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@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-06-09 13:29:06

This morning I have mostly been truing the sawmill bed. The ground had obviously shifted a bit over winter, and it was no longer cutting perfectly true.
It's now cutting much better, although I am going to need to get my blades sharpened.
#TheJoyOfCrofting

The spirit level one of the bearers of the sawmill bed. The bearer is a rectangular section steel box beam, painted green. The ground beneath the sawmill bed is extremely littered with sawdust and scraps of wood.
Checking the alignment of the bearers, using a plank that has been cut to a straight edge. There are six bearers visible in the picture, of seven total. They span across between the rails on which the carriage that holds the saw runs. The carriage is visible at the left of the picture.
First timbers cut after truing, lying on the bed of the mill. The cuts are slightly wavy because the blade is not sharp, but it is cutting to consistent thickness.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-26 15:02:02

Gorgon's calf got through into the bulls' field. I don't know how, but she did. Herding a stressed calf is more or less impossible, and I didn't want bulls getting in with all the cows, so I've just let Gorgon through. Still, bother.
#TheJoyOfCrofting

A small black calf feeding greedily from her equally black mother. The grass is not recovering well yet.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-05-25 15:10:19

Hauling logs across to the sawmill. I've got a certain amount done this morning, but it's now too hot to work.
#TheJoyOfCrofting

From the tractor end, the winch line leading out to a turning block on the rear sawmill pillar and back to a log which is being hauled across what I used unironically to call my orchard side lawn. There's another log already lying by the sawmill and more lying behind the tractor.
The same scene from the sawmill end. The Little Tractor That Can stands in the middle background, beside a raft of logs dragging in from the wood. From the tractor, the winch line leads in down the right of the frame, towards the turning block which is out of view behind me, and than back into view to a log which is half way across the unmown and weedy grass.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-23 14:47:59

Dragging out of sawlogs is proceeding. It isn't going as quick as I'd like, and they aren't brilliant sawlogs, but if they won't make timber (and I think they will) they'll certainly make excellent firewood.
#TheJoyOfCrofting

Four large logs dragged out to the edge of the wood. Bright sunlight.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-03-22 15:06:57

Well, that's another gate hung. It has to be said Icarus isn't impressed. #Crofting #TheJoyOfCrofting

A new galvanised steel gate, on its hinges, properly bolted closed. Beyond it, Icarus, my younger bull, inspects it, grumbling in dissatisfaction. Behind him, tools lean up against the box of The Little Tractor That Can.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-03-22 15:53:26

Three gates on hinges and stock proof. One wooden gate loaded up to be relocated. This feels like a useful afternoon's work.
#Crofting
#TheJoyOfCrofting

As described in the post. In the background, left, dark spruce woodland. There are two steel gates to the left of the tractor, one new, one relocated. The tractor is in the middle, between the gates, with an old but sound wooden gate loaded into the box, leaning against the roll bar. There is strong sunshine.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-20 15:44:18

It being an astonishingly beautiful afternoon here, instead of sitting indoors hacking #Lisp, I am out in the wood with my pussy cat hauling out timber for the sawmill.
It's a hard life.
#TheJoyOfCrofting (unironically, for once)

Hitching up a log for hauling. The log, which is already cut and lying in a tangle of other timber, is attached to the steel winch cable with a webbing strop. Horrible, my silver grey cat, lies in the sun waiting to assist.
View from the tractor. The cable stretches away into the wood to a turning block, and from there to the log, which is just being pulled into the picture from the right. The floor of the wood is green and grassy; the whole scene is bathed in sunlight.
The log has been dragged right into the middle of the picture, where it has a clear line to the tractor, and the turning block has been removed.
The Little Tractor That Can parked at the edge of the wood, with the log drawn up close behind it.
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2026-04-12 14:23:00

I went out into the wood to try to assess what dangerously unstable trees still standing in places where they could cause damage when they fall.
Needless to say, besides the two trees that have already collapsed above the house, there's at least one and possibly two unstable trees hanging over the house.
H'mmm...
#TheJoyOfCrofting

A tree in the wood, leaning about 30°, unsupported. Nothing terrible will happen when this one comes down, I think.
My house, from the back. You can see one tree that's broken off just above the top of the roof, and most of that tree is actually lying on the roof; but it has been for more than a year and I'm not worried about it. You can also see a tree leaning over the house, but it's hung up in the tree in front of the house and I don't think it will move. What worries me more are the two trees to the right of the house, leaning towards it. One of them is definitely unstable.