The Cutting of the Hazelnuts

When we moved in here we had a large front yard and large back yard and slowly over the years both yards have gotten increasingly overgrown. Some of it is just because we live in the woods and the woods grow but a lot of it has been things I have planted. Sometimes plants are cheap and you think it is a great idea and you think you will use them and you never do. And sometimes you just don't know how big those plants will get. It never occurred to me that hazelnuts could grow this big!

 I planted them by the driveway and every year now we have to trim the driveway side back so there is room for both mine and Michelle's cars. Even worse....sadly...we never really used the hazelnuts. They are small. Too small for any nutcrackers so you have to use a hammer and most of the time you crush the meat. Just getting them all cleaned of their shells is a ridiculously slow job and I could deal with us never using them if at least the wildlife used them but there has never been a squirrel or anything else collecting nuts from the two bushes.
So I mentioned to Phil that maybe we should cut them down and open up the yard some and he jumped right on that idea and said it would make the yard a whole lot easier to cut the grass and he would do that next.
We have two pairs of "loppers" and started cutting but I am sick today....some sort of sore throat, ache all over, dizzy, fever off and on...sickness, and I just couldn't get my bush cut and Phil had to come finish it up.
I told Phil it would be a great place to plant my two rose bushes I bought a couple weeks ago and he just rolled his eyes at me. :D

Nothing left but the brush to take off now.

Progress!

Phil made some progress on the boat yesterday. He got some pressure treated wood and tore out the old decking and put in new. Plus a compartment for storage. We'll have to wait until next week to look into getting new seats, battery, cover, water-proof lights for the trailer (they are broken) etc.

A New Adventure

So Phil and I have lived here on this lake many, many...many years now and never had a boat. I'm a bit fearful of boats....well not of boats exactly but of the lovely thing (snakes...turtles...alligators) that we have swimming in the water here. I don't want to fall in with them! But I do like the idea of having a boat to go fishing because shore fishing just isn't very good here. However, it has never been on our agenda to actually buy a boat....having one given to you is a whole different story.
One of Phil's bosses gave his a jon boat this week..free...with the trailer and all! It is in rough shape but IT WAS FREE! So boating has become the new adventure but first there is the "fixing up" part.

The plan is to replace the decking, and add in some storage spaces. Replace the seats and fix the lights on the trailer. I'll have pictures as we progress.