I've been trying to make up for lost time with the privet down in The Carey Woods. I got a late start this winter and because of the unseasonably warm weather in February, I knew the sap was going to start rising, putting an end to the cut-stump treatments.
I feel that I made really good progress though. The section I started on last winter is almost entirely clear now with the exception of just a few trunks.
I wish I had kept count of how many trunks I cut and treated. I do know that in the area between the downed trees shown in the top picture below, I cut and treated 25 trunks in a 15' section. There was lots and lots and lots of privet down there...so much privet.
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| Privet thicket last winter. |
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| Area shown above as it looked after more work this winter. |
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| Looking up the hill through the same area now. The privet has all been cut and the stumps treated. With it gone, you can now see all the way up to the top of the hill. |
RAF always worries when I go down there, and offers to go with me, but I tell him he doesn't need to go. He then always tells me to be extra careful. I always tell him I will be.
It really isn't an easy place to work. I've slipped on rocks on the hillside, and stumbled climbing over things. I've had privet limbs flip up and hit me in the lip. I've had scratches from the stickers and bruises on my ribs from bracing the loppers while I cut. Nothing serious though.
But a couple of weeks ago as I was tugging a privet limb out of the cedar top, one of its wispy long branches whipped across my face under my glasses. It happened so fast that I didn't even have time to blink. The end of the limb raked right across the surface of my right eye. I thought I was blinded! It stung for a good while, but eventually I was able to open that eye and to my relief, my vision didn't seem to be affected at all.
Once my eye stopped watering, I got back to work because I was nearly finished with that section and I didn't want to quit until it was done. But only a little while later as I was pulling another limb out, it got tangled up with a second limb. I could tell there was quite a bit of pressure on that second one, which was about an inch and a half in diameter. The thought had just entered my mind that I needed to stop tugging and untangle them, when suddenly that second limb snapped free and WHAM! hit me right in my left temple. It knocked me sideways and my glasses went all wonky and almost fell off. I think if I hadn't been wearing the glasses though it could have been much worse. As it was, all I got was a big scratch and a really sore spot beside my left eye. After a little bit of bending and straightening on the glasses, and a few choice words and phrases later, I was able to get back to work, and finish for the day.
Both of those accidents happened, I think, because I was tired and kept working when I should have stopped. I'm just very lucky that my eyes weren't hurt. (And yes, I intend to get some good eye protection that I can wear over my glasses before I start cutting again next winter. Eyeglasses <> eye protection.)
When I got ready to go down to the woods this past Sunday, RAF looked at me and said, "Please be very careful," then frowned. I told him I would be.
I knew I wasn't going to be able to cut and treat very much. I was low on herbicide, and the privet had already started to green up. I cut the last big privet bush at the top of the hill, treated it and just managed to squirt out enough herbicide to get all the way around the stump.
Since the herbicide was gone, I decided to just walk down the hill with Walter and start cutting out the tops of every privet tree I came across. That didn't last long though...I made it to the bottom of the hill, cut a few limbs and Walter's battery died. I had found a nice privet stick that made a perfect walking stick, so the stick, Walter and I headed back up the hill through the newly cleared path.
I don't know if I just wasn't paying attention, or if I'm just naturally clumsy (both?) but as I got almost back to the top of the hill, I snagged the toe of my right boot on the butt end of a privet trunk that I had left laying perpendicular with the pathway last year. My momentum was forward, but because my toe was snagged on the stick, the movement of my foot was not. I fell and landed HARD on a rock with my right knee. Serious pain - for a few minutes I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up. I sat there for a while, feeling all around on my kneecap and since nothing seemed to be broken or out of place, I carefully tried bending and straightening my knee. It still worked. So I picked up the stick that had tripped me, gave it a few choice words and phrases then threw it with some force onto one of the piles of limbs. I then picked up Walter (I don't think he was injured in the fall) and my privet walking stick and limped up the hill to the cart and made my way back home.
I didn't tell RAF what had happened. I just put some antibiotic ointment and a bandage over the cut on my knee and kept working on stuff for the rest of the day. But when I got up the next morning, I knew the injury was a bit more serious than I had thought and I had to confess to RAF what had happened. He was not pleased.
By Monday evening, my knee was quite swollen, red and hot to the touch. I could barely bend it, and once bent, could barely straighten it back out. I was, as the expression goes, all stove-up.
But it's now Thursday evening, and while my knee is still very sore, I can tell that it's better. The swelling has gone down some, and it's not so red and hot anymore. I can actually bend it going up and down the steps.
I still have one more day before the weekend. Lord willing, I'll be able to take Walter back down into the woods and continue on my mission. I really did think I was being careful. So can I work down there without doing something else stupid? That's the million dollar question isn't it....
More posts about my war on privet