We have started on one of our main projects for the year, making a road deep into my property for private access. Normally I would need to take a public road to reach the back side of my acreage. But with this road I will be able to reach it all within the confines of my land... and bypassing the need for a public road to get there. It will take us awhile, as its about a half mile of road we need to make. But with three of us working, we are making quick progress.
We had no idea there were wild blueberry bushes on my land. We noticed them as we were selecting bushes and trees for removal to make way for the road. We decided to keep the ones in the way and move them up to where I have some others planted. I ended up bringing some of my fruit trees and bushes from Georgia. So hopefully these native wild Virginia blueberry bushes will cross pollenate with mine.
Some of them looked at least ten years old, probably much older since they were growing in the shade. They are as tall are mine that are indeed over ten years old, but mine were grown in mostly full sun. So I am guessing these wild ones are even older than mine.
We dug holes for them and we shall see how they do with my other blueberry bushes. Giving them a ten foot spacing between each so they can all bush out really good without running into each other.
As we were digging them up a few saplings came off.. So we can start new berry bushes with those.
The roots mostly went out to the sides as it was growing in a rocky area. It was hard going getting them out, but once dug up the roots were not too bad to manage.
The mature bark, and the buds forming tells me its a blueberry bush. We missed these until now, and just thought we had wild blackberries and raspberries. But good to know we have wild blueberries as well here.
They should do good there, lots of sun light for the bushes. Even better than where they were before.
Now we have six blueberry bushes, we are going to have so many berries!
Got myself some mudders for my truck, they have been doing great. And since the truck is already really loud I do not notice any tire sound on the highway..lol Got the brakes fixed and its back into service, now with an added gooseneck attachment.. Soon I will be buying a trailer so we can haul around farm equipment.
The welded wire utility fencing works great for the thornless blackberry plants.
Once we had the wild blueberry plants moved into the ground we started adding more wire to the thornless blackberry fence. It already has some on the bottom, but I think we can go higher now the t-posts are hammered in good.
Normally they are binded with wire. Now they just use little pieces.. damn was hoping to use that wire to support the fence.
We found some trapping wire and got to attaching the upper fence to the already in place lower fence.
Having this added height the blackberries should grow up nice and high. We routed the vines in, only broke one stem but hope it will come back. They are very hardy so I am sure they will survive.
Now that we cleared those bushes, we can move onto clearing the road further. Lots to haul up to the barn, we will process and keep this wood for cooking fires outdoors.
We back up to the wood pile so we can drive right out once fully loaded. My buddy drove my truck down to the road and used the side mirrors to navigate.
Loading up the truck we bring it back to the barn, you can see our cord or so of wood we already have ready at the back of the barn.
Driving back down to the creek where the road is relaxing, going through the uncut hay fields its fun to run may hand by them as we drive.
A quick selfie before we get back to hauling. Need to get another hair cut...lol
Since we are only loading it takes us around fifteen minutes to get a load in and drive up to the barn.
We get around five or so done and take a break.
After ending day one I enjoy a little bottle of Hennessy and a blunt by my pond up on the deck. It was nice hanging outside with my significant other before the sun went down and smoked the blunt together. The sunsets here are just so great.
Next day we get back to it, cutting more this time. A large downed tree is a bit in the way so we cut off a some logs.
My buddy's hunting dog came along and was searching an old tire for mice.
Once we cut the log ants came out, carpenter ants bored out the middle of this tree trunk and were living inside.
As we get deeper in the woods we found many sweetgum trees. By cutting into the bark we could tell what kind they were. My cordless sawzall made quick work of them. We cut them down to the base, so driving over them should stop them from growing over time.
My buddy taking a break drinks right out of the stream, here the water is quite nice.
Back to cutting more trees, we yell timber as they fall but they are mostly small growth. Nothing much bigger than twenty feet. We are trying to not cut down anything too old.. would rather keep the old growth and only cut down stuff that was clear cut a few years back... or trees that look unhealthy or dead already.
Another day and clearing and we get a few hundred feet into the woods. Now we have a path we will stop hauling up those little branches and just place them to the side of the road. We needed to bring them up at first as there was no where to put them, but now we have a path forming its easy to place them to the sides.