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Local deer using hiking trail
Life after Village People
Following my frustrating experience with a “rope saw,” I called in the pros and this morning Lovell and Yeri showed up to prune a couple of dead limbs. Before becoming tree professionals, they had a brief music career that I found fascinating.
Seems they were two of the original members of the Village People but were forced out of the group before stardom hit. The other members felt Yeri’s Tree Climber looked too much like the Construction Work and people would be confused. Additionally, there were some concerns about his climbing spikes. They were just never sure what Lovell was supposed to be.
Hiking Trail Update
I think I might be on the last couple of legs of the trail. In the image below you can see where I moved the BFR and the arrow points to where the trail will connect with the first leg that I did so very long ago. This work might be done in the next couple of weeks, depending on the heat factor.
I’ve been thinking about about what comes next, after the trail is finished. Probably some clean-up. The trail forms a big loop with several switch-backs. Within this loop is a lot of dead cedar limbs that I can adios. As well as several rock shelfs that will look better cleaned up. And I might add a little color and whimsy in a few places.
Wildlife
Our resident chipmunk has been Riley’s Great White Whale and it’s been a lonely chase. Until now.
In a previous post I expressed some concern about the fate of momma deer. Hadn’t seen her in a while. This is her sauntering across the road in front of our house. And I believe she has started using the hiking trail.
Perhaps it was the deer sculpture
Don’t know if it was the heat (triple digits) or the wildlife-friendly aura I project, but two fawns were relaxing in our front yard. Riley was climbing the walls so I finally had to let her out which sent the deer back into the woods.
I’ve been seeing the title guys without mom and was getting concerned something had happened to her. But she was checking out my hiking trail this morning so all is well. Probably my imagination but this small family seems more and more comfortable around people.
Rope Saw
The two dead limbs on the ash tree near out deck (and outside my office window) have been bugging me for years. But they’re too high to reach with my pole saw and I didn’t want to pay the tree guys to come in with their high-lift equipment. So I decided to try a gizmo called a rope saw.”
It’s like a chainsaw chain but with cutting teeth top and bottom. I finally got the thing over my limb but quickly got it stuck. It looked so easy in the videos but this might have been a case of operator error. I finally pulled a big rope over the limb, put the pickup in 4WD, and pulled the partially sawed limb down.
But it wasn’t pretty. I’m going to have another go at cleaning up the stub. To be continued.
Hiking Trail Update: 6.26.23
I attempted a time-lapse video showing a couple of hours of this project but it was just too boring to post. Not boring for me, mind you, but the state of flow this induces for me doesn’t come across in a video.
UTV (utility task vehicle)
I moved some brush this morning using my neighbor’s UTV (utility task vehicles), also known as a SxS (side-by-side). He has repeatedly offered the use of this thing but I resisted. I don’t much like borrowing tools and I felt like I needed the exercise I get from dragging brush up and down our hill. But was pretty hot this morning and the hill gets steeper every time I climb it so I borrowed his UTV. I didn’t have all that much brush and I wasn’t moving it that far. I can see why people are fond of these things.
Squirrel proof? TBD
“Squirrel proof” simply means the squirrels haven’t figured out how to beat the bird feeder. (Henry prefers the term “squirrel resistant”) Yet. Like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, the squirrel proof bird feeder is a myth. I’d love to be proven wrong. Watch this space.