Conquering the Jungle - Part 1

I know, no one has to tell me, I let stuff get away from me at times. Take for example the Jungle right outside of the front door:

This little patch of my own personal hell started out with good intentions - and was actually useful for the purposes it was intended for, for a short while.  The very first year here it held a SMALL and barely successful "winter garden". I got ONE SMALL "crop" of turnip greens out of it. Then, being the bad gardener I am, I gave up on that. But there was already a bit of (weak) fencing in place. At that point it became a holding area for poultry soon bound on a voyage to Camp Kenmore. Turkeys, chickens, ducks - anything meant to live a short (but full life) was housed there until it was large enough to roam a bit, then allowed to sleep there and be out in the day time. Often times, I have a few friends who send me extra birds after their kids are done showing them. They would be brought home, placed in lock down right there, and then the next day taken off to camp....freezer camp....but still..

You can see the last of the fence still standing here:

I never intended for it to be "long term" as far as the fence goes - it was just cheap plastic stuff put up with the intent to keep rabbits (and that freaking armadillo!) out when I had my tiny garden there.  Being as it was just zip tied on u-posts, it sagged over time, then the rains came....and being less than vigilant, with an ever present meaning to clean it up but lacking the get up and go I needed, it grew over into the mess in the first picture.  And the farmer was sad :(

I knew last year it was going to be a pain to clean it up. I DOUBLE knew this year I had to get it out of there and looking good if only because I was going nuts looking at it! THEN I saw a little snake crawl into it and I had enough! I seriously was well over having a wild life sanctuary right by the front door! There's enough woods around this place - they need to stay in the damn woods I said! So I woke up yesterday not sure what I wanted to get done, until I walked outside and saw my own little piece of hell waiting on me....

The porch swing, relocated since that is where the hay now goes, was not relocated to a spot to swing in, but hurriedly tossed aside one day. Many a string from a bale of hay found it's way down there. Before I located a trash can for the hay strings, let's just say many a string found it's way ANYWHERE it wanted to go - BUT where it belonged (in the trash!). There was even the tarp, which once protected poultry from sun and rain, buried under all that green weedy bits! No seriously, look VERY closely in both pics above, and tell me: DO YOU see a TARP??? No, really? Well look...it was there:

Note all the dirt and weeds still stuck to it....I'm still shaking my head about it, I had almost forgotten that was there too!

So, yesterday afternoon, I tackled it SLOWLY - it's hot you know! I pulled all of the old fencing, dug out a MILLION hay strings, found a few toys left over by the previous owners (I SWEAR that wasn't my Spiderman  action figure in there!), raked out the hay which had fallen off of the porch, and mowed it down!

It took all afternoon, and a short little bit of effort this morning even, but, drum roll please...

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! I had 2 giant spiders come flying up at me - they got squished, a mouse tried to escape my pile of raked up hay - by flying out at me! But Snowball II got it and saved it for me:

And some small snake, no positive ID but I am fairly certain it was nothing major, got brave enough to slither out to see what was happening. I did threaten to introduce him to the sharp end of a shovel, and he headed back under the house!

So, with that all done, off I go to finish mowing. Trying to keep the place looking good this summer - I let it get away too many times last year and I am fairly determined not to allow it this year... It just looks so much nicer when it is all manicured and pretty!

Don't worry...I have a few more jungle spots to tackle up around the house before I feel like I am done....a few more spots where I am sure mother nature will send her minions to try my nerves. UGH! I can't stand bugs tot ouch me, I don't appreciate freaked out mice and snakes headed my way at faster than light speed, and I really don't like not being able to see in the jungle while I am watching for all that stuff!

So...off I go to complete my mowing. Stay tuned as always...