THE "WIDOWMAKER"

You don’t need to tell me that felling and cutting trees is dangerous. My extended family has suffered two losses through woods accidents – my mother’s first husband and then my half-sister, Nina.

Mike says that my brother Chuck taught him everything he knows about cutting wood, and he practices those lessons annually when he and a friend assist each other in getting firewood. I’m always relieved when they don’t have to fell a tree – and so are they.

The area in question -- looking eastward from the north field

Yesterday, as we continued to clean and clear after the fire, we got into a very dangerous situation. The pine in question was the one that broke in the lane. It wasn’t super-big, but it had twined a limb around a buddy pine. After Mike cut it, it refused to fall. 

 

Every attempt was made to encourage it -- wedges, another  cut, etc. -- but it was determined to remain standing. So, Mike attached cables to a limb of the tree and attempted to pull up the lane. The tree didn't fall with the initial effort.

 

Tree pulled off stump

With the second try it pulled off the stump and was now standing on the ground with the support of its neighbor -- a precarious situation.

Mike climbed tree to attach cable

 

Yes, it was scary, but I preferred we should take care of it nevertheless. So, Mike climbed the tree to attach the chain as high as he could. 

And now it's down

Then he turned the Dakota around and pulled from the other direction – down the lane instead of up. And that did the trick. The tree fell. (The dogs and I were well out of the way.)

We cut only this broken tree. Two other pines remain standing. But, I suspect I will have to say good-bye to my favorite “pine-apple” tree. I picked the available apples and made sauce last night. KW

CLEANING AND CLEARING

As with any “household” emergency, the fire left us with work to do – work that was not part of our original schedule. And it’s backbreaking work -- work this non-physical girl doesn’t want to do.

At our invitation, a forester from the Idaho Department of Lands in Orofino visited the farm last week to advise us with regard to scorched timber. He gave us his best estimate as to which trees would survive and which should be cut. Our property is not timberland, but the fire burned through pine and fir at the edges of the fields, leaving us with a number of standing trees that will soon die. Even though the work is hard and dangerous, it’s one thing to be able to do it ourselves. It’s quite another to find help to move off the huge pines that fell during the windstorm.  

For years, Mike has owned a 1975 Dodge Ram as his hauling vehicle. Finally, after the last wood-cutting session in June, Mike drove it home and wrote “r.i.p.” on it. Then came the search for a replacement, but since he couldn’t find an old Ram, he bought a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 expanded cab. The good news is that it’s a comfortable vehicle with some amenities, such as a working radio/tape deck, air conditioning, and comfortable riding space for the dogs. (Now you know what’s important to me.) But as Mike says, “It ain’t no power wagon.”

Anyway, Saturday (Sept. 12), we packed Mike’s wood-cutting tools and my crocheting into the bed of the Silverado, invited the dogs to settle into the back seat, and set off once again for the farm. The trip went well.

Saturday afternoon, Mike took the 4-wheeler and headed through the north field to the draw to survey the damage and determine a work plan. He left the 4-wheeler at the edge of the field above the draw, but unfortunately, it then traveled by itself down the steep embankment, rolling over three times before coming to rest on the bank. The good news is that Mike was not on it at the time – or under it when it landed. He set it to rights and then walked back to the house. I went back with him, and by cutting away some shrubbery, he was able to navigate the 4-wheeler into the draw and out by way of the old road. It now runs rough, but we were able to use it.

Sunday was not a day of rest for us. Mike felled and limbed one of the fir trees, and we worked most of the day piling slash, cutting firewood, loading and stacking. We pulled several loads of the firewood out with the 4-wheeler (“vroom-vroom, cough, sputter, vroom, click, click, vroom”), its little trailer well-loaded with limb wood and smaller logs, and those we stacked at the woodshed. Then Mike drove the Silverado into the draw, and we loaded big logs onto it to be split in town. Some of the largest logs we left to be split on site [see opening photo above].

Well, it was tiring work (if I may whine), and it wasn’t over. We worked again Monday – and it isn’t over yet. But – we had to come back to town for appointments. The story goes on. KW

FIRE DAMAGE

Looking westerly from June's field.

My brother Chuck provided a subtle hint yesterday that a new post is in order. Yes, time has slipped away. Hallie and Nick arrived at the farm on Sunday (Sept. 6), and we were busy before, during, and after their visit.

Beautiful rainbow

It was cold over Labor Day weekend. How cold? Winter pajama cold. Turn-on-the-electric-blanket-and-pull-up-the-quilt cold. Sweatshirt and jeans weather. Our low was about 40 and the high was in the mid-60s. And it rained. No more worries that the cistern water will run out before summer is over.

From Plank's Pitch above the draw

I figured the cool weekend would signal the end of hot days, but Mike predicted it would be hot again. I didn’t agree, but to my surprise, it was 98 in town yesterday and will reach that again today. However, mornings and evenings are cool, typical of fall. My autumn mood has set in – pumpkin pie, Halloween decorating, and ho-ho-ho.

The fire started just below the pole

As you may know from the previous posts, the windstorm on Saturday (Aug. 29) caused a mature pine to snap and hit the power line, and that sparked a fire. It actually burned away from the house – down the lane and on into the draw, but alert neighbors made fire breaks and did the best they could to control it. Firefighters reached the fire early. The damage could have been so much worse. A lot of grass burned – probably a good thing -- but we lost (or will lose) a few trees.

From draw looking back toward house

We have wondered if there might be a rattlesnake den in the rock fill at the bottom of our lane. It seemed likely. In this picture, Mike holds a baked rattlesnake he found in that vicinity.

Hallie and Nick trimmed up the scorched apple trees in the lane. They might not survive. They also trimmed the Lapins sweet cherry tree, just planted last May, which was broken when a large pine bough landed on top of it. What remained of it was subsequently munched by the deer, so they installed a wire cage around it to give the poor thing a fighting chance.

Hallie and Nick look over this elderberry bush

We didn’t make jelly. It’s still early for the elderberries, but they look dry. I did promise Mike that later in the season I would make a batch of elderberry-apple jelly for him. I dried 15 pounds of purchased pears. (Dried pears are a family favorite.) The prune trees are not bearing prolifically this year, but I may see if I can pick enough to dry some for son Clint.

And speaking of Clint, he has just completed a move to Lewiston from Gooding where he worked for Idaho Power for 13 years. He decided it was time for a change and will start as a millwright with Clearwater Paper on Sept. 14. It’s great to have him and his family here in town. KW 

STATE OF IDAHO FIRE CREW 6

 

Mike and I had come to the farm at Gilbert last Monday to assess the wind and fire damage that occurred Saturday, August 29^th. At that time State of Idaho Fire Crew 6 was here tending the fire, which burned approximately ten acres and then smoldered in the draw.

Before

We came back to the farm yesterday morning (Friday, Sept. 4), and Mike immediately set to work cleaning up the fallen pine tree that landed just at the edge of the north field below the yard. At lunch, he said he could use help, so I set aside the scheduled dusting and cleaning of counters (hopefully I will still get it done or be forgiven) and went to help him. We piled slash into the small trailer pulled by the 4-wheeler and made many trips to the burn pile on the other side of the pond. Mike also cut limbs into firewood. By 3:00 we were both tired, but Mike said rain was predicted for tomorrow so he would keep at it. I agreed to continue helping.

 

Bess makes new friends

We had seen the fire crew come in about noon and head down to the draw on the north side of the field just out of sight. About 3:30, Laura, the crew chief, came walking across the field. “I have a crew of six and two chain saws,” she said. “Could you use some help?”

Mike’s response was an incredulous, “Are you serious?” To which she replied that her crew could make quick work of this job. Within minutes, they were working, doing in an hour what it would have taken Mike and me hours to accomplish. With heavy-duty chain saws, they limbed and cut firewood, and then one of them helped Mike stack the firewood on either side of the woodshed. Two huge piles of slash will be our Christmas bonfire right where they sit. At 4:45, they said good-bye and returned to the draw. Amidst the thanking, they thanked us for letting them help.

And – I probably wouldn’t have thought of this, but they made a nice straight cut and delivered this enchanting ornamental piece to our porch. It’s perfect for this place in my estimation.

After

The crew boss said the fire in the draw had been out for two days as required and she would “call it out” this evening. They would finish other work and then return to Boise in a day or so. KW