Cold weather is here!

Beautiful sunrises this time of year!

A brief "scare" regarding my tractor

I went out to the garage late Friday and decided to get the tractor ready for work on Saturday.  I started the tractor and moved it out of the way so that I could get to the forks that where sitting under the front loader bucket.  I removed the lumber I had stacked on the forks and went back to start the tractor so that I could install the forks.  Well, the tractor wouldn't start!!  It cranked, but no start!  I mean I was flabbergasted.  I had just run the thing no longer than 10 mins prior, what the hell!?

At first I thought maybe it was out of fuel and that I had introduced air into the lines.  Running a diesel dry is a big no-no - it can really be hard to start after that and you may even have to bleed the air out of the injector lines (each line!)  I went through this with the backhoe and it took me almost half a day to get it running again!  So anyway, Friday evening we went to the local gas station/local store and I filled up all my fuel tanks (10 gal deisel and 15 gal gasoline).  Got home and fueled up the tractor.  Still no-go!  Well, I ran down the battery good so I placed a battery charger on the tractor and called it a night.

The next morning I still couldn't start it!  At this point I am convinced that air was in the lines and proceeded to go through the fuel lines and try to bleed it out.  Every step of the way though I found that the lines had no air!  Solid fuel right into the injectors! At this point I decide to read the owners/service manual to get some ideas as to what I should do (I had pulled it out earlier to see where the fuel line was).   As I looked through the manual I stumbled onto some of the electrical system schematics at which point a thought occurred to me - maybe the wires to the seat-safety switch were damaged?  I went out and found and examined the wires to the switch and sure enough they were severed!  I bypassed the switch, shorted the wires together and tried to start the tractor - VROOM!  It works!  Whew!  I was back in business and I hadn't wasted too much time on it.

More sawmill work

With the tractor working again I was able to put the forks on and move some tree trunks from my stock pile over to the mill.  First I loaded up a junk piece of oak. Low-and-behold I was able to get a decent length of 5x5 post out of it (and some chip-wood)!  Then I loaded a much junkier piece of oak which did indeed turn entirely into chip-wood.  Then a very long piece of oak from which I got about a 17 foot 4x4 (and a bunch of chip-wood).

My trusty woodmizer LT15 still running strong!  I literally have done nothing in the way of maintenance so far (besides keeping the fuel and water filled and changing out the blades when dull)

Its hard to see clearly - but there is a LONG 4x4 laying on top of that pile!

Can see one end of it here...  I don't know what I need this for, but I NEED it!

Here is the end from a different perspective.  You can see the new 5x5 (hmm - maybe its a 6x6?) to its left.

I also milled up some maple this weekend too.  I think just 2 logs.  I got a good amount of lumber out of them, considering there shape (both were not really good lumber logs).  They weren't figure wood though.  Just plain maple.  I figure it might be useful to make a workbench surface?  

Most of the boards are about 8 inches wide by 5/4.  I am not sure of length.  10 feet maybe?  Maybe longer.

I stickered the big boards but didn't do the little ones on top.  The little ones on top are from a different log and are thinner)

Different perspective on the maple.  The pile on the far right is also maple.  The pile in the distant right is walnut.

Maple pile stickered.  Walnut "ends" in the dirt there.

These walnut end pieces actually look better than I originally thought.

Lots of sawdust!  i might put some of this on the blackberries?  Or maybe on the strawberries? Blueberries?

This is the chip pile at the end of the weekend.  I put 8 loader scoops full on the sour cherry trees.  I want to put this on the "new" sour cherries and the hazelnuts as well.  Lots of wood to chip yet...

These slab boards are too wide to put through the chipper.  I have a carbide bandsaw blade on order that I will try to use to cut these into smaller widths for chipping.

Still quite a few logs here to mill!  The pile near the house is almost gone though!  Lots of fire wood near the house though - thinking of making a lathe attachment for the sawmill so I can maybe make posts out of the smaller logs.

Here is where I put the woods chips this time.  These are the older sour cherry trees.  I want to place some chips around the dwarf cherry and the new sour cherry trees as well.  

I am not putting chips on the sweet cherry trees (4 of them on the left of the sour cherry trees).  Currently I plan on moving the sweet cherry trees out of fear that their roots are growing into the septic drain field.

Last of the garden

It got very cold (24F) overnight and I think it finished off the plants in the garden.  Even the Kale and Brussel sprouts have a limit to how cold they can take.   Although they might survive this cold, they are not going to be producing anything soon!

Kale is all sad now. :(

I harvested what I thought looked good.

I also grabbed the last of the red sprouts.  They are real small.  I don't know if I can use them or not.

I figure its worth a try!

A heap of kale!  I blanched them and then braised with onion and sweet italian sausage and even used some of my homemade canned chicken broth from last year.   Very tasty!

Here is a better picture from just before I cooked them.  blanched them and then roasted them - delicious!