February 8-9, 2013

A chance of rain kept Sally and Tender in town. It actually didn't start to rain until I was heading back late Saturday afternoon. It was mostly cloudy and mild both days.

Road Ruts

Here are the ruts Carroll Electric left at the bottom of our hill when they were out on the 29th, just after the 2" rain and tornado. There are even deeper ruts after the road turns to the south to go to the pond, the lowest spot on our place.

Plant Kale

Sally gave me Kale seeds to get planted, so this was the first thing I tackled. She wanted me to do the whole package, but I thought I had planted plenty when half way through. Those are some tiny seeds, just to be covered by 1/4" of soil. I also did some weeding while in the garden, it certainly needs it.

Cut Cedar Limbs

Next I went down southwest of the pond, and began cutting on the 10 or so big cedars that been downed by the tornado. It wasn't long before I got my Stihl pinched in a log and could not free it (amateur mistake). I had to go back to the garage and get the Poulan to cut it out.

I only got through about 4 cedars before it started getting dark. This next picture shows the mess of limbs. Luckily I was able to free up about 8 of my little pines that had been buried (bent but not broken) by the fallen cedars. You can see them leaning to the east in the center of the picture.

Crack Walnuts

I cracked a bowl of full walnuts so I would have something to do Friday evening. I picked walnuts while watching Casa Blanca.

Lop Cedars

Saturday morning I took my loppers down and started under the cedar grove next to the fence where there were lots of babies, worked my way up the fence and over into the pasture, and ended up in the wooded area near the corner where many of the trees are down. I cut 1250 cedars -- very rewarding to me while Sally thinks its a waste of time.

Trim and Drag Cedars

I did further trimming to the grove next to the fence and then drug all those limbs over to the side near, but uphill, from the pile I had created in December. After lunch I brought the step ladder down so I could do some higher trimming that was needed. This area is now ready for a burn.

After lunch I started dragging the cedars from the two adjacent groves just above the pond. I formed a circle with them, with the plan to have the burn in the center. These limbs were from just 3 trees, with one more to go in this area. (And then there are all the ones SW of the pond.)

Near the end of the day Jeff came down on his tractor and we had a chat. No fence building this weekend. He was trying to clear his road through the woods so that loggers could get some of his big downed timber out for salvage. He is hoping to get enough money for the timber to replace his barn. He said he didn't have any insurance, just like Ben before who told him you just rebuild.