One match and 12 hours later the brush / stump pile is pretty much gone but still smoldering away. Took down five of the eight trees that needed to be removed to make way for the waterfront construction project. (The other three are pointed right at the existing dock shack… so the shack will have to be removed before those trees come down.) Chree got her fill of being a skidder / forklift operator and fire tender. The first tree I cut today (a 12″ butt diameter, 60 foot tall spruce) was entwined with its next door neighbor and just wouldn’t come down. After trying every relatively safe gambit in my loggers’ bag of tricks, finally had to pull that tree down with the tractor. Chree didn’t watch. Instead I think she called the life insurance company to make sure we were fully paid up. Just before swim call, took off the 3-point log skidding rig and put the backhoe back on the tractor. Lesson learned: leave the backhoe in position ready to be reattached rather than follow the Kubota lawyer’s instructions to lower the backhoe all the way to the ground after detaching it from the tractor. NO MOSQUITOES ALL DAY (until dusk).
