Saturday, October 4th, 2008
This is one of the firewood piles I made so far. There are three others about this size. I am not sure how much wood that is, but it’s a pretty good amount.
I did a little wood splitting this afternoon. It was so nice outside. The temperature was cool, so I didn’t sweat like I did over the Summer. It’s great to work around the house during Autumn. The crisp air is very welcome.
I got a little excited after splitting the larger logs, so I decided to go over and cut down a stump that has been bothering me. I split that too. Now, that’s on the pile.
Then, I went into the woods and cut down a nice Red Oak tree. I tossed the branches down on the pile and cut up the firewood. I need to split some of it, but I’ll save that for another day. After I was done with that, I turned around and noticed a really pretty scene.
Here, I’ll show it to you…
The Maples and Birches go first.
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Sunday, September 10th, 2006
We often look out our back door early after we wake up in the morning to find a very pretty family of deer. Lately, it has mostly been the two youngest ones, just roaming around carelessly eating the acorns that have fallen from the large Red Oak tree on the edge of our property. They are so tranquil…we really enjoy watching them go from place to place…
…until this morning. Now, I am not so sure I love the deer as much as I used to. They ate our plants. I was afraid of this. All summer long as I was planting the Arborvitae, I kept thinking of all the deer-eaten Arborvitae I have seen throughout my life. You know the ones…a nice full, green top, with skeleton of dead, wirey branches at the bottom. Poor victims of a hungry deer assault. Well, they got our front garden.
They didn’t get everything, but did eat one of our plants right to the root. We’ll have to see if that one comes back in the Spring. I hope so. They did the most damage to our Easter Lilies.
So, what to do? Well, I immediately got on the internet and started doing some research. I came across two websites. One has liquid deer repellent and is called “Liquid Fence.” They say to apply this spray once and then again the following week. Then apply every month thereafter. I also found a pellet deer repellent called “Deer Scram.” They say to apply this granular deer repellent every few months as needed.
Well, I needed something for tonight, so I ran out to our local Agway. Just as luck would have it, they had some Liquid Fence. I bought a gallon and brought it home. (now that I have a blog, I really am starting to take some strange photos)
I bumped into a lady in the store who was buying the same stuff. She said it really worked, but smelled HORRIBLE at first, but not bad after it dried. I had to see for myself. I opened the top of the gallon container and took a whiff. UHHGGGGG…I came a few milliseconds away from losing it. She was right, this stuff smelled like a mix between road kill, rotten eggs and the bottom of your kitchen garbage pail. Great, not only will I repel every deer this side of the Hudson, but my neighbors will have to move out as well. Hopefully it won’t be so bad after it dries. I applied it to all of the new plants I put in over the summer. I will let you know how it goes in a follow-up post.
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Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
This is a funny story and hopefully one I can keep short. I seem to have developed a knack for writing too much. See, there I go again.
The Red Oak tree is now gone. A flourishing garden is beginning to grow. There is only one more slight problem. A Red Maple with a rotten base remains. We get nervous about these trees because of the winter wind. Every time I heard a gust of wind last year when I was sleeping, my eyes would pop wide open because I was expecting a big “Crack” to follow. It never happened, but I really would like to get a good night sleep this go-round.
This tree wasn’t nearly as difficult to take down as the Oak. There were more, but smaller branches on this one. I said that I would do it slowly with a pole saw that I recently purchased. Sounds weird, but hear me out. I don’t have a wood chipper so I am forced to drag anything that I cut down all…the…way back in the woods to the rear most part of the property. That is about a 2 acre walk. It isn’t fun. I was determined to cut this tree down by myself because I had experience…yes, experience. I used to work at SavATree in Bedford Hills, NY when I was 18 years old and also C.V. Trees for many years after that. I knew how to climb and was actually quite good at it. I just didn’t have the right tools (ropes, saddle, spikes) anymore. But what I did have was my new chainsaw and pole saw.
To start things off, I extended the pole saw to it’s full 14 feet length. Then I took off about 5 of the lowest branches. I dragged them all the way back in the woods. This lightened up the tree. The next day, I took off about 5 more and dragged them back. Hmmmm, I was feeling motivated. I went back to cut some more. The pole saw really wouldn’t reach any more branches that easily. I was really motivated to get this tree on the ground because I had more pressing projects to get to. I had an idea…
I went into my basement and got my 15′ rope and tied it to the handle of my chainsaw. Then, I tied a knot at the other end of the rope. I put my 13′ ladder up against the tree. I climbed the ladder with the knot end of the rope in my hand and the chainsaw on the ground. I grabbed the lowest nub of wood that was about 15′ off the ground and climbed up to the lowest crotch of the tree. I sat there and then pulled up the rope with the chainsaw attached. I put the knot through a higher crotch so it was hanging. Then I climbed up the uppermost crotch and pulled the chainsaw to my hands. I started the saw and cut about half the branches off. I was on a roll. Then, I cut a pretty big one off and it landed on its end and fell backwards, knocking the ladder down. Hmmmm, that was a problem. Now I was up about 25 feet with no way of getting down. Oh well, I have been in worse situations. I kept cutting and about after 5 minutes all the branches were on the ground. I climbed down a bit to the lowest crotch and cut some more. Then came the challenging part…getting down. I lowered the chainsaw to the ground and let go. Then, I hugged the tree with my legs and the inside of my arms. I slid all the way down and looked at myself and smiled. Some scratches, but what a ride!
Now I had a nice big stump sticking out of the ground. I cut that bad boy down to watch it bounce off the ground and land perfectly where I wanted it.
I cut the wood up to give away to Paul and called it a day. I should’ve known the pole saw thing was never going to work. Why do I bother trying to do things slowly?
I guess this story wasn’t all that short after all…
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Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
We had a pretty large Red Oak tree in the front yard. Just large enough to take out the front porch if a good wind came though. Pretty gusty winds hit during the winter and head straight for the house. This would not be a major concern, but there were dead roots on the backside of the trunk. You could see them going right into the dirt. I felt that the dead roots, the height of the tree, the wind direction and the strength of the wind warranted that the tree come down.
We hired a local tree service and they were more than happy to take the tree down, cut up the wood (and leave it here) and chip the brush for $400. We went on a 3 day vacation and when we came back…gone. I rolled the firewood to the side of the road and within an hour, someone was taking it. People love firewood around here, especially since it is around $200 a cord now and I was giving it away for free.
Above is the only photo I could find of the existing tree. It was taken through a screen (obviously).
So, after we had the tree removed, it was just killing me to look at this ugly stump in the front yard. I got a great idea from the neighbors and cut out a kidney shaped mulch bed.
Ok, now that I made this beautifully shaped mulch bed, how the heck was I going to get the stump lower, so I could cover it up with the mulch I was going to get. Well, just as luck would have it, I purchased a brand new Stihl MS 250 with a 16″ bar a week earlier. This is a pretty good homeowner’s saw. I am used to the professional ones, so I know how to really work them. This one likes to bog down when it gets hot, but if you keep it nice and steady, it is a good strong saw. I began cutting the stump lower…
…and then the saw started getting hot, and so did I. I got half way through and started smacking the stump with a sledge hammer to break the half that was already cut off. This made cutting the second half easier. This size stump really calls for a larger saw, but I had confidence that I would get this thing cut…and I did. Man oh man…wood near the stump of a tree is very dense and hard to cut.
Then, the next Saturday morning Paul came over and we ran down to the local mulch dealer and picked up a yard of mulch to cover the entire area with. It was just enough mulch for now, but I will be getting another yard in the spring to make it nice and thick.
So for about a month or so, we kept it like this and the neighbors started to wonder. The area is pretty close to the road so people see it when they walk by. We went to Lowe’s and picked up a few Rhododendrons and some Midget Arborvitae, or Thuja to place as a back layer. The Rhododendrons will grow pretty large, but the Arborvitae will only grow to approximately 3′x3′.
We also placed a few random plants on either side, as we got them. We like to mix them up to keep things random…it’s a great look to have. Also, we are getting these plants at towards the end of summer, so we really have no idea what the will look like when they bloom in the spring.
Some of them are difficult to identify, but I know a few. We are getting most of them from a friend. In the photo above there are Easter Lilys, Sage and Hydrangea. There are a few more, but I have no idea what they are. As you can see, I used the shallow, smaller potted plants for directly on top of the stump. I will be sure to keep them watered until I get that second load of mulch.
In the photo above, we have a Butterfly Bush, some sort of a purple bush with little prickers on it, Sedum Autumn Joy and another bush that I will try to identify later. We left the center of the garden empty because we ordered a variety of 150 bulbs from Brecks. 100 of them are going to be planted in the center spot.
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