Home on the Meadow

A regular activity for country properties is pasture management.  Pastures and meadows have natural growth cycles.  My meadow is most prolific as spring warms around March or April, both in density and plant variety; in above average wet seasons I’ve seen 1000 different plants in a single square foot.  Left unchecked, the competition amongst California native plants and grasses would force growth up to six feet in height.

California Buckwheat & Native Grasses

As summer progresses, many of the plants have gone through their full cycle such as wildflowers, oatgrass and miners lettuce; others endure the summer’s strong sun and heat, exemplified by wild mustard, lantana and California buckwheat. Come September, most growth has dried from the sun and becomes dormant in the fall and winter.  I am grateful to be an observer of the meadow growth cycle, and glad when it is dormant and not in need of tending.

meadow tools

Many rural homeowners, might seed their meadow or pasture for lawn, native grasses, or wildflowers; due to the expense on the acreage, I prefer to keep it trimmed and see what naturally grows in the meadow. Many might disk or till the open space; I always felt that would disturb the soil and lead to wind and water erosion; if their open space is large enough, mow with a tractor.  Under an acre, I prefer the use of a gas string trimmer for cost and ease of use; tending takes about half a day per month, April thru August. I have both a hand-held string trimmer and a wheeled string trimmer.  I use a wheeled string trimmer by Swisher to trim the wide open and flatter spaces; I use a hand-held string trimmer by Stihl for fine, detailed work around trees and rocks or up against landscaped areas, or for areas with greater inclines.  It pays to use a quality brand for their durability and power; for small to mid-size properties, lower-end gas string strimmers are good enough.  As a caution, using your lawn mower in a meadow is not so good for the meadow, the lawnmower or the old bod’; always use protective eyewear, disposable ear plugs, closed-toe shoes, and work gloves.

Buckwheat & Live Oak

I’ve enjoyed keeping my meadow natural, open and unused.  Someday I may put a

Wild Mustard

small lake in it, or some horses or both.  Mostly I enjoy the space and the respite it gives me from the work week.  To find out more about what I do for a living, visit fox-joe.com

A Wall of Gnarly Brush

Formerly Hidden Boulders, Trees, Shrubs

Over the years, brush clearing has become a steady task on our property.  Some of it has been for esthetic reasons to open up a space or to reveal a hidden specimen tree or shrub, or a boulder. Since this is semi-arid country, clearing brush from the house is good fire prevention.  This year, I was fortunate to arrange a great barter with one of my therapeutic massage clients who owns a  landscape company.  He sends out a crew of 3 laborers for the day, along with their chipper-shredder machine and truck.  They work real hard, much more than I could do in 3 days.  In exchange, I give the landscape company owner 10 therapeutic massages, a therapeutic massage a week for 10 weeks; it’s a win for him, a win for me and the property.  In their 3 visits, this year we have opened up an area 300 feet long and about 100 feet wide, that forms a distant crescent around the house, opening up spaces where “no man has walked before.”

Spaciously Situated Spa

Dog Yard Instead of Impenetrable Brush

In that space there now is a 3000 sq.ft. dog yard and the existing hot tub and surrounding lounge area has 100′ ring of space around it instead of a 12′ high wall of really ugly brush up close and personal.  Several oak stands and giant boulders have been “liberated.”

Opened View Around the Spa

Whether I do the work myself or with a crew, the right brush clearing tools are a necessity.  Pruning shears are great for cutting dead twigs.  18″-20″ loppers are good for cutting 1/2″ branches up to 2′ above your head. Extended or 30″ loppers help you cut 2″ branches up to 3′ above your head.  Hedge trimmers are good for shaping a shrub or skirting a tree’s foliage to a straight line a few inches above your head so you can walk easily under the tree into its shade.  An extended limb cutter is fantastic for cutting limbs higher up than you can reach for thinning out the tree or removing dead limbs fairly effortlessly.  These brush clearing tools are usually available at home improvement stores or or garden or tractor shops.  In this area I have found Corona brush clearing tools to be durable and reasonably priced.  For anything above 1″-2″ diameter I use my Stihl chainsaw.  When the brush starts to grow back and has tender shoots, I use my trusty Stihl string trimmer.  Disposing of the cleared brush ia a comparable problem to clearing it.  If the crew is here, no problem, they just shred it into the big truck and haul it off either to the county dump or compost it into mulch.  In the early years being with this property I’ve torched it on a gray March morning – this might be the entire winter’s pile 25′ wide and 10′-15′ tall; it makes a scary blaze, so I don’t like to do that.  Then I received a used TroyBilt homeowner portable chipper-shredder, a handy brush clearing machine;  the best mulch from this brush clearing machine can be spread about 6″-8″ thick using a lawn rake and gives a pleasing cover to the revealed topsoil.  A pitch fork is useful as a brush clearing tool for picking apart rodent nests that grow in the architecture of the oak stands.  Other useful brush clearing tools include wheel barrows, handgloves, knee pads, protective eyewear, old clothes, and steel-toed shoes.  An assortment of brush clearing tools need not be expensive, the hand tools from $5 to $40 tops, power tools $250 average, chipper-shredder machine a worthy $800 investment.

This may sound like hard work or a pricey hobby to many, but to myself and other property managing homeowners, it is  “entertainment and exercise”!  It’s why we live in the country. Ah, to see the sparkle of  sunlight coming through the rich green leaves, silhouetted against the clear blue sky.  The open spaces created are little parks.  The mass of overgrowth is gone and the threat of brushfire minimized.  Life is good in the country!

the sparkle of sunlight coming through the rich green leaves, silhouetted against the clear blue sky

Joe  also helps people to minimize the amount of interest on their debts.  He helps those not solvent and undergoing financial hardship with Loan Modification.  He helps those who are solvent, with a Mortgage Payoff Acceleration and Debt Elimination System program, through which debts can be fully paid off in less than a third of the time, saving tons of interest.