With yesterday’s heat, I did not head out until the evening, to clean up the piles of wood I’d cleared out the day before.  We had caught just the edge of the storm that night, with some rain and high winds, but nothing near as bad as the areas to the south of us.  Some places got tennis ball sized hail, and there were power outages in places.

When I got to where I’d left the cut wood, I noticed a branch, just off by itself, but still near the pile of deadwood.  Had I missed it, somehow how?

Then I looked up.

The big maple tree reaches out over this area, and it has a lot of dead branches.  One of them was broken in the high winds we got, and the bigger part of it got hung up on other dead branches.

Lovely.

After I clearer away the piles of wood, I added another length to the extended pruning saw.  I was able to pull down the dangling branch, then with the extra length, was able to cut down two dead branches.

The first one was the one at the bottom of the dangling branch you can see in the picture above.  The other was a larger one, that you can see part of, above the big, thick main branch.  That one was being partly held up by the main branch.

You can see all three branches, here.  The big one, as it got hung up on the main branch on the way down, basically exploded, sending side branches and twigs all over the place! (That would be Rolando Moon, in the background. :-D )

After taking out the big branches, I filled two wheelbarrows with small branches and twigs, just from here!

We had a wiener roast shortly after, and when we were done eating, I stayed longer to clear both wheelbarrows. :-)

While we were having our cook out, we got visited by Nasty Crime Boy, who decided that one of the folding chairs we brought out would be a great place to hang out.

When my daughter came closer with her phone to take pictures, he was very curious about the whole thing, sticking his face up to the phone, then reaching out to grab her with his paws!

Too adorable. :-D

I ended up staying out several hours, tending the fire and watching the sun setting behind the trees while listening to the renter’s cows mooing, with frogs and cranes, croaking in the distance.  By the time the girls came out to check on me, it was fully dark except for the glowing coals in the fire pit.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer