More about the box elder trees

A few more photos of the box elder trees.

This photo shows the remnants of a branch I cut last Fall all the way back to the main trunk.

While the tree may have had some dead branch ends up high, the trees are alive.  The branch trimming I have done is making the trees put their energy for new leaves elsewhere.

I'm still doing some cleanup work.  I got 3/4 of the patio roof swept and clean of small branches and debris.  I'll finish tomorrow.  I took off a number of the extra metal sheets for now.  Once I am done with the roof cleaning I will put some of the metal sheets back on the roof as some of the fiberglass sheets are cracked or broken.  And it is hard to move around the roof without cracking or making holes in the fiberglass panels.

Final tree branch cut

Sunday I finally got the final tree branch cut from the box elder tree.   The previous tree branches I had cut took up to a day to cut.  I figured this bigger branch would take up to two days to cut.  It took longer.  I started the cut last Wednesday evening.  I cut on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and finally got the branch cut Sunday evening.  I didn't spend all day each day cutting the branch as I had to take breaks from doing so.

The branch was 33 feet high.  I used the 27-foot pole saw and stood in the bed of my pickup.  This was the highest I could go on the branch for the cut. I would have preferred to cut a little higher up as the branch was thinner higher up, and higher up from the cut the branch was still alive.  But how the branch grew, where it was located, and where I could stand made it difficult for me to cut higher up the branch.  I didn't want the cut branch to fall on me.

Standing in the bed of the pickup meant the end of the pole saw was face high.  Due to the thickness of the branch the saw blade didn't travel much when cutting.  So my arms got tired quicker.  Or my shoulder got sore.  Or my back muscles got sore.  So I had to take a lot of short breaks.  And after a longer while, a longer break.  Cutting was slow going.

Another side cut of a branch.

The view as I cut.

This photo was taken shortly before the saw blade had screwed out of the pole.  How did that happen?  I then had to put my old metal pipe pole back together.  The one I had used to pull down the previous branch after the saw blade has gotten stuck in the cut.  This time I used the old metal pole with the "hook" at the end to push out this saw blade.

After I pushed out the saw blade, and before I reattached it to the pole saw pole.

The old pole I had rebuilt.  Fortunately I pushed out the saw blade before I tried to pull this branch down.  That is because when I tried to pull this branch down, it wouldn't come down.  A side effect was that the cut in the branch now mostly closed.  Good thing the saw blade was not there.  I then had to re-cut the cut.  At least this time the re-cut went way quicker than the original cut.  It only took me an hour and not almost four days.  Then back to making an original cut.  After another hour or so the cut closed and trapped the saw blade.  The wind switching directions didn't help either.

This time I was able to pull the branch down.   Yay!

After I had pulled the branch down. This time I didn't bend any poles.

This time when the branch was pulled down, the saw blade remained in the cut.

Here is the small piece of the trunk that held the pole saw after I had pulled the branch down.  I cut this piece off before removing the pole saw from the cut.

There was no way the branch wouldn't fall on the patio roof.  That is why I was trying to cut the branch as high as possible in order to make the cut branch smaller.  Guess what?  The fallen branch fell onto lower branches and not on the patio roof.

One end of the fallen branch lodged in the "V" of the main trunk.  Why the branch fell back towards the main trunk is a mystery.   But it was a good thing.

Before and after photos of the branch I had cut.  The arrow points to the branch.  The next arrow points to where the branch used to be.

The left two-thirds of the photo shows the cuts I had made last Fall.  The right one-third of the photo shows the cuts I made the past few weeks.

Now to get the cut branch down from where it landed in the lower branches.  On Monday I cut the branch in half and it fell.  I had hoped the section that was stuck in the "V" would fall straight down and miss the patio roof.  Nope.  Everything fell ono the patio roof.  

In preparation for the branch fall I placed extra metal sheets on the patio roof.  You can see where the branch had fallen. 

Sometimes this was how things looked like to me when branches fall and I quickly moved.

The large part of the cut branch.  Amazing this little part of the branch held the branch up until I pulled on the branch with the pole.

This is how I had cut the fallen branch in the lower branch in half.  As you can see this is the dead part of the branch.

When the branch was up there high, I thought this was the remnants of a bird nest.  Nope.  This was some sort of branch deformity. 

The fallen branch.  Now to chainsaw the branch into pieces.   Guess what?  A new problem.  The chainsaw wouldn't start.  I then cut the two smaller branches using a handsaw.  Tuesday morning I tried the chainsaw again.  First I cleaned the spark plug even though it wasn't all that dirty.  After some effort I got the chainsaw started.  I didn't let the chainsaw idle as it seemed that if I did the chainsaw would stop.  I then cut up the branch.

Haynes scratches his itches

I put out large hay bales for the cattle late this afternoon.  One for the cows and one for Haynes.  I put Haynes in main corral while I put his hay bale in the south corral.  Haynes decided to scratch his itches on things in the main corral.

The side scratches were on the block of wood I use to hold the gate in place when it is open.

Then Haynes started scratching his belly on the wooden salt feeder.

 

Here is how the salt feeder ended up.

Deer in fence

This evening when I was riding my bicycle home three deer were across the road in the neighbor's field along with the horses.  As I approached the deer jumped the fence back to the road.  Then they went into the ditch and looked where to jump my fence.  One deer made it over.  The second moved a little way down the fence and then jumped over.  The third deer moved further down the fence and then jumped over.  This deer got its legs over the fence. But before it reached the ground its legs got entangled in the barb wire.

Both front legs were together and two strands of wire were crossed holding the legs in place just above the hooves.  One rear leg was stuck in the wire.  Somehow three strands of wire wrapped around one another.  The other rear leg was among the wire but not trapped.  The deer was laying on its back on the ground on the other side of the fence.

I stopped to help the deer.  I got the one leg out of the wire and then was kicked.  The kick knocked me back to the ground in the ditch.  Then I tried to free the other legs.  I couldn't.  The wires were wrapped so tight I couldn't pull them apart to free the legs.  A guy in a pickup truck stopped to help.  What I needed was a bar or something to pry the wires apart.  He looked in his truck and couldn't find anything.  So I rode home to get some bars.

When I got back the deer was gone.  The guy said when I left the deer started moving to free its legs.  He held on one wire and the deer pulled its legs free and left.  The deer is going to have some sore legs for a while.  I hope this teaches it to avoid or be more careful when jumping a fence.

Sunset

Today I started to cut the final branch that I plan to cut from the box elder tree.  It is a big branch up high.  I hope to get it completely cut tomorrow.  We'll see.

While cutting this evening here is a view of the sunset I saw.   Our weather is forecast to finally get warmer and drier starting tomorrow.

Saw blade fixed and more branches cut

Sunday, once his sabbath was over, Curtis returned the pole saw blade that he fixed.  It looks great.  He added extra metal around the metal piece that comes out of the rubber handle.  I haven't used it yet as I was in the middle of sawing a branch.

Cutting the next box elder tree branch was a hassle.  Again a high branch.  And this was a thick branch.   While waiting for my crawlspace water leak to dry I started cutting this branch.  Off-and-on between working on the leak repair.

Then yesterday I did more cutting on the branch.  But early evening my saw blade got stuck in the cut.  Due to the branch's height the cut was diagonal.  From the top and from the side.  It was pretty windy and I think the branch shifted sideways and then held on to the blade.   As you can see in the previous photo of the blade each end of the blade has a "hook".  The hooks help one not to accidentally pull the blade out of the cut when working with a long pole.   The downside is that if one wants to try to pull the blade out when it is caught, one can't.

Stuck in the branch.

What to do.  Wait for a day when the wind is from the opposite direction and hope I can work the blade out of the cut at that time?   It would be nice if I could push the branch back to open the cut and then get my blade out.  But how when the branch is up so high that to reach it with my pole saw I am standing on an extension ladder.

I thought about the problem overnight.  I have a weight and a long rope.  Maybe I could toss the rope over the branch and pull it down.  The branch has a big cut.   Nope.  I tried throwing the weight and rope over the branch but it was too high.  Standing on the ladder to get higher didn't help and it is hard to throw high when standing on a ladder.

Then I looked around. Maybe I have pole or something where I could push against the branch and open the cut up to get the saw blade out.   I found I had a number of 10-foot poles that could be added to one another.   Good thing I don't listen when Donna tells me I should clean my crap up and get rid of it.

I made a 40-foot long pole.  It is tricky to add the final 10-foot sections to the pole when the pole is upright.  I can't lift the entire 40-foot pole upright.   I then tried pushing the branch back so I could get the saw blade out of the cut.  But you can see the pole has a slight bend when pushing.  I couldn't get the blade out.

Well maybe I can come up with something where I could pull the branch down.  I found this piece of metal with a hook at the end.  I drilled holes in the pole and attached it.   Of course this made the top of the pole even heavier.   More work to get the pole upright.

Then I found I needed to fasten the pole pieces so they wouldn't come apart.  Below you can see what happens when a few pieces come apart.  And of course, part of the pole ended up balancing on lower branches and not just fall to the ground.  More effort to get all the pieces to the ground.

Then what I did was to drill holes in the pole pieces where they connect and add screws to hold them together.   Of course to connect the last two pieces with the screws when holding the pole upright was a big challenge.  Finally I got it done.

Once the pole hook was in place it was easy to break the branch off.   The middle arrow shows where this branch was located.   The right arrow is the previous branch I had cut off a few days ago.   The left arrow shows the last branch I later cut off this evening after I took this photo.   The last branch was dying above what is seen in the photo.  This last branch when well.  I paid attention that the saw blade wouldn't get stuck in this branch when cutting the branch as again due to the height the cut was a diagonal cut.  This last branch fell right where I wanted it to.

The branch I had pulled down landed on lower branches and not on my patio roof.   Somehow above and below the one branch.  The pole saw landed on the branch and did not get damaged.   The pole I created to pull the branch down did get damaged.  Here you can see one of the bends in the pole due to the weight of the branch on it.

I then had to use the pole saw to cut parts of the fallen branch to get it off the lower branches and off the patio roof.   You would think that me being so close to the branch that the saw blade wouldn't bend, but it did.  I had to do something else to get the blade out of the cut before it became a permanent bent.  I was able to save the blade.

Once I cut and got the branch out of the lower branches the end of the branch fell on my fence and broke it.  I didn't see that coming.  Another repair job to do later.

Here you can see how much I cut and what broke off.

Another look at the bent pole I used to pull the branch down.  This was the other bend in the pole (over the lower branch).  After some effort getting the pole out of the way and to not get bent any further, I was able to straighten the pole and eliminate the bends.

I should only have one branch left to trim from the tree.  Another high branch.  And it will be a challenge.

Bird, Cattle, Water leak

A strange day.  I woke up to sounds coming from either my woodstove or the pipe that goes from the woodstove to the chimney.  I thought I heard a similar sound yesterday but found nothing.   Today I found a small bird in my woodstove.   This has happened several times over the past few decades.  A bird somehow falls down the chimney, then walks through the pipe and gets into my woodstove.  This time I was careful the bird didn't fly out of the woodstove into the house.  I used an old shirt to grab the bird inside the woodstove. It took a few attempts to do so.  I was able to take the bird outside.  I set the bird down and it initially laid there.  I got concerned the bird was injured, but after a minute it flew away.  I don't know what type of bird it was.

Then I saw in the corral that Haynes had pushed out part of another fence board.  This time he went to the next fence section to push on the board as all the small posts I added to the previous fence section held those boards in place.  I re-nailed this board back to the fence and added another small post to help hold the board in the place in the future.

Later I put out another large hay bale in the feeder for the cows.  First I had to clean the feeder because some cow took a crap and it was on the side of the feeder inside and out, and on the ground inside the feeder.   Seriously girls, behave.

This morning I went down in the house's crawl space to open the side vents, and to open an inside faucet so I could use the outside faucet this Summer.   While down there I noticed one of my plumbing pipes had a leak.  This pipe goes to the bathroom.  In the first photo you can see the water spraying out of the pipe.   Why this is happening, who knows.   I had remodeled the bathroom exactly 12 years ago in May of 2012.  I had also redone most of the pipe going to the bathroom.  You can see that my old solder work wasn't pretty.

Fixing the pipe today was a challenge.  First I had to cut the pipe where the leak was located.  For whatever reason the pipe cutter wanted to move sideways while cutting the pipe.  I had to restart and restart and restart to make sure the pipe cutter cut the pipe where the leak was located.

I went to Home Depot to buy a coupling connection.  Still some water was dripping from the open pipe.  The faucet to this section of pipe had been turned off.  I then turned off the faucet that allows water to the entire house.  I also opened the bathroom faucets to make it easier for those pipes to drain.  After a bit, still a drip.  I then turned off the faucet out in my well.  I waited.  Still a slow drip.  This section of the pipe is among the lowest section, but, still, where is this water coming from?

Since the leak would not stop to let the pipe dry, soldering the connection would not work. I tried, but for whatever reason, the solder wouldn't melt onto the pipe.

All this work had taken time so I decided to do what I now remembered I had done back in 2012 for the last solder connection.  That last connection wouldn't solder as the pipe wouldn't stay dry.  I was able to buy a push fitting to make the connection and that has lasted.  

https://www.pexuniverse.com/leaks-sharkbite-and-other-brands-push-fittings-and-how-prevent-them#:~:text=Push%20Fittings%20(push%20to%20connect,PROBite%2C%20GatorBite%20and%20possibly%20others.

They are more expensive.   The connection I bought to solder cost me 61 cents.  The push connection cost me $8.27.  But it is worth it if soldering won't work.  So back to Home Depot I went before they closed for the day.

The push connection should be easy, but for me it wasn't.   One needs to get both sides of the pipe into the connection.  But as you can see the pipe to be repaired is short because of the offshoots.  More offshoots that are seen in the photo.  So it was hard to flex and move the last piece of pipe to get it into the connection.  And in doing so the connection slid a little further on the previous pipe.   Now these connections can be removed when using a disconnect tool.   But the connection had slid all the way up to the end of the T connection.  The tool wouldn't work.

When I turned the water on the other side of the connection would leak. *argh!*  I was able to remove the pipe from the side of the connection leak.  I had to work again over and over to try to get this side into the connection and for it to sit properly.  I wanted to at least to get the connection on, and if there was a slow leak at least I could use the bathroom and tomorrow get this connection off both sides.   But somehow I got the connection to work properly.  No leaks.   I put a bucket under the pipe.  Tomorrow I will see if any water is in the bucket to see if this connection is good.   Hopefully it will be.

Also irritating was that I was working in the house's crawlspace.   This area is a hallower area.  So shallow that I could not sit upright when working.  It is hard to do this when leaning sideways.   Finally I got a small shovel and moved some dirt.  I didn't move enough dirt as I wanted as there were two house supports that went to the ground.  One you can see in the back of the photo.   After moving some dirt I still couldn't sit up straight, but at least I wasn't leaning as much as before.