This retirement is HARD work!

Connie and I have been cleaning the underbrush from around the house and some selected areas of our property lately, and it's about to wear us out. 20 years of neglect is hard to catch up on in a hurry. Connie is tackling a Cherokee rose that has gone absolutely wild. If you've ever tangled with one of those suckers, you know why we call it the rose plant from hell!

We bought a gas powered chipper/shredder and it does a wonderful job transforming all those branches and limbs into wood chips. After a while you run out of places to just pile all the branches. Plus those piles likely give homes to rodents, which are not real high on my appreciation list after what they have done to our vehicles.

I've been clearing out around my largest bamboo grove (Phyllostachys vivax) because I put out a hunting blind out there and and cleaning the shooting zone so I can protect the new shoots from the squirrels this year. And previous years they have destroyed a LOT of the culms. It's pretty frustrating to have a bamboo shoot 6 inches in diameter get to 30 ft. tall and have a squirrel jump over from a pine tree, chew the tip of it, and kill the darn thing. Well hopefully this year I'll be fertilizing that bamboo with squirrel carcasses. Of course, that means I'm going to have to be getting up real early in the morning to sit in that blind, do no telling how strong my resolve is going to be after a week or two of that sort of torture. But we'll see.....

Hey Rich, Just wondering,...with all that brush clearing ect..have you come across any "feral" Cornsnakes?

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Of course, that means I'm going to have to be getting up real early in the morning to sit in that blind, do no telling how strong my resolve is going to be after a week or two of that sort of torture. But we'll see.....

Perhaps you could rent out the groves for target practice, sort of a la Tom Sawyer, have some folks pay you for the privilege of killing your squirrels.....

Watch out, I heard they shoot back!



Wayne

Maybe you could get hooked up with a Boy Scout troop who could do it as a service project.

Life sounds rough! LOL
I dont know how it is in your area,but maybe some of your neighbours might have a tractor or something you can borrow to make your Job easier.When I used to live in Mississippi all the neighbours used to all pitch in and help eachother,also borrowing eachothers machinery,it was all farms,but was very cool how everyone worked together.Some of that equipment cost BIG bucks so they all used eachothers. I once had the pleasure of helping a neighbour bail theres,as we drove behind the hay bailer and loaded the flat bed truck.That was a long time ago, so not sure if its still the same. I always found its much easier sitting down and planning out my day, before I start working ,seems alot more would get accomplished.Take your time and try to enjoy it!

Originally Posted by Old_School

Hey Rich, Just wondering,...with all that brush clearing ect..have you come across any "feral" Cornsnakes?

Actually no. I've been looking for a box turtle I saw living there last year, but so far no luck.

Some of the bamboo shoots have tipped over from the wind and their are some very nice holes that would be perfect for critters to hole up in. But so far haven't seen anything. I've noticed on some of the larger shoots (culms) that something has made holes, perhaps for nesting purposes. Not sure what is doing that.

Sure wish some very large gray rat snakes would move in and set up shop in the bamboo groves to nail the squirrels. There is a large owl patrolling around the area, so maybe with me opening up the underbrush he'll nab a couple here and there. Seen fox around every couple of years.

Actually one of my ex-workers comes by every now and again to shoot squirrels for me. I'll have to give him a call to see if he wants to help me thin down the herd before that bamboo starts sending up shoots. Should be any time now with the temps hitting the 80s.

Rich, you talk about rodent problems often, do you not endorse traps and poison?

Originally Posted by stephen

Life sounds rough! LOL
I dont know how it is in your area,but maybe some of your neighbours might have a tractor or something you can borrow to make your Job easier.When I used to live in Mississippi all the neighbours used to all pitch in and help eachother,also borrowing eachothers machinery,it was all farms,but was very cool how everyone worked together.Some of that equipment cost BIG bucks so they all used eachothers. I once had the pleasure of helping a neighbour bail theres,as we drove behind the hay bailer and loaded the flat bed truck.That was a long time ago, so not sure if its still the same. I always found its much easier sitting down and planning out my day, before I start working ,seems alot more would get accomplished.Take your time and try to enjoy it!

Yeah, a friend of mine brings over his tractor every now and again. He's planning on cutting us some more bike trails through the property. But for the small stuff, Connie and I prefer doing it manually. It's good exercise and gets us out in the fresh air a lot. Of course, I'm not sure exactly how "fresh" it is, because all the trees are dumping pollen like crazy. Everything has a greenish yellow coat of pollen dust over it. Gets my sinuses going crazy every once in a while...

Also been spraying the poison ivy coming up. I don't react to it, but Connie does, so I'm trying to wipe it out so she doesn't have to be real careful where she walks or does the gardening.

We bought bicycles and have been riding around on a loop trail we have. Going to take a while to get our "bike legs". Been a LONG time since we have done that and the muscles are yelping. Got a couple of inclines that are pure murder right now... Gosh, we had better watch ourselves. If we get into to good of shape, we might live too long and outlive our retirement funds. Then what?

Originally Posted by wade

Rich, you talk about rodent problems often, do you not endorse traps and poison?

Yes, I use both. Along with a Remington 597 for the squirrels.....

After having thousands of dollars in damage done to the vehicles and our standby generator, any way to be rid of them is OK with me. Heck, that is the major reason we built our garage. It's pretty mind boggling to pop the hood on a Corvette and see a damned rat sitting on top of the engine sneering at you... I'm getting an active handling fault on the C6 that is intermittent and probably from a chewed up wire somewhere. We've had a couple of vehicles have to be towed to the shop because something got chewed up and the vehicles would no longer start.

I like wildlife, but not when it starts getting into my underwear, figuratively speaking....