February 25-26, 2011

Shortcut

Sally was in Harrison and meeting me at the farm, so I came the shortcut. First, Warm Fork Cr was flowing. It was the first time I had seen that since maybe July. (We had received almost an inch of rain Thursday.)

I had seen this tree that had been hit by lightening before, but this time I stopped to get a picture. I think it occurred during the storms that came through December 31st. Note the bark peeled down the pine that is adjacent. This must have been one heck of an explosion to completely splinter a large hardwood like this.

I had seen before these downed trees adjacent to the road that had been cut into long sections, maybe 4' each. Once I even stopped and tried to pick up a section, but it was too heavy. So I decided then I would come back this way with my chain saw and get a load of free wood. (See the last section.)

Tree Transplanting

Before I left town I dug up 10 volunteer oak and hickory trees I had tagged in 2009. (Meant to do this last year.) With the ground good and wet I figured this was the best to transplant them. We also had 4 volunteer walnuts that had come up in the garden, so I dug them up as well. I planted most of them in front of the house along the road, and a few along the lane to the spring. Digging in this chirty soil is a real chore. I hope half of them survive.

Mulch Leaves

I brought my leaf blower out from town and hooked up the mulcher tube to the intake. I then opened the garage doors to pick up all the leaves that blow in there and send them in pieces out into the yard. I also got the ones that had blown up next to the garden and the house. This is much easier than raking.

Weed Garden

Everything was really wet. Too wet. I tried to do some weeding in the garden but the thick mat of roots on many of the weeds and the wet soil made it very difficult. I decided to try again Saturday -- and it was easier then. There are lots of weeds since I had neglected this task all winter, plus the violas that must come up from seed. The violas I will leave, but I want to get the mounds cleared so I can work in a load of mulch the next weekend.

The garlic I planted in November had come up, and there are a few onions that were missed last fall and have survived the winter. Sally even saw some spinach coming up.

Crack Pecans

I've had a bag of tiny native pecans I picked up last November from Dwight's. I brought them out and used my walnut cracker to crack them. I've found that picking them out is harder than picking walnuts. And they are so tiny the yield is extremely low.

Clear Ditch

I'd noticed that the ditch on the left coming in was getting clogged with debris. So Saturday I took my hoe and spent a little time clearing it up. I need to do the same along the road down to the pond.

Drag Cedars

I'd cut lots of ice storm downed cedars at the bluff past the swing, and just left them there. So I spent an hour or so dragging them into a couple of piles. It was wet enough, I should have burned some of the many piles I have -- but I didn't have time. I'm thinking of getting a chipper/shredder to deal with some of these. At least then I would get some mulch out of it.

Prune

I used my new professional bypass pruners on the peach, the nectarine, and the blackberries. I had just started on the apple when it was time for lunch. The pruners worked okay, but I don't know that they were worth what I paid for them. (Used by Lowe's rebate card that I had received from the insulation purchase last fall.

Garden Gate

The garden gate was barely holding together, so I rounded up some wood scraps and rebuilt it. One of the long sides is a strip of plywood siding (couldn't find a second solid piece of 1 by) -- I hope it holds up to the weather.

Red Oak

As I planned, I left early, took my Stihl chain saw, and went the short cut. There were at least 6 other trees like the one I stopped at -- and I only got half of it. As soon as I started cutting I could tell it was red oak. I had to use one log to help me step it up into the truck bed. I also had to sharpen the blade to finish getting my 10 pieces, and I was only having to most pieces once to have two pieces.

I went ahead and split a couple of pieces at the house, and they split very nice. Three of the logs are short enough for Denver and Chicago, so they will come back to the farm for splitting and storage. The base piece is hollow enough I think I am going to save it for a blow log.