It rained like crazy most of the first week I was off, and then my daughter was out of school for Spring Break the second week, so I didn't get a whole lot accomplished outdoors. I only managed to get a couple of burns in.
Most of this is burn pile is forest floor junk and low-hanging tree limbs that could allow a brush fire to jump to the crowns of trees - what they call "ladder fuel".
It's also important to burn dead trees - both to remove the available fuel and to deny bark beetles a place to reproduce. If bark beetles are allowed to reproduce, they can infest and kill nearby healthy trees. They are a huge menace to the forest in years after mild winters.
Below: Everything you need to clean up (besides a strong back and lots of stamina): A high-quality chainsaw, big jug of chain oil, gas/oil fuel with a chain tightening tool in the spout, and a big mug of coffee :)
Below, a large snag that I took down and bucked so that I could move the pieces to the burn pile.
A bunch of dead wood that is now gone.
More dead wood. This was rotting and full of bugs. Good riddance!
Slowly but surely I am getting the property safe from wildland fires. Below is a pretty good video explaining how and why this needs to be done.
Since the weather was poor and I had family time to consider, I did a few small indoor projects, like installing this air hose reel in the shop.
One of the small indoor jobs was to un-crate and assemble the generator I bought in December of last year. It has electric start, so the wife can get it running with the twist of a key.
For fun, I have been saving beer labels of all the various beers I drank over the past few years. I will paste them down and then put a clear-coat over the top of them for a colorful and interesting poster.
Done correctly, it looks pretty cool, although of course I am not doing a table-top.
After a couple of days clearing the woods, my back hurt and a lot of my muscles and joints were sore. I decided that it was time to finally get working on fitness again, so I started using my ghetto gym in the basement. That just made everything hurt worse... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment