Marty and I Trip Plan and Go For a Ride In the Forest

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Bob

Friday August 5, 2022 Guerneville CA.

Trip planning

Marty came by today so we could do some trip planning. We sat down and looked at maps so I could show him what I had planned out for a trip this fall. I only had a tentative plan to go northeast from here that I showed him so he could do some planning too.

Old gold mining claim

The only thing we had planned for sure was the first night’s camp spot in Downieville at my Uncles old gold mining claim which he no longer owns. I did some gold mining here when I was younger  but I was careful not to get the gold mining bug as it’s a bunch of hard work. My Dad stayed at his cabin in his older age and got quite a bit of gold nuggets out of the river. This area was one of he hottest gold areas during the 1850’s when everyone came west to get rich. It was said that when the old timers first came into this area, they  just walked around with buckets and threw the nuggets into it as they were laying around everywhere.

Anyway it’s about the right distance for two older guys to camp that can’t or don’t want to go as far as they used to in a day.

We will continue to plan.

After that we walked around the yard eating fruits and berries.

Trail ride

After that we hopped on the trail machines to take a ride up into the hills so I could show him what I’ve been working on. Marty is a much slower rider than I so I’d go a ways and stop to wait for him usually stopping to kick rocks and sticks off the road. It also gave me a chance to stop to take photos which I usually don’t get much of a chance to do while riding.

I stopped here to throw some sticks off the road.ride1

 

Walking stick

Then we took this trail up into the hills. I stopped here and told Marty to find a waling stick that he’d need a bit later to walk out the trail I was working on.trail2

 

I stopped here to make sure he got across this creek ok and he did.marty3

 

Downed tree

We didn’t get far when I ran into this small downed tree. Lucky, when it fell, it cracked it into smaller pieces so we got it off the trail so we could continue on.tree4

 

Sit spot

I waited for him here so we could have a sit on the logs for a bit.seats5

 

And I stopped here to throw some redwood sticks off the trail as he caught up with me.trail6

 

Ridge view

We made it to the ridge top that has this view. The forest fire went through the hills in this view a couple years ago. It’s recovering nicely.view8

 

Trail work area

We pulled into the area I was working on the trail where he had to use that walking stick we stopped to pick up so we could walk out the trail a bit to the chairs I had stashed there and shot the bull for awhile, mostly still dong trip planning.

Drink of water

After a good break there we took off on another road headed towards home stopping at the spring for a nice drink of fresh water.water9

 

Home

We made it home and shot the bull a bit more and he headed for home around 5.

After a good break I put some fertilizer on my citrus trees and puttered around the yard a bit.

Dark with no power

Around 9, I started working on writing my blog when the power went off, so I took it easy for about an hour when it came back on.

Nice day.

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A New Peep and I Broke the Pulaski Handle Working On the Trail

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Bob

Thursday August 4, 2022 Guerneville CA.

New peep

When I went out to feed the chickens this morning, I noticed a new little peep was born so I tried to get a picture of it, but the momma hid the little guy under her feathers, so I settled for this other little peep that is about a week old and will try for the other newer one later.peep1

 

Warm day

The day felt a little warm so I looked at the temperature, 83, not bad. But just the same I decided to head on up into the hills where it was about ten degrees cooler with a light breeze.

Ride first

I did my dirt bike ride first. I stopped once in awhile to throw sticks and rocks off the road here and there. Good exercise that.

Here’s one of the roads I rode along while doing the dirt bike ride.road2

 

Work area

Eventually I ended up at the work area where I was doing the trail work and this was the view as I sat in the chair and rested up getting ready to do some serious work.view3

 

Hard work day

I put the other chair where I was going to work and sat down to contemplate my job, a hard one today as I wanted to remove some tree roots that were in the way.trail4

 

Big tree roots

I was working on cutting these tree roots out of the ground. Dig them up and cut them off with the Pulaski, one at a time.rootss5

 

No use, the chainsaw

I thought of using the chainsaw on them but there is no way to cut them without dulling the chain on the first one. That’s because it’s on a hill and when the saw cuts it vibrates everything and dirt and small rocks slide down into the saw cut that dulls the saw in a short time, so I already knew that wasn’t going to work, so I used the axe part of the Pulaski to do it the hard way, one at a time as I said with lots of chair breaks.

Speaking of breaks

I was cutting this root and when I went to pry the stuck blade out of the root, the wooden handle broke and that brought all the work to a screeching halt real fast. If you look close you can see the broken handle on the Pulaski.roots

 

I have another Pulaski at home and will see about putting a new handle on the broken one.

Headed for home

At any rate, after sitting in the chair and enjoying the view, I headed on home on the dirt bike taking my broken Pulaski with me.

Tried again to get a new peep pic

Back home I needed a nap and after that I went outside to try and get a picture of the new peep.

Momma hen was still protecting the little guy so this was the best I could so.peep7

 

So far she has just hatched this one chick out of the eggs she’s been sitting on. I’m hoping she hatches out another one or two.

This hen had two and are the oldest ones, a couple weeks or three, I thinkpeeps8

 

This is another hen that has little peeps. I caught her picking on the new peep so gave her some hell. :O) I don’t think it did much good. birds9

 

Nice day.

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