Sunday, April 7, 2013

It's SPRING!!!!


Officially!!! I have trees with green leaves on them,


daffodils I didn't know I had growing (forgot to take a picture of them, oops), and a whole mess of trees cut down and some cut up.


I have found out that a lot of the trees growing around the house are thorny locust. Good for burning, not so good to keep me from being scratched up by the blasted thorns on the things. But there is a LOT of the stuff around the homestead acre so there's going to be a lot of it going into the woodpile. I also found what I was told was once a "goat pen," but it's not much of a pen. Rusty stock fencing, very rusty t-posts, and of all things, the gate and one section of fence are made of old bedsprings with the coverings off. Well, at least it'll make for some good scrap.


The Merlot is starting to come apart inside. A lot of junk is getting hauled out and dumped into the burn pit and torched along with the brushy trimmings off the trees I'm cutting down that aren't worth anything as far as firewood, so that's getting cleared up to be able to tear apart the darn thing. The next problem is to start taking the outer siding off and scrapping it. Thank goodness I've got the tin snips, because the big parts have to be cut down to fit into the trailer to be hauled off to the scrap yard for a bit of extra cash.


Work's kept me busy, but not too busy, as it's getting to be warm weather slowdown and less hours. I don't like the shorter checks, but as long as I get at least 30 hours a week, I can make it through without a major problem. What I do like is the extra time I have to spend doing things here, so I can get a lot more done. Like all those frigging soda cans that just got dumped off the deck and which have slowly been getting buried in the ground as the earth shifts due to the local freeze/thaw cycle. I've had to dig out a few with fingertips to be able to toss them into the scrap trashcan by the stairs.

I do need to get the rest of that wood cut up from in where I want to put the midden heap, but I didn't quite get all the trees I cut down that are laying there all cut up today because the battery on my little chainsaw ran out of juice. I have a sadry over that ... I was in the middle of cutting up a small tree trunk when it ran out of juice. But I can't gripe too much because I'd been out there for the better part of three hours cutting stuff up and chucking it into the woodpile and burn pit before it lost its oomph. So a LOT of stuff got cut up.

I love this little thing. No vibration, no excessive noise, it shuts off as soon as I let off the trigger, and it cuts up a lot of stuff a lot faster than the hand tools. Mind, I do love hand tools, and they have their uses, but for speed, power tools have their place, too. And since I'm the only one doing things now, I need speed. So what if all I can cut up really is smallish stuff. I kid you not, that chainsaw allowed me to cut up about two days worth of small logs in three hours. It's a lot more than I used to be able to do with the hand saw. Wheee!!!!

So since it's spring and I don't want to waste a lot of time that can be spent outside getting stuff done, I'm  outta here. See you next time!


A different view of the "goat pen" area where I cut down a bunch of thorny locust yesterday. Lots more trash to clear up came to ligt, but it sure looks lot better and different than it did.


This is where the midden heap is going to go, next to the easement. It's also right next to the driveway, and the rocks were already there. I've still got a few trees that were growing there to cut up for firewood and brush to burn, but it came along quite well yesterday.

3 comments:

  1. Heather what a difference there is to your place already. Super wowsers to you both, and hearty congratulations.

    I am so pleased to read that spring is there finally. It won't be too long now and you will be able to get even more done.

    It has been amazing coming along with you on this journey. And As I sit here typing this comment I am thinking of a little patch of dirt that you have cleared and a few vegetables plants going in and then seeing the smiles on your faces as you harvest your very first vegetables from your little homestead.

    Heather when that happens and you have your chickens and goats in place then all this tremendously hard work with be worth it.

    I can't wait to see what you do next girl. Keep up the excellent work because now you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi
    Hopfully this thing will let me post this time!

    Glad to see you making progress, hard work does pay off in the long run, at least sometimes.
    I know you from LaMar's solar homesteading group on yahoo, by the way.

    How is you husband doing? Has he found another job yet, doing odd jobs, working around the place? Sorry, not trying to be nosy, you just haven't mentioned him in a month or so.
    Leigh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Leigh! Thanks for dropping in to see me. I'm always glad to have guests here. As for Quentin, he's not really a part of the picture anymore, long story that I'm not going into so I'm pretty much doing everything myself. Let's just leave it at I don't see a lot of sense in mentioning what he's NOT doing, which is pretty much anything. So it's all falling on me, which is fine with me. Things get done quicker it seems these days, so you never know what's going to pop up on the "it's all done" list!

      Delete