Long Day's Work

Thank heavens for Good Neighbor Troy, that's all Chris and I have to say. 

The huge pile of weeds and branches from last week... plus today's... 

was being dragged to the bottom of the pasture (through the high grass) in 

handfulls. 

Troy saw us, and offered us the use of his truck. 

The dryer parts closer to the camera were from last week's... and we cut down a

group of saplings along the side of the old henhouse. 

Look!  All hauled off and the henyard usable again! 

These two got to go with us.  See how bad the saplings on the side of the henhouse were?  

The pile on the right was from last week. 

And now! 

We couldn't even see the pump for the last two months. 

There is something very unusual about the walnut tree you see here...

there were VERY few walnuts this year.  Very few. 

\

We made six or seven trips down to the brush pile. (without getting the truck stuck!!!!) 

Which has now grown by leaps and bounds. 

This is the cottonwood that fell from Troy's side onto our fence. 
It will be the last thing we do. (fixing the fence) 

And there, at the top of the pasture, is the big tree that split and fell... it's hard to see in this picture.  Troy is eventually going to cut this up for firewood. 

Chris is working here in the goatyard... you couldn't even walk in here when we started, and we 
still can't move the gate.  Now we can finally see the little barn. 

We got most of that row of weeds down, but there are some left for me to work on 
this week.  

A few weeks ago I showed you that a swallow was repairing the next above the front door. 
Can you believe this?  A little head kept popping up while we were going in and out. 

We never saw mom and dad swallow... they are usually swooping around. 

I am praying they are feeding the babies now, because the peeping was getting softer and softer, and I told Keith I HAD to leave, I couldn't bear it. 

I have never, ever, seen swallows lay such a late clutch. 

I pray that the parents haven't left, and abandoned the babies. 

That gives you an idea of what the goat yard looked like. 

Even though it was in the 70's, we had to take some breaks from the cutting and pulling. 

Keith got there and tried out the color we are going to paint the house. 
It will have white trim.  
That's "Chamois" by Behr. 

Nephew Brandon has the two long sides finished, and will finish the north end next week.  Keith will start concentrating on the railings on the decks this week.  

I'll finish up inside except for the trim. 

Then we'll tape the windows and blow and go with the painting... and then put the trim back up. 

The dogs had to be locked up in the house for a while as we were moving the truck around so much. 

Here's our girl coming up from the pasture as we were getting ready to leave. 

Stinky was already in the car, ready to go. (he rolled in something really, really stinky and dead) 

Both dogs were worn out. 

We got home and watched these guys for an hour while their parents did an errand. 

But here's the best news of the weekend! 

Our new granddaughter, Haley Kay, born yesterday afternoon to Andrea and Nick (and big sister Brynn).  Keith got to hold her last night for an hour... you can see from the expression on his face 
how happy he was.  

We're so glad to meet her!  

A Big Job

Grandson Chris, 20, has been working on the Sapling Project for us for several weeks now.  We go down and get him in Garnett every other weekend, and bring him up to do heavy work for us.  He has been working on clearing the fencelines of encroaching saplings, and doing a fine job.  Here he is, with brother Nathan, after we knocked off work last Saturday night, and went to get some ice cream and window shop at the big outdoor shopping mall by the Nascar track.

Someone at work asked me this week why I always go down to get him, and he doesn't just drive up.  The thing is, when your mom has never been able to afford insurance for a teenage driver, and there are very, very few jobs in your little town... it's very hard to become mobile.  I am hoping that in the spring we can put him on our insurance, and teach him to drive.  We just cross each bridge slowly, and one at a time.

Here is what he is doing for us:

These are mostly single saplings that he has cut.  Our problem is that it is extremely dry here now, and we can't burn them until they have dried completely.  Then Keith will cut them up and burn them little by little.  The burn pit is in the middle of this pile.

For two days, we have had little satellite service here, hence the fact that I did not blog last night.  It was, however, the third anniversary of my mother's passing, and the ninth anniversary of the death of Keith's oldest son, Joel.  They had a beautiful, beautiful fall day to remember them by, and we, of course, are glad to remember the happy days of the past.