The H.S. football guys found it fairly easy to dig, say, a 6-foot-tall buckthorn out of the ground, roots and all. Multiflora rose roots aren’t as deep, so they were easier (for them).
While the big guys went after the slope, Elisha and I started cutting a path through the NW corner of the pond, where several beautiful quaking aspen trees were being strangled by massive bittersweet vines.
I wish I had a photo of it, but atop the steepest part of our riprap, was a giant old multiflora rose. Its stems were easily a couple of inches thick. It was scary. We had to at least have another way of reaching this thing, aside from above!
The back acre beyond the pond is now ours, acquired through a trade with the neighbors.
Just to get a general idea of what it took to accomplish what we did in summer of 2011, here’s a partial list of who did what, and when:
6/17/11 – Kirk helping with invasives
6/18/11 – Kirk helping with invasives
6/24 -25-26/11 – Alisha, Kirk, Leon
6/1-2/11 – Alisha, Kirk
7/1/11 – Alisha
7/6/11 – Alisha, Kirk, Reggie
7/7/11 – Kirk, Reggie
7/13/11 – Kirk, Reggie, Alisha
7/19/11 – Kirk
7/20/11 – Kirk
7/25/11 – Kirk
8/2/11 – Kirk, Reggie
8/3/11 – Kirk, Reggie
8/4/11 – Kirk
8/5/11 – Jim Henderson brush hogged the back acre.
8/20/11 – Kirk, Yaseen, Justin and I pulled phragmites for 6 hours.
9/26/11 – I pick up plants at Garden in the Woods. This feels like a reward.