It’s amazing just how much the ground can, and will heave to bring up rocks of all shapes and sizes. I went over the one big field beside the workshops for weeks last September, and October, and I pulled out eleven sixteen litre pails of rocks that 8 dumped along the roadway down to the river. And now you’d think the field had never been touched because I can see first sized rocks or larger poking up out of the soil everywhere I look. This is the time when having access to a side by side with a dump bed would really hit the spot, because you could spend hours out there with a pry bar, and some gloves, and pull up a metric fuck tonne of rock. I bet if you took all I pulled last year, and what we’ll get out of the ground this year you could make yourself a mighty fine chimney, or outdoor BBQ from all that rock. All you’d need is the right mortar, and the skill to build it all. Free rocks, right up out of the ground. And next year it’ll be the same all over again I’d wager!
It’s good to keep busy. Once we stop having single digit mornings I will go back to bucking logs, and maybe swinging the axe one or two mornings a week. Possibly more if we move into a lull with work. I know the dog loves to spend more time at the farm exploring, or curling up in the van for a snooze while I work. The point is to stay active, and not go shopping for random shit.
The fruit trees are in, an interesting fact I wasn’t aware of until after I had planted them was that on that very same day fourteen years earlier was when I first planted the Cherry tree, and both Apple trees along the back fence. How very random, and yet poetic. Same day! Fourteen years apart. Now the Cherry is a giant presence in the yard, with the two smaller apples not that far behind. Hopefully the next four will do just as well! One can hope.
Besides picking up rocks out of the fields at the farm I’d like to see some more cleaning up around the pig pen, and outbuildings. I would love to see more of the older rusted equipment sent off to the scrap yard instead of moulding in place like an eyesore. Take all the old wood and burn it or bury it. Return that carbon back to the soil instead of having piles of it all over the property. It’s unsightly.
Lots of rims off of old wheels, bikes, frames, tubing, and angle iron strewn about as well. I’d like to see all that crap loaded up and hauled away. Alas, that’s not up to me, but what I can do is continue to process the logs, and split all of it into firewood. So I need to find my sharp chains, helmet, gloves, chaps, and boots and get to bucking. Then get to splitting a couple of rounds every chance I get. That is something I can accomplish. If no new logs turn up, I could likely have it all done by the end of 2027. There’s a whole lotta wood there, believe you me.
However, picking rocks is something I do in 5-10 minute spurts in the middle of my dog walks. So that’s a quick little fun option too. Great workout for the legs, with all that repeated bending, and lifting. Fun, fun, fun.
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