Went to the woods yesterday and today.......should have been doing this for at least the past couple weeks, but there were other things to do. Got a small load Friday, then went back over for a couple hours today to work on a couple Oak trees I cut last fall that snagged on another Oak. Both of 'em hit the same tree and were putting some good pressure on it. I was hoping a good winter storm would take down the whole mess, but that didn't happen, so I got to it and carefully cut into the tree holding the others. Went back to work on some other stuff, then cut it again. After the third cut, the whole shebang went shebang, taking 2 other Oaks down as well. Oh darn, now I have more Oak to cut. However, the biggest Oak then got hung up in yet ANOTHER Oak, which developed a pretty good lean.....lots o' stress. Put a little cut in it, then did some other work for a while. I could hear it cracking. After a couple more little CAREFUL cuts, I went about loading up the Jeep. I heard a loud cracking and turned around to see the whole thing come down. Awesome. I think I counted 5 trees besides the one I worked on yesterday ( the big one from last year that still has quite a large trunk chunk I need to cut up. Anyway, here's a few pics of the whole mess.
My honey and I were down in the tick patch today too. We sprayed Sawyers knees down. Then got bit by a few black flies...
Oh yeah, the no-see-ums are out in full force. No biting flies yet. No skeeters either. Fairly dry so far.
It's dry there too? I noticed today the sag out on our front lawn is dry... usually we have a pond there for the first mowing and I blow a rooster tail 20' sideways with the JD...
The last cut on the leaner made the tree really wanna' pop, so I just grabbed the saw and ran like the Dickens....wait, hobbled like a tortoise on Qualudes. Yeah, that's more like it. I'm just glad they're all down without knockin' me on the knoggin. Once I get all that back to the house, I'll start working on a bunch of Maple, depending on how much Oak I get out of it all. Once the ticks start coming out of hiding....all bets are off, and I stay out of the woods until early July or so. Gives me a couple months to get every thing split and stacked that's piled up. Here's what I have so far.....not much, but this method adds up pretty quick if I can stay at it. Small pile is from yesterday's cutting of the tree from last year.
Gonna en up being a good mixture of hardwoods in you stack You've developed into a "lean mean firewood machine " !
Trying to get back at it from my "long winters nap". The bold is promising, yet lean isn't quite an apt description anymore.
Lucky Loon. Bone dry here, and all the leaves raked that are anywhere near the home, but the mosquitoes have been out in force for a few days. The love it under my car, under my stacks, and under my steps. Despite the dry weather. I have a very negative reaction to Permethrin after seeing that video. If it can kill a tick that fast, I don't care what they tell me I don't believe it can be safe for people. Just like they claimed BT only killed gypsy moths...yeah. I really believe the poison is discriminating in its action. The ticks are very active here. I have had three on me, and three on the dog, two attached. The one I took off last night was so huge I couldn't get the forceps near its head, so I put a gob of aloe vera on it and used a -tip to swab it all around the tick,. Within five minutes the tick just fell off. So, the aloe vera works. I'll probably stop using tweezers and just use aloe. Then there is no risk of the head remaining in. And, Papadave, with your method of cutting trees, "one" sugar maple added to the oak should do it for you for the season!
Never had ticks or fleas. One issue as a kid in the high country moutains, then on a dog with some plants I purchased and were shipped from ohio, and then 3 tiny fleas on a dog from sticking her head in rodents hole. Otherwise we dont need any protection. I feel for you all. We do have mosquitos though, and I have an aquaintance that lost her husband to west nile.
