The Marsh~

I'm going to call the area between our backyard & Tinkle Branch creek - a marsh.  Marsh seems to fit it's characteristics the closest.  A marsh acts as the transition between aquatic & terrestrial ecosystems.  You could have fooled me the first year we were here.  The area was pretty dry, just a few small pools of water when it rained.

3-19-17 Looking east~

I don't have photos from 2016.  I didn't start doing any work in this area until January of 2017.   The biggest job was cutting back all the Honeysuckle, wild grape & Greenbriar.  In the photo above, you can see that it was dry.

4-20-2017

 By April of 2017, I could see an improvement, even if it was totally overgrown!  Pieces of rotten wood had been tossed everywhere.  I had all that to stack up against the hillside.  Everything had to be weed whacked.  That was how I found the glass, cans, empty oil jugs etc.

10-9-2017

 By fall of last year, I'd hacked most of the way through the center section.

11-14-2018 Looking east

 Now, it's wide open all the way across!  I could get the mower in this year.  That made a big difference & the ground has self-leveled.  Off to the far right, you can see what's left of a huge log from one of the big trees that used to live here.  There's a rise to the right where the Cottonwood & a couple Maple trees grow, before the drop down to the creek.

11-14-2018 Looking west~

As I walked the length, I could feel the ice crunching under my boots.  It's given me a feeling of satisfaction to actually be able to walk through this area now.

From the Swing, SE

 Jean came over the other day & was the first of my friends to take what's still more of a hike than a walk :-)