A restful Saturday?
Aba and I have different ideas about what a day of rest entails. To me, sitting inside, watching movies, reading blogs, maybe going on a short walk, and taking an afternoon nap, is a restful day. To Aba, stream restoration is restful, because it is not work, it is enjoyable. Hmm, well can you guess who won this discussion? Yep, that would be Aba. We have a lot of stream to restore, actually more than 1 stream, we have at least a 1/2 mile of our “river” and a 1/4 mile or so of our brook. plus, the years of human neglect, and industrious beavers, have created several small tributaries that need to either be controlled, or re-routed into the proper paths.
So, the next question is where does one begin, when faced with such a large swath of land to repair. Well, Aba made that decision as well, and in my mind it was a bit spastic, we would go where we could do the most good for the river, and the fish that are (supposed) to inhabit it. We worked on a waterfall that beavers had reinforced, and diverted water into a pasture area until Aba heard a change in the way the water fell, we worked on a patch where the brush was so think overhanging the water, no sun could get through and the branches dragging in the water were impeding the flow, we worked on the brook until the water flow was enough to show movement in the water. But none of these projects showed any improvements ( at least not to my untrained ears, and blind eyes). But one area did show a noticeable difference.
The Beaver dam, or rather the beaver dam we chose to start with. This is before
After many hours of work, by both Aba and I with Aba in the river, and I on the banks ( okay look when it is 30 degrees outside, and I can see my breath I am not leaping into a river!!!)
We managed to achieve this
here you can see the clearing I was able to do on the land and the pile of brush we cleared. We really need a chipper, or we will be having bonfires galore.
We cleared about a 10 feet swatch, so you can just imagine how long it is going to take to clear it all, and restore our diamond…
The Great and wonderful small town Boyfriend says:
You really need a brush hog. They are fairly expensive to buy, but you can rent them and I’m sure at least one of your neighbors already owns one.
I say:
Wow! That is a ton of work that you were able to do! And you had four little ones to look after… And you STILL have so much more to do… But at least the work is for you… And you will reap all of the benefits… What a great thing to teach your children… So many good things are going to come from this… Way to go!