I'm like a magnet for this type of thing. I will name the shipper. FedEx. Always had more beat up packages from them than the brown trucks.
Lots of rain this weekend. Felt like I needed to earn my supper yesterday so I went to take care of this with storms threatening (they never happened). Sweaty in the humidity. Blocking my main path on the north property. Found when I went to retrieve camera from water hole. Came back today to re-place the cam and get this thing out of my way. Rotten elm. Vines brought it over. Started saw to let it warm. When I sat it down it was right next to this guy. He was gone when I took a break. Where I left it. Some of the branches and vines had been woven into the fescue complicating removal. Piles Found this Saturday evening at RK. Didn't know they had these. I've managed to crack a couple with mower tires on my motorcycle trailer. All fixed now.
Did some prep work Saturday for the incoming excavator. I hope this project goes how I'm planning for it to go. Fair bit to do here. So the bagging aid is a blessing when you get to the center of the bag bundle and the creases are basically ironed in. Found a little more mailbox money and made some more stock. Mini splits will be on the stand soon. I got some new bags that are a little bigger than the first I got. Got the dock in yesterday. No pics because my pockets are empty while working near/on/in the river. Went pretty smooth. Way late to just be doing it. Too much rain. Went for a little buggy ride after and spotted what looked like silly string on the side of a dead Q aspen. Kinda neat (pic came out crummy).
The heat is on. Not a ton accomplished this weekend. Done a little weedeating and bucked a log on Saturday. Looked at and made some plans for upcoming digging projects. Had planned to thoroughly wash the buggy yesterday since it was too hot for much else. First I went to beat the poison ivy back a bit on the riverbank. When I got this hedge trimmer, this was one of the things it was meant to do. I can't get any further down at the moment due to peanut butter traction conditions in the fresh silt. Got a call and had to help launch a boat, so the buggy only got a half hearted cleaning with garden hose instead of pressure washer. Did get interior hosed out which was in rough shape. Seen a lot of boaters yesterday. The heat will do that.
Got the bank of doom done Saturday in the heat. That was prettymuch it for the day. Haven't been feeling great lately on top of the heat. Love this tool. Hate to have to use it sometimes. Neat birb that is usually around up at the hilltop fort. Trimmed down one of the culvert cutoffs so it would seat into a bell. I have 31-1/2 foot run with three pieces of 18" doublewall. Just barely enough for what I need. Have one good 'home' end so no need to modify to fit. Getting anxious. Lots to do, lots of plans made. I'm hoping I don't run short of fill material on the critical project. Plan to mine what is needed from surrounding area. Can haul up buckets of crick gravel if needed but 1 bucket at a time means lots of time to make any progress with the little tractor. As soon as I get this project put to bed I am going to work on repairing the JD backhoe's leaky cylinder. It wouldn't be practical for some of what I need to do and some of the other stuff it just plain cannot get to (big, steep hill) I may have an electrical fiasco also with the JD as it is not charging and I don't know why yet. A couple people have worked on the wiring over the years to the point where if I gotta square up with it, I may just run all new fresh if possible. Other than some rectifiers and whatnot, pretty simple 12v diesel setup I assume. Needing to locate a schematic for it (JD 300BD or JD 300B will work I think)
A scarlet tanager - they are interesting birds. I hate weedeating! A necessary chore, but I hate it and put it off as long as possible, which of course just makes it worse.
I have a couple of areas that are challenging to do. Otherwise I enjoy how things look when done. To me a place does not look kept unless the trimming and weedeating are done. Last year made me lazy, only needing to do any like once a month due to drought.
Well that was a big weekend. I took off starting last Wednesday. Wednesday would be my only 'holiday' day and I spent most of it at a rifle range. My first visit here. Nice little place with 100 yards. Had it all to myself for almost 4 hours. Got the two 7.62x39's pretty well zeroed. Took the 77/357 for some fine tuning. Had a blast with this 22lr shooting at broken pieces of clay pigeons on the backstop. I entertained myself for nearly an hour doing that. There was evidence of some oopsies. Finished up the afternoon by driving half hour to one of my favorite restaurants for a sub and nachos.
The work began on Thursday afternoon. Excavator that I had reserved a few weeks ago showed up mid morning because the rental was only working half day and had the 4th off (bonus time with the machine). I had drug a couple of culverts to different locations earlier and went after one in the back that isn't of much consequence to try to brussh up my operator skills. Then the calvary arrived (my good friend who is a card carrying operator) and we got going. Had a bad culvert placement that never really worked out that needed pulled and re routed. Left the cavity where it laid as a new ditch. We were skeptical, but the straps helped get the pipe out without futher breakage. Had enough left to re-route and a 12'er left over afterwards. New sump and intake. New discharge route. (this will be lightly armored with rock in time) Water used to be directed here to run across a rocky section of trail. Would run off where the sunlight is. Reference for distance and elevation. Excavator working new pipe in pic. Old discharge erosion shown in foreground. Not good. This will now only see a little water. New broad based dip at old drainage location. During the chaos I spotted this guy and moved him to safety. Saw some neat mushrooms while on the tractor grading a couple trails.
It has taken me more than a decade to realize these pipes going in here. What was there previously was not up to the job of draining that valley properly. This is the actual reason the excavator was at the property. 18" double wall pipe scraps that I have collected over the years. My culvert stash is down a good bit now, but goals have been met. 31' run, could have used another 6' but didn't have right pieces to connect any more. Just a whole bunch of pics of this job from here. There will be another sump and 18" pipe going in here in future to get across the path to left. For now going to let it run over like it has been. Old well casing that was pulled laying there. And yes, we can do a little bit of fancy. This was all done to protect this yard from overflow runoff. I would someday like to build a domicile in this location and the water had made it unfeasible due to potential flooding issues. Another swail will be added when that poplar stump is dug up and foreground ditch will be eliminated (had been the band aid to divert excess flow). The heat made all this a little harder and sweatier to get done, but I had four days of no rain while I had an excavator on the property. Did some other small things that I didn't get pics of, mostly drainage improvements on existing stuff. I needed to get back here to work for a break from my vacation, I know that. lol This was a moment for me. One of those where you have been wanting to accomplish something for a while and finally see fruitition. Very happy. Very thankful for my friend's help running that machine. This would have looked like garbage if I had done the stick work and I wouldn't have gotten near as much done.
Oh and the starter on my buggy crapped out on Friday. Thankfully it decided to die while sitting in it's regular parking spot (no backup starter). I wish I could say that replacing it were just a matter of having time, but alas the engineers for this unit like making things difficult. I am entertaining a quote from a dealer for the repair due to special tools needed to pull flywheel to release the starter and one way clutch, which is what has failed. OEM starters going for $275. Clutch thingy is around $250 I believe. Gotta pull a side case and drop oil also. I still refuse to speak badly about the machine itself as it's been mostly great the last 6 years. There is a possibility if the dealer is sharp to 'talk me into' a slightly larger unit via 'deal' but we'll see. The one I got is paid for and does all the crap I ask of it. Edit: Oh yeah....blew a tire on the bannon trailer hauling rocks up from the crick. lol
Well of course! The universe likes to mess with me. Water off a duck's back these days. I threw some fescue seed at it last night after mowing but a storm came before I could spread straw.
First order of business this weekend was to trailer my buggy an hour to a dealer for starter system service. I'm kinda embarrassed because I should be able to tackle it myself. However, due to complexity and needing to purchase job specific tools (that I will have to wait two weeks for) and this heat...I can't be bothered to try it. I did sit in the buggy that would be more suitable for what I ask (little more engine and size) while I was there without any salesmen thinking they needed to sell it to me. Current trajectory says I will get mine repaired, ask repairing dealer what it's worth to them and to send pics and do the same with another in PA who has the particular model steeply discounted (2024). If I am insulted I will keep on keeping on in the MX. Luck would have it that as I was leaving, a gentleman was loading up the model that I'm intrested in onto his trailer after getting it serviced. I approached and politely asked if I could have his opinion. He obliged. He's 3000 miles in and aside from a recall that was too long to get completed, he's thrilled. Nothing like speaking with an actual owner opposed to reading or watching possibly biased reviews. Got four bales down and may have gotten mild heat stroke. I soaked everything I was wearing completely through with sweat and got cold chills twice. Thankfully near the end of my straw suppply. Caught a rainbow at my buddy's place that evening. Went to tractor walmart yesteray morning and got four more bales. Took three to get to as far as I want to grass in and mow. Still just miserable to work outside. Been craving an Italian sub. Went to a local spot to get a good one. (with a menu like this you know the food will be good) Screen cap from a humorous short I watched this weekend. I've never hung 3 before (have had two stuck though)
Being depressed about my mobility being cut down with my buggy at the shop (poor me) I decided to weed eat on Saturday. Got 2-1/2 tanks through. Did around the equipment shed, wood piles, materials/implement area, one gate and ROW sides then went down to do some cleanup around the sandbar. First time this year for this area. I call this the cadillac fishing spot. Most people like to fish off the sandbar but this is a better spot. Panoramic views with no other humans unless a boat is going by. Was feeling froggy yesterday and broke out the pig for a couple hours. My my am I out of shape (and practice). Had a good time. A buddy brought down his bike. New targets came in. Now I gotta find a willing partner for a .22lr showdown.
My chariot has returned to me. Wallet a bit lighter but at least I didn't have the chance to screw it up. (my initial diagnosis was incorrect) Spotted at dealer. Yummy. This weather has not been condustive for me getting things done. Tried to get motivated yesterday but after just polishing and putting rain x on my truck's windsheild yesterday morning saw me sweat out a set of clothes. Said screw it and was a lazy bum yesterday. I got something out in my neck that is causing fairly bad discomfort adding to reasons not to work.
Lick site getting worked over. Been having technical difficulties with camera there. Re set it and tried to make sure everything is 5x5. There are a couple of big bucks around I'mhearing from various people. This was an angry one saturday evening. Catalpa is more poppy and crackly than Hedge I think. Almost couldn't enjoy myself. Sounded like someone letting off weak firecrackers whole time. Have started to bush hog the north property. Reset water hole camera and added another in the gasline ROW. Besides a pic with three fawns, this one got my attention. Only pic he's in. Seems the does with fawns are claiming this area for rearing.
