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What are you doing today, II

m1west said:
Last weekend I welded a mechanical thumb on the excavator, now I don't have to get off and rig everything I need to pick up. Today I got back from the field early so I changed the oil, greeted everything and change the oil in the finals. Now I'm good for 100 hours or so.
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Marty, they have Oakwood Avenue tore up right now, putting in new water lines for the city.
I know you know where that is.
It's been a PITA getting anywhere, because it's been one way traffic to get in town.
You're the only person I know who's been to Napoleon lol
 
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Yesterday was the last day that adopted daughter Dasha and part time foster son Kobe got to be together. It was a planned day and these two are special together. She held him as an infant as he slept in her arms and he loves her so much. She is gone for the rest of the weekend saying goodbye to her friends. She will return to us on Monday, but not until after he is in pre-school. Grandpa picks him up Monday afternoon. We will begin our trip to take her to California for her new job at Apple Computer. He doesn’t realize it, but that kiss he gave her was his last for a “long long” time. Hopefully she will be able to come back for Thanksgiving? Or Christmas?

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Today I am starting the process of cutting down five American Ash trees that died three years ago from the Green Ash Borer which arrived from China (or Japan) back in 2020. These were native species, gathered from the wild so they grew slower than cultivars, but I presumed, mistakenly, more disease resistant. Sadly, they have succumbed and that event sorta ruins our master plan with the bird sanctuary

Trunks are 16 to 20 inches and about 40 feet high. Canopies were 20 to 30 feet max. Grown in a row at the back of our property with non-native Honeysuckle at their base.

Most of the canopy branches have already fallen leaving only bare trunks
I am just staring at the top, using 12- & 20-foot ladders to cut the upper 20 feet and control the fall with lines. I can drop them between our property fence and the neighbors' garage. Crumpy and I did one today and so far, so good.

Using a Ryobi battery "Saws-all" with a 7 inch wood cutting blade. Once I get down to the larger trunks, I will switch to a Black & Decker electric with a 16 inch blade.

Since we will not be cutting them to the ground this will work fine. We plan to leave them at about 8 feet with holes cut for the Nut hatches, bluebirds, and woodpeckers to roost in. The canopy of the Honeysuckle will hide the raw tops. Our backyard is a certified bird sanctuary so this result fits right in.
 
Franc, How does one get their yard designated as a certified bird sanctuary?
 
Melensdad said:
Franc, How does one get their yard designated as a certified bird sanctuary?
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Your yard must be predator free, ie ; no cats
Provide a reliable water source
Provide a reliable food source.
Provide nesting sites.
Participate in bird sighting surveys

I often refer to our place as a Certified Bird sanctuary, but we have other forms of wildlife, A rescued turtle, rabbits, squirrels
We are members of the National Audobon Society but our certification is from the NWF.
Join the National Audobon Society and get certified by the National Wildlife Federation.

Audubon's Certified Backyard Habitat Program

Add native plants to your garden and attract birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects to your garden! Monarch Butterflies and Hummingbirds love native plants.
aswp.org
 
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I put one of the boys to work splitting firewood with the electric splitter then stacking it onto an old pallet. Next step is getting a machine in to level a pad area for a fire pit. We have a big fire pit down by the garage that never gets used as it's a pain to keep mowed and for most of spring when we'd actually use it, the ground is saturated due to being the lowest point of our yard.

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Nice seeing that tree house and old rotten poplar gone.
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Cleaned the pool filter.
Pulled some weeds.
Sprayed some weed killer.
Packed some stuff.
Took out the trash.
Generally just ticking off things the list that need to be done before we leave.

Made a dozen sammiches to carry in the car for the road trip that starts in the morning. Also got some beef sticks, chocolate and caffeine filled sodas.

Picked up a mini-van from Enterprise, probably won't start loading it until morning. First stop is Mason City, Iowa, not too far, under 400 miles. So not in a big rush to get out the door early. If we are out by 10am I'll be happy.
 
Safe travels Bob.

I made my usual two trips to the city to drive my daughter to and from school. Worked on my mower deck sharpening the blades then mowing the yard. I drove my other daughter to and from the horse ranch she volunteers at. Then made a nice maple bacon pork roast seared on both sides that was fit to serve in a restaurant 😋 👌 😀
 
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Getting back on line!!!!

On Tuesday we suffered an electrical short in the study/office where our internet and Cable TV come in. For some reason the sump pump in the greenhouse shorted out. (It was bone dry) We spent all day trying to sort the issue and finally called Spectrum.

The service tech, a really charming Jamaican, was surpised at how old and outdated was our equipment. So he started at the distribution box in the yard and upgraded everything to the router. He then explained, since we had "SMART" TV's, how a rather inexpensive part from Walmart could allow us to return all but one of our cable boxes. We have at least six boxes and pay rent on each one every month.

Three days without FF"S?????? It a good thing the bar was stocked. (y):rolleyes:

Now that I have said that, I'm spending my next hours catching up.
 
Sitting at camp relaxing in the sun with a nice breeze and a cold one in my hand. Finally done driving to the city twice daily.

I did a bit of mowing this morning at home and fired up my old atv that was sitting behind the shop all winter. I charged the battery yesterday and she fired up. I was planning on bringing it to camp but did a full once over and discovered that the dipstick wasn't snapped closed and allowed water to seep into the oil reservoir. Ok. Into the shop and oil change next week.

My mom has a class c motorhome she's been storing all summer in my yard. She's heading out tomorrow with it so I fired it up and filled the water tank for her. It's sitting there all ready to go.
 
My log splitter needed new wheels i had a trailer axel cut it down welded it back to gether
i drained the hydraulic tank.
I cut stub axels off the log splitter cross tube is the tank.
I welded one side on welded started on the other side I had tipped tank up to keep oil away from weld area and noticed a trickle of oil from the first side :mad: I cleaned off the weld area and its leaking between the spring perch and the tank. I hadn't planned on a full weld but to get to the inside I had to disassemble the tank from the beam got it all tore apart waiting for time to finish welding it and air test for leaks.
 
Still cutting down dead ash trees. I have to rigg every one of them with two pulley lines. They are 30 to45 feet high and ech pose a threat to my house or that of may neighbor.

We had twelve trunks 7" to 10" diameter at 8 feet off the ground. All of them entangled with the 12' high Honey suckle bushes. Six down as of today. 6 to go. Each requires a morning of rigging and then removal.

If I can talk Crumpy into it, perhaps tomorrow we can post some pictures and a video.
 
tommu56 said:
Doing nothing been just hanging around the house with heating pad on my back.
I don't know what I did to aggravate it but it's pissed. off.
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I feel for ya. I was finally able to move today for the first time in days so I tackled a project that I have been wanting to do for 2 years. Work on the quad and get it operational.
 
Nothing special for this 4th of July.
The city are having their fireworks tonight.
I can see those from standing outside my front door.
The neighbours behind me who live on Bauman Pl, also put on a good show above the large pond.
They've been practicing for the last few nights 🎇🧨 Lol
 
Up on the roof finishing shingles over the front bedroom.

The last heavy rainstorm produced evidence of a small leak. This will finish shingling the front half of the house.
Only 75 bundles to go.
 
The neighbor blew up a huge amount of t a n n e r i t e on the 4th.

The shock wave blew things off shelves in my main garage and inside our house. I checked another of my buildings and 23 sections of shelving were blown off their brackets, contents spewed.
I just got done putting the shelving back together and put the contents back.

I'm going to have a talk with him when he gets home from work today.

Karma got him though. I checked his detached garage. The blast completely took out (now there's holes in the walls) some of the T-111 on his garage and all the soffit on the blast side. The blast also knocked a decent sized cherry tree half way over. While I was putting my shelving back up, I heard a tree cracking so I went to see where it was coming from. The tree he blew up fell the rest of the way over... on his garage.
 
Dayum. Wow.

I came to camp yesterday alone. She who must be obeyed is coming today after work. I took this morning to spend a few hours on the water walleye fishing.
 

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Had a molar pulled this morning.
Floating on the river relaxing now.
 
Another big branch fell off the big Pin Oak last night. Had to clear it from the plum trees and cut it up for firewood.
My left wrist injury flared up today so no time on the roof.
Did some ladder work to set up for cutting more of the dead Green Ash trees.

Gonna cook supper now.
Grandpa's version, from scratch, of Hamberger Helper.
 
Had a busy couple weeks, went to the work cabin for the first time in about 9 months, writeup is in the camp section, had a busy week with work then had friends and family over for a 4th of July meal. we did it inside because it was 111 outside, its so hot none of the neighbors shot off fireworks. We still had a good time. Headed to the boat tomorrow to finish cleaning it up and start oiling the teak brightwork, had planned on going today but last night right before bed the power went out and didn't come back until around 11, seriously impacting my beauty sleep, plus its 112 today. I will go tomorrow. P.S. I installed water misters for the horses, didn't take them long to figure out the cooling effect, they stay camped out under them all day.
 
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