Where I live is very sandy soil, and it rains a lot when it rains...sometimes 8 inches of rain in a twenty four hour period. I put as few chemicals down as I can, when you have almost 20 acres you can't keep up with it anyway, so you treat around the house and that is about it. We also have a lot of bugs. Fire ants, spiders, beetles...you name it...and tons of Mosquitos and other biting no see ums. I usually have bites of some sort on me all the time.
Today I did yard work. If I can keep the weeds mowed they don't germinate and spread worse into my garden areas. Since we have put up a lot of fencing, I weed whack a lot too...today was one of those days. I know from the start now, to fill up everything I am going to use with gas and oil, check the tires and all that. You don't really want to have to lug a five gallon gas can around and if the riding mower runs out of gas when you are on the back 10 acres...well, it is a pretty long walk to make with that much gas. I like to keep the grass mowed every week and just mowing pretty much takes all day, when I weed whack, that probably takes half a day to do up around the house, the drainage ditch and around and in the gardens. I have to keep replacing the string, weeding close to the wire fencing breaks off the line so I cut a bunch of extras to carry around with me. The past two times I have weed whacked, I ended up with a burn on my arm from the engine getting so hot and resting or balancing the weed whacker on it towards the end of the day. I got a blade attachment for the weed whacker but had to get a new shaft for it to fit on...it has not been installed yet, I think it would make my life easier...dangerous, but easier. Some of the weeds out here have tree trunk like bases...of course I could not use it by the fences because it would probably cut through them...think circular saw on the end of a pole? Yeah, but not much of a gaurd on it...cuts through 2 inch diameter trees...we have a lot of those and bushes around the lake.
Anyway, I always wear steel toed boots when I do yard work, I hand mowed about 3/4 of an acre yesterday with a push mower and weed whacked that area too, but garden areas and chicken pens were number one on my list, along with the fenced part behind the house..the back yard. I did not get done. I spent time filling holes on the backyard that the dogs dug before starting to mow, it is not good to step in a foot deep hole that grass has grown over, so I try and fill them regularly...but it is a practically daily occurrence. The dogs play rough and when they start doing it in the house they spend the day outside. A lot of the time I let them run free while I am out there working, but our neighbors have all gotten new dogs and they keep running over in there yards. I cannot see my neighbors houses from our house, the woods are thick and viney...and if the dogs are not in my site...they are usually at the neighbors, either digging through their burn pile or barking at their dogs...or chasing a cat or deer. Oh and they chase them across the street too...and go into the fields over there...so they have been on lockup in the backyard.
My husband fixed the riding mower yesterday, I had mowed a week or so ago and a branch popped up and got into the mower belt and popped it off. Last time I went into the big city I got a new belt, oil and air filters, and a spark plug for a tune-up for the mower. Yesterday he worked on the mower, got everything replaced, oil changed and blades replaced. So next time I mow won't be so bad. Doing all the work manually was a bit rough on me yesterday. I stayed on my feet too long and I could not get my left boot off. I iced my leg for several hours, propped my foot up and kept waiting for the swelling to go down enough for my husband to pull it off...it was not the first time this had happened. Well...at around 10:30 last night he tried once again to pull the boot off for me...it would get to a point...but then stuck tight, so with regrets...I went and got some good scissors and he cut the boot down the front and kept trying to pull it off and finally after cutting a hole or two in my sock...and cutting all the way down to the middle of my foot, the boot finally was able to come off. I was glad, when you do a lot of weed whacking and yard work when it is in the 90's and humid...you sweat a lot, on top of that I was pretty covered in grass and weed pieces. It was nice to be able to take a shower after all that.
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