Fire Protection and Preparing to Build Days 29 – 59

April 1 – 30

Hi everyone!

Once again, I’ve been busy – mostly. 🙂

I took a week of vacation to be able to focus on getting the brush chipped. That week was mostly productive. It turned out being a balance of work and relaxation as opposed to all work. In all, not bad I guess.

I haven’t gotten as much done in the evenings after work as I’d like for various reasons. Mostly is fatigue or lack of motivation. I often spend at least an extra hour on the computer either working for work, doing email for Portal Rescue, or obsessing over finances and timing of my retirement (currently targeting 7 years from now). After that, I’m not in the mood to go out to work. Regardless, I have gotten a fair bit done since the last update.

Here is a quick synopsis of what I’ve gotten done:

Sold our last property in Michigan. YAY!!! Okay, so I didn’t have to spend much time or energy on this one, but IMO, it still counts. 🙂
Had more gravel delivered for the RV carport and spread half of it to make surface from where we park to the RVs more level to walk on.
Chipped a number of brush piles around the RV’s, all the brush I dug up around where I plan to dig for the dirt to build with, and probably 2/3’s of the brush pile near the water tank.
Took delivery of bags (tubes) that I will use to build with.
Completed and submitted income tax returns.

I’ve continued to learn a lot over this past month. Let me share everything I can remember. Warning: If you are a head smacker when you say “DUH” when someone does something stupid, I suggest you put on some protective head gear of some sort before you continue reading the rest of this blog post.

Where to start?

Personal protection equipment I find invaluable when chipping brush and operating the chains saw. Protects head from blunt force trama, protects hearing from machinery, protects face from flying debris. I have learned it does not protect eyes from dust or other really small flying debris. I have also learned that it does not protect my neck from sunburn. After getting a hearty sunburn on my neck from working all day chipping, I ordered a scull cap (dew rag) with protective neck flap from Amazon and took a couple days off from chipping waiting for it’s delivery and for my sunburn to heal.

I call the yellow bar across the top of the feed chute “a head banger”. Please don’t bother asking why I am sticking my head in the chute below it while the chipper is in operation. Leave it at “can’t fix stupid”. I have learned that the helmet pictured above is effective at avoiding helicopter rides to a hospital with a fractured skull. While I have not learned to not stick my head in there while the chipper is in operation, I have learned to duck my head when I stick it in there.

My snake boots have become uncomfortable due to wear, so I stopped in Tuscon and picked up a good pair of hiking boots made of heavy leather and a nylon plate in the sole. I have learned that the nylon plate is generally effective at resisting penetration of mesquite thorns through the bottom of the boot. Generally, not completely… After a week of wearing them paying no mind to what I was stepping on, I had a thorn penetrate them. I stopped and pulled that thorn out and more than 5 others. I learned it’s heavy leather is also effective at stopping the penetration of a spinning chainsaw chain. Can you spot which boot and where I hit it with the chainsaw? I was reminded of a lesson I previously “learned” (or not) to not operate a chainsaw when I’m fatigued because I do stupid things. I’m hoping that the boots are equally as effective at repelling a rattle snake strike.

Speaking of rattle snakes, this is the first one of the year. Sasha was outside barking for an abnormally long time yesterday. I stepped out to see what she was barking at. I got to the second step down the 5th wheel steps when I heard the rattle coming from under the 5th wheel. I retreated back into the trailer rather quickly. I put on my snake boots and went back out to deal with him. I had read online that water from a garden hose is effective at getting rattle snakes to move along. I went to the far side of the trailer and sprayed him with the water. He retreated into the trailer’s wheel and I couldn’t get him out from that angle. I took the hose around and sprayed him through the holes in the wheel to get him out of the wheel, then sprayed him some more from under the trailer at a distance. He eventually moved to the the area between the trailers. I left him alone at that point figuring he needed to warm up, Sasha had moved on to let me deal with him, and he was out in the open where he was easily seen. After about 30 minutes of just sitting there, he moved off into the yard.

This is the pile of wood chips I’ve collected thus far. Over half of the pile is from my own chipping efforts. The rest are chips I picked up last year from someone that wanted them to be hauled off. I’ve learned that chipping dirty, dried, mesquite brush is hell on chipper blades. I’ve learned that a set of blades lasts between 4 and 8 hours of use chipping my dirty dried mesquite before they have to be changed out. I’ve learned that fresh blades will easily slice your finger if you are not careful. I’ve become quite adept at changing out the chipper blades.

I’ve learned that road runners are smarter than Bear. I had set him down on the ground one evening while I was resting allowing him to run around a bit and explore. There was also a road runner out and about. Bear was initially oblivious to the road runner, and the road runner was intentionally approaching him. As I didn’t know what the road runner’s intention were (given they can kill rattle snakes, they are not to be taken for granted as a hunter), I got up to intervene. It was at that point that Bear noticed the road runner and decided to chase after it. The road runner ran up on the gravel pile. Bear apparently doesn’t know how to look up as he ran around the gravel pile and kept going, looking for the road runner. At that point, he left my sight so I had to once again pop up out of my chair to go get him as there are many animals around here that would easily make a meal out of him. Sasha, being the great protective flock dog she is, saw me pop up and knew why I was getting up. She ran down the driveway until she could see Bear and waited there for me to catch up and go get him. In the mean time, that road runner stayed on top of the gravel pile presumably laughing at Bear. It all made me think of the Road Runner and Coyote cartoons from when I was a kid.

And now some photos I’ve taken to share.