I have spent most of the last two weeks cutting up trees that have blocked trails on the backside of our range. It’s a lot of work. Primarily because some years ago our area was hit with the Emerald Ash Borer from Asia.
And that nasty little bug has killed just about every ash tree for hundreds of miles. Unfortunately the John1911 range has, or had, a ton of Ash Trees.
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- Pit looks decent.
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- Plates down. Also wind didn’t come from this direction. I suspect rack was rocked and plates feel then. BTW…rack is #400lbs.
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- Damaged VTAC barricade.
Now we have a ton of giant, dead, and dangerous trees that can’t fall soon enough. And every time there is a storm, a bunch do. But this last round were particularly strong with straight-line winds exceeding 50MPH.
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- My biggest fear was this tree.
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- Spine trail. I have spent a week clearing this already.
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- Now I get a window maker to deal with. I’ll have to pull it down.
Some of the local farmers had significant building damage and I was wondering if maybe we lost The Shelter. Or more specially if maybe the tree next to the shelter fell over on it?
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- Alternate trail to 400.
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- NBD here.
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- This trail will have a LOT of damage. It’s very hilly and rarely used for that reason.
Thankfully no major facility damage was suffered. One VTAC barricade was broken. Heck we didn’t even lose a single target stand or backer!
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- 5 Trees here. Down to The Bad Lands. Haven’t made it down there yet.
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- Fence-line trail. Not too bad. But that hanging tree sucks. It’s hung on a giant dead tree you have to get under.
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- Off of Spine Trail. Back to 800. NBD.
However, the back of the property is a wreck. We have dead trees down everywhere. And even worse, some of the dead trees are suspended in the air on top of other dead trees. That is what the local farmers call a “widow maker”.
So while most of you are hunkered down with NETFLIX, I will be holding my own private, personal, chainsaw party. At least I am not wanting for exercise.
Nobody pandemics like me.
Sincerely,
Marky
www.John1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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