Cleaning Up

I am unsure if I will be able to lift my arms ever again.  My back hates me too. Picking up large limbs, hefting them over a fence reminds you of muscles you forgot and the vital importance of using proper body mechanics while lifting.  I imagine Monique & her husband are not faring much better.  

See that pile?  

 

Let me clarify, there is a pile in the front.  AND a large pile in the back.  

 

The piles are a big dent in the debris.  Just the big stuff we could easily grab for now.  The rest will take days.  

 

Much of it is still buried under 12-18 inches of ice that had fallen off the trees above - I believe we have just scratched the surface.  The ice is slow to melt and seems to be hiding a lot of large branches.  

Many of these branches are 20-30 feet long.  

It is overwhelming. All of the green on the ground is debris that fell off the trees.  The small sticks can be painful for the sheep to step on - a few of the ewes are foot sore from trudging through the mess.  Eventually it will all need to be raked up and removed. 

The sheep are helping out. 

 

They're doing their best to lighten our load, fill their stomachs & scratch their heads on branches.  

 

Smart sheep.  

Jim has settled down a bit.  He quit shaking and is dry. 

 

His sense of humor survived the storms intact. As you can tell from the next shot.  The stinker is shaking a pine branch at my iPhone as I try to take his picture. 

 

Enjoy the food girls, eat as much as you can stand.  I hear that pine needles are also a natural parasite repellent, eat up!

 

After this pasture is cleaned up, we need to head down to the lower pasture where actual trees have fallen.  But right now it is flooded and still a snowy slushy mess.  

One day at a time. 

Win/Win :  We wanted to bring in a couple loads of wood chips to help with mud control.  Now all we need to do is rent a chipper.  It is a nice way to get something good out of Mother Nature pressing the reset button. 

Disturbing news of the Day:  The property owner fired off a few shots at a sizable coyote on the other side of the fence today.  It was approaching from the side where the neighbor from hell was evicted.  

If these sheep survive at least we will know they are hearty.  New farmers, winter hell, rouge dogs, and now a coyote.  *sigh*