Good Morning!!!! 65F @ 6:00AM. Abundant sunshine. Near record high temperatures. High 84F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Spring just got here and already the temps are reaching summer highs. Ugh!
Anybody heard from Kyle? Hope he's OK...
Good luck keeping the secret, David!
"Only" and "70' x 18"" don't belong in the same sentence, Ken. That's a big tree!
Hope the new sensor does the trick.
We're not made out of rubber any more, Buppies,
I've been using
this site to check hospital ratings, Don.
I might put off SS another year due to not wanting to increase the income taxes on the lump sum payment from the Fire Victim Trust that will likely land this year. Almost all of it will be taxable, as is the majority of SS income. At least that's what I've been able to figure out so far. There's legislation moving at both the state and federal level to make the FVT money tax free, but I'm not holding my breath.
Yesterday I reminded the dozer operator that a dead tree I'd been chain sawing on was still standing, and could he get to it today? It's just below the driveway on a steep slope, but he agreed to go after it and pop it out of the ground. What neither of us counted on was how well it was anchored in the ground. Even pushing with the dozer from the top side didn't even bend it, so he started by dragging the rippers around it. Nope, not gonna budge. So he started digging down and ripping, and was probably six feet deep before he got it to move. And by then the hole was twenty feet across. Finally one last push got it up and out of the hole, and when the last root broke it took off down the hill like an out of control wrecking ball. It flew maybe a hundred feet before the trunk hit another oak tree about twenty feet up, coming to rest in a big manzanita bush. When the dust cleared, I was able to get close enough to see that the root ball was at least twelve feet around, and the trunk was a good twenty feet high with maybe eighteen inches in diameter.
Back up at the hole, I had an idea. With a little more digging and moving some dirt around, it could make a great backstop for a rifle range. Took a hike to the other end of the cleared area, and the elevations were pretty close, and the view was good, too. Half an hour later, the backstop was done. That man is a maniac on a dozer!
Today I'll see if I can get him to back drag or push across all of the cleared area to smooth the dozer ruts and pick up the rest of the downed wood, and just push it to the bottom of the hill to make a berm. Then cut a road between the backstop and firing point.
I finished the day's work by cutting the brush away from the southwest corner marker, much of it poison oak. Crapped up both the machete and chainsaw, and most of me as well. Wiped down everything with bleach wipes, but I'll hit it all again with soap and water today, along with my boots. So far I've only seen one small poison oak spot on my wrist, and I hope to hold it at that.
I was enjoying a cold beer on the back porch when a fence lizard came along, so I went back inside and brought out the meal worms that had spent the winter in the refrigerator. Most were still in good shape, and when I offered one to the lizard it came running right over and took it. Looks like Tasty overwintered well, too..
Happy Hump Day, folks!
