It's fall and time for.........Chainsaws, Ye Haw!

Ha! Yeah when I was commuting to work here in Phoenix, I always carried a little piece of steel plate to slip under the side stand. Asphalt is perpetually soft here in the summer time. We had one summer day ( record ) that hit 122 degrees and they closed our international airport because the runways were too soft for the jets.
 
Been busy with ranch chores, ran completely out of me.
Blew-out the 18-year-old bucket seals on the tractor.
Hydraulic fluid just gushing outta there.
Had to cook-up a 4-foot wrench to remove the hydraulic cylinder end caps.
20190704_FEL_16LA_EndCaps-03.jpg

Took about 300 ft-lbs to *crack* them loose.

These things take 9 seals per cylinder.
20190706_FEL_16LA_Repack-01.jpg

There's rust in there, and a blown shaft seal.
20190706_FEL_16LA_Repack-04.jpg

Old seal on left, new on right.
20190706_FEL_16LA_Repack-06.jpg

Both cylinders repacked, replaced 4 hydraulic hoses.
Finally got it back together and running this evening.
More land clearing tomorrow...
 
TwoManyXS1Bs said:
After 3 more days and 2 thundershowers, the coals finally went out.
Ashes hauled off, area cleaned-up.
View attachment 142337

And now, a new brushpile...
View attachment 142338
Click to expand...

Steve,
I have noted that you have been working very diligently to clear brush and scrub trees from your property. Even looks like you bought a shiny new tractor for the job. It occurred to me, are you trying to protect your home from brush fire risk? We have had such drought and extreme heat. Here in Az, brush fires have wiped out very many houses over the last ten years. Just curious if that was your objective.
Bob
 
Mailman said:
... bought a shiny new tractor for the job...
Click to expand...

Hay, Bob!
Haha, it *was* shiny new back in 2001.
It's taken a beating on this rough rocky place since.

Yeah, brush fire risk is a constant concern out here as well. Folks are quite careful and diligent about that, very few episodes, and those are addressed quickly.

This is also mostly about cleanup and land reclamation. Lost a lotta trees from the serious droughts several years ago, and their branches are just littering the place. Have a few areas that I've had plans for, and want to clean up to see if I want to pursue those plans.

The Texas Cedars (invasive Colorado Junipers) grow like weeds, and splay out like an upside-down umbrella. Some will occupy an area up to 50 feet diameter, block the views, and just make it difficult to get around. They're considered to be a nuisance out here, and folks prefer to just completely remove them. My rule is, if one has a strong central trunk, I'll trim it up, leaving branches about 7-8 feet above ground. I'll try to get some before/after pics...
 
Working hard Steve!
Fall is coming......
Firewood cutting time.
I've stayed in practice this year, the willow shed another big-un, a 15" trunk cherry fell on a rear fence and the ash split off a good sized section. That one got the gutter but not much else.
ash tree down.jpg
one more piece of the willow down..jpg

Willow disappeared after I cut it up via a CL ad, Ash and cherry is in the firewood rack.
 
Boy Gary! Your yard looks like a park! We just don’t have green, lush yards like that here. The majority of trees here, are desert trees, if left to grow naturally, like they would out in the desert, they really just want to be a giant bush, branches all the way around to the ground. Sometimes I forget just how tall the hardwood trees back east can grow. A good sized desert tree might hit 30-35’ tall.

Just for example, this is the way you usually see a palo verde tree in a residential community, tall and open. But only because they have been continuously pruned to look that way.
22B646E2-FA36-481E-9F26-605FB081C71B.jpeg


But look at the native desert palo verde behind my bike in this shot. That’s how they look when they grow naturally.
9CD7A3A4-2A1A-44C1-923C-CD802C0607A9.jpeg


There some tall trees that grow here, eucalyptus, Aleppo pine, palm trees etc. but they are not native to the desert Southwest.
Sorry, not chainsaw talk. I’m cooped up in the house and I’m bored. Another record breaking heat week, broke a daily record 114 degrees last Wednesday, on track to be a record for most number of days over 110 degrees. :devil:
 
I have four-and-a-half Poplars that need to come down. Just waiting (mostly) for cooler weather.

Three of them will be no problem, they're leaning heavily in the direction I want them to fall anyway.

One will require a little encouragement to fall safely, but not too concerned about that. Need to take down a fence (that needs to be replaced anyway) and move some cra....uh..."landscaping supplies" (used bricks, veneer stones and some cut granite).

The "half" will be a bit more of a nail-biter. Its a double trunk that one half has split and is dying. Need to drop it before Mother Nature does, and it has VERY little room for error. A few degrees either way from perfect will either land the top of it on the neighbors house or drop it right on top of an Arbor Vitae I REALLY like. Gonna spend a lot more time rigging, looking and thinking than cutting when I attack that one.
 
Back in May we had a tornado just barely missed our house..we were scheduled the very same day to have 6 80ft White oak trees that were towering over the driveway..main shed and the house as well..to be cut down by a professional tree service...easily we could have been crushed...

20190513-082636.jpg

20190513-154910.jpg

20190513-170217.jpg
 
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Retired with brother we co-own this home free and clear...property taxes are really cheap for us here. many times though I have played of the notion to sell here and move back to Tucson..But there modular homes are just stuck in mobile home parks. no subdivisions that truly treat them as houses and not sardine cans parked on their lots perpendicular to the streets they're on..At least here in our subdivision we all have an acre and the houses face the streets...
Trying to find an equivalent property..1 acre 1400sq ft house etc...in Arizona that would be similarly priced to us here in NC..well you are so far out of town that its ridculous..In town for $100K you get a broken down 1960s Tucson flat.anyway here we are in NC.. before any trees were cut down...
20180720-174352-1.jpg
 
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TwoManyXS1Bs said:
...The Texas Cedars (invasive Colorado Junipers) grow like weeds, and splay out like an upside-down umbrella. Some will occupy an area up to 50 feet diameter, block the views, and just make it difficult to get around. They're considered to be a nuisance out here, and folks prefer to just completely remove them. My rule is, if one has a strong central trunk, I'll trim it up, leaving branches about 7-8 feet above ground. I'll try to get some before/after pics...
Click to expand...

Here's a couple pics from about 2 months ago.
There's an impassable wall of trees and brush behind the tractor.
20190628-Clearing01.jpg 20190628-Clearing02.jpg

They're also encroaching onto a plot I've had plans.

Taken today, shows the trimming and cleanup.
20190825_Cedars01.jpg

Closeup of one 40 foot cedar.
He dominated about a 40 foot diameter.
20190825_Cedars02.jpg

Much better. Can walk thru there now...
 
...just got windy and blew over some of the tall stuff...sunflowers...
...tumbleweed tripped me up...have to gather them for burn pile too....
...hopefully fall not kick in till november...i like 100°f days outside...
...no hurricane damage...
IMG_20190825_162857.jpg
 
madmax-im said:
Retired with brother we co-own this home free and clear...property taxes are really cheap for us here. many times though I have played of the notion to sell here and move back to Tucson..But there modular homes are just stuck in mobile home parks. no subdivisions that truly treat them as houses and not sardine cans parked on their lots perpendicular to the streets they're on..At least here in our subdivision we all have an acre and the houses face the streets...
Trying to find an equivalent property..1 acre 1400sq ft house etc...in Arizona that would be similarly priced to us here in NC..well you are so far out of town that its ridculous..In town for $100K you get a broken down 1960s Tucson flat.anyway here we are in NC.. before any trees were cut down...
20180720-174352-1.jpg
Click to expand...

lovely house in a great setting . Love the woods behind your house they must provide some welcome shelter from heat and wind and a home to plenty of birds .
You and your Brother are 'sitting pretty'' there max you'll miss all that lush vegetation if you move to a desert.
 

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