How'd it go today?

[Burnham]

A tougher day I can barely imagine. Thanks for doing it.

 

[jalegre0]

Had great day today blew through 4 medium sized jobs today with half a crew

 

[MasterBlaster]

TCOB!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Took a snow day today.. Sold more jobs, did two more proposals and scored a band saw. So. Not a total loss. Can't complain I guess. Scheduling June. I really want to take some time off in June. There is a reunion thing in So. Cal I could use as a reason. Just not all that big on going back to my past that I hated so much I put almost 3000 miles between me and it not long after high school. Be a good excuse to just go see some family and let the kids have some fun though. Dunno. Money been tight this year with the cost of everything going up. I doubt we could pull it off. Getting someone to feed animals is a task as well.

 

[Cobleskill]

Kids do grow up way too fast. I would say go for it! Course it's not me paying the bills. Really though, the old where there's a will thing.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Aye....

 

[Tucker943]

Climbed and killed 2 mushy hemlocks, a tall and lanky sycamore, and a rather large sycamore leaning out to the primary on a road. Big sucker with a heck of a lean out off the hillside towards the road. I sort of didn't like working on the lean for a little bit but then when I was torching off 16' sections of trunk with no pull line monkey business, I was all about the heavy lean. Now Im tired. Very tired.

 

[cory]

Climbed and killed 2 mushy hemlocks, a tall and lanky sycamore, and a rather large sycamore leaning out to the primary on a road. Big sucker with a heck of a lean out off the hillside towards the road. I sort of didn't like working on the lean for a little bit but then when I was torching off 16' sections of trunk with no pull line monkey business, I was all about the heavy lean.

Cool description.

Now Im tired. Very tired.

Lately I'm starting to notice a trend. Like, for the last 35ish years, virtually every damn nite after tree work, that's how I feel too.

 

[Tucker943]

Ya, I get tired like anyone, but this was the sort of tired where I wanted to sleep in the truck on the way back from the job. Im having a hard time getting back in my groove after such a long winter. Im missing a lot of muscle and really need to get my endurance back up.

 

[cory]

I sleep like a baby in the truck after work, occasionally. It's the sleep of the dead. A short one for 20 min or a long one for 1.5 hours, wake up and feel like lead. But its a good lead.

This winter was the worst one ever, business wise, for me.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I'm knocking down hundreds of trees, medium sized Pines. I asked a friend to borrow his two ton excavator for cleanup and to move the logs. He is a real busy person and sometimes can't completely cover things. When he dropped it off, I noticed that one of the rubber caterpillar tracks had a tear in it. It progressively got worse to the point that the track would come off. I became highly skilled at reinstalling the track, must have done it six or eight times, and bought a lot of grease. I found that sewing the rip together with stainless wire cable prolonged longevity, but when the tear eventually moved to the sprocket opening in the middle of the track, I lost the war. Now I'm waiting for new tracks and drive sprockets, and things are seriously held up. I would never loan out a piece of equipment in a condition like that, but he is a friend with good intentions.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Did you tell him about the bad track right away? I have borrowed things and worked on them for hours, always returning them in better condition than received. I have had some tense moments when accused of damage that was not caused by me.

 

[woodworkingboy]

He knew about it, Jim. Guess he figured it wouldn't get worse, or maybe just didn't want to think about it. Not sure.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'm knocking down hundreds of trees, medium sized Pines

 

[FireFighterZero]

Thats good to hear Jay. I get excited when I hear about rubber tracks. The tracks on one of our farming tractors need replaced. 22,000 dollars. Not looking forward to that.

No tree stuff for me yet but I will get to the hills to fell some before fire season rolls around. Sucks not having any trees on my place, well, I am not quite ready to cut my favorite tree down.

Sorted some cow/calf pairs and went to a funeral. Not much going on.

 

[woodworkingboy]

22 grand for tracks, wow! I think I heard somewhere along the lines of there being cheap aftermarket for tracks, or at least cheaper. Carl might know for sure, and to what degree the cheaper might compromise quality

I know, MB, killing hundreds of trees doesn't seem very earth friendly. It's for some development, one small structure surrounded by open land. but the thing is that they are entirely Red Pines, and the Pine Beetle infestation is rampant here, and they will all be goners in the foreseeable future anyway. Leaving the deciduous Oaks and stuff, so letting in light will encourage desirable growth.

 

[Tucker943]

Im sure Butch has killed hundreds of trees too. We all have.

 

[rskybiz]

Wow Jim, and here I sit racking my brain over spending a grand on a drive shaft and yoke for my skid steer. It appears that the u joint used back then is a discontinued item unless through the dealer. I have been to three drive shaft shops no luck. Placed about 30 calls to equipment salvage yards seeking a used one with no responses frustrating to say the least.
Cut red cedars all day yesterday brought home all the chips and logs makes for a fragrant yard today!

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Joel, are your red cedars down there Juniper?

 

[FireFighterZero]

Man that sucks. Have you been round to a machine shop to weigh your options? We used to make our own driveshafts on a lathe with parts that we could find when the manufacturer would obsolete a part.

 

[rskybiz]

Yes to the juniper. And yes to three drive shaft shops. They say they can make/ machine one but I worry it won't hold up as they will take a 1 1/2" yoke and make it a 1 3/4" I hate to take and spend half of new and find it does not hold up.

 

[FireFighterZero]

That is certainly a worry. I would not like the idea of taking material out to make it work.

Around here a machine shop and a drive shaft shop are two different things, and I was thinking about my experiences with a machine shop. The drive shaft shop we work with is limited to the parts that their supplier handles, where as our machine shop can do what ever they like providing that the project is feasible. You are probably right, might be stuck with stock.

 

[stig]

Im sure Butch has killed hundreds of trees too. We all have.

I think my tally is somewhere close to 300000.

But I've planted even more, so my karma is good.

 

[Fiddler]

Had an interview for a climbing job today a was told I was over-qualified? All I can figure is he was worried about wages, which we never got to talking about.

He wants to buy me lunch next week and talk more...maybe about subbing for him. He does more landscaping than trees right now and only has about three months worth of tree work at the moment. I told him I don't mind working on the landscaping crew when there are no trees, so we'll talk again and see what comes of it I guess.

 

[MasterBlaster]

You're overqualified = I don't wanna pay you much.