found wood #5: more Ficus microcarpa

Remember that haul last week of fig logs? I used the new dolly to move them around back:

Here’s the load by the light of day:

Exactly one week later, running home on my lunch break, I found ANOTHER PILE of them in the same spot, from the same tree likely. Of course, I had to back up, pull over, and load those in, too :)

Pretty big!

This rooty section had wood chunks that didn’t match. I think they’re Douglas fir, from a fence or garden something-or-other, which the fig tree wrapped around and tore up.

I remembered to get some leaf shots this time. The stubby tips match with F. microcarpa. F. benjamina – the common houseplant fig everyone in the US seems to have somewhere – has a longer, pointier tip. Most of the other figs I’ve looked up have vastly different leaves than either of these. For example, these from the common fig. Note the edible figs. Ficus microcarpa gets little berry-like fruits which are either not edible, no good to eat, or just not worth it. “Microcarpa” means “small fruit.”

Everyone ready for another Benny Hill time-lapse log-moving video? Great! Here I’m dragging load #2 back to the patio, which I just swept off and cleared a bit for the fig logs, and adding load #1 from last week to it. Glad to have them up on the cement, where I don’t need to worry too much about killing grass, or bugs pouring into the logs from the soil. All of this log hauling work is starting to build up the muscles.

And there’s the pile, with me for some scale (6’ tall).

Of course, they’re still monumentally dwarfed by those Eucalyptus logs. I need to get those up on the patio soon, too.

I feel a bit like I should be living, say, in Montana, and not the ‘burbs of Los Angeles.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator