The shed, slowly

I worked on the shed last Friday. I spent most of the time prying off the rubber washers around the nail heads in order to have room to slip the pry tool under them. 

I just didn’t want to have all the big holes that I made last time.

My loyal companion kept me company until I started to pack up. That was her signal to run!

I worked about two hours and only got off three sheets. Not happy about this.

Bringing down the Dwarf Mistletoe trees and the broken down shed

This week Dad has been cutting down trees that we marked as Dwarf Mistletoe, but had to stop because some would have fallen on the old shed. My job Friday was to begin taking down the aluminum sheets that were the walls.

The nails are serrated and made to stay in the wood, not to be pulled out. Also they have a rubber washer around the flat end so the aluminum is not dented when the nails are hammered in for a tight fit. These good qualities make dismantling very frustrating.

Damn things were nailed in right!

For most of the nails I couldn’t get the claw underneath the head of the nail to pull it out. So I had to slip the flat pry tool behind the aluminum and try to loosen the nail there. Usually the aluminum just tore over the nail, leaving it in the beam. Very frustrating.

Dad was a good instructor. He is finally learning some patience. He even took some pictures of me with the digital camera.

Overheated and frustrated!

We removed this side of the aluminum, I hope the other two other sides go a little faster. I hope to get up there on Tuesday. I’m going hiking with the canyon ladies to Devil’s Head in the morning and I’ll spend the afternoon working. Probably have a nap in between.

A traditional pose.

While Dad and I were at this job, Michael was limbing and bucking the big tree that Dad cut down the other day. Bucking is forest service term for cutting the trunk into sections. Fancy. Another fun USFS term is swamping. Guess what it means?  Hint: is has nothing to do with stinky wetlands.

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It was really hot out. Think about the chaps.

A very hot day

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in the hills – the trip to Maryland and Washington DC and working last week (on a team writing the district biology pretest) so Friday MTB and I headed up for a hike.  The day was hazy, maybe from the California fires, and hot.  We took a leisurely hike along the creek bed, to the north meadow and  a little beyond into forest.

There are some large thistle by the camper that were in full bloom.  I don’t know what this insect is.  Any ideas?  Is it a bee or a bee mimic?

We came across a very pretty flower that I have a photo of from a few years ago.  MTB tried to key it out, but without success.

Back at the camper, Dad has been working on expanding the area for the sawmill.  He moved the mill to the space below and moved all the old logs that had been taking up space.  Next week we will remove some oakbrush from the bank and expanding the area.  Both jobs with the crawler.