I am loving living the slow life. This video captures a typical day for us, and what a wonderful day it was. We’ve known about this tree being dead for, admittedly, too long. I didn’t realize it was as far gone as it was. My usual indicator of death is how much bark has fallen off the tree trunk. In this case, the bark was still there, but all but disconnected. The sawmill should arrive in the next week or two, so I’ll be more diligent about taking beetle-infected trees down as soon as possible.

The walnut tree cleanup next to the driveway is coming to life. As we work our way further up the driveway, the bare dirt, once home to thriving Chinese privets and vines, is turning into a lush green of native grasses, weeds, and flowers that once lay dormant in the seed bank. We did throw some random beans and sunflower seeds near the first walnut tree just to get some roots started. It wasn’t much, and we stopped when we noticed native grasses coming back on their own.

Further up the driveway, we worked on another section of the driveway berm that was created when the driveway was formed. This area is the most annoying and slowest progressing area. It’s shaded most of the day, so it rarely dries out, and the space between the ditch and the larger trees doesn’t allow much room to turn around with the tractor.