Land Clearance

A good night's sleep and the day dawns bright and sunny (slight frost last night). I sharpen the scythe and recommence the ongoing saga of clearing the first of my fields. It's got 60 years of tangled brambles and saplings on it. Some of the brambles have achieved tree status and the whole mat of undergrowth is about 4 feet thick. I attack with scythe and bill hook. It feels as futile as trying to cut your way through miles of razor wire with a bread knife. Arrogantly I wear shorts - my legs now look like 'death by a thousand cuts'. Progress is slow - about 10 -20 sqm a day - but I've done maybe a third of the field now over the past few visits so I'm getting there.

Of course there are easier ways - I could buy a brush cutter but I don't fancy the noise (though I'm beginning to think who cares?) then there's 'Slash and Burn' but I'm surrounded by 1000 sq miles of tinder dry forest - do I want to be idiot who lit a fire and burned down the South of France? Once its cleared, I can fence it and gets some pigs to finish off the job of stopping the regrowth, fertilising and digging. Oh well another few weeks of scything and it'll all be over.

Tomorrow some time in the mountains weather permitting.