Troy-Bilt...still tilling after all these years

Our Troy-Bilt, rear tine rototiller is old, really old.  We have been married for 30 years and this rototiller was my husband's father's tiller.  He died about 5 years before I met my husband and we lived together for 5 years before we got married.  So it has to be at least 40 years old.

 40 years old and still tilling.

 Over the years this tiller has really gotten the workout.  Gardens tilled are too numerous to count.  Lawns tilled so they could be reseeded......a lot of lawns.....too many lawns.  

And then there was today's job.  We rented a stump grinder over the holiday weekend to grind down all the stumps of the dead trees that we have had to cut down in the last 10 years.  Damn you emerald ash borer and Dutch elm disease.

There was one extremely large ash tree that we cut down that was at least 125 years old.  We counted the rings but without a magnifying glass we could only come close to the actual age of the tree.  Because the tree was so old, the lawn rose up around the tree.  After R ground the stump away there was a hill left behind.

Back and forth and 20 minutes later....fluffy dirt.

We raked all the excess wood chips and removed some dirt in an attempt to flatten out the area but the grassy part was still too high.  So it was time to haul out the old Troy-Bilt one more time.  Would it start?  Well of course it did.  It had a flat tire that needed air but those 40 year old tires are cracked and ready to be replaced.

Over the years, R has been very good about changing the oil and not leaving fuel in the tank over the winter.  We had to replace a starter and the recoil about three years ago but no biggie when you think about how many times it has been started.  The cord probably was a little dry rotted after all these years and was the reason it broke when R tried starting it manually.  We also needed to replace the muffler because it was no longer muffling anything.  Mufflers are cheap and do not last all that long even on new equipment.  The intense heat, steel, and moisture from combustion makes for rust in very short order.

You can see how dusty it is because we haven't had a good rain in awhile.

R probably tilled for about 20 minutes in the area of the ground down stump and about 5 feet around the stump area into the lawn.  We called it quits after he tilled because it gets darker sooner these days and we had some watering to do before we went inside for the night.

Remove some dirt,do a little raking, and throw down some grass seed.

I'm sure we will have to remove some dirt to lower that entire area but it won't be too hard to do.  The rear tine set up breaks up the soil so that it is loose and fluffy.  I have plenty of low spots in the yard so it will just be a matter of dirt musical chairs.  Move dirt from point A to point B and C and D and E......and so on and so on.

Nice fluffy soil.

If you are thinking of buying a rototiller but you can't afford a new rear tine Troy-Bilt......look for a used one.  They are made to last.  Invest in a tune up from a reputable garden shop that specializes in garden tractors and such and you will be ready to till yourself a garden or till up a lawn that has seen better days.

We also have a Troy-Bilt snow blower that we bought used.  We just love the electric start.  I always thought that electric start meant that your snow blower/thrower had a battery.  I don't know about you, but when it is 10 degrees outside, starting anything can be difficult.  Batteries can wear down before you actually get the blower/tractor running but not with this electric start.  This one uses a heavy duty extension cord.  Plug one end of the cord into the wall outlet and the other end into the plug outlet on the blower and turn the key.  Easy peasy.  No batteries to worry about running down. 

We purchased our used blower just before the polar vortex winters.  Those two winters were horrible.  I thought it would never quit snowing.  Thankfully we had the snow blower because we have a loooonnnng driveway.  Which reminds me that I need to talk to R about getting the snow thrower ready for winter because I heard we are suppose to have a bad winter because of La Nina.

It's always something.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle

Chainsaw, Planer, and Oak Door

Alex, I'll take Projects for $500.00

The answer is.... Cut down two trees, set up the planer, and set the oak door in place.

Buzz

What is what did we do today?

Correct!!!!

Yup, we fired up that brand new chainsaw and cut down two dead trees. But first R had to show me this huge icicle that he found when he went to the barn to get the ladder. Doesn't he look happy? I mean why wouldn't he be happy? It was cold, the wind was blowing, and he had to stand in the snow. It could be worse....he could be crawling around under the house.See this rope.
One end was tied to the tree.
And the other end was attached to me. Not as much attached as just placed behind my back and one hand had hold of the rope before it went behind my back and the other hand held the rope on the other side and I just leaned back on the rope to put tension on the rope to guide the tree as it fell.I'm very talented. I can hold onto a rope and take a photo, with my gloves on, at the same time.

One tree down...one to go.Second tree down.Both trees fell without damaging the driveway, fruit trees, plants, shrubs, or lawn. We just piled up the logs and branches until the snow melts and we can bring the little lawn tractor trailer out and pick up all the logs at one time.

R conducted a quick count and both trees were roughly about 50 yrs old. The photo below shows why we had to cut down these two trees. Those squiggly things are the larvae of the emerald ash borer. Say it with me......ewwwww.Then we placed (not permanently) the oak door in the opening to form an air lock. We decided that we need to remove about 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch from the side. The height was OK.
We decided we would fit and hang the door before I reinstall the beveled glass panes for two reasons. First... the door is heavy and would be even heavier with the glass. Second...we won't have to worry about breaking a pane when we take the door out to the barn to run it through the planer.

See that patch where there was a hinge at one time? Sadly the hinge placement on the door does not line up with the previous hinge placement on the jamb. In a perfect world they would line up.
Tomorrow we will plane the door. I don't anticipate getting much more than that done because the planer is in the barn. This project will require carrying the door back and forth from the house to the barn.

I purchased the door at the architectural salvage store called Grand Illusion Gallery in Grass Lake, Michigan. The door came without any hardware so I will need to go through my boxes of hinges and lock sets to see what I have that will work. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I have something that will work and is appropriate to the style and age of the house.

Power Lines and Tree Trimming in Grand Blanc Township

First off let me just say, I understand the need for the trees to be trimmed to keep the current, cable, and telephone flowing uninterrupted. But there is absolutely no need to needlessly cut down large trees nor to trim large trees so that their structural integrity is compromised with an end result being a large dead tree.

Our energy provider is Consumers Energy and they are currently trimming trees around the power lines in our area. We knew this was coming because we received a letter about six months ago stating that they would be marking trees for removal and trimming. Four months ago they marked the trees. No problem either, the trees marked were the ones I thought should be trimmed or removed.

As a matter of fact, I was disappointed that they were just trimming an elm tree that was completely tangled around a utility pole and into the wires. I was ecstatic that they were going to remove several dead ash trees because we were planning on hiring Precision Tree Care to come back and cut them down. So this saved us a minimum of $250 a tree. Last year we paid $250 to have a dead elm cut down that was under the power lines and would have been removed this week.

The tree trimming company that was subcontracted to take care of tree trimming is Davey Tree Trimming. They have an arborist who marks the trees and oversees the trimming. Two days ago Davey Tree Trimming shows up and proceeds to trim a very large old pine that was not marked for trimming. They not only trim it but they over trim it. Conifers do not grow like deciduous trees. This tree had been trimmed about 8 years ago and had not grown back even an inch into the precious 10 feet zone. They broke interior branches by stepping on smaller limbs for support and they dropped the cut branches on my small rhododendrons.

My husband arrives home just as they finish the trimming on the pine. He asked them why they trimmed a tree that was not marked. The trimmer replied, "I'll cut it to the ground if I want to." When R tells me this I shoot a quick email to the Grand Blanc Township Supervisor Micki Hoffman. FYI....three days later I am still waiting for a reply. I then called the arborist who tells me that they should not have trimmed a tree that he had not marked and that "no, they do not have the authority to cut down a tree if he felt like it."

The next day the remaining trimming is completed under our constant watch. They were not happy with us standing around watching them. They prefer to hack and whack rather than trim as they were being forced to do.

R estimates we have at least a week's worth of clean up to do in the spring. He spent yesterday hauling wood away. If we were an elderly couple we would have had to hire this work done. Consumers Energy states that the wood would be cut into manageable pieces and stacked. Does this look like manageable pieces and stacked? R used his chainsaw to cut the large trunks into somewhat manageable pieces. Some were so big that he had to just drag the trunk pieces with a chain behind the lawn tractor to get them to the wood pile. This took at least 5-6 hours and was back breaking heavy work in 21 degree weather.
In the backyard we have a very large yew bush. Above the yew was a black walnut tree that needed to be trimmed. The trimmers hacked and whacked and dropped large chunks of limbs into the yew bush. The entire center of the bush is destroyed.The trimmers stepped on my hydrangeas and dragged their feet through all my hostas. They hit my fruit trees with the brush they were moving from the backyard to the front yard so it could be shredded. I just kept telling myself the damage would have been worse if we were not standing there watching their every move.

I will also have to wait until the snow melts to check for damage to our asphalt driveway. While they were removing the dead trees near our driveway I noticed that they were dropping the large limbs, cut end first from the cherry picker onto our driveway. I am hoping that we do not have any gouge marks on our driveway since we just spent $2300 having it sealed last summer.
I swear.....it's two steps forward...one step back. I am just glad it snowed last night so now the mess is covered up and I don't have to look at it.