Spare Machines Are A Good Idea

I have learned from my chainsaw exploits to never head into the woods with one saw.  You never know when you might do something stupid and get a saw pinched in a leaning tree.

I learned this lesson about spares again this week as I was working on clearing some cedars.  I'm removing them because of a fungus that affects both cedars and apples.

So I've been digging them up with the bobcat, and dragging the slash to my firepit to burn. My firepit is an old corn crib foundation that is a 2 or 3 foot deep pit.

I was scooping up the branches and running them over to the pit after I got a fire started in there.  That's when I made my slight goof.

Due to the overhanging cedar branches, I didn't see how close I was getting to the edge - until it was too late.  It was quite the dilemma.  I was well and truly stuck and I had already started the fire.

I got out of the cab and tried to pull some of the fuel off the fire.  Then I ran to the barn and grabbed some chain and the bobcat.

I managed to pull the tractor back to where it got traction - and I didn't even have to go inside to ask Joan for help.  This is what that pit looked like a little while later.

Thank goodness for that bobcat.  I harvested a few cedar trunks for firepit logs.  There really isn't much of a trunk inside those trees.

After that close call, I continued to increase the clearing of cedars in a radius from the apples.  I have a lot more to burn.

After that excitement, I went tame and did a little frost seeding.

I did some searching for sheds with no luck - then I almost tripped on this in the middle of the main field.

On my hike and camera tour.

No action in Amy's salamander pond yet.

Last week with Violet.  She's nicely groomed this week so she wasn't invited on the hike.

The bobcat has been showing up most weeks.

And we always have coyotes.

And fox.

And kitty cats?

It's a little early for the Toms to be strutting.

And it's nice to have a crowd - haven't seen this since last year.

The deer on the left looks like a buck that still has velvet on his little weird antlers.

He was the only antlers on camera this week - I think most have dropped.

The crows found the sunflower seed.

And so did the doves and others.