Getting from here to there

Another ongoing project is establishing paths, or trails, around the property. It will take a long time.

I have stacked three pictures below to show how I'm doing it. They are in sequence as I came up the hill with the picture on the bottom being the lowest and the top one being the highest of the three.

First, the trail is mowed with the wheeled string trimmer. Then we cover it with cardboard. The last step is to cover the cardboard with wood chips. The top picture shows the final appearance, at least until the chips age and darken.





Each trailer load of wood chips covers about fifty feet of trail. Loading the trailer takes just a few minutes with help from Bloomfield's staff at the treatment center property. Sadly, it takes longer and longer to unload and spread the chips since each cart load from the trailer must be spread farther from the trailer and the cart pulled farther to get back to the top of the hill.

We got a nice load of cardboard yesterday so it's time to go for another trailer load.

Greene View Springs' Nessie

I've mentioned the snapping turtle that lives in our pond a few times in the past few weeks. Today I was able to get close enough without startling him to get a few shots.

The first picture shows his shell pretty well. It seems either to have some growth on it or to have accumulated some debris from the pond sticking to it. I think it is debris because it wasn't visible the last time I saw him just a week or so ago. But either way it looks bizarre, like a distorted hump.

Of course the smaller, apparently separate, part protruding from the pond is his head, obviously not separate at all.



Enlarge this second picture to get a really spooky look at one of his eyes sticking out of the water with his snout on the left. Neither picture gives a good idea of his actual size, but the shell is at least a foot long.