Wood Lots and Pasture

This year has been the opposite of the drought we had last year, its been mild temperature wise, we have had a fair bit of rain, and things are green like they should be.

I don't know if I can describe it adequately but we have several small wood lots that we get great enjoyment out of. We like to walk through them and just listen to the sounds of the forest if you will and are usually treated to the sounds of birds, the squirrels jumping around, we scare up rabbits, wild turkeys and the occasional  white tail deer and its just very satisfying on a deeply hard to describe levels.

Our main pond is surrounded by Cedars, Oaks, Maples, and what we think of as "weed" trees but it has a very vibrant and distinct ecosystem all to its own. Fish, frogs, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, snakes, lizards, Herons, Ducks, and the always popular Deer and Wild Turkeys can all be found here.

The back woodlot is mostly deciduous hardwoods and it changes from what seems like a small piece of open woodland in the winter to a jungle of immense proportions in the summer. Last year we found several Peach trees in this wood lot we didn't know we had and this year we have found some wild Cherry trees.

We are still exploring this and find things all the time, including animal burrows, old fencing, and a couple of rock cairns we are trying to identify.

In winter we can look through here and almost always find our cattle but as it grows up it gets almost impossible as you can see.

Down in this little draw we found a bunch of peach trees..why were they there? Were they planted long ago as part of the farm stead that was here in the late 1800s or was it accidental?

I know, its just woods...but its our woods...and its very pleasing. If your going to buy a farm or a homestead...get some woods along with it.

This pasture looked like desert last year..its much improved though weedy.

Our Cows may not be California Cows by they are happy Cows none the less.

Just seeing our pastures come back from the disaster of last year is satisfying. We were really worried but this year has proven to be a blessing. 

We will be haying our non grazing pastures in about a week and we hope to get something over 300 square bales. Then we will spray to cut back on the weeds, then hopefully we will get two more cuttings this year.

Looks better than dust and weeds eh?