Hello Everyone!
The dodgy PSU, Tree felling goes wrong, A building delivery, So much effort & Some clumpy clay!
Alright, I am in slow motion this morning after letting myself sleep in an hour later than when I was hoping to be up. After missing my writing routine altogether yesterday (due to that faulty PSU again) I was hoping to make an early start... but alas the sun is already rising and I have yet to even drink enough espresso to jostle my brain fully awake.
The other day, I wanted to fell those two big sweet gum trees near the new flat spot... but in the end I wound up only felling one of them. Although, the power was not disconnected super long for that project it was apparently long enough to drain the capacitors in that PSU... which as a side note took almost a full day to get working again.
Honestly, taking that tree down went 'from bad to worse' rather quickly... because although I did the notch cut just fine for felling the tree... I buggered up the back cut. I did not bugger it up once either but three frigging times... as I tried to correct my mistake with the same exact saw with the bent bar that made the first bad cut!
Long story short here, the tree 'set back' on the stump and tried to fall backwards (and uphill) because my back cut undercut the notch cut... and messed up the whole 'hinge' effect that occurs when a tree is felled properly. Having been in that sort of scenario before (where the tree fell wrong) I did the only things that I knew to do... ram the saw into the cut in the hopes that the tree will bind on the bar... and then I got the heck away from the tree.
Since that tree falling in that new direction lined it up perfectly with my electric/meter pole... I gotta admit that a sense of dread and near panic gripped me at first. Then I had a little 'aha moment' where I considered roping off to the tree... and attempting to pull it off the stump in the correct direction... but decided that was a very risky one man operation.
All of which, lead me to giving a call to the local power cooperative here, describing the scenario to them... and them thankfully appreciating my call and sending someone over to help deal with the situation. I was pretty impressed that within half an hour they were able to make it out here... and after tethering a rope to the tree, a pulley to another tree downhill and then hooking up the wench on their truck to the rope... they pulled the tree off the stump and were gone in around ten minutes.
As embarrassing as it all is/was, I took it all in stride... and decided not to even attempt felling the second big sweet gum tree... until I have a better bar (or saw) to do it with. In truth, I should have considered that the little electric saw's bar was not all that straight... and done my best at straightening it out before cutting on that large of a tree where I would need to use the full bar.
Although, I could blame the equipment... I know that the real responsibility is/was mine and given how hard the tree was to get to, the jumbled mess of debris around its base making it hard to maneuver and everything else involved I should have taken more precautionary steps. The biggest culprit though, was me being in a bit of a hurry trying to get it done while I had a 'break in the weather' and before it started raining again that day.
I was also trying to get that all done before the building was to be delivered... and due to last minute changes of 'where' the building's final location would be is what made it be beneath the sweet gum tree... hence the last minute nature of things. If you are unfamiliar with those trees they produce all these 'spiky ball' nuts that make for one heck of a lot of racket (nearly year round) if they happen to be falling on a metal roof... which is what the building has.
Anyways, the building did get delivered yesterday... and I am so glad that I took all that time to trim back the trees in the driveway to accommodate it... because we needed every inch of room that was available. There was only one small tree that needed a branch trimmed off of it... and I think that it was either a cherry tree or some kind of wax myrtle so it should survive being pruned.
Getting the building down the driveway was a 'no go' with the truck and trailer... due to the limited flat area at the bottom of the driveway for the trailer to be pulled out from under it. The delivery crew wound up using one of those motorized 'shed mule' machines to drag the building down the driveway... and into a temporary spot where it will sit until the actual flat spot dries out some and the grading can be completed.
Overall, it was not that bad of an ordeal to get the building where it needed to go... and get it blocked 'just enough' so that the door would be level and plumb enough to work. Earlier that day, I had also gotten a bunch of building materials donated to me... so I wanted to be able to store them inside the building which is why I wanted the door to work.
For the most part, it has been a heck of a few days... and I am glossing over the parts where I shoveled lots of gravel by hand onto bare spots, spread Kentucky-31 grass seed and straw over other bare spots... and raked out gravel where it was needed. There was of course plenty of debris hauling also... because although that heavy machinery makes 'quick work' of things... it sure does leave a lot of roots to be dealt with afterwards.
All the hiking up and down the hill, between that work site and my camp has been wearing on me also... and having my boots weigh more due to all the gravel and clay stuck to them has been annoying to say the least. That whole area is pretty much one big mucky mess, except for where there is gravel... and slogging around that site is a bear because there is not one but two changes in elevation to cope with... and one of them is the very large elevation change of the driveway itself where a lot of work has been done.
That area is by far not the worst mess that I have ever had to deal with in regards to mucky work sites... but there is something about how well the clay bonds to my boots that makes it such a hassle to me. All I can say, is that without having that gravity-fed water system setup to get a little water pressure... I have no idea how I would get all the little rocks and clay off my boots (and especially out of the tread) each day.
Well, the sun is up and I need to get outdoors so I best wrap this up. I hope that most folks are doing well. Ta ta for now.
This building is way too swank for me!
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