Sunday, August 10, 2014

The Outhouse from on High

We have a long drop on the farm, near the old bach.  It's been here for quite a while, since 1982.  (The  heap of small branches behind is some of leftovers from my tree felling,  mentioned below.)

We recently had a visit from old friends of ours, Colin and Jeni Bell, who used to live on a small farm up the Orinioco Valley,  several kilometres south of us.  Our outhouse came from their place, offered when our old one was past repair and they didn't need theirs any more as they now had an inside toilet!

Jeni has recently written a history of their time in the Orinoco, and we learned  that the humble outhouse has a pedigree.  It used to be the outhouse for Flora Hut, the first hut on the trail in Kahurangi National Park which starts in the mountains to the west of us.  In fact we can drive up there in about 40 minutes and it's perhaps a 30 minute walk to Flora Hut.
A former tenant on the Bell's property was a worker in the then Forest Park.  The long drop was being upgraded and he spoke up at the right time to have the outhouse hooked up below a helicopter and brought down to the Orinoco.  From there it has been over 30 years on our farm, providing a useful service to friends and family staying in the bach.

The little tin building is getting tired and the floor needs work.  I was thinking of disposing of it but with that lofty history I might have to reconsider!

Update:  I remembered this old and rather poor photo.  It shows my brother-in-law, Bill, with the help of our Jaimie and his Jamie, digging the long drop hole all those years ago!  Nice one, Bill!


Sunday, August 03, 2014

Chipping Away

There was a big tree near the house, overhanging the roof, at the north-west corner.

 It had some virtues.  It gave shade and coolness on a hot day.  And a tree, a good-sized tree, is a fine thing.  This box elder though had become too large for its position and was shading out garden areas and needing regular attention to keep its branches off the roof and its leaves out of the gutters. Time to remove it, we decided.

It was quite a challenging task.  The box elder was perhaps twenty metres high and close to the house and other small buildings, fruit trees and gardens.  Its spread was substantial and it could not be dropped entire without rearranging its surroundings a little more than would be comfortable.  I have felled quite a few big trees and cut them up but this was not straightforward.


The only option was to take it down, piece by piece, and that's what I set out to do.  Anne wasn't sure and wanted to get a man in to do the job.  "I am that man!" I said, and got into it. It's one of the pleasures of living on a small farm that you get opportunities to take on meaty projects that demand some thought, planning and physical application to achieve.  If you chip away and don't be in a rush, you can usually work your way through things (or at least muddle your way through!)

What tools did I have to use?  I had a long handled, telescopic in fact, pruning saw that extended out to around 4 metres.  I had a good medium-sized Stihl chainsaw.  I had a variety of ladders. With some cunning and care I thought I could remove the tree without damaging the house and surrounds or myself.


The first effort was to clear the branches over the house and lighter branches around the tree.  The pole saw was useful, sometimes from the ground and often several metres up the extension ladder.  Tedious, quite tiring at times working above your head, but gradually the worst were removed.  

Now it got interesting.  Those big branches that forked out some way off the ground had to be cut while up the ladder, and that's always a touch edgy.  It was difficult to get in a comfortable, reasonably safe position for some cuts. I put a tensioned wire on several to make sure they fell in the right direction but that wasn't effective.  As the branches fell, slowly at first, the tension dissipated before the line of fall was definite, causing some excitement.  One headed for the house, ("...Oh, dash it all!" I said ) but only flicked the guttering,  bouncing it around but doing no major harm.  That got Anne out of her seat inside, wide-eyed, checking things out from the back door.  Another rather vertical one teetered for some time and needed me to hop off the ladder and go  and pull on the wire a few times before it veered right, startling and brushing the garden shed and grape fence,  but fortunately doing no damage.


Each branch required thought and planning.  Sometimes I had to get the pole saw out again to change the loading of smaller branches so I could drop the limb where I wanted.   The last one I needed to cut this way was high and over the roof.  I ended up on a step ladder to get a working angle.  Interestingly, this branch didn't just fold down once I cut through enough, but the twiggy end seemed to catch for a moment and the butt pendulumed back past the trunk and banged aside the extension ladder leaning there to end up a couple of metres past the base.  I had tried to cut from that extension ladder before moving out to the stepladder to get a better angle. There are always risks and surprises when cutting things down. 




But I worked my way through the last branches until yesterday I dropped the last one and  here we are now.

I still have some cutting and processing to do, but the challenging stuff is done.  We have a good heap of firewood, some large piles of prunings to munt up in a chipper soon for good mulch and more space and light in a strategic place.  It does feel good to get to this point!   I'm pleased.
I'm also removing some chook pens and have opened up some more space in behind for garden and fruit trees. More on that later.  Meanwhile the stump has a sculptural value, I'm sure you'll agree.  ;)