Day 50

We learned fairly quickly that life on the farm is a pretty full time gig. There's always work to do. Now that the land was mowed and the first major step of our restoration was complete, it was time to get started on some of the other projects that seemed to be piling up. We recruited our new farmer friends to help us with the process. Besides the big backyard, we wanted to start straightening out the yard closer to the house. Before we moved in, there were random farm treasures scattered among the dirt piles and overgrown prairie grasses. In fact, it seemed like the more we worked at making the yard “cleaner,” the dirtier it got.  While we thought most of the farm treasures were taken away, we found out pretty quickly that was not the case. Within some of the dirt piles were random pieces of metal and old tarps. Beneath much of the overgrown grass was old fencing, more metal scraps, and glass windows. 

Luckily for us, we already knew a dumpster guy and a metal scrap guy, so the treasures were taken away about as quickly as they were discovered. 

Even with all the extra cleanup taking more time and energy than we had expected, we were able to have some fun watching our backyard take shape.  Where the lawn stopped and the wild began, there was a downward sloping hill full of grasses, shrubs,  and large rocks. Perfect for a future prairie and exploration area, we wanted to clear it up of the undesirables sooner than later. Our farmer friends told us they could easily clear the land and move the random rocks and boulders with a brush hogger. I had never heard of this machine but I was certainly intrigued by it. On the day it came to the farm, I was at school but my wife was at home, so she enjoyed the show. She was kind enough to make  a video of this awesome machine taking down small shrubs like they were toothpicks. Everything was cleared and the rocks piled up.

In a whirlwind of a few weeks, our backyard was coming together, slowly but surely.