Keep It Comin Guys

I now have a pile of woodchips that is well over seven foot high and totally covers an area about 10 yards by 20 yards. I mean guys it is a HUGE pile. The powerline trimmer guys are telling me they will finish filling the other 10 yard section by the end of next week. I have made arrangements for them to begin dumping the loads behind the barn next.

At this point I am estimating I have enough chopped up wood chips to cover the fruit tree area I had planned and actually put most of the garden under 6 to 8 inches of the stuff this Fall. I am only waiting now to see how much they actually bring me before I get started. According to the crews (there are four of them) they have already dumped over 20 truck loads in about two weeks and expect to remain in the area at least another two to three weeks after this.

I may well get more than 50 truck loads of wood chips before this is all said and done and I estimate each load is equal to about three full sized pickup loads that I get myself. So far I have the equivalent of 60 truck loads of the stuff and I haven't had to use a drop of gas to get them.

After this they won't be back in the area for at least another six years or so they tell me. However (evil laugh) I happen to be in an area, in fact I happen to live on the very road where two, count em TWO, power companies meet. Bahahahahahaha and these guys know the other crews working for the other power company and have already informed them that I will take all the wood chips they have as well when they get back to this area. And then some.

At this point my only real concern is making sure I don't go plumb crazy and create so many wood chip covered areas that I cannot maintain them. When you consider that my average loss of wood chip cover is running about 2 inches per year I could easily find myself in a non-sustainable problem if I am not careful. Of course in the end it would only mean going back to my original way of doing things so it might not matter.

As soon as I know they have brought me the last load I will begin spreading the stuff out. I have already used some of it but at this point I need to wait until I take the garden down and lay out the new boundaries. I am going to lose a bit of garden space with the new house construction but I have another area that has now become open with the loss of the apple tree this past year.

Now that the grass mowing has slowed way down I am actually making some progress once again in other areas so the skies the limit.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!