How'd it go today?

Way back in about 1997 when I worked for Davey (res and comm, not line clearance) I was assigned a removal that grew up around a power pole and had wires running in 3 directions through it. Supervisor said they were cutting the power and I had 2 hours to get it below the wires (with only one ground man). Every limb had to be roped as I had obstacles everywhere and spread over 3 back yards. When I got it down to just above the top of the pole I looked over and the lights were on in the customer's house. I was about 6" away from the live wires and freaked the frig out. Called my supervisor and found out that the power company turned the power back on because a neighbor complained.

That was the first and last job I ever did for them requiring a power shutoff. friggin' lying bastards almost got me killed many times. They threw me out there like dog meat and never gave a frig about my safety. It's amazing the jobs you remember when looking back over a 35 year career, always the ones where you almost died.
That is still something where you should always treat the wires as live, and go so far as to install insulation wraps when you know the power is off.
 
I had less than -17/25 in the bank this morning, so had to make a trip and add X before additional credits were subtracted.
I was divided as to the cause of this (could have been multiple reasons).
To Sum things up: the addition will keep the subtractions from multiplying."

All the math was tiring, so had breakfast and a nap.

Woke up in time for dinner, then will read until time for fiddle class this evening on circle of 5ths improvisation.
 
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I had less than -17/25 in the bank this morning, so had to make a trip and add X before additional credits were subtracted.
I was divided as to the cause of this (could have been multiple reasons).
To Sum things up: the addition will keep the subtractions from multiplying."

All the math was tiring, so had breakfast and a nap.

Woke up in time for dinner, then will read until time for fiddle class this evening on circle of 5ths improvisation.

Math is power!
 
I like that too. I'm not a fan of handles with a lot of sweep. I imagine that does something useful, and I'm just not discerning enough to notice, but straight handles are more comfortable for me.
 
Used to work with C faller/instructors and they would let us use thier axes to drive wedges and sound trees and what not.

They all used a 2.5 to 5 pound axe with a straight handle.

We used em for all sorts of things....even judging lean.

Never did like a swoopy handle after that.

Maybe someone will come along and explain why axe handles are shaped the way they are.
 
The curved handles have better ergonomics for chopping purposes. That's what all the competition axe choppers primarily use. Straight handles are superior for driving wedges using the poll side of the axe.
That might be the reason for my preference. I don't do a lot of treework, but I've used axes as my main hammer at work for years, and the straight handle works better for that.

What got me wanting the splitting axe was I was splitting some tulip poplar at work to give to the boss' girlfriend for summer burning in her firepit. I have an old felling axe in the truck, but it's too skinny, so it was just burying in the bigger pieces. Since it was just poplar, and the pieces weren't /that/ big, it seemed like a waste to pull out the maul and wedges. A light splitting axe fills the gap between a felling axe, and a heavy splitting maul and/or maul+wedges.

BTW, welcome to the forum!
 
That might be the reason for my preference. I don't do a lot of treework, but I've used axes as my main hammer at work for years, and the straight handle works better for that.

What got me wanting the splitting axe was I was splitting some tulip poplar at work to give to the boss' girlfriend for summer burning in her firepit. I have an old felling axe in the truck, but it's too skinny, so it was just burying in the bigger pieces. Since it was just poplar, and the pieces weren't /that/ big, it seemed like a waste to pull out the maul and wedges. A light splitting axe fills the gap between a felling axe, and a heavy splitting maul and/or maul+wedges.

BTW, welcome to the forum!
Thanks for the welcome...been lurking here for a while. The link below is for a very comprehensive publication on axes that just came out written by a friend of mine. Perhaps more than most folks want to know but great information:

 
Thanks for that link! I find that stuff pretty interesting. Misread the file size when I downloaded the pdf though. I grabbed the one that was 290mb cause I read it as 29mb. I'll have to compress it so it plays nice with my lower end phone.

edit:
Down to 46mb. Much more manageable :^)
 
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