Pasture Project

I have had a desire to spruce up the pasture for a couple years, but just haven't found the time to do so.  I had bare spots that needed to be re-seeded, and I wanted to do something to keep the water wells around the trees from washing out every spring.

This summer, when I've had extra hands around, seemed like the perfect time to take on this project.

My first idea was to build a dry stream bed through the draw.  Reynald immediately put the brakes on that, saying that it would just fill with mud and dirt during spring run off.

Next plan......just ring the trees that wash, with sturdy rocks, which is what we ended up doing.  I think it looks really nice.  Still would like to move the swing set that we had at the other place, to the pasture, and I think we will do that later in the fall.

Here's what it looks like now.   We have over seeded some sections and are trying hard to keep it wet so that the grass will grow.  I noticed some seedlings sprouting yesterday when I was moving the sprinkler!   Some help from Mother Nature on the "keeping it wet" part would be nice!!!!!

This is our version of recycle.  Over the years, Reynald and I have picked rocks up in the fields and piled them in a few different spots.  This is one cache!  

I hauled the first two loads with the pick up.  Roni hauled the rest with the loader tractor.

In addition to putting rock barriers around some of the trees, I wanted to build a dam of sorts around the culvert.  I dug out around the culvert, in preparation for the rock.

This is the start of the ring around the maple tree.  My goal with this tree was to build a retaining wall so that when I hand water, more of the water will stay around the tree instead of running down the hill.

More rocks around the maple tree.  

The finished ring around the maple tree.  

And the finished dam around the culvert.

Another view.  I tried to use fairly big rocks, so that they would not wash.  This is about as much as I care to lift!

Here's a stronger, younger body to help!  Roni and Baxter!!!

The finished view.  You can see the bare spots that we are trying to fill in with newly seeded grass.

This is the view from the other end.  Baxter is never far away!

This front tree will take the brunt of the water wash, so I made this ring a little higher than the rest.  I may have gotten a little carried away, but it still looks nice.