Time For Clean Up!!

Occasionally unusual things happen around our place that I want to share with my grandsons.  You're welcome to stay and read this. I do understand if you're not interested and I hope you'll come back another day.

 

One day in the cold of winter, freezing rain began to fall.  It stuck to the cedar trees!  It stuck to the pine trees! It stuck to every limb on every tree! The freezing rain fell for hours and then the snow began to fall. The snow fell so heavy that it was like a blizzard. The snow stuck to the ice that was stuck to the limbs and trees.

The next morning, when I looked out the window there was a winter wonderland of white. Everything was covered in beautiful snow!

 

The sad thing was that the ice and snow were so heavy it had broken off the tops of the cedar trees and many of their limbs had cracked and fallen.  The big pine trees bent so far over from the heavy snow that some their tops touched the ground. Some of them fell completely down.

The snow melted and the days have passed. Then today, I heart a rumbling noise and hurried to the window to see what it might be. You'll never guess what I saw coming down our driveway. It was something with a big front scoop...

and big tires. It was a bright and yellow.

 

It was a backhoe!

It was here to help us clean up the cedar trees

that were broken and the pine tree that fell.

 

I slipped on my shoes and sweater and hurried outside. As I watched the backhoe began his work. He extended his smaller scoop and started pushing against the side of a tree.

He stretched out his arm so very far and pushed and pushed. His motor rumbled and smoke came out of his stack. Finally, the roots broke free from the ground and the tree crashed down. It seemed to be an easy job for this backhoe!

 

He pushed down one tree and then two and kept on rumbling and working until all seven damaged trees were down. He didn't leave a lot of roots, but he sure left a lot of limbs.  What a big mess! 

As the backhoe waited, his driver went to work on the pine tree which was about 80 to 90 feet tall!  Using a big chainsaw he cut the tree trunk into four really big logs. It was then time for the backhoe to work again! A cable was wrapped around each log and the backhoe pulled with all his might dragging them out of the pasture. He sank a little in the mud, but he never spun a tire!  He just steadily pulled and pulled until all four logs were out.

While he was resting, I looked at the big logs. Did you know that you can count the rings on a tree and see how old it is? I wish there had been time for me count these, but the backhoe had to keep working!

He fired up his motor, because now it was time to load the logs onto a truck. He reached out with his smaller scoop and picked up one log in his jaws. 

Then he picked up another log in the jaws of his big front scoop.

He knew the log on the back would help keep his balance as he unloaded the front log.  He sure didn't want to tip over into the truck!! That would have been embarrassing!! 

Finally the last log was loaded making the back of the truck squat down!! Those logs were very, very heavy!! The backhoe was finished with his work, he raised his buckets, and headed home! We sure were glad he was able to help!! Gramp's Kubota would never have been able to pull up those trees!! 

 

The logs were taken away, but Gramps and I now have to clean up all the rest!  The cedar trees and the top of the pine will have to be cut into smaller pieces and burned.  It looks like we'll be working for a while. I wish all of you guys were here to help us!!