Opening up the back yard again.

Last year my son and his wife really rebuilt the inside of our home. Last fall they started trimming the lower have of my property that had become overgrown. Years past, I had this open for garden, but time got the best of me and the garden space. In the three group picture, you can see last summer, last fall, and today. The single picture is another of today. Off the left, no picture yet, it is all cleaned out of all the underbrush. Very impressed. He is setting it up for disc golf.

 

Your son is quite a worker Larry... looks good...

 

When

When He's done there I have plenty to do here.

 

that is quite the improvement. More light into the area as well as having room to roam without getting tangled in brush.

 

He has about an acre he has cleaned up. He had a brush pile that was huge that he was able to burn. That pile smoldered for 3 or 4 days, but in the end, it was gone! It was a brush pile that had been started about 12 yrs ago. Amazing to see it gone and the floor of the woods exposed. Off the the left there is a huge area with an evergreen canopy. Pine needles cover the soil. Very restful in there when there is a soft wind whispering through the pines and hemlock. I'm thinking of putting a security camera out in that area so I can keep an eye out on the grandkids, and make sure no one is wondering in off the powerline.

 

savemoney If you do decide to go with a security camera or cameras, you might want to consider going with one that has a minimum of 800 TV lines. If your ever interested in watching the night life, the more infra red lights (IR) the better. I've seen some with up to 42 of the IR LEDS which is supposed to give you 120 feet of of distance for night viewing. There are also add on IR LED's that look kind of like spotlights that also help light up an area.

I like my cameras since they let me know who or what is on my property, plus if anything were to happen to me, there would be a video of it. Well, other than up in the tree work though I suppose I could tilt whatever camera up for that. There is hardly an inch of my property that isn't covered by at least one camera.

At night, I've seen weasels, possum, raccoon, bear, deer, cats (feral, domestic, and wild), bats and a wide array of insects. Sometimes it can be very entertaining to watch all of those critters.

 

Looks great save!

 

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I really know little about them. I am looking for a wifi set up so I don't have to run wires. The inside of our home was just done over so I don't want to be running wires anywhere. I did hear that some units interfere with the 2.4 wireless wifi systems that I am using for internet.
p.s.Is that evergreen tree down?

 

Hey savemoney, if you consider renting your son out to a few of your friend we could change your screen name to makinmoney!

Very impressive job right there... Says volumes about how he was raised

 

WIFI is another situation all together. Then the cameras you would be looking for need to be at least a 1080P (2 megapixel). Forget about 720P (1 megapixel)! The 720P is okay if you don't want much detail. With as crowded as the 2.4 gigahertz band is becoming, I'm surprised a lot of devices haven't went to even higher cleaner frequencies.

WIFI isn't exactly wireless. You would need to be able to supply the camera with a power source. There are some you could use a battery with, some as small as 9 volt. If your creative, you could go outside the box and put something together in the 5.8 gigahertz band. Another option would be to dump the WIFI router for your computer and just go with a wired modem of sorts, because yes, WIFI does tend to interfere with other WIFI enabled devices. That is probably the main complaint I've seen over the years.

I use both the 2.4g and the 5.8g for my FPV enabled UAV's (FPV = First Person Video, and UAV = Unmaned Ariel Vehicle AKA Drone) with no interference to the WIFI I use for some of the security cameras. That's because the WIFI signal strength isn't very strong. It's about half or less range than what I can get with the 5.8g cameras on my UAV's. But those cameras don't have night vision. I have known some who try to use WIFI for FPV, but 90% of the time there is a problem because the UAV also operates in that same bandwidth.

I should also mention, I am not an authority on this, just stating what I use and what I have experienced.

As for the pine tree I'm working on, it's not down yet. The winds and weather (rain and snow) are causing delays as well as my being sore from being up in the tree. (I need more upper body strength) Right now I'm looking at windows of opportunity to either remove more branches, or to just fell it as it stands. That would mean turning it another 15 degrees off it's natural lean for a total of about 20 degrees. The 5 degree turn would put most of it in the ditch, that is if I remove about another 15 to 20 feet worth of branches going up. Some of the tree would still be on the road. If I fell it as it is now, it would need to be turned about 20 degrees which would put it diagonally across the road. Either way could work, so I'm looking for low wind days, or at least winds from the Southwest that I would use to my advantage. Any other wind direction could change the direction the tree actually falls in. It would be another story if I were just felling it in the woods or even in the yard. But these trees are near the road and need to be felled in that direction to prevent damage to quite a few young western arborvitae. I'm not only calculating where the stem of the tree will fall, but where the remaining branches will end up. This doesn't include traffic so whatever ends up in the road would need to be cleared ASAP! I plan on felling the tree Wednesday or Thursday this coming week (23rd or 24th). No if's and's or but's!

 

thanks, appreciate you insight.
now as for the tree. Can't you get someone to come and be with you while take the tree down? Maybe someone who can assist you? While I know you can do it, it would be safer with another set of hands and eyes.

 

You know, that mutated dog started out as a Tibetan Mastiff! But then she managed to get into a rotted barrel of radioactive isotopes! Her name was Fluffy!

I do believe Tuesday the tree will meet it's end if the weather does what WeatherUnderground says it will. Today would have worked, but I try to only do quiet work or housework on Sundays. It's more the echo thing. It would disturb people for miles around.

Oh, you live about an hour and a half from me, +/- 10 minutes. Tomorrow I'll clean up and move all the branches from the tree that are now on the ground into my yard. I need to make room for more.

 

I'll see, as most have schedules to keep and work of their own to do including regular jobs.

 

Pssst: The tree has been felled as of 9:36am on 3/22, Tuesday!
Spring cleanup | Page 4 | Firewood Hoarders Club

 

Good, the tree is down and you are still OK. Glad for that. Will the next one be the same challenge?

 

Kudo's to your Son and his Wife, I'm grubbing my timber also and it's tough work !

 

Yep, I survived the last one. Not totally unscathed though. Cuts, scratches, abrasions, bruises, and a bit sore, but nothing overly serious. The next one is the double stem and I believe will present a challenge all it's own but with proper planning it should go well. Using my speed square, a torpedo level, and a 200 foot tape measure, a guestimate in height is about 103 feet. This one should be a lot quicker since the branches aren't nearly as dense as the last one.