Good Morning!!!! 59F @ 3:45AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 84F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Almost a carbon copy (is there such a thing anymore?) of yesterday, with perhaps a little more wind. I'll take it.
Yesterday went pretty much as planned. Lit a small burn pile, which took right off with no hesitation at all, then got busy limbing and bucking the downed trees.
Stopped every fifteen minutes or so to feed more slash to the fire, and work on my grapple technique. I found if I float the FEL and curl the grapple while closing the jaws, it'll gather in a nice mouthful almost every time.
Is that how you do it, Rick?
I wish the grapple made as good a sawbuck, but the hydraulics relax once I shut the tractor off and the logs tend to slip in the jaws. And I want to shut the tractor off to delay a regen cycle as long as possible. I'm jealous of your big, straight rounds, Bill, except when it comes time to pick them up!
I found very little of the standing dead wood that was rotten, unlike the bucked wood that had sat under tarps for a year. Ended up filling the side-by-side three times before me and the chainsaws ran out of gas and batteries.
A couple days work gets maybe a couple pallets of wood, not as much as I'd hoped but it's really good exercise! The pile of scraps that didn't make the grade in back is even larger, so I'm well stocked for campfire wood.
Lots of sawdust and pollen in the air has had my allergies going like crazy the past few days. A hot shower felt great, then adjourned to the back porch with a cool beverage to listen to some music and let the ol' back muscles relax. Wasn't long before Stubby and Tasty heard the noise and came out of their hidy holes, and as soon as Stubby saw my bare foot tapping he had to run over for a look.
I'll see your gecko, Don, and raise you a tickle...
Town run today, maybe some paperwork to start. Right now I think I'll try to grab a little more shut eye...
Watch out for April Fools, and hang in there, gang, Friday's comin'!
