The 3rd Annual Texas Chainsaw Manicure happened Saturday, October 17, a bright, beautiful fall day with blue skies and a high in the low 70s—Texas weather at its best! Want to see all the activities for yourself? Check out our photo page here.

Our work was blessed with many wonderful friends—some from churches like Peace Lutheran (Austin), and St. Peter's (Coupland). Several folks came from Houston, a bunch from Austin, Cedar Park, and Round Rock, and many from the little towns surrounding the Ranch—Cedar Creek, Paige, McDade, Elgin, Bastrop and Smithville.

The Texas Forest Service was here! Lexi Maxwell, Jan Fulkerson, and Mark Stinson had come out a few days before to mark trees that needed to come down. Mark gave a chainsaw-safety briefing to the participants before getting started. He and Lexi stayed for the day to supervise and work.

click thumbnails to learn more...

Bluebonnet Electric Coop sent an Asplundh truck—a wish come true! The crew of five spent the day feeding tree limbs and other materials into the jaws of the giant chipper/shredder. The resulting mulch will be used to dress the dozen young trees planted by Down Home Ranchers Kelly, Sterling, Kristen, and Kara.

Hancock brothers David and Paul came with trailers and dozers and tended the five burn piles—some left from last year and some for this year's Manicure. Reagan Cole brought a Cat skid-steer with a claw grabber to move the big logs and position them for the sawyer, who then cut them into four cords of oak firewood, which the swampers loaded onto trailers and stacked.

Our good friends from Southside Market catered the bar-b-cue lunch—sausage, brisket and trimmings—and nobody went away hungry. Fifteen Down Home Ranchers volunteered for the day, swamping, baking desserts, while Mike and Mark folded this year's Manicure T-shirts.

Even the littlest children found they could help out, picking up small limbs for the brush piles.

At the end of the day, workers had felled about 70 trees, mostly ones that didn't make it through the long drought and posed a danger to people and property. The Ranch is neater and safer, and has a good store of firewood for our fire circle.

A big THANK YOU to all who came and helped. It was an exciting day for the community of Down Home Ranch.