This is a stretch of our eastern boundary, just down the hill from the northeastern corner (where a big tree top came down in the ice storm).

I’ve talked about how I am slowly cutting a clear path along our fences so it’s easy to hike along them when we do so a couple of times a year just to be sure all is well. I’d like to take credit for this stretch: it’s so open and level. (That’s the fence on the left.) I didn’t clear it, though. It is naturally this way. I may have cut back few branches or some low scrub, but this is mostly the work of the forest gods. (Or maybe the nature of the soil.)

Actually, I don’t really want a path this big in most of the places. I’m more of a forest than a field guy. There are a couple of points on the southern boundary, though, that I could clear (in my copious free time) to let them grow more grassy.

It was a beautiful and relatively warm winter day when we made this hike. I think the turn to warmer weather may be just about here. Once the bugs come out, I probably won’t visit the fence lines as often to clear the path, but there may be a couple more opportunities yet before that happens.

Missouri calendar:

• Washington’s Birthday
• Chipmunks come out of hibernation.

Today in Missouri history:

• Radio, stage, television, and USO star Jane Froman, known as the "Soldier in Greasepaint" who hailed from St. Louis, was gravely injured in an airplane crash on this date in 1943. She went on to perform for another three decades.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal    Source

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