Tuesday, June 29, 2010

No Mulch

By Skeeter

This past weekend was a work weekend in my Georgia Garden. The Saint rented a wood chipper to grind all the limbs from the trees he recently cut down. It was a hot, humid, steamy weekend and we really worked hard to get the limbs removed. We drank about 25 sports drinks to keep hydrated during this hot work. I had to call it quits by noon on Saturday as I dehydrated and got a terrible headache. I also lost my balance and fell over a railroad tie giving myself a nice bruise and scratches as I landed in the limb pile. Yikes, good thing I am a tomboy as it only hurt my pride. I do not know how people with outside strenuous jobs survive in the heat of a Southern Summer. They sure earn their money!

I revived over night and was back at it early Sunday morning. I was sure to take more frequent breaks and drink double the amount of drinks and this worked well with us both staying in the yard until 4:30. It was difficult work but it had to be done as I could not stand the thought of all those limbs laying around until fall. Plus piles of limbs attract frogs, mice, lizards thus food for snakes and we do not want snakes on our land.

I tried to load a video of the chipper doing its job but once again, Blogger does not want me to load videos. This is several times now so I guess for some reason, I will no longer be able to show videos. Anyone else having an issue with videos?

Anyway, in the video you would see how fine the chipper grind the limbs. It was to a powdery state thus useless as mulch in my gardens. I was really looking forward to some fresh mulch from this job, but there will be NO MULCH, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,In the Garden

17 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you are ok. Even bruised pride can be mended.. It is never easy to work when heat is excessive. But over here, feeling hot is a daily thing.... ~bangchik

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  2. That is a bummer on the finely shredded hardwood and the video. I haven't tried to upload any lately but will try it out soon and see if it is an issue. It was an issue for me at one point but that was a while ago. I wonder what is up? Anyhow, glad you got the work done with only a bit of bruising of your pride and a bad headache. That is never good but it is done!

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  3. Sounds like a trying, frustrating day Skeeter. I feel for you, and am glad you're ok. At least that dirty, noisy, sweaty job is finished, but it sure would have been nice to have some good mulch in return for all the effort.

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  4. Hope your bruises heal quickly. It has been too hot for outdoor work.

    Sounds like your chipper made sawdust?

    I haven't tried a video in awhile. It used to be easy to copy the embed code from the video location and paste it into blogger. There's also a gadget (I think) that can be used outside the story post.

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  5. Good Morning All.
    Skeeter, Tina, Dawn, Jean, Anonymous & Nina do have a special day.
    Skeeter that is a bummer not having that lovely mulch from all that free wood. It sure would have been a neat dressing. Sorry you fell but glad you are ok. Bruises I could take. Hurt pride I could take as I'm a tomboy too.
    I had to break a leg just walking in the back yard. lol
    Have a marvelous day all.

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  6. I've always wanted to rent one of these to take care of the limbs we've had! Actually, though, Skeeter, it's probably a good thing it didn't turn into usable mulch: we were told in MG classes never to use fresh mulch, but to let it age. Not sure why, though; I must have been daydreaming when they explained the reason:)

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  7. Skeeter, I've never heard of a powdery mulch making chipper. I would think it would cut the waste considerable for the power line workers and such.
    I've only done YTube videos lately but at one point blogger took 4ever for my video and then said "error", it was frustrating.

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  8. Good Morning everyone! Still aching today but will enjoy more of my cool air conditioning…

    Bangchik, Thanks, I will be fine in time. Yikes, don’t know if I could take hot on a daily basis. 4 months of the year is about all I can take…

    Tina, Yep, this part of the job is finished but we still have to cut up the trunks of the trees then split for firewood. Gee, this is one long process of a job from beginning to end. But the firewood will be great this winter. I have no idea what is up with blogger. It also changed the way I load pictures but they do still load so not a big deal. Yesterday, I had a post ready for July 6 but it posted it yesterday! I was freaking out and changed the date and times and everything but it still kept posting it. I finally had to delete it to remove it off the blog before someone saw it. Strange I tell ya…

    Garden Girl, Yep, it was one of that weekends we don’t care to remember, lol. But it is over and now to the next step of this tree removal. No mulch was disappointing after all that sweat equity…

    Cameron, Too hot indeed! We normally don’t get out in this type heat to work but we had to get those limbs up. I feared snakes in the yard and I so do not want snakes crawling around in my gardens for me to accidently grab. Like the bees being accidently watered by me. OUCH. I have no idea what is up with blogger. It seems to keep changing things on me for some reason. First I cant drag pictures down from the top in place and now this video issue. Frustrating indeed…

    Lola, how did your apt go on Saturday? I was falling into brush but still thinking about you! I hope all went well and you had good news. A little hurt pride never killed anyone so I am okay I reckon. It will take a bit of time to heal my wounds but nothing grand. I just hope the scratches don’t leave scars as they would be noticeable where they are located. That is what I get for working in shorts instead of jeans but I was already wet with shorts on and jeans would have suffocated me for sure…

    Rose, Thanks for the tip but I knew not to put fresh mulch on the gardens. Just like horse poop, you must let it age before using it. I guess I could add it to the compost bin though as it was a fine powered type and would break up nicely in the bin…

    Dawn, We could change the speed setting to a slower pace and it would make larger pieces but that was too slow moving for us. Even those pieces were not so big though so not worth the time consumed. Yes, a powder type chipper is what they need on the roadside for sure! That is what happens to my video. Error and cannot open at this time, try again later… I don’t have time for later, lol…

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  9. I'm glad that you didn't hurt yourself worse than you did. It has been really hot here too. Way too hot for June. I have given up on outside work for now. I am hoping for some cooler weather soon. I guess that is just wishful thinking. Stay cool. Carla

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  10. We just had 2 weeks of hot weather and I hated it!!!! Better now.

    Sorry you fell and lost out on all that sweet smelling mulch. Hope next weekend is better for you!

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  11. Yike! Don't go losing your balance around a wood chipper. I'm thinking Fargo here:)

    I was moving some bricks the other day and did a wonderfully graceful backward dive over the pile:)

    I'd use the sawdust anyway. I often layer with grass clippings to avoid nitrogen depletion. In any event, it will make great compost. I'm so darn thrifty I use almost anything I can get my hands on:)
    Marnie

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  12. Darla, Thanks, with being in the woods, I was so darn careful to look for snakes while grabbing limbs that I forgot to look where I was stepping....

    Carla, Thanks, hot weather is here to stay in Georgia! It IS summer after all. The humidity is what is so darn nasty here. Yuck, I hate it but the plants sure do like the heat. We will get a break this weekend so they say…

    Jean, Next weekend will be much better for sure! Relaxing and no work for me. The heat is the pits but my gardens sure do look nice right now. They love this hot stuff…

    Marnie, that is too funny. The Saint would not let me near the wood chipper as he was too busy playing with that toy. I did get to use it about 15 minutes then he took over again. He was nice to let me use the chainsaw though, just call me Lumber Jane! Hee hee. Once the sawdust dries a bit, I may get to use some of it. But it really did not make a pile but in one spot. I found that so strange as I was expecting piles of the stuff. So many limbs so little chipped debris….

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  13. Skeeter, haven't heard anything yet from MRI.
    Cocoa butter helps heal scars a lot. Some you can't even see.

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  14. The people who pruned the limbs for the power company gave me some very pine needly mulch. I was hoping for something better too!

    I haven't loaded a video in a while so I can't help you. I hope it works better for you next time.

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  15. I'm sorry you had to work so hard only to have no mulch on the backside of the project! I agree with you in really admiring anyone who works outdoors in the terrible heat. Like, I can't imagine being a roofer during the summer...

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  16. Lola, Am anxious to hear the results...

    Rosey, Sorry your mulch did not work out as planned either. Bummer...

    James, No mulch after all that work was the pits but the job needed to be done mulch or no mulch. Roofers get good tans on their arms. lol My brother use to do that job. Whew, it was smelly when he got home each day....

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