I'm a lumberjack, and that's okay...

The first major task I had this week was the removal of our two unsightly and photon-absorbing maple trees in the back yard.



I have a 10" chainsaw that came with the house, and it was great for lopping off the limbs, but cutting through the 8" and 12" trunks proved to be more difficult.



I enlisted the help of sleep-deprived Ryan to assist with the trunk removal. With a combination of the chain saw and a newly-purchased bow saw we felled the trees. And that is where The Grinder came in.



This beast of a machine chewed up the stump like a demented beaver on steroids. We rented it from Home Depot, along with a good-sized roto-tiller (and thankfully we had the Suburban). After we clean up the mess and put some sod down there should be no trace of The Maple Duo.



PS: Shout out to my sister for the lumberjack connection.

Lost in the Wilderness

Another lonely day in California, but the weather was magnificent and my camera batteries were charged, so there was nothing standing between me and adventure. I had received some advice about what I should do today, but after doing some research this morning, and with some prompting from Richard, I decided to go see some big trees. If there's one thing they know how to do out here, it's big trees.


Some of the smaller big trees I saw. This photo was HDR-modified for your enjoyment. Do not adjust your monitor.

I speculated that Big Basin Redwoods State Park would provide a high-probability of seeing big trees, so at 10am I headed west, through the Santa Cruz mountains, towards my destiny. The twists and turns through the dense forest of the Santa Cruz mountains were most enjoyable, although I think 45mph is a bit fast for some of those turns.


Here is my car in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The car itself leaves much to be desired, but I'm starting to like the colour.


I headed out on the Sequoia trail towards Sempervirens Falls. "Sempervirens" means always green.


I learned that this was the first state park in California, formally created in 1902.


Here is a long-ish exposure of the falls. I actually had to brighten it a bit in post-processing. At the falls lookout, I only had to take pictures for two groups. I hate P&S cameras... they feel so clumsy.


After the falls I headed back towards the park headquarters via another trail. I came across this little guy (and many of his skittish friends) on a rocky clearing.


I simply loved the texture on the trees; I made this photo black & white to emphasize this quality.


In case you didn't believe me, here is a gang of redwoods. (HDR)


This was a funny tree that I've seen before but I don't know the name of. The bark appears to just peel off, leaving behind this smooth, flesh-coloured trunk.


And of course, the flower shot.