Training Log Archive: Charlie

Event: Sprint Series Final & US Relay Champs
 

Sprint A, course 2 at Cranbury Park WCOC A meet. Generally a pretty fine run, except for getting hung up in some green on the way to number 1 and losing about a minute.

Sprint B Course 2 at Cranbury. Big bobble on #1, missing a trail intersection and getting down to the marsh to the S, flailing around for a bit and losing about 2:30. Otherwise ok.

Sprint C (Var 4) at Cranbury, after the elites went off. Pretty interesting, and no big errors, but not able to keep up with faster runners. Had one satisfying moment at the end where I caught and passed a few faster folks who overran #19, but Glen T reeled me back in going across the field.

This is the third year for the sprint finals, and every year seems to set a new standard for the finest event of the year. Superb organization, great courses and format. Just lots of fun.

Sprint A Course 2 (OBG) - Splits

Sprint B Course 2 (OBG) - Splits

Sprint C - Splits

Some AOWN and near AOWN activities today, as well as the happy confluence of having my large scale landscaper modifier and my cartographer at my home on the same day.

Seeded a couple of fields and surveyed Michael's work on another, then got him started on a woods road. Went out to chat him up around lunch time, and he reported that I had just missed a bobcat strolling across the field behind DeBarn.

The side field is looking particularly interesting - well smoothed out, and all the debris turned into a pleasant looking knoll with a substantial boulder on top.

Then we had the happy circumstance of being invited to dinner at the home of my forester, Jim Gillespie, out in Sharon. He has a new girlfriend and seemed pretty interested in showing her off. Also, he has a new house we haven't seen before, and it was all well worth the trip. Jim's house has a couple of particularly interesting features. One is that the trim and the furniture is generally made of particularly interesting looking wood that he has come across in his trade, and that he has sawn, dried, and then turned over to cabinetmakers of his acquaintance. The other interesting feature is his general decor - heavily into taxidermy. Several heads of deer and elk, a full beaver, a wild turkey and a coyote were all there. He had stashed most of these things in his bedroom, because he wasn't sure how we'd take it, but eventually it all came out. He has a really first class taxidermist. The beaver and the coyote were roadkill, but I think pretty much everything else came from Jim's hunting expeditions. And dinner was venison on the grill (delicious), shot with bow and arrow right there on Jim's property. His girlfriend is quite nice, and substantially tinier than Rhonda. She is a trail runner and was quite enthusiastic hearing about orienteering.

Rhonda's morning class, but without Rhonda, who was off to NYC to check out sublets for Jessica for the month. She has an apt lined up, but can't get in until Oct 19, while her job starts Monday. Kathleen was nominally in charge, but there were six girls there and lots of help.

The rest of the chain saw work. Went pretty well, with no further mishaps. Meanwhile Michael has now completed his second field and I need to seed them, which I will start in the morning. Rhonda and I are having some discussion over whether I will cover the seed with hay or not, or perhaps with straw. Also there is the question of whether I will get a lawn roller, which would be kind of a fun thing to have, maybe, although perhaps not so much fun to push uphill.

And played a bit of hooky and went to the golf course. Extremely perplexed about the deterioration of my ability to drive. It has now been officially a long time since I have placed a drive in a fairway that I was aiming at. I did have one of what Peter has called an adventurous birdie. Hit it far and into the woods on the left, punched out sideways, and then a nice 5 iron. Then curled in a pretty fine 40' putt. Otherwise not so hot.

Art Sweeton loop with Hazel. Tired from all the yard work, but felt ok.

packed up the brush mower and took it over to the land trust property on Sweetheart Mtn to tidy up some overgrown clearings, the parking area and the lower part of the trail.

Then back home to visit with Michael, who was clearing the eastern clearcut for a meadow. Rhonda ordered a bunch of wildflower seed - I'll spread it tomorrow or Thursday.

Then chain saw work in the eastern corner of the side field, in preparation for Michael clearing out to left road. Did the center yesterday and the east today. Tomorrow will try to finish up on the west.

Confidently tried to exercise one of the techniques I learned at chain saw school, but had a little trouble in execution and got into some mischief. The technique in question involves using a wedge to fell a tree in a direction opposite to the direction the tree is leaning. Properly executed, the technique works as follows.

1. Make a face cut perpendicular to the line I want it to fall on and facing the direction of the fall. A face cut is a near vertical cut in a downward direction, and a near horizontal cut to meet the first cut, removing a wedge.
2. Facing the face cut, make a plunge cut through the tree centered at the point the face cut facets meet.
3. Make another plunge cut part way through just above the first plunge cut, to get a little more depth.
4. Lightly hammer in a wedge from the rear until it is tight.
5. Cut the sides under the wedge, leaving about a 1" hinge next to the face cut on each side.
6. Hammer the wedge to lever the tree up and over.

So what went wrong? I was hammering away and the tree wasn't moving. Turns out I had not cut far enough through on step 5 on one side, leaving a much more substantial hinge there than on the other side. Therefore the tree couldn't lever over the hinge. Eventually, vigorous hammering broke the smaller hinge and sent the tree 90 degrees away from the direction I had in mind, landing hung up in a very dead oak.

After calming down I cut off successive pieces from the bottom, hoping that eventually I'd get the tree short enough that it would work its way out of the dead oak, but eventually it was just hanging there hung up and dangling. Thought about trying to take the oak down, but that was way too scary. Didn't know where the oak was going to go, and didn't know where the dangling maple would end up either. I definitely did not want to be running my saw at the bottom of that mess.

So I got out my mountain golf cart and hooked up the winch to try to pull the maple out of the oak, but then the oak started wobbling, which was pretty scary too. Eventually releasing the winch and pulling again and releasing again and pulling again did pull the maple out. The oak is looking like a stiff wind will take it down, but that's another issue, and probably not a problem given the way it is now leaning.

Michael our excavator friend showed up today and smoothed out the area to the west that we had cleared last fall for a view. Rhonda will buy wildflower seeds. We have a number of other pent up jobs, including making some permanent meadows at the tops of two of the clear cuts.

I spent a few hours cutting trees between Left Road and the side field, to bring the field up to the edge of the road, and Michael will smooth that out as well. Cutting trees was pretty jolly until I cut one that let all the sunshine in and it got hot very quickly.

Also had a little interaction with my neighbor's father Lee. Lee is getting on and losing his short term memory, although he is otherwise a delightful fellow. Rhonda showed up around noon, just when I had run out of gas in the saw and had to refill. She had seen Lee strolling down the road, which seemed like it had the potential for mischief, so we went out and tracked him down. He had gotten about 3/4 of a mile away, and claimed he was going to get a pack of cigarettes. Well, the nearest pack of cigarettes is about another 4 miles away (and not likely Lee knew where that was), so we picked him up and took him down to the general store to buy some Marlboros and brought him home. Invited him up to watch the excavator, and he said he would come but had to go home first. I think he forgot about it though, as he didn't come up. Had a talk with his son.

Group run at McLean with Rhonda, Kathleen, her husband Brian, Jan Tanner and Chris from next door. The girls were chafing at the bit, as we had to go slowly enough to keep Chris with us, but then we let them go for another 20 minute showdown at the end, and the boys just went for a stroll.

Lots of mowing today. Mowed around the house and the middle and back fields with the tractor, which is intellectually more stimulating than watching TV, but not much more physical effort, and mowed the side field and around the garden with the brushmower, which is a much more vigorous sport. Also roto-tilled Rhonda's vegetable garden in anticipation of a cover crop.