Pasture Management

The front pasture is done! (Doesn't sound that exciting, does it?)



It was a back breaking exercise in clearing native roses and blackberry canes back far enough to place new posts in order to separate the upper front pasture from the lower front pasture. My husband did much of the hard labor on the tractor, painstakingly working around existing posts and electric tape to clear areas of overgrown fencing, trimming the lower branches of the Douglas Firs up to at least 7 feet, and clearing away the pruned limbs. I followed behind with a bucket full of post insulators and not-so-sharp pruning shears to clip back wayward blackberry shoots. I had hours of fun untangling previously used electric tape and dragging bough after bough of Douglas Fir to our debris pile. The electric tape had been neatly coiled at one time but had obviously been processed recently through a professional grade tangle machine.



It was a beautiful sight upon completion, all four firs had been completely overgrown/overtaken by one kind of thorny brush or another and now they stand clear and clean of brush and ready to offer shade, windbreaks, and shelter from the rain during the late summer and fall season.

This was the last stage of this year's plan for the front pasture and now we just need to get home early enough in the afternoon, one day this week, to give the horses some time to acclimate to the new location during daylight hours so they know where to expect obstacles and gates.