Windmills in the North Country

Actually - I'm not sure if it is truly the north country - but it's up near Newport, Middleville, etc. These windmills are all over the place and I'm of two minds about them now after this weekend. They are beautiful in a strange way, I've always been fascinated by them and wondered why people didn't like them. Well after being at R&L's this past weekend I better understand. They make a low whoosh whoosh sound that seems to go through your body. The camp is probably a mile or so as the crow flies from any of the windmills but I could still hear them, it was similar to a huge waterfall. I am not sure if I've ever mentioned it here but my mom swears I could hear a "mouse fart in a thunderstorm" and I could hear these. At one point when RB and I were far from the camp on the four wheelers - we shut them down, walked up a hill to a small clearing and I could see the blades spinning through the trees and hear the thrumming whoosh whoosh - I think if I had to live to close to them I would go mad.

They look deceptively small in the surrounding country.

This is as close as we could get without trespassing.

Some information about the windmills -
320 feet tall, about the same height as Big Ben in London or the same length as the football field at Giants Stadium. The blades are 131 feet long, and although they seem to be rotating at a lazy Sunday afternoon clip, they are so large that their tips are actually racing around at 138 miles per hour.
This amazes me - but if I were to do the math it would work out. I hope that in the end that they are worth it. 

"How to Take Down a Tree in 3 Easy Steps"

On Saturday RB and I headed to R&L's camp - actually it belongs to multiple family members but I can't keep it straight so in my book it's R&L's. Well we went up to do some four wheeling and drink some beer and have some fun! We did it all and then some. When RB and I got there R&L where behind the house filling up the trailer with wood - not just tossing it in either - L was stacking! So RB and I helped them finish up with that pile then we went and got the splitter and split up a tree and L and I loaded the trailer while RB and R ran the splitter. Nothing like hard work to make a cold beer taste really good. While we were working on that J showed up with a Skid Steer - yeah - I'm not quite sure what all it can do - but let me tell you that it makes short work of trees.

J left again - he had to get a Back Hoe - yeah they have big tools! LOL - so when he got back they discussed the tree they wanted down and started working on getting it down as quickly as possible. J is the one who said that they could get it down in "Three Easy Steps" hence the title of blog.

The "horny tree" - in it's glory.

First though - they had to remove all of the deer horns from the "horny tree" as J called it. R&L's little tractor was good for this - as RB removed all the horns by being in the bucket - (note** - this is the same tractor that RB drove while R&L and I sat in the bucket late at night up at RB's Camp - we were silly and it was a lot of fun!

RB in a bucket!

Digging up the roots of the "horny tree"

Skid Steer hooked up to the tree - roots dug out on the back side.  I'm backing up!!

Going Going...

Going Going... Gone in 1 more minute.

Big Tree - leaves Big Hole!

It's good it came down - if you look in the root ball you'll see an indentation - there was a huge boulder in the hole that would have made this very weak if a big storm hit it - and most likely it would have gone towards the camp.

Hook the tree up to the Skid Steer and start dragging it...

Couldn't use this for inside firewood - the creosote would have been incredible.

Dragging it into the woods.

Disappearing into the woods as R watches it.

Amazing to me that in about 8 minutes that tree was dragged into the woods and J was back with the skid steer.

Cleaning out the stump and other debris.

The end product - no tree - no stump -  no mess - and then we hit the trails on the 4 wheelers!

On Sunday we did more tree work -but the 'old fashioned' way, J cut them down with the chain saw and then into pieces. We, RB, R, L and I, then loaded it into the bucket of the tractor and then stacked it in a pile - it will have a year to dry out and become good wood for burning next year.

Four Months

How did the summer go by so fast?

We've been busy, RB and I, together and separately. He's been working on home improvements - I've been 'heppin' when I have been able to really help and not hinder. I've been baking and cooking, fruit smoothies and veggies are a staple now. Driving all over it feels like in the new Soul that has almost 10K miles on it already!

We went camping up at Stillwater over July 4th - it was wonderful - weather was perfect, fishing wasn't, water was cool and inviting, sun was hot. RB's friends joined us up at his camp one weekend with the tractor and we cleaned up, sorted out and all in all had a wonderful time getting the outside ship shape. I bought a kayak and have enjoyed that thoroughly! It's up at camp so I just head up there, pull it out of camp and put it in the creek and enjoy the day! RB's even joined me! We went up there again last weekend just to relax - I brought my bike up and rode, went for 3 kayak rides, had an awesome fire and enjoyed some wine and good times.

Work is going very well. Travelled a couple of times for them so far and this year I've been on 4 trips that required flying - and I have two more to go! Woo HOO!

I'm sitting in my living room right now, enjoying the peace and quiet. The sun is shining through the leaves into this room - the leaves are blowing in the wind so there is a dance of light and shadows happening in here. Beautiful and peaceful.

This was the sky last weekend up at camp but it was so peaceful wanted to add it to this blog.