#pondproject - bye bye bushes - unposted 2017 Draft

A blog post from 2012 came up on my memories today, which lead me to looking at my desolate blog, which lead me to thinking about posting at 2017 Garden Summary, or at least a picture, which lead me to this un-posted draft from last year.  I'm guessing it's from around this time last year, because it's been a LONG time since my blog has been on my mind.   Maybe you'll see me back here more in 2018, maybe you won't.  I do know I was more active in my yard when I was blogging, so I have that going for me.

Anywho, I hope anyone who see's this is doing well!

~Emily
It only took 5 months, but the my brush piles are gone! I started the pond project this year because here in Tennessee, we were going through what I thought was a bit of a drought, and the pond was down.  This meant I could drive my tahoe up to the bushes, wrap my brush puller around them, and pull them out without worrying about getting my car stuck. You can't do this every year, but the pond was low enough 4 years ago that we had done this before.  I didn't think twice about piling my brush in a giant pile by the driveway where it was safe to burn.

And then it didn't rain....for months.  We were under a Governor's Burn Ban for most of the fall due to the very real risk of wildfires.  There were weeks where the smoke settled in the Tennessee Valley.  The pond dropped to the lowest point anyone in my family can remember, and my grandmother is in her 90's!  So as the pond continued to go down, we continued to work, and we made another bush pile.

Finally, it rained enough to lift the burn ban, and we had a New Year's Eve, all day, bonfire!

I hate that everything is so grey right now, and the pond is still super low, but here are some before and after pictures of the bushes we cleared.  I'll take more pictures in the spring when the leaves are on the trees, but this is a start!

There is still more work to do around the pond, and in the woods, but the view from my porch has really improved.  I've just got to keep reminding myself that slow and steady wins the race!!