Concrete by fence removal

This afternoon I worked a bit on my fence rebuild.  The temperature barely warms above freezing each day.  The snow melt is so slow.  But I got a little work done today.

I had some concrete pieces along the fence between the driveway towards the north pasture fence.   With some work I was able to remove those pieces.   The ground is hard, but not frozen - yet.  With a crowbar I was able to pry the pieces out of the ground.   Some dirt was stuck / frozen to the bottom of a number of the pieces.  I had to scrape the frozen dirt off the best I could.

Instead of starting my pickup to move the concrete pieces I used my wheelbarrow.   If you remember from my hawthorn tree cutting this Spring the wheelbarrow's tire went flat due to the thorns.  Over the Summer I repaired the tire over and over and over again.  Finally I got all the leaks fixed. The tire is now holding air.  This is a test of my flat repairs as this is the first time I hauled something heavy since the repairs.  So far, so good.

I made five trips to haul the concrete pieces to a spot by the hayshed to store them.  Then it was getting close to sunset so I quit working for the day.  Slow but steady and I may get the fence rebuild done.  This year hopefully.

This is how wide my garden was when I had a garden.  I grew a lot back then.

34 pieces of concrete.

Under the fence I had regular concrete blocks to dig up and move.

One load of concrete pieces.

Driveway fence rebuild

October 10th I started the rebuild of the driveway fence.

This is what the fence looked like in 2021 when I last worked on the rebuild.  At the far end you can see the two rebuilt sections before the freeze and snow ended the work for the year.

Here are two blog posts about the rebuild back in 2021.   You can read about the work involved to mount the rails.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2021/11/hayfield-yard-fence-rebuild.html

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2021/12/last-fence-work-in-2021.html

I almost got the fence rebuild done to the driveway corner this year.  Then the snow and cold arrived earlier this week.

Here you can see the two rebuilt sections from 2021.

At the start and then at the end.

Here are my rails back in 2021.  They should be all the same length but are not.  I measured lengths from 189 to 193 inches.  Mainly 190 or 191 inches.

When I put rails on the posts this year I had to look for similar lengths.  Even so I had to trim some posts once in a while to match the same length.

The old fence posts were either rotted and had to be replaced.  Or the posts that were good had to be moved as they never were in the right spot.  Sometimes they were only an inch of two from the right spot as seen below.

Then, as I got near the corner I had to remove concrete pieces.  Back when I had a garden in this location I laid down these concrete pieces to act as a walkway so I wouldn't get dirty/muddy walking next to the garden.  And to eliminate grass so I didn't have to mow it here.   It has been years since I had the garden.  Over the years the grass started two grow between the concrete pieces.

You can see how the grass tried to get around the concrete pieces.

Back then I had laid down matting to stop the grass from growing.  The matting has started to break down.  The grass is tough.

The concrete pieces loaded into the pickup.  The pieces are heavy.

I had 10 rail sections from the road to the corner.  Two sections were built in 2021.  I got 7 more sections built before the snow came.  I have one section left to build to reach the corner. It usually takes me a day to rebuild a fence section.  We are a little above freezing now.  But still have some snow.  If the weather forecast is right I may have a chance to do a little more fence rebuild next week.

Hay bale for the cattle today

This afternoon I put out a small round bale for the cattle.  Temperature still not above freezing so no melting going on.  Tomorrow we are predicted to reach 33 degrees.  So I don't have to put out small hay bales from the barn twice a day, I put out into a metal feeder in the middle pasture the last small round bale.  I hope that lasts until the snow is gone.

My fat cows.

For some reason many of the cows don't like this cow.  They won't let her eat next to them.  And for the small hay piles I set out they won't share it with her.  So I made a pile just for her.   That didn't last too long as a cow then came over and chased her away.  Fortunately a cow at another hay pile would share that pile with her. 

Snow

We got snow overnight.  Annoying but it could have been worse as the rest of Montana got more snow than us.

Photos from yesterday and then this morning.  Our high temperature today stayed below freezing, so no melting occurred.

I put out some small hay bales today this morning and then this evening for the cattle.

More snow photos from this morning.  A little more snow predicted for tomorrow.  A few more days before we are again above freezing.   So, no outside work today.

Winter has arrived

I woke up to wind.  Snow started around noon. The temperature has dropped all day.  Winter is here. By early afternoon I got a couple of 'cleanup' things done that I didn't get finished yesterday and also put snow tires on Donna's car.   Then I got my wood stove going to warm up the house.  Snow will continue into Wednesday and maybe beyond.   Argh.

Early afternoon shortly after the snow started.  I have more snow now.

Turkeys, pear tree, electrical

The turkeys are around every day.

They have been eating the pears.  I've been doing other things and forgot to check on the fallen pears.  When I did a few days ago I only found a few of them on the ground.  None on the tree anymore.  And a few more on the ground that were partially eaten.

Here are photos of the pear tree today.  The colors are nice.

The last few days I've been trying to help my brother long distance away.  Saturday morning he found that an evergreen tree in the back yard was blown over after a 60 mph front passed through.  The tree fell on the power lines and pulled the power "pole" and box off the house and the power lines to the ground.  Surprisingly he had partial power.  He called the electric company, Xcel, at 9 am Saturday morning to tell them what had happened.  You'd think Xcel would come out to fix the problem and make things safe within a few hours.  But Xcel acted like the Hawaiin electric companies and didn't do anything.   Finally this morning, Monday morning - two days later - they came.   They said they weren't responsible for the power "pole" and box, and that my brother would have to hire an electrician to get it fixed and reattached to the house.  You'd think Xcel would be responsible up to the electric meter.   But Xcel wouldn't do anything.   My brother had to hire an electrician.  The electrician worked on it and the work should finally be finished tomorrow morning.

I don't have a photo of my brother's house.  But to show what I am talking about, here is a photo of a similar power "pole" and box on my house.  If your electric company says they are responsible up to the electric meter, don't believe them.

The weather forecast has Winter coming and starting tomorrow.  Cold and snow.  High temperatures maybe a degree or two above freezing the rest of the week.  So the last few days I have been dodging the scattered rain showers and have been trying to get outside stuff to a decent "stop point" for now, or for a long time, or until Spring?  I have all the tree branches cleaned up and the parts of the lawn raked to clean the leaves from where I usually shovel the snow.  And got some metal sheets placed over the holes in the patio roof from the fallen tree branches.  I'm not ready for Winter.

Trimming box elder trees by the patio

I finally trimmed the box elder trees next to the patio.

Last year I trimmed some of the lower branches.   The higher branches I could not get to.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2022/09/some-trimming-on-box-elder-patio-trees.html

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2022/09/tree-trimming-done.html

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2022/09/lawn-mowed-weed-whacking-tree-trimming.html

This Summer I learned Myron, my irrigation guy, had a telescopic forklift.  He agreed to help me.  Even though he had retired last December, the grain elevator wanted to hire him to help during harvest time in August into September.  Then that got extended.  Then someone else needed the lift for a few days.  Then a week.  Then Myron went on vacation.  Then the elevator needed him for more work.  Time passed.

I wanted to do the trimming when the leaves were still on the tree so it was easy to see where the branches were dying and where they were alive.  But now 90% of the leaves have fallen.  Oh well.  We planned to trim the trees today.  But yesterday a work truck broke down and the elevator didn't need him there.  He called, and yes, I was available to do the trimming yesterday.

Myron came over a little after noon and we worked for three and a half to four hours.  Myron operated the forklift and I did the chain sawing. 

I put a wooden pallet on the forklift for me to be on.  Notice I didn't say 'stand on'.  Except for a few times I mainly kneeled and cut the branches.  Standing on a small platform really high off the ground was unnerving to me.   One time after I cut through a branch my chainsaw swung down and into the pallet before I got my finger off the trigger.  That is why the top of the pallet is kind-of cut.    Another time some small side branches to the large branch swept by and took my hat off my head.  So, no, standing was not preferable to me.

I borrowed from my neighbor Curtis a body harness. I wore it and hooked it to the back of the forks.  I didn't want to fall as that would have been the end for me.  Fortunately the harness wasn't needed.

Most branches I could reach leaned sideways.  The top of the tree trunk barely leaned sideways.  While I could make a cut that should cause the trunk to fall a certain way, I trusted nothing.  Especially as I didn't have room to get out of the way if the trunk fell the wrong way.  I wanted the top of the tree cut.   So I used a really long rope I had.  Kneeling on the pallet way, way up high, I tossed the end of the rope - with a heavy-ish metal weight - up another over a side branch to the trunk.  I eventually made it.  But it took me a couple dozen attempts to get the rope over the branch.   No way was I going to stand and throw the rope.

The rope was long enough that both ends reached the ground.  As I cut, Myron pulled on the rope and made sure the cut trunk fell away and in the direction we wanted.  Success.   Later when putting the rope away I saw the rope was cut.

The other tree's branches are not dying as much.  And this tree has more vertical branches.  I only cut the "lower" branches that were dying that we could reach.   The rest of the branches I left.  After almost four hours of work, and being so high, I called it quits.  It was good enough.   Now looking at the trees today there may be two more branches I could have cut.   Oh well.

We had to re-position the forklift a number of times.  A number of times the lift was fully extended and that was as high as it would go.  Usually if it was a big re-position I was lowered down and got off to stretch my legs as the lift moved about.  A few times I was high on the pallet.  I held on to the back of the forks tight.   The lift arm would go up and would go out.  It also could go sideways a bit.   The sideways movement freaked me out each time as it didn't feel natural and made me feel like the lift was going to lean over.

I have two patio structures under the trees.  Most of the falling branches missed the patios.  Not all did.  I have a few holes in the patio roofs.  The smaller patio took a larger hit due to the larger branches. I tried to cut the lengths to be shorter but couldn't always.   The smaller patio's roof is partially collapsed.  Another repair job for me.

I almost took out my "wind cat" ornament. 

Some of the cut branches.  Today I cut them up.  What could be used for firewood next year after they dry I stacked in my "trunks to be split" pile.  The rest of the smaller branches I hauled off.  One pickup load today and then it was dark.  The other pickup load tomorrow.  Cutting and cleaning up the branches on the ground today took much longer than I expected.

These came through the larger patio roof, and a piece of the broken patio roof.

Laying on the smaller patio.

A branch on the smaller patio.   And then after I pushed it through the hole to get it off the roof.

Smaller patio roof.

A cut branch.

This cut branch was starting to get rot in the middle.

This branch had the internal rot for a longer time.

So here are photos of the differences.   Look at how high up I was to cut at the top cut.

Another view.

A view from the hayfield.   Still pretty tall.

The tree in the center of the photo is a box elder tree I had cut in 2009 when it was dying from the top.  On that tree I was able to climb up a ladder to reach a spot to cut the tree.  And with no patio below I only partially broke the previous fence when the cut trunk fell to the ground.  Below are links to how this tree looked back in 2009.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2009/11/owl-ent-tree.html

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2009/11/owl-ent-tree-part-2.html

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2009/11/owl-ent-tree-part-3-final-photos.html

Here is a view of the patio's two tree trunks after dark.