Monday, August 17, 2015

Busy Summer

We have been very busy here at the Blackberry Patch this summer.

I have even learned how to drive a tractor. I have been taking pics of everyone else riding and working on the tractor, but no one has taken a pic of me driving one. But, I have been -  I promise.

I have decided that I love tractors as much as I dislike barb wire fences - and that is a lot! They are such a time saver when you have a lot of work to do. We just have a small one, but it is a worker! We bought it thinking we would only be cutting grass with it. It now has a bucket on the front and a blade on the back.

A piece of land my son purchased had a drainage problem. He loves a challenge. A friend helped him do the initial work of digging the ditches and making the trenches above them. The entire family has pitched in for a week helping with the finishing touches.

Wouldn't you hate to do all this work - times two - by hand. 

The night after we did the first sowing of seeds, we had a deluge of rain from the sky. Needless to say, the straw didn't stay in place. So we had to do some re-seeding of grass.

We now know about straw blankets. Wish we knew about them sooner. They are wonderful and so easy to work with! We bought the 8 foot x 100 foot rolls. We placed them down the middle in front of the pipes we put in the ditches.


And, we now know to sow oats along with your grass seed. It comes up a lot quicker and you see some green while waiting for the grass to sprout.

We had two huge dirt piles down at the bottom of the hill. That dirt is now spread out at the top of the lot where we needed to fill in some. We have a small tractor, so that meant a lot of trips up and down the hill. But, my son did it. Then he prepared the soil and we spread seeds on it.



Everything is now seeded. 
We are finished! 





Now all we have to do is sit and watch the grass grow.


But, guess what my son said last night.
"Now that this is finished, I need another project."

One thing for sure. My boys aren't lazy.