Happy Belated Earth Day - No, Really

I just wanted to apologize to everyone for not wishing you a Happy Earth Day yesterday. I was flat out busy the whole day and just did not have time to post. I first had to get up early to get a hold of some leaded, racing gasoline for my chainsaw. You see, the ethanol that is in standard gasoline is like acid to two-cycle engines, and I really put my Stihl MS-310 through a workout.I had to take down a stand of pines, maples and oaks that are shading an area of my property. I want to use this area as arable land, and that's just not possible when the ground is all wet and marshy. Without the tree cover, it should dry up nicely. I'll also be able to use the hardwoods as firewood, but the pines are useless, so I'll just dry them out out a bit and burn them in a bonfire to get rid of them. I'm also going to have room now for a chicken coop and pen. I'm even thinking about some goats and cows. Well, not fully-grown cows, which take a lot of time, effort and space to raise properly. I have a good beef supply from my friend Bill anyway. so I'll just raise them for veal.

In fact, I then had to run out to my friend Bill's farm to pick up some steaks. Bill raises, butchers and packages his own hormone-free beef. It's pretty funny how every time I go over to his place he he has a fresh side or two of beef hanging from his front loader, draining blood. Not to get off topic, but he once told me a funny story about this one cow he had a problem taking out. He uses a .22 to the brain to kill them, and one time, the round missed the brain itself, and the startled animal broke out of the kill corral in a panic. Its not surprising since a cow's brain is about the size of a large walnut. I mean if they had a bigger brain like us then they would raise and eat us, right? Anyway, he had me in stitches describing this thing running around the place with a bullet in its head until he could finally administer the killing blow.

After saying goodbye, I rushed home to meet the guys from the tree-cutting-service I'm hiring to take down some trees on the other side of my property. These are 100+ foot monster pines that are too big and too close to the house for me to handle myself. Some are just shading the house too much, and some are just too damned ugly to look at. The great thing about these guys is that if I give them a minimum of 50-60 good trees, they don't charge me! So, I'm just going to let them pretty much cut down whatever they want. The wood won't go to waste though, as the logs will go right to a sawmill. So, we walked around and used orange spray-paint to mark the trees that will go. Boy, those chlorofluorocarbons really work well - no way will that paint wash off! The best part about this is that I'll be able to use the newly-cleared area to make my own private shooting range.

Finally.to end my busy day, I had to fire up the grill and cook those steaks for dinner - nice and medium-rare; mmmm mmmm good. So, as you can see, it was a pretty hectic day, and I hope you can forgive me for my tardiness. Once again, Happy Earth Day!