by Jan Fielden
The other day one of the water gaps needed our attention, again! The boys had been down not very long ago and cleaned the gaps out but as usual another rain produced more logs, trees, etc. to clog them up. We were surprised that only one of them had gotten clogged. An enormous tree had some how made it down through the first gap but couldn’t make the bend to go through the second one.
So, off we go to clean it up one more time. One of the things that helped us out was the water had come down with such force that it blew out the beaver dam farther up the creek so there wasn’t as much water in it at the gap.
The tree was a Cedar and had stobs all over it. The stobs were caught up in the lower pieces of bull panels. The Colonel cut the tree up where he could reach it. We hoped we could just push it on through after cutting it up but that is when we noticed the stobs and knew they would have to be cut off. He had a time trying to cut the stobs without hitting the bull panels and getting a real kick back from the chain saw, all the while trying to keep the saw out of the water.
After that part was done we wrapped a chain around the tree and pulled it up out of the creek with the tractor. We had discovered it was much too heavy for us to push it. So, as we finished up we were satisfied that we had done an excellent job but knew once again as soon as we got another heavy rain we would be down there again. Such is the life of ranchers at Red Oak Ranch.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and a safe and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
