Today was a nice winter day to attack some dormant and evergreen vines in the forest. Some of the bases of those vines rival small trees! I think Tarzan would love to swing on some of them. They tangle up into the trees often choking them out or at least preventing growth. I got rid of some. Others I just cut at the base to stop the growth. I try to do this twice a year.
It's not really our forest. It belongs to the City. But the City pays no mind to it for the most part. It's just a little 80 feet or so patch of forest that spans the width of our yard that I get to play in. Sometimes I venture over to play on the neighbors' side because I know they don't do anything back there. There use to be many more trees back there most fell victim to a couple of bad droughts. Now that there is a nice variety of 5, very nice, fully grown trees directly behind us all planted by Mom Nature, I tend to leave the back sprinklers on a little bit longer just to make sure they get a good drink. The smallest tree is a little Water Oak about 10 years old. The vines almost killed it when it was younger. Since I have been keeping the vines under control the little oak tree is able to spread out and catch the sun.