Grain Run, Pulled Kale, Basement Cleaning, Chips, Cut Down Another Tree - Thursday

flemingfarm(80)

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I slept like crap so was up early yesterday morning and out the door to town. I stopped at the first brewery to drop empties then headed downtown.

It's the time of year where it is dark when I head to town which means the Steam Plant stacks are lit up nicely overhead as I load the barrels of grain below.

3 barrels meant 2 on the trailer and the one in the bed of the truck. Minimal traffic had me home quickly.

@stryeyz went to work early so I waited until she left to go soak.

I got my post done and spent time on duolingo and sololearn then around 9am I headed out to dump the grain. All 3 barrels went into the sheep pen as I am not ready to take the fence down around the main garden yet. The alpaca and sheep were more than willing to munch on it and the birds all eventually found their way to it.

The main garden still has the massive masses of marigolds that have managed to live through the freezing temps. The insides of the plants are still nice and alive while the outer parts have been hit.

The boys slept late and when I went in the house J had just gotten up and around 9:45 I opened R's door to him saying he had been awake for a few minutes. They both needed the sleep.

While I had been looking at the marigolds I had also been checking the kale rows. I found that all the plants were bug covered and worm eaten so once the boys were up I headed out and got to pulling all the plants.

I topped a few of the plants and threw them to the chicks and hens in the brooder who all piled onto them and were quite happily pecking away at the leaves.

The four leggeds all pounced on the plants once I spread them in the pen.

It took one more full wheelbarrow load to finish both rows.

The plastic got pulled and the irrigation lines coiled. The plastic is all getting folded and put aside as I will be putting down fresh plastic next spring.

I am now down to just the celery row and my chard and beet rows above. The next week looks conducive to leaving the celery growing as the temps are at or above freezing.

Mid day I spent more time in the basement and got all of our mylar bagged freeze dried foods in bins and labeled.

My brewing supplies fit the top of the shelf with the potatoes mid level and our cellared beer on the bottom. Vastly more space available now and I still have more work to do to get it all cleaned up. I likely will need some shelving at some point to help the organization.

I was headed to the sheep pen and I passed all the turkeys lounging in the sliver of sunlight that was shining around my truck.

I hiked the west fenceline of the sheep pen to see how bad it has gotten and on my way down the hill I noticed a dead tree that has been hidden by others. The top had died and only a pair of live branches at mid height survived. A wood pecker was bashing away at the tree as I eyed it for chopping.

The tree stood mid way up the hillside and had a lean downhill.

AS I went to get my logging cable I rememebred that I needed to spread more chips in the turkey hut so I hauled a wheelbarrow load down and spread it out. I love having the big pile of chips for just this reason.

A couple of trips up and down the hill later I had the cable, chain, ladder, and come-a-longs all ready. I climbed the ladderf to the top rung and slung the choker as high as I could reach.

It was a good ways down as the hill sloped down from the base of the tree steeply.

The sheep all watched from below.

I ratcheted the come-a-longs as tight as I could and when I went down the hill to the base of the tree I could see that I likely could have broken the top off the tree if I kept cranking on the come-a-longs.

Going against the natural lean of a tree is a bit tricky but the guide cable works wonders for directing the fall.

I went and got the chainsaw and got my face notch done.

On my back cut I was VERY happy to have my wedges as it was required to make the tree fall. I cut then pounded on the wedges, cut a bit more, than pounded on the wedges for all I was worth. Soon the tree went down and it ended up completely missing the cable, chain, or come-a-longs.

Quite pleased with where it landed. I am getting pretty good at this, even alone.

I took my hammer hatchet and limbed the tree to the top. There are a couple left beneath it that are holding it in place and keeping it from rolling. Today I go up and buck it down and roll all the logs to the bottom. I will have 3 trees of logs to move as well since they need to get to the yard for splitting and stacking.

I got all 3 of my good chains sharpened by 5pm and then got to watch the second oldest niece play her high school volleyball game in North Dakota streaming. They won 3 sets to one and move on in the tournament. She had some nice saves and a few good spikes that I was aware of.