Thursday August 31, 2023 Guerneville CA.
Marty visits
He showed up and we sat around shooting the bull. He’d just gotten a cataract lens replaced in one eye, so needed to take it easy. We tried a ride up into the hills but we had to abort it as he felt he was getting too much stuff from the forest trees into his eyes. So we sat around shooting some more bull until he left for home.
Like to be doing stuff
I was trying to take it easy for my sore back but I’m not the type that likes to sit around much. I sit a lot, but I like to be doing stuff.
I was going to take the dirt bike for a ride, but it’s not a good tool carrier, so I took the quad with a chainsaw and the digger tool, the Pulaski, and headed on up into the forest to cut a tree, I knew about, off the road.
Water pipe check
On the way, I stopped here to see how much water was going through this pipe from some springs. I took the pipe apart at the coupler.
Looks like about a gallon a minute or so. The main thing was, it was running.
Blocked road
I continued on up the hill and unexpectedly ran into this downed tree so cut it up enough to move it off the road.
I continued on going up this trail on my cousin’s place where I knew there was a downed tree I needed to cut off the trail. The one I came up here to cut.
Spring check out
I ran over some water crossing the trail so I stopped to check the spring by it. I dug a bit and was surprised to find a black plastic pipe in it where someone had tapped it. It’s a good place to put one of my spring taps in.
Not in use
I followed the pipe over the trail and spotted this filter and valves. I checked and no water was going through the pipe which meant the spring was not being used any more. I believe it provided water to my cousin’s horse corral that is no longer in use.
This was the one
A bit further up the trail I ran into the downed tree I came up to cut out of the way so I could pass on by.
That was an easy one to remove.
Then I wanted to cut a couple seats in the dirt up at our break area so I rode on up to it and parked.
View
The sky was still pretty smoky from the forest fires north of here and there were a few clouds in the sky.
I made some seats in the dirt by just cutting some small notches where I could sit on the dirt and hang my feet over the part I cut out. On a slope like that, it makes it much easier for an older person to get back up. I made four or five of these around the area where we take a break to rest up, when we ride around the properties.
And of course, I rested up before taking off to the next place.
Gas to do stuff
I still had enough gas in the chainsaw to get some more stuff done.
There’s an old trail in front of the quad where our two inch pipe is buried that comes down from our water tanks that go to our houses.
Overgrown
The trail had become overgrown and needs to be cleaned out so we can walk or ride the bike son it.
Lots of big ferns
The trail goes through here and you can see some of the small logs that need to be cut out of the way. Big green ferns always look nice.
I got most of the logs cut and these ones cut off the stump. I may have to cut that stump out to get by on our dirt bikes. Looking at the trial, I have several trees and stumps to get by, which I’ll do something about, eventually.
Stuck chainsaw
I was cutting this little tree that was leaning over the trail when I got the chainsaw stuck. The tree just closed on the cut instantly binding the saw up. I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck good and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on my sore back.
I tried to prop up the little tree with a small log, but trying to get the little log under there was not good for my back so I aborted that idea and decided to leave the stuck saw there until I can come back with another chainsaw to get it out, maybe tomorrow.
My sore back
I’d worked my sore back enough for one day, so I headed on home before it got real overworked.
Nice day.
