Chipping Away at the Large Branch Pile

September 25, 2025

On September 17 (Wednesday), Bruce and I used the mower and trailer to move enough Bama Dirt Pro Mix to cover the small flower bed. We covered the bed with four to five inches of dirt.

Bruce used the mower to tow the chipper out back. He chipped branches from the big branch pile. We had piled branches from pine numbers two and three into a large pile.

Most of the chips go into the cart, but a significant number miss the cart and collect in a pile beside and under the cart. The chips fall down when the cart is moved away. In the above picture, the cart had been moved, emptied, and backed up to the chipper.

I dug up more grass from the big flower bed while Bruce chipped.

Bruce asked me what to do with the first cart of chips. I had him dump the the chips next to several of the fruit trees. I spread the chips evenly around the fruit trees.

While in the back, I noticed bumble bees and butterflies.

After Bruce chipped another cartload of chips, he dumped the chips beside the rest of the fruit trees. I spread the chips out around the fruit trees.

Bruce and I shoveled the chips from the pile into the cart.

Bruce hauled the full cart of chips to the new small flower bed. He dumped the cart and we spread out the chips over part of the garden.

I didn’t take pictures of the progress of the small flower garden until the next day and then, only in passing.

We had a beautiful sunset.

On September 18 (Thursday), Nox woke me up at sunrise to go outside.

It was very foggy.

As I waited for Nox to finish roaming about and doing Nox things, the sun burned off the fog.

I also took a picture of the fog from the front porch. You can see the edge of the small flower garden, with the dirt added and chips spread over most of the bed. You can also see the progress I made on digging out grass in the large flower bed.

I spent the morning digging out grass, while Bruce slept in a bit. He had a hard time getting to sleep due to the aches and pains from all the chipping and shoveling dirt. I let him sleep. After getting up, Bruce decided to take it easy to allow his body to recover.

In the afternoon, through the sliding door, Bruce spotted this dragonfly perched on one of the pepper stakes on the patio.

Bruce called me over to see the dragonfly since he knows I love dragonflies. I was happy to see the dragonfly. I slowly brought my phone up to take a picture, when the dragonfly took off. It didn’t go far and circled back to land on the stake again. I was able to get the above picture.

We had another beautiful sunset.