At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Digging the first trench on the side of the tree where I wanted the tree to fall.



Setting a safety cable before digging on the backside of the tree.



Digging the second trench on the back side of the tree. Notice that the remaining uncut roots act as hinges to make sure the tree falls in the desired direction.



Pushing the tree over.



The tree fell right where I tried to land it.



Cleaning the dirt off the roots.



I got out my Stihl, cut off the stump and carried it off.

 

[Obed]

Filled in the hole with some rocks left over from the yard grading.



Here's the shed location without the maple tree.



The maple was the biggest tree, by far, that I've taken down with my little backhoe. However, the tree came down without a hitch. This task was quite satisfying.

 

[Larro Darro]

Good job on the tree removal.

Larro

 

[Coyote machine]

Curious why you chose to dig out the tree and cable it; (how high up?), rather than just dropping the tree and then digging out the stump?
Maybe I'm missing something, but that method sure seems like a lot of extra work and time consuming as well...

 

[Obed]

Curious why you chose to dig out the tree and cable it; (how high up?), rather than just dropping the tree and then digging out the stump?
Maybe I'm missing something, but that method sure seems like a lot of extra work and time consuming as well...

Coyote,
Good question. If I need to remove the stump, it's faster to drop the tree with attached stump with the backhoe than to use the chainsaw first. Pushing the tree over while it is still attached to the stump uses the weight of the tree to pull the stump and remaining roots out of the ground. Digging a stump out of the ground by itself requires a lot more digging and is time consuming, especially if there are roots directly below the stump. Also, taking the tree down with the backhoe gives you a lot of control over the direction the tree falls.

The cable was attached to the trunk about 15 feet high. It was only a safety for just in case the tree wanted to fall backwards instead of forward while I was digging on the backside of the tree. It probably wasn't necessary. Most people wouldn't use it under most conditions. However, I was just being extra cautious because I have very little experience taking down trees with a backhoe (or with a chainsaw).

If I had dropped the tree with my chainsaw, I probably would have hooked up the cable anyway, again because of my lack of experience. I have never dropped a tree as large as that maple with a chainsaw. I'm more comfortable trying the bigger trees with the backhoe than the chainsaw. Eventually, I may work my way to dropping a tree that large with my chainsaw. If I don't mind leaving the stump in the ground, dropping the tree with the chainsaw would be faster than using the backhoe.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Hillbilly Gate

 

[Obed]

Stung by a Wasp
Yesterday evening, I got stung by a wasp while trying to attach the scraper blade to the 3PH. Wasps had build a nest inside the implement and I got stung on the back of my right hand through the glove I was wearing. I'm surprised it took the wasps as long as long as it did to nail me. I had moved the blade around on the ground for quite a bit before I got stung. Normally I will immediately put ice on a bee sting to reduce the effects of the poison. However, I had a lot to do before the impending rain arrived so I didn't use the ice.



I got some wasp spray and sprayed inside the hollow part of the implement. I then swatted wasps with a broom and sprayed in the air to kill about 3 of them. Finally, I attached the blade to the 3PH while one remaining mad wasp that I couldn't kill flew around.

I put my gloves back on and continued my work. By the time I went to bed, my hand had started swelling. When I awoke this morning, the hand was more swollen. Today by about 5 PM, my hand was looking pretty bad so I wend to a walk-in clinic. They prescribed 7 days of steroids. The nurse practitioner told me for signs to look for that might indicate an ER visit would be needed.

Normally, I don't react this badly to a bee sting. Yesterday evening, while working, sometimes my right hand felt like something was stinging my again but I ignored it and kept working. I am now wondering if the stinger was still in the glove and I was getting multiple ongoing stings from the stinger. It's just a hypothesis. In addition, I bled some where the wasp stung my hand. I suspect the stinger and poison penetrated a vein.

 

[Larro Darro]

I've got a couple of gates like that to my garden. But I also use a steel landscape rod for the big gate that I can drive the tractor or truck in. A loop of wire at the bottom and at the top, and you are good to go. My current garden fence looks a lot like yours. But I'm going to redo mine with wooden 4X4's and a heavy wire wove through the fence to support some grapevines. Margie has been wanting a swimming pool for years, and since the garden is right by the pumphouse, that is where any future pool would go. If we ever put one in, the grapevines would be a ready made privacy fence.

Larro

 

[Obed]

I've got a couple of gates like that to my garden. But I also use a steel landscape rod for the big gate that I can drive the tractor or truck in. A loop of wire at the bottom and at the top, and you are good to go. My current garden fence looks a lot like yours. But I'm going to redo mine with wooden 4X4's and a heavy wire wove through the fence to support some grapevines. Margie has been wanting a swimming pool for years, and since the garden is right by the pumphouse, that is where any future pool would go. If we ever put one in, the grapevines would be a ready made privacy fence.

Larro

Larro,
My granddad and dad occasionally made hillbilly gates on the farm. Typically, they were gates in spots that were seldom used. More frequently used gates got real gates. Some of the farm gates were handmade out of wood when I was younger. Eventually they all got replaced by metal gates.
Obed

 

[Larro Darro]

Larro,
My granddad and dad occasionally made hillbilly gates on the farm. Typically, they were gates in spots that were seldom used. More frequently used gates got real gates. Some of the farm gates were handmade out of wood when I was younger. Eventually they all got replaced by metal gates.
Obed

I guess I was a teenager before we started buying metal gates. When you were a kid, opening a big wooden gate was a chore. No matter how well made, they would sag with age, so you had to lift up on them.

And we made what we called 'gaps' in barb wire fences to move the cows between pastures. They were just strands of barb wire strung to a pole, or small wooden post. I hadn't thought about that kind of gate in years.

Larro