Clean Up and More Fence Line Clearing



 I've selected a spot on the property for the new beehives.  It's on the southern side of a gentle hill with plenty of tree protection from the west (assuming that is where the storms will come from).  In the winter, when the sunlight is coming from a lower angle and the trees are bare of leaves, the hives should be able to stay relatively warm.  In the summer, however, the leaves on the surrounding trees should help protect the bees from overheating.  Also the location is about 20 meters from a large pond, but the ground itself is not waterlogged.  It should be perfect for the new hives.  That is, once we are able to clean it up a little.  About 10 or 15 years ago it appears this spot was used as an outdoor housing for dogs.  There are remnants of fencing, kennels and other debris from that time.  I'm not really worried about any of this impacting the bees.  They don't care about these kinds of things, but I will want to eventually clean it up and I thought it would be a great opportunity to test out my t-post puller, which I welded together from scraps.  It's pretty much just a class 1 lever, but it does the job as my wife demonstrates.  She was quite impressed with how well it worked.   Perhaps I can enlist her to pull the rest of the fencing out. 

Speaking of welding and levers, the other evening I welded together a large class 2 lever, which should be able to pull or lift just about anything I want out of the ground.  My main use for it now will be for pulling tree stumps out of the ground along the new fence line I'm clearing.  It basically looks like a six foot tall capital "A" with two 4" steel pipes for the sides and a 1 1/2" thick solid-steel bar for the cross-bar.  The fulcrum of this lever will be the bottom of the "A" with the force applied to the top of the "A" and the resistance exerted against the cross-bar.  The source of the force will be my Ford F-250 pick-up.  I will take photographs when I try it out this coming weekend.   I've largely finished cutting trees for the 1,500 feet of north-facing fence line and now need to make the line accessible by the truck.

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