Broken excavator

We have a reprieve: James rented the excavator for 4 weeks, and with 3 days left on the clock, the excavator broke. (James didn't break it, a valve cracked, spewing engine fluids and mandating a work stop). So the rental company took it away and will bring a fixed one next week, but in the meantime that means this weekend we can't (ie don't have to) spend all our time clearing land. Which is a good thing, as James is helping teach a logging course tomorrow (how to use logging arches and low-impact equipment to harvest trees without raping the land) for the Northwest Natural Resources Group (which helps foster green logging...).

The photo above shows the tree at the SW boundary of the house (which is the master bedroom). James tells me that's the only tree left standing (I'll see it tomorrow when I go to the site). I carried this picture on my camera so I could show it to friends and say, "See, this is my future bedroom!". What a view, eh?

The neat story about this particular tree is that 2 years ago, in December, Patrick's Boy Scout troop did a Survival overnight on our property and spent the night in the open without tents or overnight equipment. That tree, with the orange tape around it, was the center of their "camp", where they set up a cooking fire (and roasted strips of "deer" meat, actually beef that the leader passed off as deer). (Becky had a piece of it, thinking it was deer, but because beef gives her tummy aches, was in distress for the rest of the evening...). The boys set up shelters and make lean-tos out of branches and ferns, some of which were still standing when we went to clear the land.