Ok, more like the field Off and on project. Getting close to done. Knocking back the overgrowth to the original stone walls. Found a few more Hickory sticks to add to the pile. The rest is mostly Tree of Heaven. Yuk but I’ll burn it. Gives me room to stack wood without effecting the hay. That’s always a good thing.
Not sure how long it will be before grass might take over. Those trees of heaven are invasive like bamboo. Probably have to mow every two weeks for the rest of my life. Oh well. I don’t use the hay anyway. Maybe the guy who gets it free will run a plow around it and seed. Either way it looks so much better cleaned up. Was looking very ratty. Bittersweet, Bull briars and grapevines along with trees. 20-30 feet deep. What you see in the original pics was cleaned up last fall. Just a few trees left. Should add my Mother and Sister do a lot of the bull work on the vines. I’m just the firewood guy LOL Here’s my sister chopping on a fat but short Black Birch after I knocked it down and got rid of the branches under stress. 60 years old, owns two chainsaws,,,,gentlemen Moms 85 and still going strong pulling vines by hand. Thinking they’ll both outlive me.
Oh they certainly are. Historically speaking once prized now despised. Brought into the country for fast growing shade trees. (If memory serves) Tho I don’t know why. The ones around here don’t throw much shade and grow so close together you couldn’t put a chair under them.
Tree of heaven in Ohio is considered a VERY invasive species. Our state forester IDed a couple on our property and tagged them for IMMEDIATE removal. I cut and sprayed the stumps and they still came up in 50' radius of the stump for 2 years and I sprayed them every time I saw a shoot come up. Forester was very adament about total eradication. He was very concerned about them spreading. I know they got here from some trimmings of a tree in town at the in-laws that were brought out to the "farm" to be burned but laid on the burn piles for a while. Any green twig that gets in contact with the ground can sprout. I use 2-4-D in the areas that are grass and round up in the brushy / weedy areas. I will keep an eye out for them again this spring. Their leaves look similar to walnut leaves but have some differences. I have to look at the ID websites each time to verify the difference in small trees but I think I have them pretty well under control at this point.
Yep, you won’t find one good word about them. Year or two ago I had a thread looking for id and info. Knew they were a Sumac but didn’t know if they were of the poison variety. Learned a lot here and did some googling on top. I’m not willing to spread poison over this entire area tho that is the recommended course of action. Hoping if I mow them low and long enough they’ll die out. There was another batch further back on our property in once was a pasture. Got flattened by another large oak and high wind. All the intertwined vines took the whole grove down. No idea what they were at the time. Chainsaw revealed “a junk tree” LOL. Cut em all up anyway and burned em. I’ll take a ride back there tomorrow. I’m sure they’re resprouted and doing fine but interested to see.
Well she was the button pusher on that big roadside log score two years back in her downtime she actually cleaned up the branches. Nuts. Told her so. The town was going to chip everything I left anyway. No need to make it all tidy first. But that’s her gig. She likes her forests clean. Brad I live within spitting distance of both mom and my sister. A man needs a refuge and respite. That’s here for me LOL A pic of my sisters latest forest cleaning area. Looks nice but I wish she would buy a chipper. Piles everywhere. Looks like she’s not quite finished on the left yet. Don’t tell her I showed a pic of her unfinished work
I did ride back today to look at the old grove of Chinese Sumac/Tree of Heaven. Surprised to see they havent sprouted back up. It’s a mess of vines. Sis hasnt got back there yet. There’s some adult trees there. Saw three sprouts coming up but nothing much to speak of. Wondering if I should knock down the remaining big trees and maybe they’d die off? Or it may kick the root system into overdrive? Not this year anyway.
Been about seven years by my recollection I havent looked. Probably more accurate they’ll sprout up now that I did look
That they do. And all my dogs have liked them over the years too. Always worth a chuckle watching them pounce up and down on the piles trying to scare something out And yeah. The arch saves me a lot of bending over while bucking. Helps keep my chains a little sharper too
Never been in your neck of the woods, but sure do appreciate the pictures and looks like a heavenly spot to me!
Never been to yours or many others. It’s on the bucket list to buy an RV and see the entire rural area of this beautiful country. Most of the cities I’ll skip
