Early morning Grain Run, Bucking Logs, Felling Big Tree, Grilling -...

6am I was out the door yesterday and on my way to town for grain. As I was driving the moon was huge and full in the western sky as the sunrise began to the east. I was trying to get a pic but the surroundings got in the way each time I tried. At the first brewery I had a partial barrel to pickup after dropping the 2 empties. I slid it into the bed of the truck then headed for the next.

Spokane police had Washington closed by Riverfront park so I had to go around to the brewery. No clue what they had it closed for but it was to at least Main street as I could see their lights as I loaded the trailer. I ended up sliding the single from the bed onto the trailer then shoveled the one shorter barrel out into the two full sized. I had to stop for gas on the way home and was back at the farm not long after 7am.

The two barrels went to the sheep pen and they were a bit more interested this time. The birds eventually ended up in the pen scratching the piles around later in the morning.

I went out and soaked for a bit and was out before Hive account@stryeyz was ready to get in. I spent the morning watching the Seahawks lose then headed out to the trees.

I had a hell of a time getting going. The first chain I tried didn't cut for anything and was pulling to one side. The next worked okay for a short while but the rocks under the log did a number on it and so I was back at the shed sharpening them. I also found I had ground the 2 at 35 degrees and it should be 30 or less. So the next chains got sharpened to the correct angle which finally let me get the tree bucked into logs.

All the pieces got trundled down to the bottom of the hill and are in a fairly good pile and not too spread out.

With the first of the trees bucked I began the setup on the next much bigger and still alive tree that has been shading my garden since I started it. This tree sat 10 feet to the south of the garden fence and at about 100 feet tall caused a massive shadow that would track across the garden each day. I am so anxious to see the amount of sun the garden has this morning.

I got my notch cut on the face then went up the hill and ratcheted the come-alongs as tight as I could to lean the tree as far as I could in the direction I wanted it to fall.

It took a lot of back cutting to get the tree to finally go but when it did it fell EXACTLY where I wanted it to. I am getting pretty good at this now.

With the tree down I was done for the day, my back is quite sore and I need to do a good sharpening on the chains before I go bucking this big beast of a tree.

The tree lying on the hill there now has a MASSIVE open space and so much more of the sky visible. The sun sentry of my garden has been removed from duty.

Ground beef thawed and made to long patties for hotdug buns since we had no burger buns. I grilled a pair of sweet Italian peppers then toasted the buns. We had rice, slaw from our cabbage, and a tomato cucumber salad from our garden. I ended up having a full second helping of the 3.

I abused my back with the theracane for a while but I still am quite sore.

Tomorrow night is frost but only the one night so I am resigning myself to covering the garden. I will have to get the house plants off the deck and inside which means I need to build a better stand for them and make more room.