Day 190

Now that the land was mowed and more and more unwanted plants were getting removed, it felt like we could finally finalize a trail. We had tried this before but our trail has not yet become “official” for a variety of reasons. In the previous fall, our landscaping friends came with their massive brush hogger and created a path for us. We enjoyed it the rest of fall and even continued to walk (or slip) our way through it when it was snow and ice-covered in winter. However, because of the wetland actually being wet for portions of the year, spring was a time where we didn't have access to the trail, unless we wore waders, knee-high boots, or a swimsuit. 

I had intentions of continuing the trail maintenance and mowing schedule as soon as the land dried. By the time the waters receded and the land was dry enough to trek again, the invasive grasses that covered a good chunk of the land, especially the wooded areas, had grown fast,

Very fast.

So fast, in fact, that some portions of the trail weren't even recognizable.

We could call our landscaping friends to schedule another mowing, but that just wasn't economically feasible. We also didn't want our progress to be dependent on others.

This brought us to another factor impeding our trail’s finalization. Equipment.

Or lack thereof.

Not wanting to pay for someone to maintain our trail, we needed to use our own.

We had a regular lawn mower, a riding mower, and two stand behind trimmers.

We didn't want to burn out our regular mower on the ups and downs of the trail. While we are becoming a “more you grow, less you know” family, that process takes time and we needed a reliable mower.

Our riding mower made our large lawn mowing much more efficient, so we didn't want to risk damaging our very old machine on the land.

Last but not least, neither of our trimmers decided to start up this spring.

It felt like the odds were not in our favor and our trail’s next steps were far off. Luckily, I already connected with someone who should be able to help.