It was slightly cooler, and really windy! It was also really quiet. it may have been partly due to the wind masking the noise but I did not hear a single bird call, apart from the buzzards overhead, for most of the day.
As it was, slightly, cooler I spent the first hour or so digging out stumps in the gully behind the Yardarm. It's hard work with the ground so dry and the first one I tackled put up a lot of resistance but eventually I made some progress, although an ants nest that had taken up residence underneath one of the rhodie stumps was quite disappointed when I dug it up!
Despite the rain on Friday it is still very dry everywhere. The stream is down to a trickle, the trees have dropped so many leaves that it's much lighter under the canopy than a few months ago and and even the rhodies are wilting. In several places the earth is so dry it is shrinking away from the steps.
The mice were not deterred by my efforts on the shutters to stop them getting into Immac, and there were plenty of droppings as evidence! I'm actually quite impressed they can get in as there are really not many spaces for them to fit through. The good news though was that they have not got into any of the food (so far!)
After some lunch I cleared brambles and bracken in the wayleave by the dam, and found a dead pheasant in the process. It had no obvious damage so no idea what killed it. It turned out to be a bigger job than it looked (just for a change). After an hour I had a huge pile of brambles and bracken but it really did not look much different. I guess that's actually a good thing as the grass and other plants are getting established too.
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| Before |
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| After!! |
To finish off I added chicken wire to another plank on the yardarm deck. 7 down 1 to go!
