Working at night on the ranch has its ups and downs. On the one hand, the temperature is much cooler and there are fewer distractions. A cooler temperature is important because I am able to work longer without overheating and only being able to see the objects made visible by my headlamp tends to keep me more focused on the tasks at hand. On the other hand, certain tasks, such as cutting trees, are much more difficult and sometimes dangerous and it's extremely lonely. When my nights off fall on weekdays, such as this past break period, Jess is unable to join me, which makes things even worse. During those breaks, each night seems longer than the one before and the darkness of the night begins to feel more enveloping. It's in these times that I get the most work done, because working is how I cope with it.
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| A cross-forest section of a part of the fence I finished last month. At the time that I cleared this section using the brush cutter, the vines and brush were so dense you couldn't see more than a few feet in any direction. Clearing this section cost me dearly as a large portion of it was covered in poison ivy vines, which led to hives covering my legs, arms, and chest. |
That being said, I got a lot of work done at the ranch this past week. In all I managed to harvest enough trees to finish all required wood posts and braces for the temporary electric fencing (11 posts and 7 horizontal pieces for the braces), auger the eleven post holes, install the posts, install the 7 horizontal pieces, wrap and tension the brace wire, auger the holes for and install all remaining fiberglass posts, and hand pull about 8,000 feet of wire. This means that pretty much all that I need to do is erect one remaining gate, install and wire the water-posts, tension some of the wires, and install the 3 joule solar powered charger.
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| Got this photo of a crescent moon rising over the trees at around midnight. |
On one of the mornings I was down there, I decided to take some time before I turned-in to photograph the area.
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| The sunrise was a welcome sight after the long night. |
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| This butterfly had been caught by a yellow-colored spider hiding in the flower. It appeared to have no choice but to hang paralyzed as the spider slowly devoured it. How uplifting. |
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| What appears to be some dwarfed species of Helianthus (sunflower) |
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| A super-freaky sight of a mother spider carrying an unknown number of baby spiders. |
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| A Sparassis or cauliflower mushroom about the size of a football. |
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| A night-flowering species of Oenothera. |
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| The goldenrod in full bloom. |
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| The pond. |
