Pasture harrowing done

I finally finished harrowing all my pastures.  I had gotten bogged down / delayed in the middle pasture when I decided to trim lower branches on the trees.  Partly because the cattle ate some of them over Winter and partly because the tractor would not fit under them.  I didn't realize how many trees and branches I needed to trim.  Some trees have downward growing branches so I needed to use an extension ladder to reach where the branch started at the tree trunk.  Step ladders and extension ladders made the trimming go slower as I was using a chainsaw and being careful.  I only had to jump off a ladder with a running chainsaw once when a falling branch hit the stepladder I was on.

Once all the branches were cut I thought gathering the branches would be quick.  Nope.  That took a few days to do.

For clusters of trees I placed the branches in one pile.  Then using forks on my tractor I was able to carry the branch piles to one big pile for the branches to dry for later use in burning tree stumps.

I had a few fallen tree trunks to cut up once the branch work was done.

Again I thought the stump and cut branch pickup would be quick.  I had two full loads of stumps to stack.  The branches filled one and half pickup loads.

The cut branches need to dry also.  Rather than toss them in a pile I also stacked them.  This also took time to do right.

Once the middle pasture was done I was on to the north pasture.  The fallen tree in the north pasture..

actually came from Calvin's side of the fence.  It had laid there all Spring but when I was about to harrow the pasture (and cut up the tree) Calvin then told me he wanted the tree.  The day before I harrowed the north pasture he pulled the tree to his field.  No trimming of the tree's branches.  He must have thought he was doing me a favor but in dragging the tree with all of its branches he left a trail of broken branches.  He picked up the biggest branches but left the rest.  I had to spend over an hour picking up and raking the remaining branches and hauling them off.  I would have preferred that he had trimmed the branches before dragging the tree.  So I was not in the best of moods that morning as I had a very busy day of work to complete.

Once I finished harrowing the north pasture I harrowed Calvin's field working around the tree he had drug there.  He had let my cattle graze down his grass last Fall and they left manure that needed to be broken up.

That was a busy day.  I had taken 40 minutes to finish harrowing the middle pasture, raked manure from around the trees in the north pasture, raked the branches from the drug tree, harrowed the north pasture, harrowed Calvin's field, took apart the corral panels and electric fence, harrowed the extended corral, got the harrow into the NE pasture, put out a large hay bale for the cows, and put out a large hay bale for Toby and Mama.   *Whew!*

Yesterday I raked manure from around the trees in the NE pasture and from along the sides of the pasture and today trimmed a few tree branches and picked them up, then harrowed the NE pasture.

I am happy to be done harrowing for the year!