Burned most of my Saturday driving up town for some lumber and rail road sleepers. Did get the leaner honey locust down yesterday. Sawed a load off for my buddy and tossed in his truck. I kept the butt log. Had meant to do some shooting afterwards but lost track of time hauling about 25 buckets of bank run up from the crick to cover the area above and start filling in a ditch. Almost ready for the shed which should be coming in about a month. Gonna get the pole saw out and do some trimming yet. No other 'hazard' trees in immediate vicinity. Kinda spindly walnut but it seems healthy.
At first I was being 'greedy' thinking, oh yeah, some orange wood for my stacks. Then realized that the guy helping me should be taking the smalls as he's trying to build a hoard. The one leader was dead and already dry so he took all of it. I've been trying to emphasize that for year one he needs to collect 'pre seasoned' stuff since nothing else will be ready for stove.
It's only right. He's the only one to ever give me a hand with my property chores. He used to do it just for recreation, but is going to be a full fledged burner soon. He's been around me enough to understand the importance of dry fuel.
Weather bust Saturday. Got some weedeating done yesterday. Did the bank of doom and a few little spots then loaded up and headed to buddy's shooting range to do some cleanup.
Storm brought some havoc in the crick valley. Whole lotta rain in a short period. Gonna need to get some rock in here. Otherwise new drainage performed as needed. Preview of a hell of a mess. Beech top fell into crick causing a back up and flow around. Garbage everywhere. I got one lot weedate yesterday before having a quick look at the damage. Then I ran off to go work on friend's shooting range.
This happens every so often. 85% of the time the crick doesn't even flow visibly. Drains probably 200 or so acres and gets pretty rowdy when the sky opens up. It'll rage for 24-36 hours then back to nothing. The *good part is that I likely just got 20 more ton of free bank run to use. (I haul it away, heavy rains refill the hole) While technically not gravel, works well as substitute.
Did an hour of weedeating Saturday then made some bags for the stand. Not a big day. Been working at a buddy's place in afternoons. Raked all the leaves off my in woods woodstacks, unloaded my railroad ties and then did a garden hose wash on the buggy yesterday. Cleared a couple culverts of debris blocking them. Then went to shoot a couple rifles.
Spent Saturday swinging a pick mattock digging drain lines for a friend's new building/garage. Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon came to mind. Did some weedeating yesterday. Super humid out. After I finished I went and cleared that pine off the trail. Went and sat in the sun for a while afterwards, still whooped from Saturday's labor.
Started working on getting the junk out of the crick Saturday. Forgot to snap a pic of the big heap mess. I'm thinking I may just chop it up and burn it all right in the crickbed. Gathered some stones for the culvert washout. Then did some grooming on a few trails.
Appreciate that. Most of the place is up to my standards currently. I have a few trails yet needing a little attention, nothing major. Noticed a few are in need of branch pruning which is a pain to do but lasts several years once done. I think I'm getting close to my redneck rock removal via electric jack hammer on one particular spot. There is nowhere to make a goaround and I cannot properly groom/maintenace the trail due to some large rock protrusions. I'm going to drag a genny and plug in jackhammer up there and literally cut the rocks out of my way. I will be sure to document that process.
That sounds like fun... NOT... I ran one for a while on some very thick concrete...not fun at all...I wonder if a concrete saw would make it easier
A break from the norm for me. It shouldn't take much hammering...mostly sandstone/shale stuff. Glad I don't have to deal with granite. The rocks are only lightly exposed (the ones in the middle of trail). I also need to cut a corner back some. Someone long before me had used a pick...the head is still there. It's a little wild for me to think about some of these trails being used 100 years ago. Terrain dictated their routes. Those routes are still the only places for vehicle (horse team possibly) sized trails without moving *lots of dirt. It was hard going back then, I gather. My recent discovery of the oil well site confirms. They no more than made it past the first holler over the boundary before planting it....the shortest distance possible from county road. One of those guys left his initials in a rock in another completely different location. Someone else has run all over that property besides me. I wonder if it meant as much to them as it does to me? Someone 100 years from now will find evidence of me, somewhere on the property. Been thinking of burying a capsule for years actually. But how do I direct future people to find the site? I'll figure something out eventually even if I have to chisel some coordinates into a rock face.
Split a few rounds yesterday since it was cool and I could hide in the shade. Got some pics of the mess in the crick. There is at least 25 feet worth. Gonna try to start burning off little piles as I have nowhere really to haul all this to. Just looking to get it open for the next big flow so it doesn't back up again.
