We have a quarter-acre forested backyard on which we’ve decided to build a little hiking trail with switchbacks going up the steep hill. It backs on to about 100 acres of forest owned by a business that rents out rustic cabin vacations, and the place is full of deer and wild turkeys and the like. Over the past several months, Dave and I have been going up and down the hill on our property and marking a tentative path with bright orange flags. Last week, we finalized our path and I raked the leaves off of it so we could see it. I also roughly braided some of the scrubby tree branches that impinge on the path so they will stop hitting me in the face. We’ll go back through with a hoe to make the path more level and plant something (native to TN) along the edges to help hold the dirt in place (need to research this) and we plan to plant fruit trees at the top of the hill.

Spent my lunch hour Thursday rerouting the trail. We uncovered a survey pin indicating that we had put about a meter of the trail on our neighbour’s property, and rerouting puts us well within the property line. It was good exercise and the path we had previously raked has been in popular use by the deer, whose hoofmarks and scat were in a bunch of places.

Went outside this morning to see what the rain and then snow had done to our trail. Startled a couple deer who have been using the trails (so delightful!).

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