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Trail Building

2019-12-27

If you have read our past news posts, you will recall that we were searching for our property corners above and behind the house last winter. We hope to put the majority of our tea plants on that hillside in patches in between the Alder and Doug Fir trees. Several advantages are that the hillside is roughly south facing, the trees are mostly Alder, Alder trees fix nitrogen, both the Alder and Fir are fairly mature trees that will provide both shade in the summer and a bit of cold protection in the winter.
Our idea was to have someone cut a road along the property line on the hillside. Using that road we could then clear small but numerous patches between the trees to plant the tea since it is a very irregular hillside. We haven't managed to find anyone to clear the access road yet, and we will need to plant out at least 600+ tea plants this spring. So I started clearing a trail up to the property corner with a weed whacker (15-20 year old Shindaiwa).


Although it made short work of the salmonberry brush, it just couldn't cut through the large stems at the base of the plants. Tried a bit of the trail, alternating with an electric chainsaw. It worked OK, but slow going.

I bought a new brush whacker (also Shindaiwa) with a metal blade. It could make short work of any vertical stems, but it was very tiring trying to turn it to cut branches that were not vertical, and it did nothing for smaller top branches. Those cut ended up on the trail and made walking when wet very treacherous. I needed something better, faster, a weed whacker 2.0, if you will .


I found the blade pictured and decided to give it a try. I've already cut at least 250, maybe 300 yards of trail with it. Really amazing compared to my meager expectations. I now call it my mini brush hog! You can swing it overhead to cut and mulch the thin branches. You can power it against the thick stalks at the bottom and it breaks and chops them as well.


Those an inch or better start getting harder to mulch as it takes a bit of time and effort to go through them, so I still use the chainsaw occasionally and some loppers. But the best part of the brush hog is that it will mostly mulch all of the debris so there is no cleanup of branches involved.


Additionally it will cut into the dirt and actually level the trail ... within reason. For instance, the trail might average 18 inches wide along steeper areas and there is always a slope to it. But I cut 6 to 8 inches of soil out of the high side so the trail is nearly level in most of those spots.

I would say I averaged about 100 yards in three hours of pretty constant work, but that also included some chainsaw work. Keep in mind my hillside soil is very organic and soft and the majority of obstacles are roots, not stones. Yay! The downsides? Well, it is only 12 inches across, so it does only a small area with each swipe. So it still takes time.


When cutting into the soil, the blade often digs in and stops. This is not an issue for the engine as it has a clutch to prevent damage from the blade, but there is a gear head just above the blade that will likely wear out quickly with that kind of abuse. On the other hand, even if I have to replace the gear head every few weeks of trail work, it would still be a great deal!


I've currently purchased, but haven't tried, a new round mulching blade that may work better when trying to level the trails.


The contour map shows some GPS tracks of my trail building.

Trail Building

2019-12-27

If you have read our past news posts, you will recall that we were searching for our property corners above and behind the house last winter. We hope to put the majority of our tea plants on that hillside in patches in between the Alder and Doug Fir trees. Several advantages are that the hillside is roughly south facing, the trees are mostly Alder, Alder trees fix nitrogen, both the Alder and Fir are fairly mature trees that will provide both shade in the summer and a bit of cold protection in the winter.

Our idea was to have someone cut a road along the property line on the hillside. Using that road we could then clear small but numerous patches between the trees to plant the tea since it is a very irregular hillside. We haven't managed to find anyone to clear the access road yet, and we will need to plant out at least 600+ tea plants this spring. So I started clearing a trail up to the property corner with a weed whacker (15-20 year old Shindaiwa).




Although it made short work of the salmonberry brush, it just couldn't cut through the large stems at the base of the plants. Tried a bit of the trail, alternating with an electric chainsaw. It worked OK, but slow going.

I bought a new brush whacker (also Shindaiwa) with a metal blade. It could make short work of any vertical stems, but it was very tiring trying to turn it to cut branches that were not vertical, and it did nothing for smaller top branches. Those cut ended up on the trail and made walking when wet very treacherous. I needed something better, faster, a weed whacker 2.0, if you will .



I found the blade pictured and decided to give it a try. I've already cut at least 250, maybe 300 yards of trail with it. Really amazing compared to my meager expectations. I now call it my mini brush hog! You can swing it overhead to cut and mulch the thin branches. You can power it against the thick stalks at the bottom and it breaks and chops them as well.







Those an inch or better start getting harder to mulch as it takes a bit of time and effort to go through them, so I still use the chainsaw occasionally and some loppers. But the best part of the brush hog is that it will mostly mulch all of the debris so there is no cleanup of branches involved.



Additionally it will cut into the dirt and actually level the trail ... within reason. For instance, the trail might average 18 inches wide along steeper areas and there is always a slope to it. But I cut 6 to 8 inches of soil out of the high side so the trail is nearly level in most of those spots.




I would say I averaged about 100 yards in three hours of pretty constant work, but that also included some chainsaw work. Keep in mind my hillside soil is very organic and soft and the majority of obstacles are roots, not stones. Yay! The downsides? Well, it is only 12 inches across, so it does only a small area with each swipe. So it still takes time.




When cutting into the soil, the blade often digs in and stops. This is not an issue for the engine as it has a clutch to prevent damage from the blade, but there is a gear head just above the blade that will likely wear out quickly with that kind of abuse. On the other hand, even if I have to replace the gear head every few weeks of trail work, it would still be a great deal!



I've currently purchased, but haven't tried, a new round mulching blade that may work better when trying to level the trails.


The contour map shows some GPS tracks of my trail building.




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Merchants of Poison Report final 12/05/2022

(with 579 cited references)


Find out about: America's (now the World's) Favorite Poison By Far!


“In order to save glyphosate, the Monsanto corporation has undertaken an effort to destroy the United Nations’ cancer agency by any means possible.”[10]

... " just four companies — Bayer, Corteva (formerly DowDuPont), BASF and Syngenta/ChemChina — controlled 75 percent of plant breeding research, 60 percent of the commercial seed market, and 76 percent of global agrichemical sales in 2019."[78]



Just gotta' LOVE glyphosate, right?????

Yes, the second link is old news, but not forgotten and more importantly, as the first link shows, not remedied:

Monsanto / Bayer's Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant Diseases and Endangers Human and Animal Health. Protect yourself and those you care about!

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/argentinasRoundupHumanTragedy.php    

http://www.NaturalNews.com/031138_Monsanto_Roundup.html

[10] Foucart, S. & Horel, S. (2019, April 7). Monsanto Papers. European Press Prize. https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/monsanto-papers/

[78] ETC Group. (2019, April 06). New report: Putting the cartel before the horse…and farm, seeds, soil, peasants. https://www.etcgroup.org/content/new-report-putting-cartel-horse%E2%80%A6and-farm-seeds-soil-peasants

Just Say No To GMO by Michael Adams - Video
https://www.naturalnews.com/NoGMO.html

Just Say No To GMO by Michael Adams - Music
https://oregonTruffleTryst.com/_MEDIA/JustSayNoToGMO-192.mp3 Song Lyrics

Song by Mike Adams, with spoken lines from Jeffrey Smith

I’m lookin at the food that’s in the grocery store
They say it’s safe, everybody eat more.
On second thought, I don’t really know if it’s made with those GMOs

So I’m lookin for the non-GMO label ‘fore I bring it home and put it on my table
I wanna know it’s verified so I don’t
Harm myself with genetically modified

Uh-Oh
They don’t want you to know
All the poison they grow
The corporate profits they show from those GMO OH

Those Frankenseeds that they sow
They’re gonna hurt us we know
It’s time we told ‘em to go, say GMO NO!

I don’t want eat poison, I don’t want gene mutations at my dinner reservations
it’s a food abomination what they doin’ to this fast food nation
They take artificial gene combinations
inject them in seed variations
so they can grow their Frankenfood imitations
while the side effects cause medical patients

Keep their profits alive while they
spraying all the food with name brand herbicides
and all the while they’re spreadin’ their lies
Monsanto (Bayer now!) destroyin’ farmers lives
and the FDA keeps it all going
saying it’s safe even though they all know it’s just
poison stealing away your life, and that’s what you eat with genetically modified.

GMO safety huh that’s a corporate myth
if you don’t believe me listen to Jeffery Smith
He’s the man with plan gonna do what he can
To help us all get those GMOs banned
But we need you to lend a hand
take a stand against this food scam
It’s a mission for the health condition worldwide
We don’t wanna live genetically modified

Don’t eat food unless you know what’s in it
Don’t believe the propaganda cuz the press will spin it
Affects everybody, we all up in it
Stand up to Monsanto (Bayer now!), tell ‘em oh no you didn’t

Reject Frankenfoods in the store
demand honest labels so we can be informed
We have a natural right to know
What we buyin’ Just say no to GMO

Before our farms start dyin’
Just say no to GMO

Those corporate crooks are lyin’
Just say no to GMO

This time we’re not complyin’
Just say no to GMO

We’re just not buyin’ it
Just say no to GMO

Song and Lyrics © 2010 by Michael Adams, All Rights Reserved

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