Exhausting Clean-Up

We spent much of the weekend working on cleaning up the property. Basic clean-up was definitely necessary; this was also the first step towards really getting to know our space. Where does it look like the water flows during a rain, especially a summer downpour? Where is the best place to locate the compost? What are possible locations for garden beds and fruit/nut trees? Can we fix up the downed fences or do we have to start from scratch?

This was not a good weekend for doing outdoor work. As is common in the spring here, it was very windy all weekend. My poor sweetie was cutting down large areas of weeds and grass, and is now suffering for allergies. All told, he probably tackled about 1/4 acre of knee-high weedy stuff over the weekend.



It looks much better and makes it easier to see the lay of the land. (Sorry, no "before" picture.)


While he was weed-eating on Saturday, I was pulling foxtail by hand out of the fenced yard accessible to the dogs. Foxtail is a grass that luckily is easy to pull up. It's important to get as much of it out of the yard now before it dries up.


When the awns dry, they splay open and easily break apart. This is annoying as heck in socks but is much worse for dogs as the awns get stuck in their paws and down in their ears.

You can see a fuzzy plant next to the foxtail in both photos. It is also a problem plant. The little fuzzy hairs on it catch on everything and the seed heads break apart into tiny little burrs that stick to socks and dog fur. Dogs will chew them off and swallow them. Friends tell me they can cause digestive blockages for the dogs, so we are trying to eliminate these in the dogs' yard as well.


I spent several hours Saturday afternoon picking up trash after my sweetie finished weed-eating along the roads. Lots of trash and broken glass had accumulated. I was dismayed that none of the cars passing by - and there were quite a few - slowed down to talk to me or express appreciation for the clean-up. Finally, however, one older gentleman beeped his horn and gave me the thumbs-up. Made me feel a little better about the area's residents.

I also picked up trash along the back edges of our property and in the wash. More broken glass, lots of bits of old wood (fence?), and blocks were scattered around. One of those trash bags is full of old carpet that I pried out of the middle of the wash, unearthing my first scorpion out here. The worst item to come across was a little baggie of syringes. I was very careful in handling that to avoid any contact!


I spent today gathering up bricks and blocks from the wash. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet, but it seems silly to haul them off to the dump when they could be used to make a small, creatively-crafted wall.


There were a few whole blocks as well and some flagstone and floor tile pieces. Most of the flagstone was stuck on concrete but that was knocked off relatively easily with a sledgehammer. For now, we are saving that concrete rubble, too, in case we need some fill somewhere.


This is not more trash. This is actually our ton of compost from the old place. Contractor landscaping bags are heavy-duty and were the only way we could figure out to move all the compost. The bags are being re-used after emptying, as you can see by the earlier picture.

After much discussion, we finally settled on a good place for the compost to go. I've determined that it's actually easier to make decisions when there are less options. Having a whole acre to play with makes deciding where to locate the compost bins more difficult! Important factors to consider include proximity to house (not too close but not too far), proximity to future gardens (the closer the better), proximity to neighbors, proximity to water (to rinse containers and to keep compost moist), and views.

The most logical place for the compost is a little too close to the neighbors for me to feel comfortable, although it would be really handy as it would be a short jaunt from the kitchen, out the back gate, and to that location. The next best place looked to be right smack in the middle of my nice views from the office's two corner windows. I finally went inside and sat at both the computer and my desk to see exactly where my views were from the house. I was happy to realize that it will be very easy to situate the compost bins right in the blind spot created by the corner of the house. Perfect!

Unfortunately, I'm totally out of energy to move the compost bins and start getting the compost out of the bags. I've also reached my limit with being out in the wind.

We have so many projects we want to do, large and small, that it's tempting to push ourselves too hard. As has been pointed out before, though, we don't have to get it all done in the first month. We've got time and just have to keep trying to set priorities for what gets done next. Right now, I'm just going to enjoy watching the Abert's Towhees scratch around in the patches of cut weeds and grass.