Once upon a time there were two ladies named Donna and Heidi and they had a little business called the Dirty Hoe. Now this business seemed at first glance like an organic gardening and landscaping company that catered to detail-oriented Asheville clients. But if one were to scratch beneath the surface, that one would find the Dirty Hoe to be a whole entity of creativity, awesomeness and outside the boxness. An entity that not only pays a living wage, supports local businesses, fosters communication and healthy living and offers massage thereapy benefits to employees, but also makes long winding serpentine sculptures out of organic matter, encourages certain employees to go on last minute road trips to Texas (for the sake of living large) and wears sparkles on Fridays. The Dirty Hoe is not paying me to talk good about them on the internet. What they ARE paying for, though, is 2 crew members who came and worked for ME at my land yesterday. It was a regular work day, with ME being the client, but getting the service as a GIFT from my employers!
"Fabi" and PJ (aka Superhoe and Man Hoe) came out and did some work with me getting my land ready for this house building/ mountain home steading project that I am getting involved with. We did things such as weeding and mulching the pear root stock nursery, pruning the giant old pear tree to encourage new growth (which I plan to use later in the summer to graft on the root stock), weedeat, cut down hemlock trees, and de-limb and stack hemlock timbers (for a future tool shed). The day was warm and gorgeous. I set up a hospitality station of sweet tea and chocolate chip cookies, which we indulged in freely. Fabi brought the Dirty Hoe truck and tools and Bella, her sweet bear-looking dog who served as a sort of canine totem for the day (someday Hopey, who goes by Mildred now, will come out and my heart will soar).
Unfortunately PJ got lost and got real acquainted with the Chapel Hill/ Guntertown area for a lot of the morning, but he made it and rocked his chainsaw all afternoon. We got most of the right sized hemlocks down and cut to 12 ft logs. I "felled" my first tree, successfully. The photos do not capture the look of terror that was upon my face at the time.
At the end of the day, we parted ways, tired and sweaty and happy (at least I was) but not before Fabi and I (true to Dirty Hoe form) did a little fringe tree huffing. It was a great day. Thank D and H!