so waht ya doin today?

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Been pretty cold here, lows below zero F, highs in the single digits/lower teens, Not doing much outside of chores and hauling wood. In this type of weather, or colder, "all nighter" stoves...aren't. Getting up at 3AM to stoke the stove isn't bad, it's trying to get back to sleep afterwords.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Last Thursday my oldest daughter rented a place up at Lake of the Woods and the wife and I went up to fish. Nice day and we did more than well on Walleyes but lacked a few Saugers for a limit. Place was a huge A-frame, three levels and would sleep 13. There were just four of us. LOL Stayed over til Friday and played cards half the night. Went home Friday. The oldest daughter was staying at my youngest daughters house in Nashwauk and called me Friday night, asking if she could buy Mom and I a steak Saturday evening at a local restaurant. We got there and all our kids and their families, minus one granddaughter, were there for a surprise birthday party for my 60 th birthday! Surprised the hell out of me!! I've been around all of them a lot the last week with my Dad's funeral and all, and nobody gave it away. That is a miracle in itself. Nice end to a rough week. My oldest daughter also gave me about two pounds of homemade Hershey's fudge with walnuts. It doesn't get much better than that!!
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Happy birthday Rally. Having all the kids present is the best birthday present. The 60 is a big one. A couple more years and you're eligible for the senior discount.
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Thanks Smokey. Was a surprise getting them all in the same place. My oldest son has two kids in hockey and one in basketball. He coaches one of the hockey teams. He and his wife are often traveling in opposite directions just making schedules work. My oldest daughter lives in KC. Took some planning to pull it off.
Sixty is the new forty right?
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Happy Bday Rally!

More wood to get. Took down a wind damaged Elm about 30" at the butt today. She was kinda punky and the woodpeckers had been at it, but the limb wood was solid up where the air could get to it. Made my notch and started my back cut and I got a funny feeling. Looked up and she had decided to sort of lean at right angle to the cut and sort of twist clockwise. No big deal, it was a slow motion kind of twisting fall and it missed the tractor, but it was just an unusual thing to have happen. Oldest boy showed up to help later and we got a big mess of wood in the basement. Supposed to have highs in the single digits and one day where the high is not supposed to break -5F, so more wood is good!
 

Rally

NC Minnesota
Thanks Bret. Feel your pain. My youngest son and i cut a couple chord of Oak yesterday. Some big stuff with lots of burls. Kid didn’t feel the need to go to gyme for his daily workout when we were done. Lol
Spooks a guy some when the big ones start twisting on the stump. Had a big Ash spin on the stump, slide off still upright, then fall opposite direction i had it notched to go! Tore the hinge right off and fell opposite the notch. Hard to know what direction to run.
My brother had a big Elm break the hinge when it hit another adjacent tree on the way down, base jumped the stump and came straight back at him. Luckily he saw it coming and got out of the way. Hinge was still about 2” thick. Cut enough your going to have some close calls. Some times i get a bit cocky cutting small stuff, and usually get a bruise to explain to the wife. Sometimes the small stuff with a snow load can get a tad unpredictable.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Even when they fall right where you want them when they start to go it's always an eyes wide open moment. I always start with clearing brush & stuff away from the tree so that if a sudden desperate urge to depart strikes me I won't be tripping on stuff and doing a nose plant.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
the ones that get ya are the ones that start to fall the right way then kick back the trunk about 3' while your standing there admiring your handy-work.

tied some more Marabou jigs today,,, it's a good thing I don't do this for a living.
I'd maybe make 3$ an hour, not counting the time it takes to cast and powder coat them, if I counted that it would be more like 1.50$.
how long can it take you ask?,, with breaks it's like 1 an hour.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I have always prided myself in being able to drop a tree where I want it to go,
AND never having gotten hurt doing. I learned from my father, and am
VERY respectful of all the potential energy stored up in a couple thousand pounds
of tree - which converts into kinetic energy when some guy saws it off at the bottom.

Ya'll be careful, now. Not a time to be standing too close, or not having a clear place
to jump back even farther if you need to.

I wear chainsaw chaps, and often get my hardhat out from work, too. Of course,
eye and ear protection.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Most of the stuff I cut is dead Elm anywhere from 4" to 3 feet at the stump. It's almost always surrounded by a few yards of prickly ash, thornapple, buck brush, russian olive, etc. We try to cut the brush away, the boys are in to that more than I am. Seems like no matter what I do I'm either slapping myself in the face with brush or tripping over the stubs left from cutting. Makes one long for the days back home where "brush" was clearly not what we had compared to up here. Might have to cut a soft maple or some pussy willow out of the way, but that's about it down there.

I've gotten a lot better at putting them more or less where I want in my old age. I still forget to account for the wind on occasion. We cut in a lot of little draws where there's no wind at the butt but plenty up at the top of the tree. That can get you. It's a good day if I remember the ear plugs, much less helmet or chaps. We have 1 pair of chaps split between 3 of us. Youngest boy is made to wear them when he's cutting.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
I cut a lot of firewood, but I avoid dropping trees. I cut mostly storm downed trees.
Years ago, one place I cut wood at, had lots of large standing Dead white Oak trees. They were far enough apart where it didn't matter how they dropped. I would still try to make them fall the way I thought they should, I was successful about 74% of the time. Which is enough to make me know I barely knew what I was doing, so I avoid it. When a tree needs to come down a certain way, I bring a friend or two, who are much better at it...and then there is usually a large rope and pickup involved.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
College Boy (my nineteen year-old) just called. He and another kid were moving a large cart full of books in the research library (he works part time there) at the university; he got the middle finger of his right hand wedged between the cart and a doorjamb. He's got a multiple TUFT fracture. They had to put two holes in his nail to drain the blood. Doc says he's looking at at least 3 weeks for most of his recovery.

Nice that not only does the university pay for all his med costs but he also receives his hourly wage for his doctor visits.

He loves his chemistry, physics and engineering classes and is doing extremely well.

My head gets any bigger I won't be able to get through the door.
 
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Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Sorry about the mashed finger, but congrats on the chem, physics and eng classes!
Been there, done that, got the sheepskin, it is NOT easy. Glad to hear he is doing
well. But some are just wired that way, thank goodness.


Bill
 
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RBHarter

West Central AR
So had to steal that . Friends of mine will fall out ....... Numerous times I knew just the spot to tap and which plug to pull . Ahhh the glory days .
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
Yep, every time something breaks around my house, I fix it. Then my wife looks at me and says "but I wanted to buy a new one". And I say "well I can take it apart and break it just like it was".
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
That reminds me of the joke about the woman who found out she only had 6 months to live.
She asked the doctor "doctor what can I do". The doctor said, well my advice would be to go out and marry a civil engineer.
The woman said will that cure me, will that make me live longer.
The doctor said, no it will only seem longer.
I was a civil engineer/registered surveyor before I retired.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
My old boss solemnly told me one day, "I always thought that there was no such thing as
a civil engineer." With a grin.

Bill
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
Most of the ones I worked with were pretty dry. We have a lot of Structural Engineers at our company also. They're even worse when it comes to being dry. I like the outdoors too much and wound up being a registered public land surveyor. We are a colorful lot.
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
One of my bosses at the University was a Civil with a PE. He used to work for the Army Corps of Engineers and was briefly on the staff of a senator from his home state. Really good guy and a great boss. I'm a Mechanical, I used to tell him that Civils built targets and Mechanicals built bombs. He was not amused...

We also used to kid him about what type of engineer built women, only a Civil would put a recreational facility in the middle of a waste disposal site...