North pasture branches, snow, cattle

 Yesterday I finally got the broken tree branches cleared out of the north pasture. Slow going as I had lots of branches and I had to deal with snow covering the branches.  More work to dig the branches out of the snow using a rake or pitchfork.  And more work to find all the branches under the snow.  I'm sure after the snow melts next Spring I'll find the smaller branches I missed.

I'm not clearing this year broken branches from the middle and south pastures due to all the snow we got the past few days.  Next Spring for those branches.

For the last so many days I used a wheelbarrow instead of the pickup as I didn't think I had many branches left.  But it was more than I thought.  Each day I would leave the wheelbarrow by the remaining branches.  The last day I cleared branches I found the cattle had moved the wheelbarrow.  The cattle knocked over and pushed the wheelbarrow some distance through the snow.  I found the wheelbarrow pushed into the middle and north pasture fence.  I had to untangle the wheelbarrow.   Those cattle!

In the past I would break rake handles.  So my last rake handle was fiberglass.  It held up until now.  Raking branches with needles was hard on the rake and the rake head came out of the handle.  I flipped the handle and drilled a new hole in that end so I could bolt my rake head back onto the handle.

Here are all the broken branches I cleared from the front yard and the north pasture, after I trimmed the side branches off these branches.  Next year I will cut up the branches and then use them next Winter in my woodstove.  I have many more broken branches left to clear from the middle and south pastures.

Not much snow in the photos. And then it snowed and snowed and snowed. Everything is covered and white.  The snow will last until Spring.  Today I spend some time shoveling and sweeping snow off my three-stacked-high hay bales.  I use to cover the bales with a large tarp.  That way it protected the bales and also made it easier to get the snow off the bales and tarp.  But the tarp wore out last year and I didn't get a new tarp.  I also didn't expect to have more bales and have more bales outside my hayshed.  So lots of work from me.