Dozing on the hill

This is a view from our southern most boundary line up on the hill behind our house and paddocks, taken Monday afternoon. I am looking downhill toward the stream and our farm - its pretty steep! The county dirt road is just to the right and below the bull dozer. Pretty rugged terrain. As you can see, we have finally begun our long awaited project of clearing out brush, big rocks (boulders!), many small trees, and old dead trees, so we gave build a fence around these 20 acres. Then we put meat goats and cattle in there to eat grass and brush, grow fat, and make money.

While I walked with Paul, our great dozer driver, discussing options, the boys entertained themselves by running around throwing walnuts at each other.

They got some exercise.

Had fun bonding together.

Practiced their throwing skills.

Enjoyed being out in nature and the great outdoors.

Did I mention the brotherly bonding already?

They had a lot of fun running and playing. There are still a lot of rocks and branches laying on the ground, not to mention other things. Paul wasn't finished dozing. That was on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday at noon, we went back. All the rocks and branches were gone, but some of the other things were still there, like...

...this. Can you see the copperhead snake? Glad no one stepped on this guy Monday while running around - might not have had as much fun. Even though keen-eyed K8 spotted it, we let K7 have the first shot with a .45, which he promptly used to blow it's head off. K8 put a 20 gauge shotgun shell into it to make sure it stopped moving.

Fairly big copperhead.

A few minutes later, keen-eyed K8 spotted a second copperhead snake several feet away. Like K7, he also hit it with his first shot with a .45 pistol. I finished it off with two bullets, one through neck and one to the head. Guns are handy tools to own and know how to safely operate. There was also a big black snake passing nearby, but we don't shoot friendly snakes, i.e. non-poisonous snakes. In another month when the fence installing crew arrives, it will be too cold for these critters.