Oregon City, Oregon - Week 17 - April 26 to May 2, 2021

This week I was in Sector 1.....does that surprise me or anyone?  Sector 1 has the ATV trail that starts just west of the barn and goes down to Malcolm's Bridge which is at the bottom of the woods.  I worked every day clearing the entire ATV trail from fallen branches.  No one could have driven an ATV down the trail...maybe an army tank.  Near the top, two (maybe three) tops from maple trees had snapped off.  Midway down -  there had always been two maple trees leaning way down over the trail - well those two trees snapped off. And further down a whole maple tree uprooted and was across the trail.  Malcolm cut all the trunks into 4-6 foot lengths so I could handle them (get a rope under them, tie a timber hitch, and drag them up the hill.  In this photo you can see the tree with a few sections already removed.  In the upper left corned you can see the base of the tree with the soil raised into a big hump.

This was my burn pile for most of the week.

One inadvertent mistake I made was choosing a fire site that was two large steps away from an old coil of wire fencing.  As I am shuffling around I noticed that I kept tripping on something, and sure 'nuf, the Brunners had left a surprise for me which I found fifty years or so after they left it.  I finally picked it up - it was just a half a coil - and now it is ready for a trip to the metal recycle place.  I then took my metal detector and scoured the area and picked up these treasures.

Right on the edge of where Don Lutz had used his big machine to grind up blackberry  bushes. I spied a holly tree...too bad for the tree.

These flowers will make no berries to be dissipated by birds.

A fitting end

I use the ATV to pull the logs up and position them in the area without gravel so I can scoop them up with the grapple.  Side note - last year I just dragged everything to the burn pile....but that destroyed the grass and the gravel in the drive way.  This year with new gravel just put down, I have no interest in ruining it.

I carefully stacked the logs and branches so we can cut them up later.  Here are the logs that we'll cut up with a chain saw.

In this pile the logs/branches are thinner, and we'll use Malcolm's chop saw.

Dad is "back" - yea!  When we first got the tractor, he couldn't climb up the two steps to get to the seat.  But practice and leg strengthening does work.  He figured out how to lubricate the cultivator and proceeded to till our garden, the Glenn's, and Bev's.

I took a break from picking up branches and went with Jessica and Tyler on a tour of Oregon City.  It was for his English class...I think...and two people knowledgeable about architecture and history led the walk.

John McLoughlin's front door does not face the street - but the bluff and the river.

A picture of the OC bridge through an opening in the bushes.

Singer Creek Falls alongside the stairs (an old WPA project)-

No explanation needed for this photo - see the semi truck with a red cab on the bridge?

Well - it had to cross the bridge and then main street and figure out how to get out of town.