Chipping Away at the Pile of Branches

August 6, 2025

Yesterday (Tuesday, August 5), after we heard Bruce’s dad was out of surgery and in recovery, Bruce and I headed out to chip more branches. While Bruce was moving the chipper with the mower, I was checking the garden.

I noticed several medium-sized black bees pollinating watermelon flowers. Based on my bee book, they appear to be a type of carpenter bee.

I was checking the squash for squash bugs, when I noticed this squash bee in the squash flower.

I found some squash bug nymphs and sprayed them with soapy water. Bye, bye baby bugs.

I realized Bruce had set the chipper up and headed to it. He was working on getting it started when I arrived. We finished chipping the smaller pile of branches left from pine tree one. We still have a small pile of branches from pine tree one. Poison ivy grew in that pile so we can’t chip it yet.

Bruce moved the chipper to the large pile of branches from pine trees two and three. We made a dent in the large branch pile. We chipped all the easy branches to feed into the chipper. There are several large tree limbs with branches need to be cut up to fit in the chipper.

Bruce’s thumb got smashed. A branch being pulled into the chipper had a side branch that pulled Bruce’s thumb against the shoot edge. It hurt badly enough that Bruce gave up on chipping. He hitched up the chipper and pulled it into the barn. Bruce’s thumb was fine by yesterday evening.

I worked on my lion cubs drawing.

With the weather so nice, in the afternoon, Bruce headed back outside with the electric pole saw. He started trimming trees and bushes on the south fence line.

I filled in three of the large holes in the yard. Bruce couldn’t mow the holes so the grass and weeds got tall. I trimmed the grass and weeds down to a 1/2 inch and filled the holes with dirt and gravel from the driveway project. It was nice to see the tall grass gone. We still have a lot of holes to fill in the front yard.

Bruce and I walked down to check the mail. We noticed our neighbor’s cattle had egrats hanging out with them.

We got the local free community paper in the mail. When we got back inside, I saw an ad in the paper requesting volunteers to help with trail maintenance at the Cane Creek Nature Preserve in Tuscumbia, AL. I told Bruce about it and he agreed it sounded fun. He said, “Let’s do it. Go ahead and sign up.” The online sign-up was easy. Bruce and I both have a spot for this upcoming Friday morning.

Today (Wednesday, August 6), this morning Bruce got a call from his dad. Bruce said his dad sounded great. My FIL was waiting for the physical therapist to come by to check on him. There were a lot of text exchanges between Bruce’s siblings as my brother-in-law kept everyone informed. (Bruce has four siblings.) Bruce’s dad PT went well and he was released from the hospital after lunch.

I noticed several sweet potato blooms. There is a bee in the first flower. Can you spot it?

I squished several armyworms on the tomato plants. I killed squash bugs. I even caught a squash bug in the act of laying eggs.

I spotted this False Potato Beetle on the side of the house. It looks very similar to the Colorado Potato Beetle. The Colorado Potato Beetle has yellow stripes instead of white stripes

With the weather so nice, we decided to take a motorcycle ride and tried out a new (to us) restaurant. It was a Southern home-cooking restaurant. The food was good enough that we’ll go back.

We did some light yard work today. We moved the cut trees and bushes that Bruce cut down yesterday to the burn pile. Some of the longer trees, I turned into stakes to be used for tying plants to.

Bruce assured me his smashed thumb only hurts if he pokes it.

We needed an easy day after the hard work of the past few days.

We didn’t have a particularly spectacular sunset today. It was still pretty.