Raven's Roost

[RoamingGnome]

Our driveway at the top of the hill has a loop with a tiny island of forest in the center...

When branches fell off the trees we had been putting them on the edge of the loop - saying "we'll get around to putting those in the chipper one day"

- as we get ready to move the trailer up to it's new gravel pad we realized the mess of branches need to be cleaned up and also there are now a couple of large dead trees that should come down - in case they fall on the trailer when it's in place.

The combination of Beech Bark Disease, Oak Wilt and the Gypsy Moth infestations the last few years have been hard on some of our mature trees. In particular, our little drive way island has a large dead Oak tree and 2 dead Beech trees - and a couple more dead trees on the other side of the driveway.

Dropped the smaller Beech tree on the side of the drive to help catch the big Beech when it fell across the lane way...

Next it was time to buck everything into rounds to go back on the racks in the back 40...
(Don't have a wood splitter yet - and nowhere to burn firewood either for that matter )

[RoamingGnome]

It was (for me) a fairly large tree to fall - Playing with chainsaws is a skill that I have acquired very late in life

And trees in the average city backyard don't get this tall...

Got to use some Lumberjack toys, - Finally a chance to try the Princess Auto LogJack - bought it on sale - made the excuse that it was an early Birthday or Christmas present and it would be useful "someday" (it was)

A full day of Lumberjacking was done with my Milwaukee M18 Cordless chainsaw with 16" bar and an HD12.0 Ah battery (it was completely drained by the end of the day)

The rounds were put in the Case trailer

and hauled back to the log racks...

[RoamingGnome]

Wednesday was clean up day...

I had to choose between dropping the 2nd Beech tree and cleaning up the ever growing pile of branches from the first few trees I cut down.
I chose the chipper, and it worked non-stop for most of the day.

It would take about an hour for me to grind enough branches to fill the little trailer with chips / mulch.

And a very nice looking mulch it was too... and what to do with all those wood chips?

lay down a nice path through the forest to the spot where we are eventually going to build our Bunkie, the ground is really rough with lots of dips and holes, laying down a bed of mulch was a quick easy way to level out and smooth things over.

As the day was winding up (and I knew I was making a 5hr drive home afterwards)
I moved all of the tractors away from the clearing and into the forest. Neighbour Glen is going to drop the big Oak tree for me in the next few days and I wanted everything away from the drop zone.

I decided to wrap up Grandpa in a plastic raincoat to try and give his shiny paint job some protection... I'm sure I could hear the Red 644 grumbling about why the old tractor was getting special treatment...

[JSinMO]

You put in a lot of work but the property is really looking nice! And you got some good tractor time in to boot!

[DavidBarkey]

Quote .... I decided to wrap up Grandpa in a plastic raincoat to try and give his shiny paint job some protection... I'm sure I could hear the Red 644 grumbling about why the old tractor was getting special treatment...
A word of caution about tarping up the tractors . Yes it does help protect and keep clean . But it also makes a nice environment for kritters to nest in the tractor . Also with the temp swing this time of year , it can cause them to sweat and not dry out . Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't kind of situation .

[RoamingGnome]

Thanks @DavidBarkey , those are good points about tarping tractors outside. Hopefully this is a very temporary thing. It's just a pain in the butt riding the 195 down the laneway to the far end of the property and park it back in the Shipping Container Garage.

We were up at the property yesterday to put a cover on our RV Trailer. While I was there I put some moth ball packs under the hoods of the 195 and the 644 loader in the hopes it would discourage critters from nesting

When I used the wood chipper for the first time last week I found some field mice had made a home in the intake hopper behind the rubber guard curtain. Discovered too late unfortunately, as more mouse bits came out than originally went in...

[JSinMO]

I hear you on the danged mice! I have the 446 parked in the garage down at the house right now and I just cleared out the beginnings of a nest from under the hood

I try to keep an eye on all the tractors and trucks around here but those sneaky critters still get past me sometimes.
The only success I’ve really had is to use either Decon or Tomcat poison in the buildings and equipment.

[DavidBarkey]

The best defence with mice is to put the outdoors cats bed under the tractor in a shed . Not always practical , but sure is effective .

[RoamingGnome]

The best defence with mice is to put the outdoors cats bed under the tractor in a shed . Not always practical , but sure is effective .

says that won't happen (our cats have always been 100% inside "city" cats)
says I would have better luck trying to keep the tractors in the living room if I really want to put a cat's bed under them...
doesn't understand when I say "I would be ok with that..."

For the record our most recent family member Echo (RIP) never really understood he was a cat,

He did go camping, and he would go outside (on a leash) but at the first sign of trouble he was making a bee line to the door of the camper.
and I'm sure he thought he was some strange combination of part human, dog and cat... he would catch mice in the house, but then just played with them, never realizing he was supposed to finish the deed and then show us his contribution to the household - and not bring it up to our bed at 3am so we could also play with his new friend...

[JSinMO]

@RoamingGnome That sure reminds me of our cat Oliver. He was the best. An outside cat but he would come when you called his name. And he loved to ride around with me on the mule. A lot of times he would be sitting on the seat waiting for me. He would follow me to the garden or up to the chickens. I called him out cat/dog. Same as you said about Echo, I don’t think he knew he was a cat!

I sure don’t think we’ll ever have another one like him!