Adventures in the Pasture

Tonight as I was riding AJ along the road, I noticed that we have some of that "Bag Worm" in a tree that is in our ravine. Part of me wanted to just let it go since the plan is to remove those trees at some point. Another part of me said "No, you can't let it go because those dang things spread". So after my ride and after a wonderful supper of BBQ chicken and Mac & Cheese, I headed back outside to 'get the job done'.

Grabbed my favorite clippers, stopped at the barn to grab a bag to put the stuff in and headed down to "The Ravine". Now I don't really particularly care for this ravine as it is somewhat a mess. By a mess, I mean there are trees that are leaning against each other, holding each other up, nettles, and prickly stickery viney stuff that grabs your legs, and ditch weed that is over my head and is dropping seeds, and logs that are decaying on the ground under the weeds and are hidden, waiting to trip someone, and snakes, and other creepy crawly things oh and GRASSHOPPERS that don't let go when they jump on your bare legs!!

Now you are probably thinking, silly woman, why didn't you put jeans on when you knew you'd be going down to 'The Ravine'. Well, I didn't put jeans on because from my view on top of AJ from the road, the 'Bag Worm' bag looked to be hanging over the pasture grass and within easy reach from the ground. HA, deceptive little suckers they are.

I had locked the horses up because I really didn't need or want their help. Took the trusty 4-wheeler down so I didn't have to walk through the tall grass to get there. Once there, I discovered that the dang 'bag worms' were a little higher up than I had thought. It's ok, I'll just stand on the 4-wheeler seat and grab it with my clippers. That worked out ok until I thought about do I really want to be standing directly under this bag as I'm cutting it down....stuff was already falling in my hair when I grabbed the branch. Let it go and it zinged back up dropping more crap on me. I can only imagine what the people are thinking that drive by when they see me out there!

Rearrange the 4-wheeler which is now parked in the stickery, prickly vine stuff that I have to cut away as it is grabbing at my legs. Why didn't I bring my leather gloves with me you ask? Um, because I think they are in my trailer. Yes, I'm sure they are in my trailer...I hope.

Finally get situated and get the branch pulled back down. Cut the diseased branches and stuff them in a bag.

Newt decides to join me to see what adventures I'm going to give him.

Continue to look for more diseased branches and come a cross a thorny honey locust sappling. Ok, really wasn't paying attention to where I was driving and caught the sappling in the wheelwell. Had to cut that out especially since it was thorny, don't need the horses getting poked on that!

Head to the southside of the ravine, where the ditch weed grows rampant. Stop and cut some of it down so we can at least see the fence. I do see where the horses have been traveling so stick to their path. Newt gets side tracked and hangs back. Pop out on the other side and have to go through a patch of nettles. I really hate nettles and need to get back down there and spray them. My legs still itch a bit from that experience. Newt gets stuck back there too and I see the weeds moving as he's trying to manurver through. He gives up and leaps out. He doesn't care for them either!

Finish scanning the trees for more stuff and see that the turkeys have been living down there. Plus we still have mulberries that are in the process of ripening. I also see where the horses have been trimming trees to get at the mulberries--brats!

I call Newt over and he gets up on the 4-wheeler and we head back to the barn.

Later this fall, when the grasshoppers are gone and the stuff is dead, I am going to make it a goal to get some of that stuff cleaned up down there! Things kind of got out of control this spring with all the rain we had.