What Did You Do Today?

[YosemiteBen]

Over the 16th and 17th, held my annual Knap in!! Had some new folks and some young'uns involved in the learning process! It was a grand weekend. Canned some beets, learning how to use the pressure canner. Dang Eric -- your stuff looks good. Wanna trade? Not here often but I do enjoy all of your stories and experiencess!
Yosemite Ben!

[Eric Krewson]

I went to Davy Crockett Days at David Crockett Park in Lawrenceburg TN, I carry one of the rifles I built as a conversation starter. There were a lot of vendors selling nick knacks to the public but not that many hard-core traditionalists camping, they usually have a woods walk but I didn't see any signs this year.

   

[Eric Krewson]

I slipped undetected into a neglected public hiking trail system with a hand saw and pruning shears and opened up the hiking trails that had been blocked and impassable for almost a year. I like the woods paths for harvesting paw-paws, wild muscadines and wild mushrooms, all of them have been blocked by fallen trees and an over growth of kudzu.

These trails were made by the CCC boys back in the 30s, they made elaborate sets of stone stairs that come out of the deepest hollows. This set is about 50 yards long and very well made. There was a downed black locust tree across the stairs that was difficult and dangerous to get around. I was able to cut it with my hand saw on both ends and roll it to the side, the log was as hard as a rock and hard to cut. I didn't have my leaf blower to clean off the debris to expose the beautiful steps but a good rain should accomplish that for me. The ivy covered log is on the left, it is a LOT bigger than it appears.



This section of trail was completely blocked by four fallen trees, one couldn't walk through or around the blockage because of the treacherous terrain. I was amazed at what my dedicated fast cut pruning saw could accomplish.



I cleared 40 yards of trail in about 1/2 hour with my saw and pruners.



More, I cut through the logs on the left fairly quickly and rolled them out of the trail.



Attacking the kudzu is next.



   

[bjrogg]

You are a sneaky one Eric.

Bjrogg

[YosemiteBen]

@ Eric - Excellent

[Eric Krewson]

A little more trail clearing; this trail had been blocked by a large log for 3 years, the mowers couldn't get down the trail but were too lazy to cut the log. Less trail, less work I suppose. The is how grown up the trail is under the powerline from not being mowed in years.



I didn't want to draw attention to my location by running a chainsaw. Even though I am doing work that benefits everyone that hikes on the area, such work is frowned on by the people in charge that have neglected the same area for years.

Here is the log I moved myself, sometimes you have to be creative. I used my hand saw to cut the downed log loose from the stump, then I hooked lifting strap around a nearby tree and connected a 2-ton come-along to the strap, then hooked to the log with another lifting strap, easy peazy, I had the 20' 300# log off of the trail in minutes. The hardest part was walking the 1/2 mile in with so much equipment in my pack, I was breathing hard when I got there.



Here is the trail where the log had it blocked after I cleared it.

[JW_Halverson]

A buddy and I have been maintaining a 6 mile trail now for about 5 years. Mountain Pine
Beetle went through the area and every spring there are more blowdowns blocking the trail. Like you, Eric, we avoided discussing this with the authorities knowing we would immediately be told that under penalty of law we would be denied the carrot and shown the stick. He had bought a big ol' Silky Katanaboy saw, and lemme tell you, that paper thin Japanese pull saw has an aggressive bite! It absolutely will eat your lunch while it eats through wood! I actually think they should adjust the way they set up the teeth to make it a little less aggressive because it wears the user out pretty fast.

Then he bought a DeWalt 20V rechargeable chainsaw. Weirdly quiet, this thing is surprisingly fast. The bar is 12", but he found an aftermarket 14". Anything more than that and you are running more tooth contact than the motor should have to face, it would just be too much wear and tear.

[Eric Krewson]

I looked up the saw, that is some serious money, mine cost $30 shipped.

[YosemiteBen]

@ JW and Eric K! Excellent on both counts! Keep up the excellent work!

[Eric Krewson]

Time to take up my garden to plant my winter garden of kale, beets, daikon radishes, turnips, spinach and collards.

First to go were the tomatoes, I had one loaded plant that was too pretty to remove and a small patch of late plants that I plan to plant around instead of remove.

My tomato plants had mostly burned up from the blight, I used my motorized "wheelbarrow" to carry them off, it is the handiest thing I ever bought.

I went through the plants as I pulled them to glean any usable vegetables off of them before I threw the plants away. There were 23# of left over jalapenos on the plants. I had already overloaded every nephew and neighbor with them on previous pickings and had a hard time finding someone to give them to but finally did.

[PaulN/KS]

Gotta love those little Kubotas. They are handy as all get out and worth the price. 

Still got poblanos,jalapenos and anehiem peppers on my plants here. Also still getting tomatoes though the plants are starting to "fade". The wife's tired of seeing the counter covered with them now but she'll be missing them come December... 

[Eric Krewson]

My neighbor is out of town for a few weeks. When he comes back it will be too late for him to plant a greens garden, he loves turnips, they need to be planted now.  He was gone last year at the same time so I planted his winter garden for him, I planted another greens patch for him yesterday, with my tractor and tiller it isn't a hard job.



We had 1 1/2" of rain two days ago, I plant through black plastic, I pulled up the plastic yesterday and found the soil was still too wet to till properly; the plastic holds moisture in the ground. It is going to be sunny today, hopefully the ground will dry up enough to plant. We have two days of rain coming this weekend, if I have my green seed in the ground, it will get a jump start.

The flash on my camera makes the ground look drier than it is. I planted a small patch of late tomatoes on the right and left a well producing plant to the left.