Unusual Weather Day

Today was cool overcast and damp to start out. Such a huge change from Sunday when it felt like spring and flowers and trees were opening their blooms to the sunshine. Since it was so nice Saturday without rain, and not a cloud in the sky. I had decided to tackle felling a Lelandia Cypress tree that had been blown at a 40 degree angle into our flowering Japanes Plum tree during one of the recent storms. It looked like the plum tree was actually holding it up, since the root ball was rising and the ground was cracked open several feet back from the trunk of the cypress.

I lopped off a few large branches that were in amongst the plum tree branches so it wouldn't get too badly damaged when I dropped the cypress. I began cutting a notch in the trunk of the tree on the south side just back of the direction it was leaning. Unfortunately the wood there was very hard and my saw started smoking. I had put a new handle on my Pulaski and decided I would use it to cut the notch the rest of the way. After a few good whacks, I managed to cut a pretty decent notch in the tree and so I could begin sawing a new cut on the opposite side, just a little higher up.  It didn't take too long before the tree started to crack and begin its fall. For a minute I thought it was going to stay hung up in the plum tree, but it pulled free thanks to gravity and thumped to the ground across a sprawl of juniper bushes on the bank below right where I planned it. The plum tree branches just sprange back, I didn't lose a one.

Well needless to say, cutting up a 35 foot tree and loping all the branches took a considerable number of hours. Once I had cut everything from the top I stacked it up by the road, off my neigbors peoperty and then raked up the loose needles and small branches. I had quite a stack of firewood and several loads of slash branches to haul down to the bottom of the garden to burn.  I also cut down an Oleander and trimmed all the sucker branches out of the plum tree before I quit. I was plum tuckered out by then, and decided that I would clean the rest up the following day.

Well yesterday I managed to get my recalcitrant garden tractor going, and hitched the wagon behind it and drove it up to the front yard after cutting the backyard grass. I had loaded the wagon behind the tractor from a huge pile I'd stacked in our driveway. When it was time to go unload, I couldn't get the tractor going again. I hooked up my battery charger to the tractor battery and left it all night. I would tackle the rest tomorrow.

Well wouldn't you know, tomorrow is today and it was cool 45 degrees. My tractor still wouldn't start and it took some time to find I had a little water in the carbuerator bowl, and the battery terminals were probably too corroded to take a charge. After disasembling the connections and cleaning them, installing new bolts and tightening them up I was able to jump the battery and get the old tractor going. It took two full loads to carry all the slash to the bottom of our property. I also had a lot of firewood cut up and it made full wagon load to hall around to stack for next seasons firewood.  

I finished at 11:30 and came in the house after parking and covering up the tractor, as it seemed colder and was dark and threatening. Cindy made me a sandwich for lunch and then she looked outside and said its hailing!  The hail didn't last long, but was soon followed by rain. The rest of the day went from blustery to dark and stormy with sudden downpours. We made a Costco run down the hill to Roseville and ran into more hail just as we got to the store. After getting theessentials we needed we decided to have dinner out and had a wonderful Mexican food dinner in Lincoln at Casa Ramos. As we ate our dinner we were treated to a gloriously beuatiful sunset with pinks, mauves and orange tinges in the clouds. A nice close to a blustery day. Then it was time to go back home and unload the groceries and relax. Sorry if I bored you to death!