Weather Changes

It looks like Fall is definitely on the way out here in the woods.

There has been a good bit of rain lately, and it is cooling off at night.
In fact it has been cool enough for a bit of a fire on a couple of mornings.
And morning fires need firewood.
The Fuzz has cut a little, and there is a wee bit left from last year.
But certainly not enough to make it through the winter.  So The Fuzz did make a survey of the grounds, and found a few candidates for the fire.

The thing is to locate and mark the dead or dying ones.  One can look up to the treetops and find the ones without leaves.  This has to be done before they fall, of course.

This one is definitely on the way out.  Actually, The Fuzz has had his eye on this one for a couple of years now.  It looks like this might be the year for it.

Once the tree is selected, it is marked.  This makes it easier to find once the rest of the leaves have fallen.

Of course the hard work is still ahead.

And More Stuff...

The Fuzz's Sweetie is a big fan of gardening.  It hasn't always been easy out here in the woods.  New ground had to be broken up.  And the soil is not quite up to the standard of the Old Place, where it had been built up over 30 years.  And there are all the trees, and their shade.

Now shade is nice on a hot summer day, but not necessarily the best thing for a garden.

So The Fuzz's Sweetie had asked him to get out the chainsaw sometime and go to work on this.  And with cooler weather in the future there was a use for the wood.

So The Fuzz has been doing a bit of tree cutting.

There is still a bit more to cut, but this should open up things around the garden a little more.

And there are still plenty of trees left.

Near Disaster Update

You may recall a Near Disaster mentioned in some previous posts.  Well, The Fuzz's little injury did slow progress a bit.  With the driveway clear, it was time to do a bit of work on the site itself.  This involved leveling things somehow, and removing a few stumps.

So The Fuzz got out his brand new heavy-duty Come-a-long.
One end was chained to a solid stump.  This one does not have to be removed to get the new carport set up.  And the other end was chained to the stump to be removed.  This one was smaller, and a bit rotten as well.

The Fuzz's plan called for simply pulling it from the ground, like an old rotten tooth.  And with the tremendous power available with this excellent piece of equipment, it worked!
He pulled a couple more stumps with this set-up, and a bit of work with a mattock.

Here's a look at the site.

And the log from the tree that had caused all this trouble was finally cut into firewood as well.

Here's a look at The Poor Fuzz's Paw.  It has healed well.  It is still a bit stiff, and there are some numb areas.  He might not be able to play the violin though.  But since he couldn't do that before this unfortunate affair, it is no big loss.

Driveway Clear!

We would like to report that the driveway is now clear, and The Fuzz's little paw is healing nicely.
Of course it will still be a while before he is 100% back in business.

In the meantime, he was determined to get those logs out of the way.  He found that he could manage to hold on to the saw.  He had to hold it with his foot in order to crank the thing.  It was a bit painful, but once it was running, with His Sweetie's help, they were able to saw up enough of the trees to at least clear a path for the car.  The rest will just have to wait a bit longer.

Near Disaster

The Fuzz admits that it has been a while since he posted here at Kinda Fuzzy.  But he has not been just sitting on his hands all this time.
There was The Great Motorcycle Adventure of course.  Hopefully there will be more on that later.  This post concerns trees, and near disaster.
Not long before the previously mentioned Motorcycle Adventure, The Fuzz and His Sweetie ordered one of those metal carports.  

Parking a white car under the trees (and birdies) gets a bit messy.  And of course there is the potential for falling limbs.  But a place would have to be prepared for it.
So a spot was selected near the Shed, where the car is usually parked.

But since we are in the woods here, it would be necessary to remove a few small trees, and one larger one (X).  Not wanting to drop this thing on the shed, and hoping to avoid getting it hung up in the woods, Our Fuzz resorted to a previously successful method, employing rope and his ragged old "come along".

Things started out well enough.  With His Sweetie's assistance, the tree was cut and started to fall in the chosen direction.
But there was a problem.  The tree hung up in another large tree across the driveway.
The Fuzz thought that a bit more tension on the rope should pull this stubborn thing free and onto the ground in the desired place.
Now came the 2nd hitch.
The Fuzz tightened this rig up about as much as he dared, with no success.  So he decided to move the rope and all, to another tree, so to get a better angle for dislodging this stubborn thing.

But as he was slowly easing the tension off, the gears in this ragged piece of equipment slipped, tearing open Our Poor Fuzz's hand!
At this point, The (now) Safety Minded Fuzz would like to point out that gloves would be a good idea for anyone involved in a similar project.

With this tree still hung up like this, The Fuzz felt that leaving it in this condition could be dangerous.  So His Sweetie wrapped up his mangled paw, and he went back to work.
By moving this rig to various anchor points, and finally even using that poor little Accord, they managed to finally get the tree unhung from where it was - And into another tree!

In the end The Fuzz was forced to cut this 2nd tree as well.
This resulted in both trees now blocking the driveway.
Well, at least they were on the ground.
Now it was time to have a look at the hand.
The squeamish may want to skip this part.

The Chase

We do have a lot of squirrels around here.



And they do give all the cats something to do.



The kitty was just a little too slow this time.



Well, some times you're winners, sometimes you're...

Dogwood Update

Dogwood Post Update

They're out pretty good now!

One More for the Fire

Even with the warmer weather, some firewood is still needed.
The Fuzz makes periodic surveys of the area looking for dead or dying trees.  Tree hugger that he is, he does not like to cut a healthy tree unless it is necessary for some other reason.

Here is one he has had his sights on this winter.  Not quite dead, but it's only a matter of time.

He was quite surprised when His Sweetie informed him of this one!

Apparently the wind had pushed it over recently.  But it was quite dead, and had been for some time.  The Fuzz still doesn't know how he could have missed it.

But of course now it was time to break out his trusty (sorta) Chainsaw.

The tricky part of these situations is getting the thing safely un-hung from it's neighbors.  The only thing to do is to carefully notch and cut sections of the trunk and hope it does not fall back on the fool cutting it.  (These things have been referred to as "widow makers")

But we are happy to report that this was accomplished with no damage to Our Fuzz, or the equipment*.

It is interesting how the outer layers of a pine tree will rot away leaving the heart more or less intact.  One can often find bits of this "Rich Pine" laying about.  It is excellent for lighting fires.  One only needs to touch a match to it.

Well, with the assistance of His Sweetie, wood was split, and safely stashed under the tin.

*One time this did not go so well.  The tree dropped down on the chainsaw pinning it to the ground and destroying the bar!

The Christmas Tree Thing

The Fuzz used to be a purist about this Christmas Tree thing.  One just did not put it up until Christmas Eve Day!

But over the years they have worn him down.

So, here it is.

Poison

Earlier this year, the power company sent huge machines to clear under the power lines.  The Fuzz didn't like this much, but there was nothing he could do about it.

This time they came though one morning spraying poison on everything.

The Fuzz and His Sweetie (mostly) had planted a hedge up along the road where they had cut everything down earlier.  Fortunately, the spray guys figured out that all those little trees in a neat row were something intentionally planted.  But they did get the privet at the edge of the woods.

The Fuzz has a problem with folks spraying poison on things.  Admittedly, there are times when it seems necessary, like when wasps have moved into one's doorbell.  

But something just seems wrong about poisoning the ground.  Here's a look at the ugly mess left behind.

But there is hope.  This morning The Fuzz found these young shoots struggling up from the roots of the privet bushes.

"...Beyond My Lifetime..."

The Fuzz sees that the Space Shuttle Endeavour is heading to LA.

Unfortunately, this is bad news for the Tree Huggers.

"400 trees to be removed along shuttle Endeavour’s path in South L.A."

"Trees that interfere with the shuttle will have to be removed, and some residents are upset.

"'They are cutting down these really big, majestic trees," Lark Galloway-Gilliam, a longtime resident and neighborhood council director told the L.A. Times. "It will be beyond my lifetime before they will be tall like this again."
"The California Science Center said they would replant twice as many trees along the route, to replace those that will be chopped down."

That's right thoughty of 'em.

The Fuzz has been known to do a bit of Tree Hugging himself at times.  But once they're gone, they're gone.  At least like the man said,

"...beyond my lifetime..."

A Day Off?

This is what can happen when your Chainsaw's auto-oilier ain't oilin'. This happened the other day whilst Our Fuzz and His Sweetie were cutting a bit of firewood.
At the right you can see the Spiffy New Chainsaw Bar that The Fuzz was forced to purchase.
There was an old nasty tree over at the old place that had to get cut before we could get some taters in. So he took another vacation day and took care of that.He did get most of it cut up. What's left is not in the tater bed, so we may get them in yet.
After that, He and His Sweetie hauled off the trash. Tomorrow, it's back to the Busy City Garbage Routine.

They Got Us Again

One thing that was (still is) nice about our Home in the Woods, was that we were back a ways from the road. Granted, it is only a dead end dirt road, but The Fuzz still likes having a few trees between it and the trailer.
The Power Co got us like this when we lived near town*. And now, they got us again.
Here's a look at our new road frontage.
Fortunately, there were plenty of trees left. But there was nothing left for it, but to start working these ones up for firewood.

*It was a bit of a bummer.

Another One Bites The Dust

The weather has been getting warmer. But there is still the need for that little bit of extra warmth, and hence, Firewood.
We have been getting by all winter, by cutting some of the dead trees still standing around here. Well, we have pretty much got the easy stuff already.
This was one The Fuzz had had his eye on for some time. It was at the edge of the woods, along the road. But there was a bit of a complication involved. The tree was quite dead, and really needed to be taken down. But it was not quite vertical. It did have a bit of a lean to it. And that lean, would bring it down, right on top of the power lines.
This can be seen at the arrow in the pix at the right*.
And so, that resourceful Fuzz got out his 100 ft rope, and his trusty Comealong. His Sweetie helped out there, at the critical moment, and the tree was dropped where desired, thus sparing those important power lines.

*As always, Click on the Pix for an even better look!

Weekend Stuff

It's been a quiet weekend around here.
Unless you count the sound of The Fuzz's little chainsaw.
With the weather turning colder these days, it was time to work up a bit of firewood.
He had already scouted out a few dead trees back before the leaves fell, and had marked them with a nice bright X. Now it was time to bring out that little green chainsaw. First he filled it with gas and oil. Then it was time to begin the "Pull-on". Surprisingly, things went well and he soon had several dead trees on the ground. Finally, it was time for a break by the fire and a cold Blue Ribbon.
After that, The Fuzz and His Sweetie planted some Prickly Pears out by the road, then stacked some of the wood.
For some reason, The Fuzz had gotten an urge to watch Brazil again.
So we put it on our Netflix que. It is a bit strange.

The Bench

It was a lot of work cutting down this tree and it seemed like a waste to just burn it all. So The Fuzz took his trusty chainsaw and sawed part of the trunk in half. This seemed like a lot of extra work, but he had two of these nifty timbers to show for it. A while back he and His Sweetie had dropped a couple of trees near the trailer and this looked like just the thing to complete the related bench project*.
These timbers are about 8ft long and a bit heavy as you might guess. And to top it off, they had to be moved across this small creek. There was no way to get to them with a truck even if The Fuzz still had one. The only option was to pick the things up and carry them across.
Fortunately, The Academical Son is a stout fellow and even The Fuzz managed to handle his end without a heart attack.
Now that he had the timber where it was needed, The Fuzz needed some notches to fit over the stumps left from the other trees. So once again, out came the old chainsaw. Here you can see how he first made cuts into the rounded side. Then, he chiseled them out to sit on top of the stumps.The timber was then turned over and lifted onto the stumps. These had been left here and cut off just for this bench. As you can see, it worked out pretty well.

And even the Kitty Cat likes it!

*This project had been planned for a while. Originally, we had planned to use a poplar log, but this cherry seemed like a much better candidate.

What Is Up

And now, the story behind the previous pix.
I seems that along our property line, there was a rather large cherry tree. And it is also a fact, that said cherry tree was leaning dangerously toward a neighbor's trailer. The Fuzz had promised to take care of this a while back. And so, since that Academic Son was home on spring break, The Fuzz decided to take advantage of all this young muscle. After all, The Fuzz is getting a little old for that sort of thing.

And that is he, rather than The Fuzz, up there having all the fun. It was necessary to tie a rope up there at the fork just above the poor guy. But The Fuzz was not entirely left out. He got to climb up there (although not quite so high) and handle the chainsaw.
And although it did get a bit complicated, they were able to get the thing down in several pieces, and without dropping it on the trailer in question.

And we have a good start on next winter's firewood!

Up

Another Hang-up

With The Fuzz's Sweetie out of town, and Young Daughter visiting friends, The Fuzz was left to puppy sit. He also had to deal with a shrinking wood pile. He had already found a dead tree nearby, so he figured this was a good time to go get it.
Naturally, there was a hang-up. As can be seen here, the top of the tree he was cutting (A) hung up on one of it's neighbors (B).
After a number of unsuccessful attempts to rock the thing loose, he finally gave up on that.
All his help was gone, so he had to be a bit creative. He went and got out that old faithful Come-a-long. One end was fastened to that uncooperative tree, the other to another one. The it was only a matter of carefully pulling tree A to the side until it's topmost branches finally broke free.

And as they say, It's hard to argue with success!