It's Official

I consider that I am now officially a hillbilly and worthy of the name.  The rubber muck boots I'd been wearing were fine for mud, but the six inches of snow on the ground called for more (at least some) insulation.  I dug out an old pair of well-worn work boots that worked fine the first night, but they were so old that they cracked.  Soaked socks aren't much better than no lining.  I couldn't leave the property with the tree in the drive and it isn't like I'd make a trip to town just for a pair of boots anyhow.  The solution?  The hillbilly fix-it-all, duct tape!  Hey, whatever works, right?

Helper Dude earned his pay yesterday.  He drove up on his big tractor and started work on the downed tree again.  The tractor was necessary to haul branches the size of small trees to the burn pile, trip after trip up the hill.  I needn't have worried about the wheels digging ruts, as dragging the branches behind smoothed the tracks and swept away the snow at the same time.  It was a live oak that had dropped so there were plenty of leaves to act like a broom.  There will be plenty of work in the future with the rest of the tree, but for now the drive is clear and the broken fence pieces are out of the way.  I now have a very impressive burn pile, another job for another day.

I'd previously talked to HD about splitting some of the large rounds into usable firewood.  As he had the time and inclination, he tackled that next and I've now got another third of a cord stacked and plenty more rounds in the stack.  We're due for maybe five days of sunshine, so I'll let it air dry before putting it under a tarp.  Good job, Helper Dude.

The day before, when the tree went down and there was so much snow on the drive, I'd taken the truck down as far as I could on my side and HD had brought his Jeep up on his so we could go to Mt. Aukum to get feed.  I'd had to put the truck in four-wheel drive to keep from sliding down and to get enough traction to back up on the hill.  Yesterday was trash day, but I couldn't get the truck out of 4WD-Lo.  Aarrgh.  Bess and I crept down the road, me pushing buttons as we went.  Finally the danged truck shifted, but it continued to steer like a tank.  What now?  Had I been leaking steering fluid or what?  I put in a call to the little auto shop in Mt. Aukum and the nice man explained the mechanism and how to fix the problem.  FYI, you can shift into 4WD-Hi on the fly (while driving), but you must be stopped to put it into 4WD-Lo, which I had not done.  Tomorrow, I need to put the truck in neutral and then push the button.  Note to self:  file this information in the memory bank for future use.

Stepping out to put the kids to bed last evening, this sunset stopped me in my tracks.  Not only was there a sun to set, but it was awesome.  The girls had been able to stay outside all day, the chickens had been happy in their yard, the drive is clear, I've got a pile of firewood, and have the solution to the truck problem.  All in all, I'd say it was an officially good day.