Backyard Forest Cleanup & Path Re-Routing

Our backyard consists of 30 feet of grass leading into our own little forest. As I've posted before, we made 4 parallel forest trails that are connected in the back by an old logging road. This spring we decided to clean up two areas of leaves, branches and debris to allow more natural flora and fauna to florish and do some planting. Record rainfall in May forced as to re-route one of our forest paths, too. Today's blog shows the clean up! Happy Spring cleaning! 

(Photo: Dash (left), Cody (center) and Tyler (right) checking out the trail before the leaves (far right) were cleared from one of the two areas). 

RE-ROUTING ONE PATH -  This winter and springtime have brought an over abundance of rainfall (About 10" in May alone, which is 2 1/2 times the normal). Because of all the rain, 1 of our low-lying forest paths became inundated with water. Since it is shaded by trees water doesn't evaporate quickly, and there are pools in three areas. Rob had to re-route the forest path making it more of a zig-zag! 

CLEARING AREA ONE - Between the trails were large areas filled with what seems like decades of downed leaves and a lot of falling branches and twigs. One weekend, Tom raked that large area and made several big piles of branches to either burn or discard. He also filled 15 leaf bags of leaves and twigs which we brought to the near dump/transfer station, as they accept leaves and branches. 

(Photo: Franklin's memorial with some flowers in part of Area 1 that faces trail two.) 

AREA ONE HIGHLIGHTS -There are several highlights currently in area one. One is a little granite memorial marker for our Dachshund Franklin who passed in 2020, with a little bunch of flowers. Another highlight are shrubs and flowers that face the backyard. 

Tom also moved our backyard bench to one of the sections of this area, so we could sit in the forest and enjoy peace and quiet. 

CLEARING AREA TWO - Since Tom took on the first area by himself, Rob tackled the second area when Tom was traveling. Area two was to the right of area one and on the other side of the second trail. This area was also loaded with downed leaves and a lot of falling branches and twigs. Rob spent a couple of days raking that large area and also made several big piles of branches. He  filled 17 bags of leaves and twigs.

AREA TWO HIGHLIGHT - In this area we have little granite memorial marker for our Weimaraner Dolly, who passed in 2020, with a little bunch of flowers.  In other parts of the forest are similar markers for our dogs Buzz and Sprite who passed in 2005 and 2013, respectively. 

ADDED MORE BIRD HOUSES - This spring we added three birdhouses to the backyard near the forest entrances. Our friend Jeff gave us 2 beautiful wooden birdhouses and our neighbor from across the street made us one. We painted the neighbor's bird house white with a blue roof, and as of the week of May 5th, it finally has a resident! 

A GIFT OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS- Our friends and neighbors Kim and Mike gave us a large bunch of grasses and flowers, which have been planted around the edge of the yard and beside the dog run. We are so grateful! 

TACKLING THE LEAVES AND BRANCHES - We have so many bags of leaves and piles of branches that we've amassed in our beginning forest clean up. We took 32 bags of leaves to the dump, and then 3 pick-up truck beds full of branches. Rob put down a tarp on the truck bed, piled the branches on them and when he got to the dump, opened the tailgate and pulled the tarp out bringing all the branches with it into the debris pile. Loading the branches took 30 minutes. Unloading them took 2 minutes! 

 (Photo: one truck-full of fallen branches from just the front part of our forest. There were several truck-loads!)