Today was an outdoor work day, at least until the storm blew in. Feeding critters, excluding chickens, and getting the chainsaw stuck, and unstuck.

Feeding Critters

I did the usual thing first – fed the critters. It was a foggy morning, so I brought the camera with me. There are always good things to see when it’s a foggy morning.

The horses are the most impatient of the crew.

My most often photographed foggy-morning subject is the old Ford 8N tractor. Poor thing doesn’t get to work much right now, but we’ll get her fixed up and back on the job eventually.

So I figured after taking this photo that there would be some other pretty things just a little ways down the driveway. So I sat the buckets down and went for a short walkabout.

Getting on with the other homestead work chores.

First on the list of things to do was deter chickens from roosting under our shed.

They’re not going to like it when they go in to roost this evening and find the way is barred. There’s a perfectly good unused henhouse for them to roost in.

Once we got that done, it was on to cutting down a large cedar tree in the way of the future septic drain field for the new Wild Ozark shop Rob is working on.

Getting the Chainsaw Stuck

Cedar trees have a nasty habit of grabbing the blade. Rob got the chainsaw stuck a few times before the final stick.

This is how we got the chainsaw out of the tree where it got stuck while cutting a limb.

Never leave a person standing on a ladder to hold the stuck saw – just tie it off so it doesn’t fall to the ground when the limb is pulled. And make sure the chain you’re pulling with is long enough to let you get out of the way when the limb falls.

After this, the thunder started rumbling and rain drops began to fall so we retreated to the house.

Have any Homestead Tricks to Share?