We have a vision that the vineyard should be an integral part of the house. The previous owners wanted privacy so they put up fences, bushes and trees. This was all very pretty but we wanted to open up the land so all 3 acres felt part of the house. The pictures here show the side yard. We started in May by taking down trees in the front of the house, on the side and back. Next we trimmed all the oaks in the field up to about 15-20 feet off the ground. When this was done, I spent about 40 hours chipping all the wood. If you have every operated a small chipper (11 hp) you know this is a big job…..I can only do it about 2 hours per day. Out in the side field is the septic system. We had to find this before we rip the land, so we rented a metal detector and found the leach field…..I still have to dig down to find it but at least I know where it is. Lastly we rented a tractor to take out the fence and stumps and smooth the land. Good pictures of that in another post.