Update on pasture #2. We sprigged a lot of bare dirt, then covered it with a layer of wood chips on the strip between the earthen berm and the front fence. It's looking good.
Our neighbor Jerry, who lived on our property as a boy, collects scrap metal. We finally cleared away the briars so we get to the wad of metal that used to be an automobile. Our neighbor Robert came over and between him, me and DH, we dragged it out. Jerry came over with his truck and we loaded him up. It was the back end of an old Studebaker that Jerry remembered as a child. It belonged to people who rented the house after his family moved out.
Then, being the complete idiots that we are, we bought 2 big hogs and turned them out. With gusto they systematically began to dig huge pits that looked like open coal mines.
We dragged the Hawg Hut in there for them. The good news is they go to slaughter November 6 and we can smooth it out and seed it with a clover mix, chicory and rye grass. While they are wreaking havoc on the pasture, they haven't discovered the sprigged part in the front. So for now, pasture #2 is on hold.
We went back to work on pasture #1. We dug sprigs of Bahia and Bermuda from the side of the road out front. We discovered 3 or 4 feet of road under a blanket of grass!
We filled the back of the mule 3 times this week and did a darn fine job of cleaning off the road! Then we sprigged the grass in trenches and covered it up.
This morning we had a load of grass in the mule that we dug yesterday, but we're too tired to sprig it. So we dug trenches, sprigged and covered it up. It has been so dry that the beach sand we have that masquerades as soil, is like walking over a sand dune. The dirt was hard packed and hard to dig in, but once dug up, turned to fine silty powder. Rain is forecasted for the weekend, so we were pushing hard to get the grass planted. The flip side of that, the rain would wash out the powdered sand and uncover the grass we have worked so hard on. So we mulched over it with wood chips. DH ran the tractor and I raked. We put a thin layer, just enough to hold the sprigs in place, keep them from washing out and provide some humus to hold in moisture. We spread 37 front end buckets of mulch.
We were utterly exhausted. We staggered to the house. Even our feel good hurt. I got a small glass of wine to relax, DH refilled it and got some too. Four glasses later, us practically non drinkers were pretty loopy. We still hurt, we were still tired and sore, but we no longer cared. Bring on the rain.
Surely you don't mean the sand I covered the Bahia with! DH's arm will hurt a little when he overdoes it......like today and the last few days. But he is light years away from where we started. He is so happy that he had it done.
