A neighbor stopped by last week and asked Will if he’d be interested in some logs. He owns and takes care of the old Alango School, several miles from us. That bad windstorm in July blew down many big trees on the school grounds. Included in those was a huge spruce tree with a 30-inch butt. The top dropped right on their house and punched through the roof, ending up in the living room. Luckily, nobody was home!

As we are out of saw logs to saw more boards for the barn, Will jumped on the opportunity. He, Eric, and David worked all one afternoon, cutting down trees to a 16-foot length (which they can handle with the tractor loader), limbed trees, carried branches to stack, and cut down several standing trees with the tops blown out of them. They hauled one big trailer load home. Then yesterday, Will and David went back to finish up — including the huge spruce that Will didn’t know if our tractor would pick up. He cut the big butt only 8 feet long and hooked the chain to the log. The loader groaned, but managed to lift the log! Boy, were the front tires flat! By chore time, all of the logs had been loaded, including several in the pickup box and Will took off for home with the tractor with David driving our truck and me following with the car. Everything came home just fine, although very slowly!

A sad note: Last night the fox who’d caught three of our baby turkeys got into the chicken yard and coop and killed four chickens. I’d been lazy and had not been closing the door of the coop because we’d never had any trouble. That’s what I got. My fault and you can be sure I’ve tightened the coop and will definitely close the door every night. I’m also setting a trap inside the chicken yard. We don’t like to kill the wildlife we live with but when they start invading our chicken yard, enough is enough! This afternoon I looked out the door and there sat the fox, right in the driveway! No time for a gun, but he’s getting pretty bold.

11 COMMENTS

  1. Mary Ann,

    We have Husquvarnas. The one in the picture is a 445 with a 16″ bar. Huskies are very dependable saws.

    Jackie

  2. Practical,

    Wouldn’t have helped. I wouldn’t have risked a shot in that pen. There is a chicken coop on the back side of the pen, with only OSB between, four little calves and the mother turkey, too. I would have liked to kill that fox with a dirty look, though! (I did get him the next morning, in a leg-hold trap. No more fox.)

    Jackie

  3. Dave,

    Will’s going to use those logs as lumber on our bandsaw mill. Yes, he will cut them to length/size with that “little” 16″ bar. Sixteen inches on one side; sixteen on the other and he can easily cut a 32″ diameter log. And with notches, he can cut one much larger. Around here, it’s all we need.

    Jackie

  4. Wally,

    Yep, we use that trailer a lot; it’s so handy for so many things. And, yep, we use that dray we bought from you every winter to skid in our ash firewood from across the creek. Ready for snow???? Is anyone ever ready???

    Jackie

  8. I also have a little skunk problem to take care of. It comes and eats my dogs food unless I put it away at night.

  9. Hi Jackie: I am glad too see the three axle trailer you bought from my Dad is still at work. I think I have also seen the dray you bought from me hauling logs behind your dozer in some of your winter pictures. I hope all is well way up there in the woods. Get ready for snow!!! Wally

  10. Sorry about the chickens. We had a similar problem with rabbits in our garden. My friend was doing some work in the garden. She want into the house to do something and left the gate open. I come home and see a rabbit in our garden!!!! The gate in the late afternoon was open for at most one hour. I’m was beginning to wonder if they camp out or spy on the gate just waiting for us to make a mistake.

  11. Great job on the wood! One of our mantras is… “NEVER pass up an opportunity for free wood!!

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