It’s Back to Work!

Since registering for a domain name and signing up for a web host (Dreamhost), I have found my self in front of the computer for days on end.  Learning about setting up services on the server, FTP programs, HTML code, blogging software, photo gallery software, etc. has been very time consuming.   Switching over from ISDN to satellite broadband, and my continued attempts at networking my computers has also taken it’s share of time.  Then, reviewing and uploading photos to the gallery, and writing posts to the blog are time eaters also.  All this has come at the expense of ranch projects, so I’m back off to work now!

Yesterday was unseasonably warm here in the Ozarks, so I took the opportunity to drain, clean, and refill the hot tub.  Today, I worked on a winter-long project of “parkizing” (def: taking an area of land, and making it look like a park) a stretch of creek that runs for about a mile through our property.  This has been a very physical project, involving lots of chain saw and tractor work, but mostly a lot of heavy lifting and hauling.

Retta pointed out a low and dangerous limb from a locust tree that was intruding into one of her riding trails, and ask me to remove it.  The thorns of these trees are wicked – I can’t count the number of flat tires I have fixed on my tractor as a result of these trees.  The only redeeming feature to them is that deer love to eat the seedpods from honey locusts.

Honey Locust thorns are massive and strong

Even though the deer like them, there are several located around the horse paddock that I will have to remove.  I will probably just cut them up and burn them where they now stand, as handling them is difficult and dangerous.

4 thoughts on “It’s Back to Work!

  1. Locust wood, properly dried, makes excellent fence posts that will far out last most pressure treated lumber. 50-70 years before finally rotting away. We have hundreds of them here and they are pretty much a noxious weed but there is the lumber benefit (if you can find someone willing to saw it. It dulls blades quickly)

  2. I have noticed that several piles of locust wood that I have cut up do not seem to decay, but I hadn’t thought about that property of locusts as being useful for anything due to the difficulty in handling the wood. Every time I have to work with a locust, I end up leaking blood like a sieve (okay, I exaggerate, but just slightly).

    The last time I sawed a locust tree, I also noticed that the chains dulled quickly, but I had attributed it to being a defective set of chains. Thanks for the heads-up.

  3. Hal,

    I just found your site and this is so neat! First post I read was about the Boi d’arc tree, of which my husband had one in his back yard growing up in the historic part of Fayetteville. Second post, the LOCUST TREE. We now live out by the lake and I’ve personally helped my husband cut down two of them, and they are a wicked, wicked tree. We’ve tried burning the stump of one and plan to do it again. It’s nice to see someone writing about on the web who lives in the Ozarks. 🙂 Thanks !!

  4. Demon tree man, I’ve only come across them at my grandma’s place in east Texas, but I can never forget those thorns.

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