Get to work, taking down the deck, part two

After the initial work day tearing the deck from the middle of the pond, the January Thaw came to Iowa and it took me a couple of weeks before I felt safe to get back to work.

On February 4, I found this:

One of the poles was under the ice and I'm going to have to wait for the thaw before I can think about getting that one. Another was at an angle with only about 4 feet out of the water.

Discouraged but with a job to be done, I unloaded the tools and got to work. The first couple of hours went pretty well and I was able to get the two poles detached:

On the bottom right of the picture, you can see that I cracked the ice but the pole on the left broke through when it hit.

The temp reached to the upper 30's with fairly strong winds from the south. The deck was flapping in the wind and it started to get loose from the ice. I figured that I couldn't waste time taking pictures but I did check the depth of the ice:

I dragged the two posts to the south bank of the pond and took the chainsaw to the deck and cut the 2x6's to get the deck down so I can manage it better.

I used a drill to take out as many screws as I could to get the plywood off and then tried to take apart the joists. I dragged the plywood out of the pond and decided to use the chainsaw to the joists to speed up the process. The wind was cold against the skin even though it was fairly warm for an early February day. By the fifth hour of work, I could feel my joints ache a bit and I could tell I was out of shape from not working so much during the winter.

Then I stepped into the hole in the ice. I didn't fall all the way through but I stupidly stepped back into the hole I mentioned earlier. My left leg was wet to the knee but I still had work to finish.

Dragging the joists up the bank, I cleaned things up of what wasn't still frozen in the ice. I appreciated wearing the chainsaw chaps as they worked as a windbreak when I faced the wind. I could have used a broom but I didn't think that far ahead before loading up for the day.

About 90 minutes after dipping my leg into the water, I was loaded up and turned the heater on high. I headed home, satisfied that I was able to get most of the deck torn down and dragged out of the pond but thinking of the rest of the work needed to clean up.

Spring is here, red winged blackbirds

Last Monday I got out of my car at my paying job and heard the call from a light post. I was caught by a co-worker as I stared at the bird thinking that it's here about two weeks early. By Tuesday, dozens are seen along the fence rows during the drive to work.

Normally they arrive during the first week of March and they were freezing their tail feathers off on Friday with temps in the 20's. We're back in the 50's on Sunday, so maybe spring is here.

(This is a picture from a few years ago of a red winged blackbird at the acreage)

These birds are among my favorites because they are a welcoming sign that spring in nearly here and their song reminds me of summers at grandpa's farm.

Friday is buck day, two for the show

To make up for some of the Fridays that I've missed:

Get to work, taking down the deck, part one

The deck that the previous owner built had seen better days and it made sense to take it down. I tried bracing it a couple of winters back but gravity worked against me. I needed the pond frozen over so I could stand on the ice to work.

Having to spend several weekends installing water heaters instead of working on the pond, I finally had a chance on the weekend of January 14. I cut some of the bracing and one of the posts. I used spring cleats on my boots and I wore chaps using the chainsaw. I didn't feel like bleeding out on the ice.

The ice was thick enough as I got a good solid thump when the pole it. Rest assured that I used proper techniques to drop the pole and the straight cut was just to cut it close to the ice. I used an older chain in case I hit a spike in the pole that I couldn't see. 

I dragged the pole up the bank as far as I could and called it a good first day. The 15th gave me another chance to work and I took the lower decking off.

One side a time:

And cleaned up the debris:
 

I unscrewed the plywood sheets and then split the 2x6 decking in two. Before my knees gave out, I dragged everything up out of the pond for later.

It took me several days to recover but it turned out that I wasn't able to get back because of warm weather came once again to Iowa and the ice just wasn't safe enough for me to work for a couple of weekends until February 4th.

Part two will show why I was one day short.

Wednesday wildlife, Monarchs from the fall

The neighbor think I'm mostly nuts because of many things but one reason is that I plant milkweed. I hope we can have some success helping the monarchs:

My lingering hiatus

It's been awhile and yeah, too long for those 3 or 4 readers still interested in this dream of mine. I have the regular excuses of too much work, too much at home and priorities that just push into the way. Truth is, time gets away sometimes when you let it.

We moved the boys to their new home, and made repairs to their bachelor pad while we made plans for spring like new shingles. The homestead needed work as well. Then the eldest needed medical help and we ended up having our own medical needs that came out well enough.

Time becomes preoccupied and I apologize for that.

Every so often, I question why I embarked on this endeavor. Many of the plans that were made have failed but a few came close to breaking even. The pond leaks, deer still tear up some of the smaller trees and rabbits clip most of the seedlings. We probably have a 90% failure rate after a couple of years' plantings.

It gets discouraging, especially when I walk the sweet corn that we planted to sell and find half of it knocked down after a storm. The pounds of hickory nuts that we picked up this fall and none were good, or the hundreds of red oak acorns that we planted two years ago and finding only a half dozen making their way a few inches high. It brings a pause to things once in a while.

So why am I doing this?

I guess it goes to the vision of 80 years from now someone, somewhere, will have the opportunity to make something like this:

Both chests were made by my father. The top three pictures are of the one made from box elder and the bottom two pictures are, of course, made from cedar. The cedar chest was one of several that he made for each of the grandkids but at the time, my youngest wasn't born. He didn't make one for him before he passed. It just seems that way sometimes. The box elder chest was part of what we received as settling things up after dad died and it seemed fitting that each boy received something made from their grandfather's hands.

We have several other things that dad made. Our kitchen table from red oak and a book case made from walnut and several other things come to mind but I'll leave that to when I can take pictures and share.

So this is why I'm doing what I'm doing. So someone could build a memory from lumber cut from our acreage. A memory that is as solid as the wood it is made from and then pass it on.

Stick with us. I might get it right once of these days.