Testosterone Tool

A few days after the trees were removed, the guy, Bill, returned and ground those two stumps plus about 16 others from previous cuttings.  The tool is $40K of pure testosterone. 35 hp.  24 inch blade that consists of, not a saw blade, but small hammers mounted on both sides of the blade that literally "beat" the wood of the stumps to bits.  I was the assistant, doing what I could to help him.
   The best part was that he let me operate the machine on the last stump.  One lever moves the head with the blade, left and right, the next one raises and lowers the head.  The third, moves the machine forward and back.  I felt quite powerful.  As Tim Allen would say Woo, woo, woo !!!  It was great !

Zoo 2

Here are a couple more of zoo views

"Here's looking at yah "

The side of a duck you don't see.

Home

   Home is good.  Home means calmness.  It means security.  It means work!  One project checked off the list was thinning the tree population along our back fence.  Fifteen years ago the owner thought it would be a good idea to plant lots of trees along the back fence for privacy.  Not a bad idea until the tree grow large.  If the yard was big enough it would be less of a problem.  Our backyard is not.  So the trees grew close together and did not allow much sunlight to hit the ground.  The area between the patio and the fence is mostly moss and tree roots.
   We started to address the situation by removing several trees, in front, and along either side.  Some were right up against the house.  Not good.  Last week we tackled the ones on the back fence.  A fir and a pine.  Both had split trunks.  The tree guy called them co-dependent.  Again, not good.  So we had them removed.  It was fascinating to watch.  One guy up in the tree cutting and the other hauling branches to the wood chipper parked out on the street.  A couple of hours and the trees were gone and the mess cleaned up.

Before

After I had erected the trellis that I built and planted the Star Jasmine.  Some day it will grow up to be a visual barrier.

Home

We have been home for over a month.  We left South Lake Tahoe at a little after 8am on Monday July 17.  We were ready to be on the road.  The trip up north was long but uneventful and we pulled in front of the house at 9pm.    A very long day.  My phone told me 650 miles.  Under normal conditions we would not drive that far, but we knew the route and our place was waiting for us.  After running an extension cord to the trailer, we grabbed a few items and went in to see if the place still looked the same.  Thanks to several friends keeping track of mail, watering, etc, it did.  The Boys were excited to be home as well.  Hunter literally bounced up and down the hallway.  We all agreed that it was great hitting the hay back in Canby.
    The next several days were spent unloading the rig.  The big slide was opened while we were still parked on the street.  The other two can be opened while the trailer is parked in its spot beside the house.  We were both tired from the intense schedule at Tallac.  The situation arose from the fact that there were too many programs and too few volunteers.  The number of programs was increased with the idea that more volunteers were coming, however several backed out at the last minute leaving us short-handed.  The logical thing to do would have been to cut the number of programs, but that was not done so we volunteers bore the extra load.  The end result was that we were burned put at the end of our stay.
     As usual, the Lake Tahoe Basin gets high marks for its beauty and activities.  But with that comes LOTS of visitors and the crowded streets and highways that goes with that.  We just learned that after Memorial Day you do not try to drive anywhere in the middle of the day.
   Anyway we are home and trying to keep up with the projects that keep popping up.

The Zoo

Went to the Washington Park Zoo last week.  It is the first time we have been in over 10 years.  I really do not remember much from our previous visit, so I cannot compare.  But I remember going to the Sibley Prk zoo in Mankato when I was a kid.  Lions and Tigers and Monkeys in small steel barred cages.  I remember feeling sorry for the animals.  It was not enjoyable.
   The 4 hours we spent at the Portland zoo was fun.  The enclosures were relatively large and had lots of rocks the trees and water etc. to give the residents more challenges.
   I enjoyed seeing the California Condor.  We met someone who watched one fly over Grand Canyon, but have not been lucky enough.

The Hippos were close by because a keeper was throwing apple chunks into their pond.  Imagine being his dentist !

The one impression that stuck with me is the amount of walking needed to view all of the exhibits.  Paths wound around and threw trees and shrubs to take you to the various compounds.  School had not started so there were lots of children walking and being wheeled in strollers the size of Smart cars 

Yard work