I rented a stump grinder and a mini excavator to follow up on the cedar that was taken down a few weeks ago and put in a machine track to the second natural clearing with good light.

I had a couple of friends help me make full use of the tools during these short late autumn days.

The time had come to get vehicles wider than my mini-truck onto the land, so I needed to take down a live cedar with a dead alder leaning up against it

To one side were power lines. To the other side was a massive big leaf maple with this amazing burl about 20 feet up

I’d begun arrangements for the removal by a professional months ago. Recently learning to climb trees a bit gave me a deeper appreciation of how dangerous and skillful the work is of removing a tree with precision.

I was really happy that the people I hired made it look as easy as they did.

Last week I took a 4 day entry-level tree climbing class. I just got my gear and today I took it for a spin.

I stopped at about 30 feet up because I should probably have a “groundie” around to help me get unstuck if I get stuck, at least during my early days of my climbing.

Let me know if you wanna come hang out in the woods and be a “groundie”. If you wanna give tree climbing a try, we can take turns being each other’s groundies.

Update: I made this air canon for getting throw line up into trees. It works pretty well.

A couple of days ago, I drove a salvaged industrial sink from the west side over to Kalina’s new space in town. Then I took a hand-me-down couch to the same space, donated by a neighbor in our housing co-op. The next day I picked up four free large used billboard vinyls from a local billboard company. Then Kalina and I got to salvage at the North transfer station — so much incredible stuff being thrown out! We were shopping primarily for studio and gallery supplies for Kalina… a special bonus perk from her Recology residency. I also made some amazing finds.

Now my little Kei truck is on its way home from its first trip over to Seattle, loaded up with lots of great free-cycling.

Up in the cab is some brand new tree climbing gear…some things you definitely do not want to upcycle. The rope is too heavy to want to bike it out. Anyways, more about that in a bit.

I’ve been out of town for a few weeks, and now it’s getting cold, wet, and dark. In one of my larger stands of alder and salmonberry that gets the best spring and summer sun, I started coppicing tall (~6ft+) shrubs of salmonberry and osoberry, and some alder saplings. I’m getting it on the ground and decomposing now. In the spring, it’ll be less competition for sunlight. TBD on what to do with the sword and bracken fern.

The water service line that runs along my boundary happens to be the main 12″ line, used to pump from the wells up to a holding tank, and 6′ deep. Typically service lines are more like 4′ deep.

Moreover, I needed the service line routed between a utility pole and a 3+’ wide cedar stump with some thick roots that needed to be carved through.

It was a bigger job than initially anticipated, but the Manchester Water District crew were undaunted. They kindly indulged me peppering them with questions and filming them in action.

Update: For now, I’ve hooked up a pressure reducing valve and a hose spigot.

I rented a Cat 303 for the weekend. It’s too big to get back into the areas where there’s holly trees and slash piles that I wanted to use it on, so I started clearing a small area up towards the road where I’m thinking I’ll put a trailer and a garden. I took down some dead danger alders, and used the excavator to break up and place the downed trunks. In the end, I didn’t have enough work lined up to fully justify the rental, but it was good practice, and I didn’t want to wait any longer to try one out. I’m looking forward to renting a smaller Cat 301, which I should be able get back into the woods.

I also moved some earth for my neighbor. It was more great practice and SO FUN!!

LMK if you want any sword ferns.

I got a used chipper/shredder and started working on getting rid of my piles of mostly Holly slash. I got through one and a half of the biggest ones on the first day. I may switch to burning it at some point, or maybe hauling it off to the landfill if I figure out a reasonable way to get the piles out of the woods.

Or I’ll just keep chipping 😉 away at it until it’s done.

The Forester that helped me write up my land management plan also helped me submit an application to WA State’s DNR Cost Sharing Program. The DNR will split the cost of invasive species removal (brush control in the spec below) and slash disposal. This includes payment for labor, so I’m now signed up to be a Vendor for WA State.

From my DNR Forester Partner

Thanks Jeremy! I have submitted your plan to our Program Coordinator for entry into the federal database of Forest Stewardship Plans. Your sign will be mailed to your PO Box. Here is a signed final copy for you to keep as well. Great work on this plan. It’s been a pleasure working on it with you!