This has to be among my most favorite of chores. Digging out plugged culverts. Got some splits made yesterday. Had an improptu comparison between halving devices. Old faithful. Designer Imposter. And Daddy. All three fully capable of handling these rounds. The lighter units took ~5 swings where Daddy took 2-3. Takes more effort to swing 8lbs. Not quite a wash with the Iso being king as per usual. The red one performs on par with the X27 but seems to have more handle vibes. I had to roll the rounds because I chose a poor spot to buck them in relation to where they would be stacked. Net gainz. Checked the camera card. This guy will be a slunger in the fall if he don't get run over. I think I'm going to try to take him (not off the feeder). Saturday was a lazy day. Windchill and swaying tops kept me out of the woods.
Just means 'biggun'. A bit of local use vernacular from the county south of me. I expect that deer to show at least two more points and more antler mass this year. Somewhat an event for me to decide to try to take one these days. Plan to 'cheat' and use a crossbow. Will pattern him this summer and try to get 1st week of archery (there is a leased property butting up to me and they will be trying to get him also). Should also be a nice 10-12 pt running around also but he don't have the size this one does.
Decided to clean up and organize a bit. 'Stacked' my ugly pile then carted the Solo splits down to the lower yard. Hope someone will buy em. All white oak. Moved some self use splits down also. This cherry is aging real nice. Most of the bark is easily detached. I like it. I think this will be my fishing wood this year.
Didn't take any pics yesterday. Single track trail maintenance day. Cut some trees out of the way and did some minor improvements. Leaf litter is thick this year. Very nice to be getting some work done. Wore myself out pretty good which isn't that hard right now because I have not been doing a whole lot. Hope to finish up what wood I have ready next weekend maybe. I have two smaller trees that are down, a red maple and I think a red oak that I need to get to the yard but otherwise I'm 'caught up' on wood at the moment other than needing to fully re-stock the house stacks which doesn't really need finished until fall. Promised myself I'd get some more recreation in this year, so I'm not super worried about getting more logs right now. I've made somewhere around 3 cord since last fall with another half needing finished. Tired today from the weekend and from being up an hour early.
*Finally* got paperwork submitted for the new suppressor and held it in my hand yesterday evening. Also took delivery of a new rifle that I couldn't pass for the price. It looks like this and fires 'Russian' boolits.
I ususally try not to get too excited about things but I'll make an exception here. Been close ten years since the last one. Two whole days on eform.
Snuck out of work Friday to do a little bucking. Started picking up yard sticks also. Saturday was a bust. Could have dogged the rain but the tree tops were a swayin. Went to the gun store and bought a couple things then visited a buddy. Determined to shoot yesterday. Had a nasty cold front storm blow through at noon but then the sun came out and the wind died off a bit. Christensen Ranger 22. SWR Spectre 2. Got it close to zeroed. 5 shots here at 27 yards. CCI std V. Wind started blowing again. I'll need to bench it to finish up. Picked up more sticks for about an hour afterwards. First flower I've seen this year. 10' from the river.
Worked off a heavy lunch yesterday evening. Only two prospects I hav at the moment. Took a quick buggy ride around the south hill and didn't otice anything down from the wind over the weekend. At least they are close to the yard. They've both been down since late fall. Maple Oak across the way. Finished picking sticks off the river lot. Seems like a lot of them this year.
This one? It's just a punky cherry limb used to hold down a piece of tin. Pic taken over a single stack of cherry. I guess I kinda featured it in the shot. Tree in question is on other hillside over there.
I *have to get this cylinder repacked this year. Put it off all last year because I am Cylinder Ignorant.
Got some more Woak put on the pile Saturday. Interesting grain here. Begginning of a burl? Gratuitous. Still my favorite. After splitting went to get after some of the new dirtbike trails. Got one connected back into the others and opened a new 200 yard run. Went back at them Sunday and cleaned up some messes on main trails from wind and to work on a couple crummy spots of the new trails. I slept soundly Saturday and Sunday night. Think I am taking a break from building these single track trails for now. Pretty decent amount of them spread over 40 or so acres. To further expand means getting into the north parcel and I more need main access roads there than I do dirtbike trails (roads allow access to do other things like making dirtbike trails). Heard a rumor that I'm getting a loaner dozer this summer. We'll see. I got about 500 hours of work for one. lol This trail was pruned back and brush cut last fall. Quit on it about 70 yards from getting it reconnected to one of the other trails. Was being lazy about cutting the trees out of the way at the time. Leaves get scraped back by raking. Off camber and other dirt modifications are done with a pick mattock and mainly the below tool. My buddy's boy was there on his bike Saturday riding in one of the new trails and letting me know what needed additional work/improvement.
With every high comes a low. lol Sigh. Jury dooty today. Headed to work to get a couple things done before.
Pulled a marathon in Court. 8:45 to 7:20. Acquitted a man. Fairly wild proceedings in reference to the victim's testimony.
Someone is trying to organize his buddys to go ride the national forest. That someone is me. I even got some new gear (closeouts lol) to cement my intentions.
Pretty fun day today. Decided to work on the oak a little more. Started breaking down some uncooperative pieces.
Then bucked the last big log. Starting to get on with this saw better. For unknown reasons other than I'm nosey I felt the need to survey the valley below this woodyard. Walked over the hill about 50' and spotted the first one. This is the other about 20 yards away. Thanks Mr deer! This had me thinking I'd find many more so I took a cruise on the buggy. Found this chestnut oak blocking a path. Prepped the top for skidding. Then went and marked some of the new trail. Decided I'd start clearing sticks off one of the other yards and find this laying there. Great weather.
