If the kitchen is my first pet project at the new house, the yard is Ben’s. By the time we got the keys to the house, it was mid-July, and the weeds in the yard (and especially in the paddock area) were about to go to seed. If we let them go to seed, we are guaranteeing ourselves an even more painful mess of weeds next year.

I think I mentioned already that there is probably well over an acre of yard space at the new property. Some yard areas had been mowed and maintained, and that part was no problem. Large swaths were very thickly covered in brush. And then there were the in-between areas–not exactly brush-covered, but waist-high with thistle and weeds. That’s where Ben got started.

He rented this brush cutter–essentially a gas-powered weed wacker with a spinning steel blade. Powerful and a little scary. With that, he took this:

And turned it into this:

Here’s another angle:

This was impressive progress, but it wasn’t enough. The serious brush was still ahead, so the following weekend, Ben rented a bigger toy. The Outback Brush Cutter:

Boom!

As a reminder, here’s what the paddock area looked like before:

It’s hard to tell, but behind that second row of fencing, the thistle was at least six feet high. Seriously. Here’s a shot of Ben and my brother, taking care of business:

In that shot, my brother is using the big brush cutter, while Ben uses my brother’s machete. I’m not even kidding with this. They are obviously having the best time.

And that’s not even the greatest part. Before all this brush clearing, you could get from the house to the paddock only by walking down the driveway–there was a solid wall of 8-10 foot high brush between the two areas. Now…

This clearing now goes all the way through to the driveway.

See that tree hanging out in the middle of the clearing, though? That was annoying and in the way. So Ben and my brother tore it out with their bare hands. I mean, honestly. They did that.

Here’s another (smaller) tree they took out, earlier:

That’s some hard work, guys. Keep in mind, these are guys who do manual labor five days a week for their jobs. And this is how they spend their weekend.

Here’s the happy team, after a hard days’ work:

Maybe you can tell that I’m a little bit proud of them, too.

Ben’s next plan for this back area: a pond. With fish. And a raft for floatin’ on. We’ll see.