Yep. Still too wet for the tractor.

If I have to live with no snow for part of the year, I'd like to put my request in now for all the days to be like today: mild temperatures that are around 14 degrees, brilliant sunshine and a slight breeze. It is the perfect kind of day, as far as I am concerned, because it is a great temperature to work in, but it is also the sort of day that begs for a coffee, a comfortable chair and area to enjoy both that preferably faces southeast. Unfortunately for me, I was only able to work today; the coffee will have to wait.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have been planning on hauling and milling some of the blow-down and wind-thrown trees that are around the property. Today was that day. A chainsaw in one hand and the keys to the tractor in the other, I set out to salvage some wood.

Things looked promising as I bolted the radiator shroud back on to the tractor: I actually had bolts that fit. My good luck continued as I tried to turn over the tractor. The battery hadn't drained itself of its charge in a week or so of disuse. Imagine my delight as the tractor coughed and wheezed itself to life (with an encouraging spritz or two of ether) like an old man arising from a deep sleep. I was off and trotting.

The tractor:

My first tree was one that was on the edge of an open field. It had blown over and the roots had pulled themselves out of the ground. I put the chain around the soon-to-be log and cut it free. Then I went to the top of the tree and cut it free of the crown. I now had a 42-foot log to drag out of the bush. My original plan was to haul the log whole to the area where I do my milling, but it was soon pretty obvious that I was going to have to revise my plan. I couldn't get the log high enough off the ground using the 3-point hitch on the back of the tractor. Although the tractor is more than capable of hauling such a log, it would have hauled it down our gravel road and I don't want dirt, much less gravel, sticking to the logs because it will dull my chain on the chainsaw and sharpening a chain every two or three cuts is really, really tedious. Instead, I decided to cut the log into three 14-foot sections and chain them to the bucket on the front so that I could carry them to my log pile. Once I had decided to do this, things went rather smoothly. I cut down a second tree that had had its top snapped off about 35 feet up. I dragged this out of the bush and carried it to the log pile, as well.

It was at this point in my day, when things were going so well, that the level of production ground to a halt, or, more truthfully, became bogged down. To a standstill, in fact. There was a monster tree that I have had my eye on for months now. It was rotten for about ten feet up and when the winds came, it just collapsed. It fell across a gully and was easily two feet in diameter. Learning from my previous experience that cutting it into sections before trying to drag it out was easier, I proceeded to do so. Once I had it cut into what I thought were manageable sections, it took me about half an hour to drag the butt-section out of the gully. I had cut this particular section extra long because I noticed it was hollow through the middle for a ways up. I measured fourteen feet from the top of the log and cut off the hollow, rotten part. It was still hollow. I measured twelve feet from the top: still rotten. Ten feet: rotten. Eight feet: worse, if you can believe it. Six: the same and I gave up after that. If I ever need a four foot log, I know where I can get one.

Running adjacent to the gully is one of our trails. It looked as though it would be much easier if I dragged out the remaining two sections of the tree from the trail, so I drove down it, hooked on to the first section and slowly worked it up the bank. That is as far as I managed to get. Jenn, if you are reading this, please don't go any further. Really. Stop reading now. Please. For the rest of you, this is where I buried the tractor. In the middle of the trail and on a slight downhill slope: so slight it is barely noticeable, but it was enough. The ground being wet, soaked really, and the weight of the tractor had me making huge ruts in the trail. I tried to reverse back the way I had come, but I just spun the tires. Then, I made the mistake of deciding I should go ahead, find an opening and turn around and drive out. I had planned on using the lowest gear since it would be less likely to spin: reverse is a faster gear than the tractors low gear. This was a bad idea. I sank the tractor about a foot and a half into the soft, mucky ground and all I could do, both in forward and reverse, was spin the tires. My only option at this point was to use my bucket to push myself backwards, which I did, for roughly three hundred feet, gaining a foot to two feet at a time. I made a huge mess of the trail (see, Jenn, I told you to stop reading) and I never did managed to get the rest of the tree out.

I think I'll wait until the ground dries out and hardens up until I drive back there again.

This is what I managed to get hauled to the log pile: