One Thing Leads to Another

As so often happens, I start one project and end up elsewhere in the yard.  Everything is interrelated.

Almost two weeks ago, when the temperatures were unseasonably warm, and the ground was not frozen, I, unexpectedly, began creating a path on a seldom visited slope.  Uncovering a huge rock took time and energy away from finishing creating the newest trail on our property.  The next day, I had hoped to get the rock out of the hole, but decided I better not overdo it--my back had been pain-free for about a month or so, and I did not want to aggravate the herniated disc which seems to have healed.  Instead, I decided to continue creating a terraced path.

I had completed almost half of it they day before.   I was able to make use of a few moderately sized rocks and move them to the pond's edge.  Farther along the slope, there was a bit of trash left from a previous owner who, apparently, used sections of the property as their own private dump.

I ended up spying a pot caught under a multiflora rose bush.  Being a seldom-accessible area in the yard, two or three multiflora rose bushes escaped my not so ever vigilant eyes.  I ended up removing them and adding them to one two of my brush piles.  I gathered the garbage and stopped before the path was completed.  It is over two-thirds complete.

Unfortunately, the weather turned, with two or three inches of snow, and temperatures well below freezing, this project is on hold.

Maybe that is a good thing--almost a week later, I am noticing symptoms of discomfort where my painful bulging disc is.  I am doing my stretches and taking it easy.  I need to get symptom-free again, and continue working on my streambed and waterfall come spring.

New Year's Day

Not a bad start for the new year.  I didn't plan it.  Although it was overcast, today was in the 40s, so I went out to walk the property.

My plan (and my attempt) to create a native meadow has started and stalled many times over the past few years...but that is another story.  One section had some locust trees seed in and begin to take over.  There were more than I realized...and by the looks of them, they had been growing for a few years.

Over the summer, I noticed the largest ones...and decided they had to go...but I didn't want to do it when there was a possibility that birds might be nesting in them.  Today, I finally took a chainsaw to them.

Before

After

This spring, I inadvertently attracted house wrens while trying to attract a second pair of nesting bluebirds.  I put up a new nestbox in the far corner of our yard.  Instead, house wrens moved in...and ended up killing the newly hatched bluebirds.  I am determined not to let that happen again.

Not only will I be removing all except the original nestboxes, I plan to make the meadow go back to early stages of succession, so it is less attractive to the house wrens.  Removing these invading locust trees is the first step.  (We do have several full grown locust on the property, so this will likely be a recurring battle in the coming years.

For now, I am smother the stumps, to prevent regrowth.

I took the (thorny) locust into our "woodland" and created another brush pile--combining it with the Amur honeysuckle bushes that I cut down in the spring (from the neighbor's property--with their permission).

Brushpile Birds

Last spring, I created a pretty huge brushpile in the lower section of our property between the hedgerow and the woodland (both of which are still works in progress).  I really had no idea what to do with that section--and I didn't want to mow it or let it get overrun with mugwort.

Creating a huge brushpile there seemed like a logical, if temporary thing to do.  Originally, I figured that, by the time it had pretty much decayed, I would have figured out what to plant there.  Shortly afterward, I think I started wondering about continually refreshing and maintaining a pile there.  Although I still haven't decided, today, I am feeling that that idea has a lot of merit.

I know brushpiles benefit wildlife, but, with the birds utilizing it in the winter, and the likelihood of sparrows nesting there this spring, I may very well want to maintain it for many years to come. :)

Here are my "brushpile bird photos" from today's stroll in the yard--with pretty frigid temperatures and an impending storm coming tomorrow night--12-18 inches of snow predicted (more than we had in snow totals so far this winter, I believe).

First the junco(s):

The actual brushpile--well, part of it...this doesn't show
the full size, nor do it justice.

...and now the sparrows.  There seems to be a pair...and I believe they have nested in the yard before--in my original, smaller brushpile, I believe.

I would be thrilled to have them as regular residents...and create enough habitat to have several breeding pairs.

I'm thinking the brushpile should become a permanent fixture. :)