Year 2 provided some insight into areas that were unfinished from the initial excavation. After determining that we were not able to invest a minimum of $5000 into the finishing of the berms around the north scrape- we opted to rent a machine and do it ourselves.
Why? During the summer of 2021 we worked tirelessly hand picking, yes hand picking- weeds from these spoil mounds. We could not get any tools up on the spoils to work out the weed infestations. So solution was to attempt to 'smooth' them out by renting a mini excavator and using our skid steer to assist with working the mounds down.
Here is our progress- 8 hours and well into the dark we worked.
We were partially successful, the largest north spoils pile was reduced by 50%, the eastern piles by 30%, and the western piles (during the dark), weren't touched due to running out of time in the dark. We wrapped up our excavation by 10:30pm, both frozen and tired of moving earth.
Henry thought we did alright, here's the update 2 weeks later, he's sitting atop the western spoils, with the others in the backdrop. We decided to seed them down with a "Buck Buffet" mix; side oats, rye, and other grasses to feed the wildlife and sprout up to help 'out compete' the velvet leaf, water hemp, and thistle that was starting to spring up.
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