Jamming In The Woods

Yesterday I decided to take a break from the dead grass problem and concentrate on clearing up some of the downed tree limbs around our property that resulted from a strong storm a couple of months ago.

This would be my first time using the Earthquake 33968 K32 wood chipper/shredder I ordered from Amazon back in July, except for a quick test run after we assembled it. The first thing I realized was that even thiugh it’s on wheels, the darn thing is heavy when you’re trying to pull it up even a slight hill. But I managed to get it in place with a little bit of effort and possibly a slight bit of cursing.

The downed wood around here ranges from actual trees to large and smaller branches. The wood chipper is supposed to be able to handle three inch branches without a problem, and you can feed it through a tube on the front or a hopper on top. I planned to shred up a bunch of the small branches to use as mulch, but first I loaded some of the big ones onto the little trailer I pull behind the Kawasaki Mule and took them back to a low spot on one of our perimeter roads that always seems to stay muddy after a rain.

My plan is to fill as much of it as I can with branches of various sizes and drive over them repeatedly with the Mule and tractor, eventually compacting them enough to fill in this problem area. I don’t know how well it will actually work, but it seems good in theory. I took a couple of loads of big branches back there and dumped them into the low spot, then drove over it repeatedly, compacting everything down to make room for more.

Of course, in the process I managed to step on another damned ant nest, so I had to take a break to run up to the house and have Terry put some alcohol on the bites and then cover them with cortisone cream.

Back at the wood chipper, I was able to get one bag full of chopped smaller branches. This is what they look like after going through the machine. After they are well dried they make an excellent mulch for gardens. I may mix some of those with the dead grass and let it set for a few months to see what I come up with.

But that’s going to take a while, because after I emptied the first bag of chips and started over again, the machine suddenly jammed up. I think I may have tried to feed a piece of wood into it that was too big, or it may have been some pine bark that I threw into the hopper. I’m not sure which. At any rate, it is completely jammed and I can’t pull the starter cord.

By then it was getting later in the afternoon and I was hot and tired, not to mention uncomfortable from the ant bites, so I called it a day and rolled the chipper back to the garage. I’m going to have to take it apart and see if I can get whatever is jamming it up out. It’s always something, isn’t it?

Congratulations Betty Graffis, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of Callie And Natalie’s Dutch Family History by Darlene Miller. When nine-year-old Callie and her five-year-old sister Natalie go to Pella, Iowa with their grandmother they wear period dresses as they learn about their fourth, fifth, and sixth great-grandparents, who arrived in Pella in 1847. Other true Dutch stories are about more great-grandparents who immigrated in the early 1900s. Enjoy their experiences as they see, hear, and taste “all things Dutch” as they travel through Pella.

We had 44 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon.  Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – The most important project you’ll ever work on is yourself.