Last brush pile?

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Steve Mays

Not really the “last” brush pile, but the last one with which I’ll burden my buddy George for a while. He’s been letting me dump my brush at his place where he burns it for me.

But I’ve worked my way far enough down our hill that it’s getting to be chore to drag the brush up to the road where I can load it into the truck. So it’s time to start making some new piles down the hill and back in the woods. I don’ like doing that but nobody (but me) is ever gonna see these so it’s the best solution.

Why not burn them? I know it can be done safely but not by me. I’d rather have the pile and the critters like them.

Fiskars Pruning Stik®

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Steve Mays

Before I tell you about the Fiskars Pruning Stik®, a little about me and tools. I’m not really a tool guy. I’ve got a hammer and pliers and some wrenches and stuff but you’ll not find me trying to fix the washing machine or changing the oil in my truck. But I have a fondness for outdoor power tools.

I’ve had a couple of chainsaws, a weed trimmer and last year I added a pole saw (all Stihl products). I can’t explain it but I enjoy going down into our woods and clearing brush and cutting cedar trees. Not sure how many more years I’ll be able to (safely) do this but for now, it’s something I enjoy.

The Stihl pole saw allows me to trim limbs that you couldn’t get to with the big chainsaw. But it weighs about 15 pounds and gets heavy fast. And we kept seeing dead limbs that were just out of reach of the pole saw.

Barb started researching “extendable tree pruners” and purchased the Pruning Stik® from Fiskars. I think it was about a hundred bucks quickly proved it’s worth. Extends to twelve feet and light enough you can safely stand on a ladder for a few extra feet. We’ve been going nuts with the thing. You wouldn’t think you could exert enough force (at the end of a long pole) to cut a good size limb, but it works like a charm.
I’ll still fire up the pole saw for the bigger jobs but the Pruning Stik is a must-have tool if you have a lot of trees.

Our first robot

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Steve Mays

Two Golden Retrievers leave a lot of dog hair on the floor. Today we enlisted the help of our first domestic (as opposed to combat) robot. Barb has named it Ruby.

Resident owl

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Steve Mays

Spotted this magnificent creature gazing down at us this morning. Barb’s photo doesn’t begin to capture his/her (let’s go with male) majesty. We stood there for 10 minutes, silently staring at each other. He would swivel his head from left to right every so often, otherwise, oh so still.

We’ve seen him silently floating through the yard at night, dead silent. Rare to see him during the day.