How'd it go today?

[murphy4trees]

We've had a pretty busy year for snow. I wanted to get out of plowing so I could travel for the winters, but no sense in doing that this year, as there was nowhere to go. My snowx salt spreader finally rusted apart after 10 or 11 years of service. I bought a smaller one that fits in the trailer receiver earlier in the year for $300. The rest of the wiring and controller is the same. It was in fairly rough shape but looked like it would hold up another couple of seasons until I backed it into a frozen snowbank last week. Found a brand new one on FB marketplace for $1,000 and bought a second replacement for the bigger original tailgate spreader that is in really good shape for its age for $300. It took four hours of driving to pick them both up, but well worth the trouble. Of course, that almost guarantees that that will be the end of the snow for the season.

 

[stikine]

Nice out today for a change. Sunset view when at the grocery store tonight.

 

[cory]

Pat, I have a small nuclear reactor that is acting up, needs a bit of maintenance, are you available?

 

[pigwot]

Cory,
I'm not your man for that job, but my friend Dan spent his engineering career working nuclear.
He is a nature photographer in his retirement, but for the right case of beer I bet we could get him to check it out for you.

 

[Fiddler]

Tax return hit the bank this morning...good day for it

 

[Mellow]

I guess there are worse ways to invest your money.

 

[Fiddler]

At least I get it all back...

 

[T Collins]

I was told by the boss to drive the slow way back to the shop and make a day of it yesterday and today

 

[biggun]

Easy day. Kids played in the snow whilst I played with a pizza oven.

First time and turned out really nice. Pizzas cooked in about 3 minutes.

 

[T Collins]

I envy your oven. I'm tempted to make a yoga ball pizza oven as the price of fire bricks here is ridiculous.

 

[Mellow]

I was told by the boss to drive the slow way back to the shop and make a day of it yesterday and today

We had that kind of day today. We could have finished in an hour but we stretched it out to three. Got paid for a full day!

 

[Burnham]

Y'all must be taking a lesson from the career politicians .

 

[pantheraba]

Cory,
I'm not your man for that job, but my friend Dan spent his engineering career working nuclear.
He is a nature photographer in his retirement, but for the right case of beer I bet we could get him to check it out for you.

Dan to Cory: "Cory, hold my beer while I check the wallopin' rod... I need to see what that glow is...."

 

[biggun]

Had a lovely day today. Out early and up to Hemsedal. Blue skies and decent snow and the best bit, it was pretty quiet.

Kids started hitting the kickers in the park, and landing them. Haakon even went off the larger kickers a few times.

The boys are proper knackered now and should sleep well this evening. Back at it early tomorrow.

 

[BeerGeek]

Rich, you really gotta stop working so hard.... (bastard, I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo jealous)...

 

[biggun]

This isn’t the norm (for a weekday). It is the winter holidays here in Norway, the resorts are still open, but limited. May as well make use of them and it keeps the kids occupied and tires them out.

I guess, I am lucky that both my kids enjoy the sports I have done most of my life. Then again, I believe you make your own luck.

But then again, they didn’t have much of a choice. Haha.

Both my boys are bundles of energy, getting them to go snowboarding isn't hard at all. They would ride every day if they could.

I am just glad now the gyms are back opening up for the under 20’s. Haakon will be back doing his Muay Thai and BJJ and the little one Muay Thai.

 

[lxskllr]

Today kicked my ass. Pulling myself around bridge forms while I laidout an abutment. Had a major anxiety attack. I thought I fuckedup the abutment, and there aren't any cheap fixes. 44 piles, ~200' deep to reset if they aren't in the right place...



I'm perched on a superstud over the hole trying to figure out what's wrong, while a pile driver's banging away on the other abutment, and I'm panicking. Finally take all my shit back to the truck where it's quiet, and I can settle down and examine everything. Turns out there was a bad coordinate on the plans, and I managed to avoid it up til today, and it was making everything I did look REALLY wrong.

That isn't 100% true. I ran into a problem on one corner when I laid it out before, but I was hurrying, assumed I dicked it up the first time, and fixed it quick while I was standing there. I should have looked it over more carefully to figure out why it was wrong the first time. In the midst of checking everything over today, I think they might have the span wrong by 0.1'. I have to look it over more carefully, but even if so, I can work around that. That's nothing after the many feet of error I was faced with earlier :^D

Construction surveying is probably the least popular form. You have to work fast and accurate, and mistakes can very costly, but I like it... usually... Problems can be heartstopping though D^:

While I was eating lunch, I watched an excavator pull itself out of a hole after it fell off the mats. It was a little iffy, but he got it...

 

[ruel]

Climbed a bit this afternoon. Backyard removal of a 12-14" maple. Everything had to be bucked up and thrown over a 4' retaining wall, and hiked over a bluestone patio. Spoiled by the Mini, haven't had to grunt wood out in a while.

 

[stikine]

Nice lighting in front of my place when I got home from work.

 

[treebilly]

I almost despise mandatory training days. These are the meetings that we go over a lot of things that don’t really pertain to what we do but we have to sit through them because that’s what the utility requires. Bore gel, epoxy disposal, and hazardous pipe removal are not part of tree work but we have to sit through it. Also this only last three hours so we get a late start on site which really messes with one’s clock. Ended up having to make a mess at the end today so the crew has something to do tomorrow. If we had a full day onsite it would’ve been done leaving them easy felling for tomorrow. These weren’t terribly hard drops but they had to be precise to stay in the ROW. Had to be down because I’m taking a class tomorrow and boss didn’t want anyone else doing it. Sensitive area or land owners, something on those lines. One positive from the session this morning is we found out we will have another inspector making rounds with us. This person traveled with the Stihl timber sports team for a while and actually has a forestry and logging back ground.
I still have to go in first thing tomorrow for the morning safety meeting, then my random whiz quiz, and then a high line class. Should be interesting. I have a few friends that will be there so we will probably hang out and BS after.

 

[Mick!]

Sounds like a decent Friday.

We have to finish the job we started yesterday, basswoods to hammer, roadside but manageable. Radio headsets (instigated and insisted upon by my nephew) are a real culture change at work, less shouting and frustration, much safer.

 

[Mick!]

Today kicked my ass. Pulling myself around bridge forms while I laidout an abutment. Had a major anxiety attack. I thought I fuckedup the abutment, and there aren't any cheap fixes. 44 piles, ~200' deep to reset if they aren't in the right place...

View attachment 108394

I'm perched on a superstud over the hole trying to figure out what's wrong, while a pile driver's banging away on the other abutment, and I'm panicking. Finally take all my shit back to the truck where it's quiet, and I can settle down and examine everything. Turns out there was a bad coordinate on the plans, and I managed to avoid it up til today, and it was making everything I did look REALLY wrong.

That isn't 100% true. I ran into a problem on one corner when I laid it out before, but I was hurrying, assumed I dicked it up the first time, and fixed it quick while I was standing there. I should have looked it over more carefully to figure out why it was wrong the first time. In the midst of checking everything over today, I think they might have the span wrong by 0.1'. I have to look it over more carefully, but even if so, I can work around that. That's nothing after the many feet of error I was faced with earlier :^D

Construction surveying is probably the least popular form. You have to work fast and accurate, and mistakes can very costly, but I like it... usually... Problems can be heartstopping though D^:

While I was eating lunch, I watched an excavator pull itself out of a hole after it fell off the mats. It was a little iffy, but he got it...

View attachment 108395

Thanks, you’re putting my recent anxiety of a few things into perspective.

 

[pantheraba]

You are right, Mick....wondering if you screwed up a whole frikkin' bridge is def stress.

 

[lxskllr]

My back's on the verge of going out. I felt it yesterday when I was bending over selecting wood to take in the house, and it's twinged a few times since. I'll have to be careful the next few days.

Got a surprise fire today. Lit one last night, and assumed it burned itself out. Got back from aldi, and was sitting in front of the computer, and saw the stove light up. Since my wood's kinda wet, a piece of log lasted the night, and started up again. I was gonna skip the fire this morning since I'm gonna go to mom's house later, but since it started up, I'll keep it fed. It's chilly and damp today; 50° at my thermostat, so it feels good.

 

[cory]

My back's on the verge of going out.

I recently had the worst back spasm I've ever had, missed a lot of work, etc. I'm a little late to the party but I found that taking 2-4 200mg Advil tablets are a highly effective way to try to control back pain. I used to be a big aspirin advocate but advil seems to be significantly better.