Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Woodland Management
by admin - 23:13 on 15 November 2013
Taking care of The Rural Retreat's extensive estate usually involves little more than mowing the lawn and uprooting the worst of the weeds, but now and again there's heavier work involved.
This doesn't involve leaves (yet), which since the last strong winds cover the lawn at a depth of approximately two inches, but a request from Mr Tractor Driver, who knocked on the door yesterday. It seems that branches on the trees which separate our garden from a neighbouring field are putting his wing mirrors at risk and preventing him from ploughing as close to the edge of his land as he'd wish.
Which is why, as the trees are ours, we were visited today by Mr Tree Surgeon so he could estimate how much work is involved and how much it would cost. “Oh, that's cheap!” was Matchgirl's response to his opening gambit. She'd make a rotten poker player.
“Do it yourself,” I hear you cry. Matchgirl is keen – when Mr Tree Surgeon returns with lots of sharp and heavy equipment she'll be in the thick of it in borrowed chain-mail trousers and hard hat – but the expert will do the real work.
There's at least two dozen assorted birch, ash, rowan and oak to be trimmed (as the boundary also follows our drive), and while he's there he might as well tidy up the willow and the pine further inside the garden, although he's had strict instructions not to spoil any wildlife habitats or remove branches favoured by cats.
The silver lining is that we should end up with lots of firewood and as big a pile of wood chippings as anyone could want. But maybe not quite in time – winter is forecast to begin on Sunday when the first ground level snow could arrive. What fun.
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