Monday, August 25, 2008

Stick a fork in me, I'm done

Remember the good old days, when there was nothing growing under the electric fence that would weaken its jolt? This photo was taken on July 7.



7 weeks and 7 inches of rain later, look what happened!



But after 7 hours of muscle-numbing, bone-jarring brush-hogging, all is right with the world again.



My fence line is clear of grass, snakeweed, cacti, juniper seedlings and any other object that dared get in the way of me and my Billy Goat.



Come to find out from several knowledgeable readers of this blog, there are such things as RIDING brush hogs, and attachments that automatically GO AROUND t-posts. Now you tell me! To save my sanity, I will delude myself into thinking that the riding kind couldn't have squeezed through a lot of the tight spots, and the t-post go-arounder kind wouldn't have been tough enough for all the brush.

When the job was done, my neighbor came along to inspect my work.



She got a little bored and didn't understand why I kept stopping to take pictures of weeds that were no longer there. How do you explain to a 9-year-old that if you don't blog about something, it didn't really happen?



Even though she might not have understood the thrill of my victory or the agony of my feet, she awarded me the equivalent of a gold medal for brush hogging.

20 comments:

  1. wow...looks great!!!!
    really? 7 inches of rain?? wow..i didn't think it rained that much there!
    it sure looks pretty tho!
    now go kick your feet up..sip something cold (preferrably with alkeeeehol) and relax the rest of the year!! :)

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  2. Wow, good job. Your cuts are really straight.

    Dan

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  3. Great job and what a sweet reward from your neighbor :)

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  4. Now that's one hell of a job! I bet you're glad it's over!

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  5. What beautiful country you live in - the photos of your helper are really cute. And how many miles long is that fence? that one shot makes it look like a mile or more....

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  6. I'm exhausted just thinkin' about what you have accomplished in the past 48 hours.

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  7. Goodness, I'm impressed! Nice work. Your neighbor is a cutie. Does she like horses?

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  8. It sure looks different! Aren't you glad that is a job done?

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  9. You deserve a rancher's gold star - It must feel really satisfying to look at that fence line. We don't have electric fencing because it acts like a lightening magnet around here, but I'll be interested in your post about it.

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  10. Well you did it and it looks great, lets hope it doesn't grow so fast again.
    Seriously though, you should look into this attachment we have, it hooks up to the mule(mechanical) and it has a sort of strip/string thing that actually wraps around the fence posts it's what we use as a weed whacker.I'll bet it would work for you if you did it once every 2 weeks or so and save you from doing this again.

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  11. Looks great! I envy your level ground. I'm on the side of a mountain and I've yet to find the proper "tool" for brush hogging/mowing. Too steep for tractor, too much work for me with the DR Fields type of mower....thinking about an ATV next... one thing you can definitely say...you never have time to be bored!:)

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  12. 7 hours? you rock! it looks great. i've been procrastinating about power-washing our pvc fencing, but you have inspired me to get to work on it... well, maybe shamed me into it ;-)

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  13. What a job. But believe me if it would help keep the snakes our of my yard, I'd be up for it. Geesh. I still think about you hurling rocks to kill that snake.

    What a sweet little girl and cute that she gave you flowers.

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  14. Seven inches of rain? I guess you've gotten your precipitation for the next five years? *grin* By the way, in that second picture, what are those mossy-looking clumpy things?

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  15. I have an award for you. Come visit me.

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  16. It's amazing what a little bit-I mean a lot!-of rain can do! It's also amazing what Rancher Woman and her Billy Goat can do...lol!!!

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  17. I'm SO impressed! Are you looking for referrals? ;-)
    Harmony,
    Janet

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  18. It looks great. I can't believe the difference 7 weeks and 7 inches of rain made. Love the colors.

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  19. Oh! Good girl!! It looks wonderful! Will you come and do mine? I'm like Wrensong Farm...our property is on a hillside, partially forested, with blackberry brambles that are 20 feet high. The fence line is such a mess, we don't even know where (or with what) to begin! Again, good job!! :-)

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  20. I love that--if you don't blog about somethind it didn't happen. So true! I even took my camera to the ER when we had to take our son in. Sad, I know, but I like to record things.

    It sure looks nice and green where you are.

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