Cutting Down a Tree

January 6, 2015

Chainsaw

November 25, 2014

Putting up Christmas lights…

 

…70 feet up in the air!

Benjamin Using the Chainsaw

Big-O Brush Fire

  At least, that’s how we’d describe the massive fire we had down here in the south.

 

Climbing IN a Tree–Dec 16

Dec 16 2011

Some Outdoor Fun

   This tree was approx. 15 feet around at its base!

Tree Stand

Benjamin (not pictured) bought a tree stand to use for bow hunting the deer in our yard for the bow season this fall. The photo may be a little deceiving-it’s only 11.5’ off the ground.

Noah (pictured) had fun putting on the safety harness and climbing up the ladder.  There’s enough room for all 3 of us to sit up there.

Working in the Gardens & in the Treetops

   We were very busy today working in the yard and in the garden.  I did a lot of shoveling, Benjamin resembled a monkey as he pruned the trees and we also planted a few more plants and mulched another section of the yard.

   I worked on turning up the soil for the “East” garden.  It was quite a job using the Maddox to bust up the chunks of sod.

 

 

 

 

 

Benjamin trimming the trees

Benjamin thinks he remembers reading about a woodpecker that’ll place acorns inside of a tree, but he can’t remember for sure what species it was.

Noah cut down some bamboo to use as posts for the tomatoes to grow on.

The west garden mulched

 

The new blackberry patch

Cutting & Digging

  Since we have gotten back from the trip we have been making plans for this year’s gardening….which for all intents and purposes is really our first year of gardening.

Benjamin added some sunlight for our garden area by cutting down this tree:

Existing grapes and and a hole for new grapes

 

   The 3 of us…or actually the 4 of us….have our own special project apart from the vegetable garden.  Noah is growing blueberries, Benjamin is growing blackberries, Mom is growing a herb garden and I am growing grapes.

   Whenever we first moved to our property the previous owners sold produce they grew on their land and they had apples, strawberries, peaches, grapes, pears, mulberries and blackberries.  We pretty much have not touched the grape vine, but amazingly it is still alive and, though In need of some heavy pruning, produces fruit and is in fairly decent shape.

   I’ll be taking of the existing grape vine and will be making a new row of grapes.  I began digging holed for the plants to go into and I’ve also got holes dug for the posts that the wire will be attached to keep the vines off of the ground.

Storm Damage II

   Last Tuesday we our area had severe storms that included tornados and large hail.  Friends just across town had egg-sized hail that damaged their cars and make it sound like the roof was going to collapse.

   Tuesday night we were driving back home from Cincinnati when we got caught in the storm and had to exit the highway and wait out the storm.  The rain came in torrents and there was some hail as well.  After about 2 1/2 hours of waiting we decided we needed to get closer towards home and got back onto the highway.  It was 2am before we made it home after battling wet roads and heavy rain.

   You may remember that just a few weeks ago a branch fell on our deck and ripped the canopy. Well, on Wednesday we found that another branch had fallen on top of, but not through, the canopy.

 

Oh yeah, just as an update, Benjamin' has now pumped well over 150 gallons of water from our basement!

Ice on the Trees

    The effects of the winter storm this morning don’t seem to be severe, but Kate’s still going to stay home since more of the storm is on its way.  Yesterday we did get some freezing rain on all of the branches (above) and when I took pictures last night there was a lot more ice on the trees. (below)

   This morning we got just enough snow to barely cover the ground and it looks like we’re getting some sleet right now.

   The real threat of this storm was that the ice would weigh too much for the power lines and we’d have a lot of power outages.  As of now, Ameren hasn’t reported any outages yet.