Relative Something

It is not uncommon to hear people lament that “It’s been one of those days,” where everything goes wrong. On the other hand, how often do you hear about a day when everything went right? That was an experience that I enjoyed yesterday.

We have a pretty significant number of projects we could undertake right now. I started the day yesterday by asking Cyndie if she had any priorities since she wasn’t going anywhere and the weather was dry and sunny. We agreed that doing some wood chipping would be a valuable precursor to continuing to primp the labyrinth garden plants before World Labyrinth Day on May 2nd.

Now, we don’t have the luxury of just stepping out the door and turning on the wood chipper with the flip of a switch. The steps involved before beginning this project are a little complex since it is the first attempt of the season. (Another first!)

Here is what needed to happen in order to get to the 3-point PTO wood chipper:

Since the ground is too soft for the big diesel tractor, we decided to chip up on the driveway. That meant we would need to collect tree limbs from the woods and then haul the wood chips down to the storage area near the labyrinth. That meant we needed to use the ATV and its trailer.

• Make sure the New Holland 3415 tractor starts.
• Make sure the Grizzly ATV starts.
• Remove the snowplow blade from the ATV.
• Put batteries in the Greenworks riding mower and move it out of the garage.
• Back the big tractor up to the wood chipper and make all the connections.
• Drive the ATV down to the hay shed to get the trailer stored there.
• Remove the water tank and miscellaneous apparatus from the trailer.
• Drive the ATV and trailer into the woods to collect tree limbs from staged piles.
• Unload the limbs onto the driveway so we can shoot the wood chips directly into the trailer.

By the time we finished all that, I needed to get some lunch. Not on the list, while I was in the hay shed getting the trailer, I noticed a couple more pallets that would be perfect for a second set to use in the compost area. They were stacked behind a lot of other things, so it took a few minutes of acrobatic arranging to pull them out.

After lunch, Cyndie suggested putting a tarp in the trailer to catch the wood chips. I brought out the big tractor and parked the two machines side by side.

The only thing that didn’t go as planned was that a couple of limbs we’d hauled up were a hair too big. We just set them aside and forged ahead, undaunted. We filled the trailer two times with the limbs we had brought out of the woods.

I drove the ATV down the hill and pulled the tarp out of the trailer to dump the chips. It worked slick.

The wood we hauled made more chips than we expected, so we chose not to bring more branches up to the driveway and began the process of cleaning up and parking vehicles back in the shop garage.

It is rare that I ever accomplish anything without having to cope with some interruption or failure along the way. I’m happy to report that yesterday was very special because everything we set out to do worked without a hitch.

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