How'd it go today?

Wouldn't matter much...young small diameter trees like that would not last long enough to be worth the effort to build that paddock with them. Here in NW Oregon, that is. Hand split posts from large old growth trees would last longer, but not much past 20 years.

Dryer climates, your mileage may vary :D.
My dad and I set a rail fence in 1969 around his house.
Port Orford cedar posts.
The new owners took it down 2 years ago!!!!

What happens here is the sapwood goes to Hell fast, but the core lasts forever.
I was taking a forest fence down , all oak posts.
So I just ran the tractor over them, after we removed the fence.
Front wheel broke them all.
Except one.
That was Port Orford cedar, so it bent over, then came back up and blew the lower windscreen on the tractor out............................BAM!!
Not my proudest moment.
 
For Father’s Day.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One of my favorite Taxi moments is when Jim&#39;s (Christopher Lloyd) father died and asks his dad if he could hear just once that he loved him.<br><br>The masterclass by <a href="https://twitter.com/DocBrownLloyd?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@DocBrownLloyd</a> is done when he finally realizes, without saying a word, that his dad loved him more than he could know. <a href="https://t.co/ufuPAZR7Mv">pic.twitter.com/ufuPAZR7Mv</a></p>&mdash; Danny Deraney (@DannyDeraney) <a href="">June 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
lazy day, got the week off for weather
I did get a welding cart in a trade for some work yesterday, cheapo $130 harbor freight one, seems good
also finally upgraded to solid wire, turns out I can actually weld worth a darn!
need 2 new hoses on my chipper and gotta make a new chute end, it didnt get pinned in place and spun while driving, got wedged against the box in a turn and folded it up, it shoots chips sideways now!
curl cylinder mount is plenty skookum, ugly but 100X as good as the last one
 
Home all day. Boss had a meeting at 10, and there wasn't time to do stuff afterward. Same tomorrow, but I have a brushcutting job to do for him clearing a gabion outfall. Word is it's all saplings, so I'll get to use my maxi blade. Bought it for my first cutter, but it ended up not being very useful for the stuff I cut. It'll be fun using an actual saw instead of beating everything down with a blade. He's unreliable though, so I could find something different. Hopefully I can find the maxi. Haven't seen it in a couple years.
 
so much for the bigger crane on this next job, $1750 for 4 hours...
got a treat of a job for the 30th tho, 7 trees, biggest is a 70ft red oak, ~28" DBH, the other 6 are 6-12" and 15-40ft tall, level ground, 5ft gates, and the neighbors driveway is real close so the crane can reach!
gonna try and get the 6 small ones down before the crane shows up so the groundies can be chipping those while im getting the big oak down, planning to drag them to the fence and fly them out as far as we can take them with the crane towards the road so we arent using the skid on the nice turf in the back for much of anything
 
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Had to have the truck towed on Fathers day after the filter project.
Got a sub vehicle so we could go see dad at the home.
Vacuum pump kaputView attachment 130446
happened to my 7.3 IDI twice
second time we were towing my chipper home for the first time with no trailer brakes, like an hour and a half drive with almost no brakes
 
My job doing proper clearingsaw work was a bust. I get out there to find this...

IMG_20230621_084906969_HDR.jpg

I clipped a few sprouts with some handpruners and left. Waste of time and fuel.
 
Just renewed my dl/real id online. Not too painful. I have to renew my driver's license 5.95 months early because I can't get my cdl permit if the license expires within 6 months. :|: I've been doing practice tests online, questions are pretty obvious. I think I can do a walk-in for cdl permit.
 
Just renewed my dl/real id online. Not too painful. I have to renew my driver's license 5.95 months early because I can't get my cdl permit if the license expires within 6 months. :|: I've been doing practice tests online, questions are pretty obvious. I think I can do a walk-in for cdl permit.
funny you say, just did mine an hour ago!
 
So I was told there had to be a proactive way to quit cracking the mini frame and motor mounts. My reply was quit hitting rocks by consistanly leaving your clean established drag road. I was psahhed.... by the regular op.
Grind and weld boys, grind and weld. Ohhhhh and some extra heat with banging and bending. Momma. 20230621_135127.jpg
20230621_135142.jpg 20230621_135155.jpg
 
So we ran an estimate yesterday huge spruce and two walnuts over a shed. I give the guy the price and he balks thinking the trees would be $400 apiece. We part ways about two hours later he calls with his hat in his hands apologizing saying he had no idea of the going rate for tree work is and he would like us to do the job. LOL
 
So I was told there had to be a proactive way to quit cracking the mini frame and motor mounts. My reply was quit hitting rocks by consistanly leaving your clean established drag road. I was psahhed.... by the regular op.
Grind and weld boys, grind and weld. Ohhhhh and some extra heat with banging and bending. Momma.View attachment 130463
View attachment 130464View attachment 130465
If it was an affordable option for the business, you could threaten the operator with having to drag by hand the next time it breaks.

That being said, there's likely a lot of fatigue in an old abused frame like that. The only proactive thing I can think of is buy a new one, or weld lots of fresh layers of steel all over, but that just makes it heavier.

I became a lot more conscious of the wheel bearings when they were finally broke. I told the boss what it was when I heard it, but we ran it a few more weeks until the front track wheel fell off. Whenever a load is carried the machine practically balances on the front wheels. Then, when a curb or hard little bump is hit, that's several more thousands of pounds of shock loading on the bearings. We actually got more hours than usual out of them according to the dealer, but I am extra smooth and slow over bumps now.
 
Certain people can not, or refuse to modify behavior. Since he is passive aggressive in behavior, I almost consider it sub-conscience.
And contrarian. Sometimes deliberate.
Like telling him, don't lift and try to pull on the front wheels. Its a tracked machine. When it tips forward with the load, it compresses the tensioner spring. Then put it in reverse, the tracks are loose and jump cogs. Trashes the cogs on the tracks.
So he, trying to prove me full of shit because I complain about it, steps up and buys a new set of tracks and new springs.
Proceeds to not change behavior and presses on. Now since he bought the stuff, I just plain shut up. Let it hurt him where it was hurting me. Right in the wallet. Sure enough, he complained yesterday he is just not getting any life out of the new tracks. Already falling apart.
Like telling him, put a rope on something instead of trying to get into rocks to extract a log. Pull it out, then lift and go. Ohhhhh but it's too much trouble to go walk 30 feet and get the rope. If I go to get the rope, he hurrys to like prove he can do it with the mini.
I just can't wait till I retire. Fugg this shit.
I'll probably just sign the mini and trailer over to him as well. Fine, here, gonna keep breaking it, well its yours now. Does not owe me anything.
 
Pity you guys don't have the apprentice programme, that we do.
I've shaped my co-workers for the last 30 years.
Doing a big take down with people, who are basically Stig clones is hard to beat.
Emil, my present one is going to take over the company, when I retire ( or die, which will probably come first).
When he is done with the apprenticeship, he'll buy half the company and then eventually buy me out.
If I don't kick the bucket first, in which case he'll just get it for free.

He is already working a lot of jobs on the side, best way to grow in the trade.
He had a tricky re-prune of a large, spreading English Walnut last weekend.
We had looked at it together and priced it, then I just gave it to him.
He told me afterwards, that it went ok, but there were some far out positions, where he missed having the old man telling him how to do it :)
 
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