Aerie Chore Report.

I spent the better part of the day hauling flat stones out of the woods using the hand truck. before I could bring them out I had to first move them down the hillside to the trail where the hand truck could be used. Last time I moved stones up the hill to the driveway on the adjacent lot. Today it was a matter of getting them down to the old logging road at the base of the hill. I figure that leaves lots of rocks in the middle of the woods that I can take either up or down.

While walking about in the woods I carried my loppers with me and knocked down a good deal of dead wood. I made not so neat piles of the branches and logs across the slope of the hill in the hopes of slowing down erosion. (There really isn't very much erosion except in two little gullies that carry rain water and snow melt from the upper driveway into the woods. I laid some of the branches across these in several places as little check dams.)

After six hours traipsing in the woods and tossing stones around I'm sore from the bottom of my feet to the lower part of my back. (I sure could have used a couple of discus throwers or shot putters!)

I did take some time off immediately after lunch to go and pick some blackberries. I managed a little over a quart just from the bushes along the driveway and power line right of way. Now I've almost enough to make some blackberry jelly as soon as Terry can get some cheesecloth to act as a strainer. (I'd be happy with jam but Terry complains about the seeds getting stuck between her teeth, so jelly it is.)

And I'm taking tomorrow off from the stone work as Terry and I go pick some blueberries in the morning. Then we'll go over to the Tioga County Fair in the afternoon.