How'd it go today?

Holy hell that locust kicked my ass, and it still isn't finished. I went up once, said "Nope!", and came back down and set a line. Went up again, and muddled my way though to 75% completion. I have a plan when I start this stuff, the reality I suck at this settles in, and the plan goes out the window. Took a bigger top than intended, and smacked the gutter on the house, but no damage. This is what it looked like when I came down for the 362 after the 2511 was tapped out...

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It's tied in 25'-30'. I was beat hauling the 362 around, and was starting to get sloppy, and almost felt like puking, so this was left for another day ...

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Bucked some of the bigger pieces in the drive so I can go to work without tripping, and called it a day. I'm a little ambivalent about the treesqueeze. It's kinda cumbersome to manipulate, at least on a locust with rough sloughing bark. Might have caught my ass though. It was either that or the flipline that grabbed, cause they were tangled together, but I gaffed out and only fell 1' or so, so that's good.

Sparky wood. I guess it's collected a bunch of crud in the bark. I was too tired to even worry about sharpening saws. They're packed away, and I'll get them next time. My plan went to hell, but so far it's coming down without damage or injury, so I guess I won today. Hard part's done, and there's nothing to do but finish at my leisure.

edit:
Might as well tell y'all about my shitty "felling cut", cause that seems to be the only kind I can do. The top was leaning back towards me, so I set the backcut a little high for some insurance. It was too high. While trying to stack wedges to get it over, I dropped one of my wedges, and the one I had left wasn't tipping it. Ended up cutting a cookie off a rotten branch I was lanyarded in to, and that was /just/ enough to get it over. That would have been bad leaving a hanging top, even if it was only as long as took to get down for some tools. Could have gone either forward or backward, and only one of those options would have worked for me. The other would be a disaster.
 
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👍 @lxskllr ... Just for kicks , I’ve built 241cs that will cut just as quick , if not quicker than a 362 whilst weighing 9.9lbs! Slayed many from da bucket
 
Now, I looked at the link @Frankie put up and he is talking about (and the link refers to) sales tax meaning money a supplier of goods or services adds on to a price which he will then give to the gubmint.

Rich was asking if you pay income tax on the cash you (exclusively) take. (Isn’t that a pct of the gross sales or income ?????)
That’s not correct Mick! as I stated previously and the link clearly shows , Firewood (when used for fuel) is EXEMPT from NY taxes ... Put another way , If the State or Federal govt (for whatever reason) waived the tax on my labor , then that income is simply NOT taxed , whether one made 100 or 10million dollars is irrelevant - you keep ALL
 
John, the high back-end/ stumpshot is to provide a small wall, so if the falling section hits another tree, it doesn't slide back over the stump/ spar.
 
The top was leaning back towards me, so I set the backcut a little high for some insurance. It was too high.

Insurance against what?

When you have a back leaner, stump shot only adds to the amount of force needed to get the top moving. The force needed to split the fibers in that vertical distance can be significant. I still haven't figured out if that adds to the force needed to fight the back lean and get the top moving or is a force multiplier. I would think it would only be an added force, but it might be a multiplier.
 
That's a good question. I guess the answer is insurance against making the backcut too low/out of level, and having the tree go out of control. I actually do pretty well making cuts with the 2511, but I was gun shy from my apple tree disaster, so I erred on the side of a high backcut, which typically causes no harm if it's within reason. I made it a bit too high, and dropped a wedge, but otherwise, it worked. I should have just had confidence in my handling, and cut it level, but hindsight and all that...
 
Do it right , only!

Make a square and appropriate height backcut.

What makes you think too high is better than too crooked, or too low?

High back cuts are easy to botch. Accidentally cut-off hinge fiber is common with too high,and/ or sloping backcuts.

Mark out where you need to cut, start a kerf, then decide what to do with that kerf, abandon or continue.
Cut to the predetermined appropriate thickness, premarked, as necessary.
 
That’s not correct Mick! as I stated previously and the link clearly shows , Firewood (when used for fuel) is EXEMPT from NY taxes ... Put another way , If the State or Federal govt (for whatever reason) waived the tax on my labor , then that income is simply NOT taxed , whether one made 100 or 10million dollars is irrelevant - you keep ALL



Now, we’ve gone this far so we might as well see it to the end.
That link shows that there will be no purchase/sales tax on the firewood, not that you would not pay income tax on any money received for you selling it.
 
Do it right , only!
Well, that's the answer to everything, no? Shit's still frigged up all over. Aside from a few psychopaths, people try to do things right, but fail. I was trying to allow room for failure. In retrospect, I should have cut what I thought was right cause I'm acceptable with the 2511 even when I'm not really trying, but ~40' up a tree I was trying to be cautious cause I didn't want a repeat of the apple incident.

Irritating day. Windy, and lots of walking. Finished up doing stakeout they weren't really ready for. Had to pack my chainsaw, and clear out a bunch of crappy sumac I think it was. No leaves, but they were dense. Cut them off, and they just stand there cause it's so thick. Crap all over the place, so it's hard to get a stake in, and my last stake I made with my chainsaw cause I didn't bring enough, and didn't feel like making the walk back to the truck. On the bright side, I woke up with sore hips this morning, and all the walking seems to have loosened them up, so I guess that's good...
 
Where is that? The brown one looks like my busted LazyBoy. Looks like it's in better shape actually :^D
 
Oh it throws shat everywhere :lol:
Trick is moving the head and angling it just so, that it mulches it into the ground with some passes. Hand crew stays WAY the hell away.
Id start on a pile existing while the hand crew was elsewhere cutting stuff out of rocks and making large piles for me to nom nom. 95 HP machine aint all that, but still like a stump grinder on steroids. I was mulching whole trees and up rooted stumps.
 
Stephen...I have been eyeing those things for awhile now. Lots of dams at our farm that have grown up...I used to be able to ride a bike down them...now in some places you can't walk them. Very thick brush...that macerator would be awesome. Pricey unit I am sure.
 
Indeed. Quite expensive.
The owner of this unit owns rentals, a commercial and residential paint company, a roofing company and one other I cant think of.
The skid steer works for his companies on jobs and in the yards as more of a forklift and material handler. And will expand into property development.
To help pay for the unit, he bought the mastication head since there are grants for the clearing of lands for fire protection.
He plans on renting the unit (and I think he really gave me a decent daily rate) to guys he can trust like myself that can use it in land clearing.
The rental will help pay for it. less than a week rental pays the payment.
When he retires (plan is) sell it all but keep enough property rentals to sustain him and his wife and what kids are left at home. (6). He has a good start.
 
You are in a good place to have access to that unit. I bet you will make good money having that service to offer...especially with the fire fuel remediation y'all do there.
 
I may exploit it to a point. But once i see a problematic point of the maitenance curve or any other issues that can screw up a perfectly good sceduled plan, ill drop it like a hot potato.
I refuse grants now just because of scheduling conflicts. They are on a time crunch. There are times of the year you cant even work the projects because of wildlife. And the grants dont pay much by the acre. Requiring The property owners to dole out about equal share. most dont understand this and the mainteance (10 years) on the tail end. And of course, people applying for the grants more often do so because they dont have the funds in the first place. So shoddy jobs abound. I wont do shoddy.
What I see though are more folks moving in from the cities that think burning things is bad for the environment. So, no need to burn those left over piles..... mulch em.
And cherry pick the fun jobs. Aint getting any younger.
And I dont have the headache of fixing the damn thing, or the payment. HO just pays the bill i give them. Dude transports the unit on his kit. Not mine. Charges accourdingly.
I just pass it on. Trees are where my money is at. But a break once in a while is nice.
Has AC,HEAT, radio. Cup holder. :)
 
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