Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

Maybe, or maybe they came from the natural wetland north and downhill from the pond. I should go there and see if there is even any water in it. I usually don't go near it because it is normally very squishy fairly far out and into the field, not a place a person wants to walk.

 

[greybeard]

Salamander was there.you just didn't see it while you were mucking about in the pond. They bury themselves in the mud, sometimes pretty deeply. We found one about 2' long when this pond was originally dug.....the local paper ran a picture of it because they are rare to find that big here.

 

[CntryBoy777]

If ya find a hellbender....don't think ya have found a prehistoric life form....

 

[Baymule]

Improving the habitat.....upgrade to the real estate.....tell all your friends! Go west young salamander!

 

[Ridgetop]

Proud to be a member of the "Mean Club".

Most standard pickups have an 8' bed. 4x8 - the size of a standard sheet of plywood. If you load it sticking up over the tailgate and put a red rag on it, it should be legal to drive in the pickup with 4' sticking out. Just be careful to tie it in really well. We carry 12' lumber all the time in our pickup like that. We carry 16' moldings by loading them through the rear widow and then having them hang over the tailgate. You can't do that with a tree trunk though! LOL

I think the grain would look gorgeous on a tabletop. You will probably polyurethane the top too to prevent heat, water food stains which will keep the grain looking fabulous.

 

[Bruce]

I see a lot of trucks with 6' beds.

Measured the tree. it was about 16' before I cut off the top 16". 24" diameter at the bottom. 19" just before the branch out. The top most piece that I cut off originally didn't split well. A lot of it wanted to slough off in relatively small pieces, slightly punky. That is the very light wood in the prior picture. Next piece down did the same thing. Even farther down only the center looks real solid, wouldn't have gotten much usable lumber out of it.

Good thing I waited until I had a tractor to cut that tree (though that isn't the reason it wasn't dealt with earlier). I needed the power of the tractor to lift up the ends of the log to get some 6x6's under it so I could cut it into rounds. Of course my little 10 ton electric splitter can't handle rounds that big so I'm having to split them in half with a sledge and wedges before I can even think about hefting them up on the splitter.

 

[Ridgetop]

So it sounds like the wood wasn't any good as lumber. No need to take it anywhere.

6' beds are getting popular with crew cabs since the truck stays shorter than a standard bed with a crew cab. My son has 2 trucks one is a standard bed and one is a short bed.

 

[RollingAcres]

My truck is a short bed

 

[RollingAcres]

The latest installment of "The wildlife in Bruce's Pond" is here.

DD1 saw a single tadpole, no legs. But that wasn't the confusing part. Now, along with the very young snapping turtle which came from ???? given I don't think there are any adults in or around the pond, DW saw a salamander today. I saw another one in a different part of the pond. Why is this confusing? Well, there were certainly no salamanders in the "mud pit" with the tadpoles and in the 7 years we have owned this place we have never seen salamanders in the pond. So where they heck are these critters coming from??

Pretty soon your place will be a wetland/wildlife sanctuary.

 

[Bruce]

Saw Al last evening returning from delivering a couple of round bales up the road. Asked if he had the 25 squares I had requested when I returned his call regarding mowing the fields. Seems he hadn't caught that request and no he didn't have any since he only got 1 cutting this year. Did I mention we had a drought all summer? No rounds either. He said he would check this morning with a couple of guys he has coffee with. He called back this morning and said he went out and re-counted the hay in the barn (he delivers all year as needed to people up the road that don't have enough storage space) and he had 4 extra rounds. 1 round ~= 10 squares so I said I would take 3.

I didn't want to put them up in the drive bay, too hard to manhandle given the boys are down in the bottom. But the boys don't have access to "their" stall since after they moved in they decided they wanted to sleep in the alley and pee/poop in the stall. I've been putting 4 squares down there for use, refilling as needed. He asked when I wanted them. I said any time since I didn't have to move a bunch of stuff out of the drive bay to get the trailer in. In typical Al fashion, he said he wasn't doing anything this afternoon, would that be OK. I said yes; he said I'll be there in 15 minutes. Al brought the rounds down to the north end of the lower part of the barn to the open double doors and we put them on pallets in the stall. Used my tractor to carry the pallets down of course, sure does make things easier!

PHEW! Wasn't looking forward to finding other hay. Still have 6 squares from last year so I'll move those down maybe 3 at a time to use first.

Got some rain overnight. Might get another inch tomorrow.