Things actually got chilly last night, and we had a wonderfully cool morning! I was really looking forward to getting some progress in the yard.
Of course, by the time I actually got out there, it had warmed up considerably. :-D It was nice, working in the shade, though.
With the way things have been doing this year, I decided that getting this old wood pile cleared was my one primary goal for the summer. Anything beyond that was gravy.
I may have messed myself up with this particular goal! :-D It’s turning out to be a more challenging job than I expected!
This morning, thanks to cooler temperatures that I was able to take advantage of, I was able to finally get back to cleaning up around the east perimeter of the spruce grove. It was only about an hour and a half before I had to get out of the heat, but I think some good progress was done!
The area I planned to work on stays shaded for a while, which allowed me to work later into the day than otherwise. Dragging the bigger trees I cleared to one of the wood piles outside the yard really showed me what a difference that made! Walking into the sun, the heat hit like a hammer.
After a while, I stopped dragging them out and started a pile in the yard, instead. We’ll drag them out when it’s cooler!
I took before and after pictures from two different views. Here are the before pictures.
The area around the old dog house is where the wood pile was, when there was still a wood burning furnace. It has a pallet fence, and pallets on the ground, all of which are falling over or rotting. My ultimate goal for this year is to get this area cleared.
In the process, I also wanted to clear things a bit further back into the trees towards the outhouse, to access a fallen tree I want to clear out.
There turned out to actually be two of them. After taking pictures, I went to pull out what I thought was a fallen branch, only to find it was actually another dead tree – just a long and skinny one, with about 8-10 feet buried in the tall grass that I didn’t see!
I also cleared some poplars that were growing too close to the outhouse.
The dead tree I wanted access to was also longer than I expected. It extends quite a bit further into the trees, and in the third picture, you can see how its top has landed on other trees, causing them to grow bent.
I’m debating with myself whether I want to cut it into more manageable pieces and haul it out, bit by bit, or just drag the whole thing out in one go.
The lazy part of me says, drag it out in one go. :-D
While working my way towards the elm tree with the tire around its base, I made a discovery.
I’d been able to somewhat see the log someone leaned against the tree trunk through the dying cherry trees, but what is that metal thing under it, and the fallen branch?
It’s a metal chair frame.
Because… of course.
I’m keeping this.
I’ll turn it into an art installation. To go with all the toilets I’m finding! :-D
Clearing around that elm meant I also finally reached one side of the pallet fence.
There’s a poplar growing through it.
I also uncovered a dead tree and some fallen branches.
There are some branches that I put in the area (you can’t see it in the picture) that I saved from the pile in the big garden area that my sister and her husband had pruned before we moved here. Some of it is apple wood. I also kept some of the dead and dying cherry trees I cleared today. I plan to cut them into discs, or other shapes, to make things with them.
It’s hard to see, but as I was trying to clear away the cherry and poplars, I found some of them were growing through the remains of pallets.
There’s going to be a lot of that, as I work my way into the area.
By this point, it was getting simply too hot to keep working outside, and I had to stop for the day. Checking the temperatures before I started this post, I found it was 30C, with a “feels like” of 33C. Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue tomorrow. They’re predicting thunderstorms, but we shall see!
Here are the after pictures of my progress so far.
That reciprocating saw made the job so much easier! The only other tools I had to use were pruning sheers for stuff too small to use the saw on, and a rake, to try and find the bases of the trees I was taking down.
Of the self-sown cherry trees in the area I cleared, I did actually keep one. It even has some cherries ripening on it! I’m hoping it’s far enough away from the elm tree to get adequate sunlight.
Clearing and thinning the trees is the easy part. The hard part is going to be dragging the dog house out (it’s on a pallet, which is rotting and collapsing under it), then digging all the old pallets, pieces of carpet, and who knows what else is buried in there!
After giving the second coat of paint 8 hours to cure – and making sure they weren’t tacky, like we were having problems with before – I put the hinge pins back up.
All of the painting is now complete!
The chain will be held just by the hinge pins for now; I don’t want to start scratching the new paint by wrapping the chain around the posts.
Though the paint was not tacky to the touched, I didn’t want to take a chance of the pins and their washers getting stuck once the nuts were tightened, so I applied spray lubricant, first.
As a bonus, while I was working on it, I met our neighbour, who was out jogging. As she was walking back, we introduced ourselves and had a nice chat. They live a mile away from us which is a pretty typical distance for neighbours around here. :-D I’ve seen them (well; their vehicle) pretty regularly, but we hadn’t had the chance to meet until today. :-)
The posts are now ready to have the gates mounted on the hinges, whenever my brother is ready to come by with the last pieces he has for them.
I’m really looking forward to seeing our freshly painted gate up again! :-)
When we decided to move out here and take care of the farm for my mother, we had some ideas of what to expect, and what we might do in the future.
We were not naive about it, though, and knew that things would have to change with circumstances.
One thing I did not even think of at all.
That we might become a cat sanctuary.
Now, this isn’t all that unusual. Every now and then, I’ll read something in one of the local papers, or see a news clip someone shared on Facebook, about farmers and the 40 or so barn cats that they take care of. Along with their cows and goats and chickens or whatever.
We don’t have barn cats. The house came with yard cats. My dad loved them, and taking care of them was just a given.
I headed out with my daughter to drop her off for work earlier than usual. She was very kind enough to be willing to be stuck outside until someone with a key showed up (which, thankfully, did not turn out to be long) so that I could head over to another town almost an hour’s drive from her work. It was a court date for our vandal, this time in a town closer to us – though not with the extra driving this morning! *L*
Today, I finally had both the time and the weather conditions to work on the south fence line of the spruce grove (there there aren’t actually any spruces left…).
So, while waiting for the freshly washed gates to dry, I brought out the weed trimmer, my new reciprocating saw, and a whole lot of extension cord!
With all the wonderful rain we’ve had, the lawn is quickly reaching jungle proportions. So I started weed trimming the edges before breaking out the riding mower.
It never fails.
Every time I bring out the weed trimmer, I find myself going further and further into the bush.
The Re-Farmer 