If A Tree Falls In The Forest......

And no one is around to see it fall, does it make a sound? This is a little example of some of the useless garbage we bantered about in our brains in the 60's and 70's. My son says that's why this country is in the mess it's in now; because the Baby Boomer generation wasted brain cells on useless euphemisms like that. But I actually thought a lot about this little ditty last weekend. We spent a significant chunk of time cutting down trees in a forest (don't get so worked up! they were all dead before we cut them down). It was kind of fun and dangerous, like building a huge bonfire and getting as close as possible yet not getting burned.

First, though, I thought I would make a list of a few things that are good to have in the mountains (the term "good" doesn't nearly represent the benefit of having these things! It's like saying "It's good to have a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom before you go in...)

A BIG-A__ CHAINSAW

This little girl is a Husqvarna 2100 with 25 inch bar; we bought it used off of KSL Classifieds here in Utah for $200; thanks, Jesse F. down in Washington County! She ran like a charm!!! But you were right; starts out weighing 12 to 13 pounds, and after about 3 hours, she weighs 40 or 50 pounds. One thing, though - works better when you put the chain on the right direction.

Funny how it smokes so much when the chain is going the wrong way.

OK, that's much better. Wonder if any damage was done by having it on wrong?


A nice heavy duty Tonka Wagon to pull heavy objects around the property. This one was picked up on Freecycle; yep, it was free. I like the color!


Same photo, different thought. A generator is not absolutely vital, but pretty darn nice to have. This is a Coleman 1800 Watt generator; Jerry found it at a pawn shop in Salt Lake for $250. We watched a DVD on my laptop powered by the generator Saturday night. All I can say is, "Don't mess with the Zohan" and don't watch the Zohan; you'll be sorry you did.

A Black and Decker leaf blower (yes, it is electric so you have to have a generator to use it; would have been better if it had been gas-powered). This little guy, a Christmas present from Jerry to me a couple of years ago, was very handy when it came to blowing things off the roof of the trailer, like this:


You guessed it; another "midden". This one was not any where near as big as the one that was under the trailer when we first started cleaning up the property. Still, there was a lot of packrat poop, sticks, and other difficult-to-identify objects. I had to force Jerry to put gloves and mask on before getting up there with the blower. Oh yeah, don't forget those:

That isn't Jerry in the photo. I don't know who it is, just found it on the web.

A good watchdog is great to have. Perla is mostly Black Lab, part PitBull. She barks at strangers and keeps us warm in bed at night. She provides hours of hilarious entertainment too.


A map of your property; very nice to have! That way, if neighbors come by and want to see where their property line is, you can show them.


And lastly, for now, a beautiful sunrise. A camera is very nice to bring with you too, so you can capture the beautiful sunrise in color.

OK, back to the tree cutting story. We (well, Jerry) cut three dead, large trees down in about 3 hours (I helped stack the limbs and logs). One of the trees fell down the wrong way, directly onto the road where I was standing. I had plenty of time to move.

This is the "V" Jerry cut to notch it into falling the way we wanted it to fall. Didn't work this time, though. He had to throw the chainsaw down and run to get out of the way.


Ever heard of the saying, wood fires warm you twice? First, when you cut the wood, second, when you burn it.

Here is a little video of Jerry getting warm three times!

Really improves the view getting these dead snags out of the way!

We decided to dig a leaching pit for the gray water to drain into. After all the work cutting trees down the day before, Jerry was up the next morning digging this ditch.

It is about 4 foot by 2 foot by 3 foot deep and has gravel in the bottom to filter the gray water through.

All covered up now. Hope we didn't violate any codes!

Next summer we will be building a large porch/deck, and an outhouse. Both projects will require many hours of digging, and we have discovered there are very large rocks beneath the soil...this little Cabin in the Sky is gonna require a lot of sweat equity!