How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck......

So.Many.Wood Chips. Like, a gigantic mound piled high at the top of our driveway.

It feels like we have had the longest winter ever, which is saying a lot since we do live in the PNW and the wet weather is to be expected. BUT, we are seriously ready for spring up here. Don't get me wrong, we are grateful for the rain and while it can be beautiful and cozy (and is to credit for our vibrant landscape), when you have four indoor/outdoor pups like we do, the insanity from trying to keep the hardwood floors mud free is next level.

While a little late in the season, Zach found this incredible company to deliver us FREE arborist wood chips. Our plan was to spread a layer of the chips over our muddiest self-carved dog runs, but as you might imagine from looking at the photos, we had plenty to go hog-wild with! (Cue Forrest Gump's monologue on shrimp, or Frank's RedHot commercial about "putting that sh*t on everything!"). Suddenly, this little wood chip project has taken on a life of it's own and has motivated us to do a massive spring cleanup.

We spent the weekend cleaning out the winter debris from our tractor (and sadly, found a deceased mouse in the engine which made me cry), filling it with bark chips to haul to the backyard, blowing the layer of leaves off our new spring blooms, and figuring out where we could enhance the landscaping with a fresh layer of chips around trees, walkways, etc. We're not even a quarter of the way done, but feeling satisfied with the progress, and excited about uncovering all of the plants we didn't even know we had (remember, we just moved in in December and have yet to experience the sunny seasons in this forever home of ours).

For more information about how to use wood chips in the garden, you can click here! We're learning as we go, and passing along the resources and knowledge we garner along the way. We are also currently investigating the use of wood chips as bedding/pen insulation/moisture barrier for farm animals for when we're ready to expand our "farm" to hooved friends.

I should have Popeye grade biceps by the end of this project!