Sunday Reading - Just Worn Out

Today dawned a pleasant 50 degrees or so and had climbed over 60 while I was cutting down two smallish dead Oaks. By smallish I mean one was about 3 foot around and the other maybe 2 and half. They were heavy enough not to get hung on their fall and still made a pretty impressive ground thump when they hit.

These are the last two Oaks I am pulling out of the co-worker's yard. I think I hauled some 12 or 13 Oaks out of there this Fall so far. All of them but four were already laid down and all I needed to do was cut em up and load em. These last two were kinda down in a gully and I had to pull them out with 43 foot of chain and my truck.

I came across this piece of chain while cleaning out the barn last year. I have no idea what it was originally used for although my Dad says it is a tie down chain the truck drivers use who deliver cars to dealerships. He says they usually have wooden or metal block that they run through and place on the ramps the cars are sitting on. The hooks then hook into slots on the side. That would explain how I ended up with one as he claimed they used to leave em laying around the lot all the time and he would bring them home occasionally.

Whatever it's original use as soon as I laid eyes on it I knew what it was for.

Those chains you buy at the hardware store always have hooks on them that are either way to narrow or too wide for the chain you are hooking to when linking them together. That and the large hooks are simply a pain in the butt to force under a big trunk nine times out of ten. Once you get them all hooked any slack will often pull em apart as well.

However this little link of chain with those beautiful hooks that slide right into any link certainly made my life easier. I would drag the chain down and instead of wrapping it around and trying to hook that hook back unto it's chain I just wrapped this new 3 foot section around and hooked right in. One of the trees was a bit too large for the link to go all the way around but I just hooked each hook end into a link on it's own.

My only question was would those lighter and smaller hooks hold the weight?

Worked like a champ and saved me a lot of time wrapping the larger chain around the trunks and digging a trench under them to get the larger hooks through. I been waiting all year for a tree large enough to give it a good test.

The trip home was exciting as once again I was way over loaded but this is my last trip so I had to take everything that was left. I had to keep my speed down under 60 mph. By the time I made it home the temperature had dropped into the 40's and I still had to unload and then load up the bee hive stand to get it ready.

So through a Herculean effort I cut down, loaded and then unloaded two Oaks. Loaded up 8 concrete blocks, the 4x6's a shovel and my pickax and got the hive stand all leveled out and ready.

Only project left is another bee hive move coming tomorrow at 6AM.

I think I am going to go pass out until then. After I shower off all the saw dust anyway.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!