I trimmed branches on the main trail I spotted it from since I lost it. No one has used that piece of dirtbike trail since the day I was there using the saw. Cut some saplings out, chucked it off to side and worked myself away from it and took different route back to buggy. Didn't miss it when I peeled out.
It was very muggy today. I soaked my shirt twice just doing some easy stacking and general yard work. Now getting some rain. Always great to get that stuff back. Not too long ago I "lost" my wallet for several months, only to find it in a folded hoodie in my closet. One of these days I'm going to actually loose something.
Seems fine? Hit the button, got green light and gave it a zing. I suppose I should test it before I get cocky.
I just remember ruining a few chargers when left in the rain. On the job and forgot to cover them for rain. Dont know if todays chargers are the same. I learned my lesson. Dewalt 20v
Had several days off...didn't accomplish a lot. Some weedeating and branch trimming. So hard to be motivated with the humidity and bugs. They called for rain on Monday, so I decided I'd go fishing in the rain. Ended up only getting some light sprinkles. Caught a carp on liver, which was a first for me. Only the one fish. However, another first for me happened. It's not at all uncommon to get a 'snag' while fishing the river. If the sunken trees and limbs don't get ya, the rocks will. I wanted to check my bait and started to reel only to find that I'm hung up on something. I make my way to the dock to get a better angle to try to pull my line free and success! It lets go. When I pulled my line from the water, I had someone's Rapala crank bait and about 8 foot of line attached to my hook. This took me a few minutes to process. Akin to two bullets hitting each other in flight. Gonna make me a nice souvenir for me.
Been quiet in here. I have been staying busy, but the heat keeps me from being uber productive. Saturday's goal was to work on a new buggy trail that I broke open last week. Worked on it for a couple hours, then hopped on the tractor to groom some rain ruts that were trying to form. Next stop was the blowdown I've been picking at here and there. Got some logs pulled out of the mess to a processing area. Then had to shove two dumptruck loads of asphalt from a friend's driveway over the hill which took longer than I thought it would. Yesterday, I headed back to the new trail with completion in mind. This is where I decided to break in at. After a bit of work. Little further back on day one. There was a decent sized dead pine to the right of the above picture. The trail hooks right and goes straight up the hill. I was completely whooped after dealing with it and various other junk in the way that day. Improvements yesterday. My old friend Mr. Pickmattock got to play a bit. Just trying to knock some of the camber off the trail Looking down the hill. Still looking down the hill from higher up. Trail hardly visible yet. Have to snake around a couple small trees. Lots of dead pines around here. Summit reached! I have plans for this little area. Cleanup has already begun. Worked for a couple hours trimming branches and clearing sticks and junk. I could have made an easier path to get to the top, but I wanted something that I can pull a trailer up and down without drama. There is an established dirt bike trail that runs up over the top already...may have to re-route a bit. Capped off my Sunday by climbing around on the riverbank trying to place some busted concrete I got a while back. Thouroughly out of gas after that, I retreated to get some food and a hot shower. Great weekend!
Cleaned up a bit more at the new spot Saturday & yesterday. Braking my brain trying to visualize a good layout for things. Scavenged an old fire ring made of a couple truck rims and decided to start gathering some rocks. Just picking up stuff from along side of the main trails so far. The little donkey earning it's keep. There will be many rocks hauled up to the top in the near future.
Had a little fire to burn off a pile of privet from an area on the riverbank I'm working to reclaim friday night. Was a beautiful evening. Got two loads of rocks hauled up Saturday before starting the weedeater. Ended up finding 3 yellow jacket nests in one day ( I knew about the one in the tractor shelter already). A bit of a story. Was weedeating the riverbank area by where I was burning Friday evening. About an hour in I feel pain in my left hand. Look down, yep...ground bees. Drop the trimmer (still running) and haul azz for about 75 yards. Got out with just the one sting. Walk back to check on the site and the trimmer is just swarmed with bees, sitting there idling. Great. Go up to cabin and find a can of bee spray...junk stuff...can barely working. Sneak up to the trimmer and hose it down best I can. Wait a couple minutes as they calm a bit. Grab a stick and slowly approach the trimmer...got it shut down. OK, may as well go change clothes...done weedeating today. Come back about 20 minutes later and am able to retreive the trimmer. But the bee story doesn't end there... Got a real treat after the debacle was through. While trying to spot the hole for the nest that got me, I hear what I think is a boat coming down river. What on earth? OH! It's not a boat. It's a plane! Cropduster came in to spray the two big cornfields across the river from me. I got a heck of a show. I'm pretty sure his turns didn't need to be as fancy as they were but it was awesome to hear & watch. Lasted about 10 minutes. While watching him work and trying to spot the bee hole, I notice some bees flying past me, not aggressively. Look down to my left...another one! Out of bee spray and motivation to fight, I call it a day. Then about an hour later I got to learn. As I approach the big door threshold of the barn, POW! I get stung on my right palm, which is carrying the trimmer by the middle handle. I toss it down and begin to retreat when I notice the yellowjackets are unconcerned with me and are attacking the trimmer. Hmmm. (brain calculations ensue) They are attacking because of the pheromones left by the other bees! Yep, different nests will attack if they smell that scent. The trimmer was not running, I was just crrying it. Honestly did not know that. So now I'm stung on my left middle finger knuckle and the right palm of my hand. I vow revenge. LOL Try to get up and moving early yesterday as I need to go to town before I hit the woods and rain is inbound. Head into work and get three cans of spray that literally knocks them out of the air and head to the woods. Of course I have to hurry and scrounge a load of rocks before the rain hits. The pile as of yesterday. It starts to sprinkle as I am coming back down off the hill. "Good." I take refuse in the tractor shelter for a little while and prepare a gear oil bottle by filling it with diesel. The first customers are more yellow jackets that built in an old tarp lying off in a corner of the shelter. I had already knowna about these ones and they weren't causing me any real problems. I watch as they fly in to get out of the rain. Once I have seen 75-100 of them go in, I let loose with the good spray. Full half can blast right into their 'door'. No more bees come out, and the few that tried to return could not enter the nest and would fly off. Next up, the riverbank nests. The one in the pic was easy and got about a pint of diesel squirted directly into the hole as it downpoured. The other hole was not in a place that I could easily dose, so I did my best from a distance. It was also still partially covered by the vegetation I had been shredding Saturday. Check the nest in the shelter when I get back...all's quiet. Decide to go visit a buddy for the afternoon since everything was soaking after the rain. When I got home, I gave the nest in the barn a whole can. Half to knock them back and half right into the entrance hole. One weekend, 4 yellow jacket nests and two stung hands. Hopefully all dead now, but I have doubts about two of the nests.
That sucks. I noticed some hornets(at least that's what I think they are) going up under my house siding. Plugged the hole w. a rag and have been fogging them for days. Not sure how else to go about it. Next will be a strip of tape as it's at the bottom where siding meets block foundation. Thankfully no stings yet.
Many years ago a friend had them take up residence in the wall of his dad's garage. His dad's solution was to take a 5 gallon shop vac, put some diesel fuel into the bin and then turned it on and left the nozzle laying about 1" from the opening. After a while he had what looked like a thousand dead bees in that shop vac. I've never tried it personally.
Years back i had a roof to replace on an old farmhouse. Huge nest of honeybees in the cornice. I advised him to hire someone to extract the hive and save them. he didnt want to spend the money. I hated to do it, but two cans of bee spray barely made a dent on the steady in/outflow of bees. Saved that area to roof last and put a shop vac on the roof. Let it run all day. Later when we had to roof that section there was still bees coming and going. The vac was half full of bees after several days of it running. Ive seen videos of exterminators using shop vacs to rid yellow jacket nests in the ground. Last year i discovered the soapy water spray trick. Mix dish soap with water and spray the bees. It doesnt kill them instantly but disables them and they die in a minute. Used it on a ground nest next to mt stacks over the weekend. Ordinary spray bottle works well for me.
Pretty warm & humid this weekend. I set off Saturday with goal of getting 3 loads of rocks hauled up the hill. I no sooner got started when I found some volunteer work that a mulberry decided to make for me. Three trailer loads saw it dealt with. Then off to the rocks. Went after some bigger ones. Got two loads done. Did some mowing after and was done for the day. Went back up yesterday to work on the cul-de-sac I had plotted out Saturday. Wanting it to circle around where the shanty will sit. Made a major design decision change in regards to. Going to go A frame...pretty sure. Something along the lines of this... 10' width has been established. Unsure if want to go 12 or 14' deep as of yet.
12' = 3 sheets of OSB....nice & neat. Deciding if the extra space is necessary for the effort. Stove pipe exit is proving to be interesting on a 60* roof. Looking to possibly use a pellet stove pass through, but those are mostly meant for flat walls, it seems. Some kind of tent stove will end up in there eventually.
