The weather was floating around all day but never produced anything despite the nasty looking clouds.

The roads were quite icy with wrecks on the highway towards town so I gave things a chance to warm up a bit before heading to North 40. The birds need feed, the maul a new handle, then a sled for me. The sled is for skiing trips and to use for hauling on hikes to camping areas. I will make pvc arms for it to tow with and will have to do some SERIOUS waxing to the underside to make it glide nice and easily.

Also got J another LEGO set for his birthday today.

Back home it took me a bit to get out to the shed but I eventually got the chain sharpened and saw ready for an attack on the tree.

I headed over to the hill with the saw and got to cutting on the top part that was down.

The stub left that I had to take down.

I got through a few cuts of rounds before I noticed the chain starting to dull so I moved over to the base of the tree to take it down before the dullness got too bad.

I got a face cut made then hacked away the bark around the backside of the trunk. It made it much easier for the dogs to dig in and give me better torque.

I had the felling wedges in and it took just a couple swings of the hammer to push it over. My chain was for sure needing sharpening so I hauled stuff back to the shed.

What a difference it makes having the tree down now. The garden is gradually gaining more light spacing between the trees...

The dishwasher wonked again so I pulled the face plate off with the buttons, took it out to the compressor, and used the air nozzle to blow out the housing with the buttons. I think something had gotten inside and was shorting across lines. I reinstalled it and the thing popped on and worked like normal. So far it is an easy fix.

After a chain sharpening and a bunch of little chores around the house I was headed for the hillside again. This time to take down a live tree. These stand on the hill next to one of our only boulders and they have a significant lean to the south. They also have jacked multi tops that shade the driveway badly in the mid winter.

I was attempting to cut a side hill face cut to try and direct it but the chain was not nearly as sharp as I had hoped. I made some rather shitty cuts but was determined to take the thing down.

In what proved to be a bit tense moments I was making the back cut when the tree began to move the WRONG way, I was standing on the other side of the tree between them when it went and I had to make a big jump down the hillside to keep from getting smacked by the trunk as it swung up and then against the trunk of the other tree. The tree landed on my fence so it will be needing serious hacking on today.

It REALLY opened up the space and will do great for allowing the sun onto the driveway so it might not end up a sheet of ice all winter long.... very big maybe.

I was dinking around online and popped into Craig'slist to scope for antenna towers.... WELL DAMN IF I DIDN'T FIND ONE! I emailed and it looks like it will be exactly perfect for my #hamradio setup and it even has an antenna rotator with it! Super stoked and hope I am able to get it!

I let R go next door to play but while he was their they all worked to push our dumb turkey herd back across the creek to our side. I got the text that they were down there so off I went to herd them back to our farm. It took a while but I managed to direct them to the hill below the wood cover.

I carried the insanely huge tom up the hill and dropped him in the yard then pushed the hens up the hill and then around the house. The morons then just stood in the yard as it got dark and made me go out and herd them into the coop. I will be fencing them in today to keep them on the farm until we can butcher at least the tom likely this weekend.

This was so nice feeling, triple, double, triple for a 160. THAT time the 3rd dart did right!

And then it didn't.

Got out to soak and R came out for a bit which helped him feel a bit better before bed.

Today it's raining here but snowing not too much higher though we may get a sprinkling. It's J's birthday, I'll get them to school, then mid morning I will head to Liberty Lake for the antenna tower, my hard drive returns to me, J's laptop arrives, I have chains to sharpen and trees to cut up and deal with, hopefully I will order my 3d printer, then this evening we are going out to eat for J's birthday before coming home for his gifts and the Kraken game.

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For more information about our farm:
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce

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