5.3.2020

Jim worked in the wood shop this morning.  This maple outside piece needed to be taped off very specifically because one side will be gray and one side will be polyurethaned.  He put a coat of primer on the edges of the part that will be gray.

A light coat of gray on the panels...

It was another gorgeous day so after lunch, Jim headed down to the auto bay.  He did a little maintenance and investigating on the Tiger Cub mower.  There has been some electrical issue that won't keep the battery charged - Jim always had to put it on the charger before mowing.  But that will require taking the top part of the engine apart so we'll see!  Meanwhile, he got it all greased up and ready to go.  He'll need to cut grass soon.

Sharpening the chain saw blades...

Then it was time to uncover the excavator and see how it survived the winter.  The battery still had a charge but not enough to turn the engine over.

So onto the charger for a quick charge...

The excavator is so amazing - after sitting out all winter, once the battery was charged it turned over the first time!

One of our projects is to rebuild one of the stone walls on the property.   These are so amazing and apparently were built by slaves way back when to denote property lines.  Of course, when timber companies come through, they just bulldoze everything over.  But this wall has pine trees growing through it so we need to get them moved.

There were two growing right next to each other that Jim wanted to get out but wasn't sure if he would be able to - plus there are giant rocks all around.  But he got them both out in one scoop!

Carefully backing out with a bucket full of trees!

We planned on putting the smaller tree on the edge of the woods.  When we were looking for a spot, there was a rock that stuck up a little that Jim always hit with the mower, so we thought he could dig up that rock and we would plant the tree there.  However, we never thought the rock would be so huge!

 It's a cool rock so Jim dug out one of the ugly trees along the side and put the rock in that space...

 Setting the tree in...

Jim was going to put the bigger tree in the bucket and take it up to where we wanted to plant it, but it didn't work.

So instead, he just carried it!

We decided to put this one along the curve of the upper driveway, so Jim started digging...

Setting the tree in the hole...

Filling in the hole...

 Better give the trees a drink so Jim filled up some buckets...

Put the excavator away and got out the Bobcat...

Giving it a drink halfway through filling in the hole...

All done!

It looks really nice as you round the corner now!

Watering the other tree...

Then doing some grading...

You can see how the trees grew right in the middle of the wall - we still have more to transplant, so hopefully this week before things start growing too much or getting too warm.

High 71/Low 43