Framing the beds with Logs

[897tgigvib]

It's a long slow project, and I'd have liked to do this year's framing during the winter, but I had a couple problems, excuses(?), that got me behind on it. Had to fix that netting that the snow took down. Ready for next winter's snow with that now. I'll simply cut my stitching at some easy places to let the snow slide in and down instead of pulling it apart with the weight. And then I got sick, that Bubonic Flu whatever it was.

So, even though the beds are raised, mounded, and some even planted, I've been framing around them. That big bed actually turned out wider, and once the sides were filled, more square footage. I like that.

I got that smaller bed this side of it "capped" and finished too now. It only needs some more soil added. I swiped some of its soil to put into the big bed.

Wellp, in the framing gear, I placed all the upright posts using the cutoffs for that on the other beds I'd been putting off.

Well, right now I'm on a double extended break, and here's why. I cut down "pecker poles" for log framing. Now, pecker pole is the official term Ranger Wolfgang, that's his name, uses for trees that need to be cut down. We're part of a larger thinning operation around here, and Mendocino National forest is an actual working forest where limited harvest takes place.

Pecker poles are trees that are in the way of better trees growth. If a tree is less than 8 feet from another tree, one or both of them will not reach full potential. If a tree is less than 8 inches in diameter 8 feet up, it may well be a pecker pole. If a tree is infested with borers as evidenced by lots of sap running down its side and or by dark gall type bumps on the trunk, it is a pecker pole. If a tree is a hazard to life or property it is a pecker pole. If a tree is dead or is definitely dying or otherwise failing it is a pecker pole.

I cut the easy and safe smaller pecker poles that have zero chance, barring a tornado or meteorite, of damaging anyone's property. I'm not a big strong lumberjack or anything like that. Just an ole left handed Neanderthal with a Stihl 180c.

So, today after setting all those upright posts, holes, fill, grade, line up etcetera, I loaded the wagon behind the lawn tractor with the saw and found a perfect pecker pole. Now, that thing had 2 ways to fall. Where I wanted it to fall, which would have been nice. Right there I could cut it in long halves and drag it to the garden. Or, it could fall down the ravine.

COURSE, even with my extra deep and upward aiming wedge cut, and my way extra steep down aiming cut, some wind came along and tipped the scale in favor of it falling backward down the ravine. OF COURSE!

...more after i smoke a cigarette brb

 

[897tgigvib]

I did manage to get the bar out well in time, but I saw it was going backward, infallibly. So I stepped back good, got behind a nearby tree, and watched it fall, down the ravine. It did a slight twist and plopped to the ground on the butt cut first, then down, BINGO, backward 180 degrees.

This meant to get it I'd have to climb down there with chainsaw and cut off the biggest chunk I could drag up. I cut off a 10 foot or so chunk, 10 inches thick at the base, 7 inches thick at the top where my cut was to remove the chunk. By 2 foot lifts and upward shoves, I got it up the ravine in about 15 minutes of heaving. Scraped my arms up some doing it.

Then I saw 2 very small growths of poison oak. Don't think I touched it, but especially with the VERY MINOR scrapes on my arms, I decided do this then shower.

Got that one up, dragged it to the garden, had to cut a 4 foot chunk, got it up, then got another 9 footer. Don't forget the side branch cuttings. Yea, on the sides of the ravine, with poison oak near. Not a lot, fact, only a little hear and there. This is the oiliest time of year for it too. Oh yea. Got it all up and dragged to my garden, got the wagon loaded with the saw and stuff, got to my cabin and took a looooonggg shower.

Yes, about the time I suggested for Secuono to take a nice long bath, I needed one too, but not having even so much as a horse trough, and the lake is still kind of cold for it, I took a decadently long shower.

Lotioned my whole self down with conditioner once I was wet. Oh, washed my hands and arms in the sink first. All clothes deep in the laundry box. Used a lot of shampoo all over myself, lather rinse repeat, then my hair. Oh yes. Long time in there, and did the whole thing again.

Sometimes, rugged as we have to be, it is time to get seriously clean. Got to wash off any potential poison oak oils. I hope I did not actually contact any, and if I did, I hope I was in time washing it off, that I washed it off right.

And now I'm tired, and just got an email from a camper who suddenly wants me to rake his camp. That one will be full price.

I'll get back to it in a bit. I LOVE NATURE.

Just, wouldn't it be nice if gravity would reduce as we get older? lol!

 

[canesisters]

Wow... just wow.
That sounded like WAY too much work.
Have you ever considered doing the log throwing thing at Celtic festivals?

 

[baymule]

#$%$%^*$%#% TREE!!!!!! There, I cussed that tree for ya'. Better luck with the next pecker pole.

I am allergic to poison oak too and will break out in whelps from it. Blisters that I claw at trying to kill the insane itching. I suffered for years until I discovered Clorox. A half cup of Clorox in a gallon of water kills the poison oak. If you rinse off in the Clorox solution, you won't even break out in the rash. File this away in you Woods Man notes.

 

[bobm]

Geeesshh ! Marshall, I feel your pain for the wrong way fall of that pecker pole tree as well as that poison oak ... however, I must make you aware before you light up that cancer/ forest fire producing torch in the middle of the Mendocino National Forest, tired, frustrated, just need a nicotein fix or not. Smog producing polution of public property by spouting smoke from fosil fuel burning machine as well as that nasty nicotine lased smoke causing product is a big NO NO too ! Wasting clean water with long showers without low flow shower heads is tantamount to watering one's lawn during a rain. Then, using conditioner, extra soap and shampoo for the shower to wash off the poison oak oils , then doing it again one after another, wastefull , polutes our water sources and decodent ... gasp ! What happened to the soiled and poison oak soaked clothes in the laundry ? Good thing you are not in San Fransico ... that would be TREE STRIKES and would carry a life sentence . You could have asked , prety please, the Bigfoot kids for some help with that pecker tree as I hear tell that the Bigfoots communicate with each other by knocking saplings against a tree, so it should be easy for them to assist in the harvest and save all that strife and resorces. Now, go make yourself some lemonaide . Ha ha !

 

[897tgigvib]

I didn't get poison oak at all.

went back out to it for part b of yesterday.

Luckily the commies have not made smoking cigarettes illegal. They did in the town of Novato. Grumpy unhappy town. Ugly people live there.

my shower head is one of those that takes 5 minutes to get a person wet.

Bob, we did fix a valve on the overflow at our spring with a double reservoir system so that now the small reservoirs don't lose so much water to the overflow. We also have the foundation materials for a 3rd water tank, and the chlorinator is set to ideal. Concern time for the water supply is memorial day, 4th of july, and labor day.