Everybody loves me, baby. What’s the matter with you?

A couple of days ago there was a nice big flood that tore up all the wash crossings. Most were back in service within hours, as whoever lived closest with a tractor went out and did his or her thing. But there’s one crossing nobody seems to use but me. And I don’t use it often lately, because the sand has been so deep that driving on the wash hasn’t given any advantage in time or mileage. But now of course it’s more firm.
I needed it today because I was hauling juniper out of D&L’s mud plain, where L plans to build her round pen. There are several dead junipers in there, and now that she has a horse she is suddenly offended by them.

But first I needed to fix this road. Mostly I just bashed over it with the Jeep but when the wash flows you need to pay attention to the detritus of many failed attempts to fence it. This stuff can mess up your tires big time.

That’s also why my always-in-the-Jeep kit contains items yours might not…
The southern part of D&L’s property is at the edge of a mud plain that goes on many hundred yards and is of no use to man or beast. L plans to level hers and haul in a whole bunch of sand from the wash, and convert it into a place to work her horse. But first I have to do battle with these damn things…
There are half a dozen she wants gone, and this was not the biggest. This time, instead of just cutting off the dead stuff that’ll burn she wants them flat gone. So after I chainsawed absolutely every bit I could get to and hauled off everything but twigs, she came in with her backhoe and we broke up the stumps and dug them out.

We’re maybe half done. I’m going back tomorrow. This is at a time when I was supposed to be finishing up J’s arsenic caps, but I thought I’d get L’s ‘little chore’ out of the way while it was still relatively cool. It hit a sunny 95 today and I’m feeling very stiff and dehydrated. I yelled quit about 3.

Also, my chainsaw is acting up. I think trying to start it wore me out more than the cutting did, at first. It has gotten me through three winters without major service, but now the carb is acting up and it won’t start after a hot soak.

Every now and then I’ve got to spend some time doing actual work. I’m far luckier in that regard than I deserve to be but this’ll be four straight days away from the Lair when I’m really wanting to get my first draft done on the book.

🙂 Or at least I suddenly get hot to work on the book when what I really want is not to be slogging away on arsenic caps or trudging through a mud plain hacking at junipers with a balky chainsaw.

When I left D&L’s I was staggering, but still had to empty the Jeep trailer for the last time. A lot of what I hauled is junk that’ll end up in the burn barrels, as is always the case when I cut juniper. But there’s a substantial amount of usable firewood in there.