{"id":790,"date":"2018-01-07T21:31:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T05:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/?p=790"},"modified":"2018-01-07T21:36:24","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T05:36:24","slug":"playing-pickup-sticks-big-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/2018\/01\/07\/playing-pickup-sticks-big-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing Pickup Sticks (Big Ones)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year everyone! Let’s hope 2018 is more constructive (or less destructive at least) than 2017 was.<\/p>\n

After an enjoyable holiday break with family, we returned home from our travels with one of our two adult sons.\u00a0 Although he had seen many photos of the fire and what it left behind, still he was very interested in seeing it first hand.\u00a0 So last week we all went up for a quick visit, our first of 2018.<\/p>\n

While the eastern side of the U.S. has been battling snow and ice and record low temperatures, out here on the western side of the country it has been unseasonably warm and dry.\u00a0 Really warm.\u00a0 As in pushing close to 70 degrees in January!\u00a0 This is not<\/strong> normal.<\/p>\n

Of course this is bad news for a state still struggling with extended drought conditions and massive, record-breaking wildfires.\u00a0 But at least for us, a warm snowless January means that we can get more work done on the property.<\/p>\n

And there is a lot of work to do! But our son still liked the prospect of work, because this work involved the Bobcat.\u00a0 And let’s face it, Bobcats can be fun.<\/p>\n

\"Image
One of the two wood and brush piles that we wanted to move. This is where the old garage used to be, and where its replacement will go<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in September when I ordered attachments for the Bobcat,\u00a0 my order included a “Grapple Rake.”\u00a0 It is a simple device that pretty much does what it says on the tin.\u00a0 It’s good for raking up sticks and stones, and also carrying them from here to there.<\/p>\n

But given that it attaches to a skidsteer, it can handle pretty hefty sticks and stones — i.e. logs and boulders.\u00a0 We’ve got a lot of those around here.\u00a0 So back in September this seemed to me to be a worthwhile attachment to have.\u00a0 This visit was our first chance to find out whether or not that was true.<\/p>\n

\"Image
If this is work, then why is this man smiling?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was also a chance to use our newly-graded “back entrance” to the Logger’s Retreat.<\/p>\n

\"Image
The new “back entrance” driveway had a section that was almost too steep for the Bobcat to handle, but the added weight of the grapple rake and its contents helped keep the Bobcat’s front wheels on the ground<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We added the larger logs to the pile we had already created when we took down the two Ponderosa Pines.\u00a0 And we created a new, separate pile for all the smaller, brushy pieces.\u00a0 We’ll try to cut the larger pieces into useful lumber.\u00a0 The smaller stuff will probably become firewood.<\/p>\n

\"Image
Our son grappling 3 logs into position on the top of the pile he’s created<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It took us two afternoons to finish the job.\u00a0 The weather was sunny and mild and as a reward for our labors we were treated to a most beautiful sunset on the surrounding hills.<\/p>\n

\"Image
This is where the new road meets the old fire road, near where the storage container used to be<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sunset progressed quickly and relit the patchwork of burned forest on the mountainside across the Lewis Creek valley from us; this time much more pleasantly than last time. (Don’t worry; those are clouds, not smoke!)<\/p>\n

\"Closeup
A closer view of the ridge across the valley, now with some low clouds drifting past the sunlit trees.\u00a0 Yes it really was that color!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Image
And finally the trees became silhouettes as the clouds themselves lit up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But enough with the visual distractions; back to work!\u00a0 Yes we did finish moving the wood piles.<\/p>\n

\"Image
And the wood piles are all gone! This is where\u00a0 we will build the new garage.\u00a0 In the background of this image is where the house itself will go, where you see the orange breezeway support posts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now that the lot is clear and clean, it is almost too open.\u00a0 I feel like it needs some structure.\u00a0 Yes, in fact it needs Structures.\u00a0 I want the building to begin!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year everyone! Let’s hope 2018 is more constructive (or less destructive at least) than 2017 was. After an enjoyable holiday break with family, we returned home from our travels with one of our two adult sons.\u00a0 Although he had seen many photos of the fire and what it left behind, still he was … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Playing Pickup Sticks (Big Ones)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"status","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-status","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-status"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Using our new \"grapple rake\" while the setting sun entertains us","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BobcatWithGrappleSunset.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9iwY6-cK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790\/revisions\/812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loggersretreat.com\/rebuild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}