Michael Adams

Lee Gee wrote:Wear safety gear appropriate for the equipment/activity.

Stay well hydrated.

Stop when you are tired.

And this isn't what happened here, but once you stop for the day, put away all the tools before you open a beer. Tired, dehydrated, alcohol and change of mindset is dangerous.

A bunch of us used to go out each Fall into the woods and cut up the felled and standing dead hardwoods to supplement and top off our wood piles for heat. End of the 2nd day, he didn't put on his chaps, he was just going to do a little bit more as we packed up. The chainsaw slipped and went into his thigh down to the bone, and we took him to the ER. A hike to the trucks and an hour to the nearest hospital.

I think about what if he had been alone.

Eta - Hey Michael - we were thinking the same thing at the same time, I took longer to hit submit. Great post.

Ha, well you one -upped me with the importance of staying hydrated and safety gear. ..:) and putting away tools and maintenance too. I prep my saw so it’s ready to go the next morning...cleaned out, sharpen chain and refuel and oil.

I’m a person who has grown up pushing myself physically with most tasks...but not with chainsaws...:)

I would say my best advice for chainsaw work is to quit while you’re ahead in terms of physical energy. Be aware of what your goals are when you set out to cut firewood, keep it real instead of trying to cut and junk 5 cords. Continued work while fatigued is a real danger with all power tools.

Thank you Dr RedHawk. I’m very curious on the looks and condition of the rootball. Would you recommend any amendments by chance? I’m going to be testing the soil of the new site to A/B where the apples are at now.

Just as the subject says, wondering if anyone has any tried and true safeguard advice in moving approx 12 apple trees to a newly cleared site on our property.

They're all still quite tiny...lol

I hope it’s ok to post a book enquiry here?

My winter reading has me back in Ancient Rome, I just find this period endlessly fascinating.

One thing I would like to learn more about is perhaps a book dealing with aspects of ‘historical agriculture’. Just reading about the war campaigns and wondering about the logistics of feeding 100,000 soldiers.

It doesn’t have to be about Rome, but does anyone know of a book that details the nuts and bolts of food systems back in the day?

Just wondering if anyone lives near a rushing river or brook, and how the sound impacts life in your dwelling (sleep, listening to music, etc). We are thinking of taking advantage of micro-hydro and relocating to another spot on our homestead. We are currently 400m away from this spot in the forest and loving the peace and quiet, hence the trepidation, but stable electricity would be nice ..lol.

Thanks!

Trace Oswald wrote:

Michael Adams wrote:

bruce Fine wrote:with the state seedling programs I've found if you call them, all the folks at different states I called were very nice and helpful and basic rules for most are trees need to be planted in the ground for at least one year and instate orders are filled first and if any left over they will ship out of state. prices can't be beat, I bought fruit and nut trees for $1 or less each, compared to commercial nursery at  $25 each for some of the varieties I got, and almost are still alive except for some that seemed to succumb to record flooding in February and march

Wow what state is doing $1 fruit trees? That’s incredible!

Wisconsin does plum trees for a buck or so each. They are native plums, pretty small, but very good tasting.  You can also get hazel nuts and a lot of other native trees.

That is awesome, wish my provincial government had the incentive and brains to implement a program like this!

bruce Fine wrote:with the state seedling programs I've found if you call them, all the folks at different states I called were very nice and helpful and basic rules for most are trees need to be planted in the ground for at least one year and instate orders are filled first and if any left over they will ship out of state. prices can't be beat, I bought fruit and nut trees for $1 or less each, compared to commercial nursery at  $25 each for some of the varieties I got, and almost are still alive except for some that seemed to succumb to record flooding in February and march

Wow what state is doing $1 fruit trees? That’s incredible!

Yup, they seem to quiet down activity in the summer, and then have really picked up again this fall. I would say a rough estimate would be about 12" increase in height since last year. The brook still breaches the dam after rain events, but generally it has harnessed a lot of water.

We have an older established beaver pond from approximately 2003 that is a masterpiece, photos below...satt. photo shows pond at bottom left. It is just over 4 acres in size. The drop below this dam is approx 20', from there theres a lovely pool with a secondary dam that flows into the brook. There are 2 colonies in this pond, and they are constantly adding/repairing the dam. They even use small white spruce trees to the shock of most local folks (they didn't believe me ..lol). The riparian and wildlife activity here is incredible, on a late spring morning the birdsong is borderline deafening. The white lillies are native species and showed up on their own.

This pond is about 600 meters from our homestead, the smaller one approx 200 metres downhill.

Howdy folks, I'm not online much but just wanted to show a couple of photos from our 2 year old beaver dam. We've installed a bat house, and the second photo is a Great Blue Heron.

It's truly remarkable what these water harvesters can do for us!