Cutting back the blackberries by the shop

The small man is ready for anything. He has brand new red clippers.

The snowball bushes between the shop and the carport have grown a bit out of control in the last two years. More to the point, they are overgrown (and undergrown, and through grown) with Himalayan blackberry.

Earlier, the kids cut a tunnel through it, but it was still a nightmare.

Since this is where we plan on doing most of our cidering next weekend, we needed it cleared out.

The first hour or two was just getting the blackberries out from inside the bushes themself.

There was an old frame buried under the bramble for some reason. It looked like it had been supposed to hold a barrel or 55 gallon drum for the slats had been broken down in the middle.

We pulled the boards out, and some time we will pull out the posts as well.

We loaded the pickup twice over with brambles and branches from the snowball bush. Since we didn’t have anywhere else to put it, we dumped it out in the chicken yard for now. We have at least as much again to pull from there, plus some cotton woods to come down. We might end up building a hugelkultur out there with all of the brush and wood.

And there it is, all cleaned up and ready for Cider Fest!