How'd it go today?

As I have done for the last 5 weeks, I spent wednesday in the hospital, hooked up to a bag of chemicals.
Takes 4½ hours for it to empty itself into my bloodstream.
Meanwhile they monitor heartbeat, blood pressure and temperature every half hour.
Apparently, if this shit doesn't agree with you, it goes downhill fast.
No bad side effects for me, except I'm tired as hell now 6 hours later.

4½ hours sitting in a chair, that is like flying halfway to California from here.
At least the chair reclines like an Easy boy, so it is like flying first class :)

Good news is, the treatment is working fine, from now on I'll only have to go every 4th week.
 
That sucks. I've done that more than once, though I don't think it was ever setting a handle. I got my thumb tip the other day when I was setting up my supports to mill the locust. Didn't hurt at all. Just got the very tip of it, and I wasn't sure I even hit it til I got a big blood blister.
 
I managed to smush part of the web and some meat between my thump and forefinger of my left hand...driving the head of M's splitting maul down onto a new hickory handle with a 2 pound ball peen hammer.

Stupid move that hurt more than a little.



Too old to cry, but it hurts too much to laugh.
Sounds nasty.
 
I managed to smush part of the web and some meat between my thump and forefinger of my left hand...driving the head of M's splitting maul down onto a new hickory handle with a 2 pound ball peen hammer.

Stupid move that hurt more than a little.
Sounds like a job better suited for a dead blow or rubber mallet to me. ;) Hope it heals well B!
 
I'm glad you are tolerating the chemo well Stig! I've been thinking of you and what treatments you have been needing, so thank you for the update.
 
As I have done for the last 5 weeks, I spent wednesday in the hospital, hooked up to a bag of chemicals.

Vegetarian logger/black belt who has always lived the action life forced to sit in a chair for multiple hours and on-load chemicals. It paints a picture.

 
Chunked down the bottom, thick 25' of the long ago topped bigleaf maple I had previously stripped. Chunked it up on the ground for manually loading splitting. Lots of noodles.

I rent out my hydraulic splitter to customers, knowing how much run time to expect, and that they might rather break up splitting over several days, which is expensive at the rental store. Otherwise, they have to do a lot of labor in their 24 hour window.

Usually, it just takes up space in my shop, otherwise. Extra $100 here and there doesn't hurt. Most customers are really close by.

Hard to break a splitter.
That being said, maybe I should have a shield welded on, over the engine and filter.
 
You could sell them official Krollhammers®(sounds kinda mythical, doesn't it?) and wedges. They can take as as long as they want, and keep them as a souvenir.
 
Worked solo today. Kind of a set up the job while Rob was finishing one out with the mini. So limbs are cleared back, rigging set in 3 groups of oaks. And I self lowered two leads over a roof, chimney and fence with plumbing. Stacked all the brush and wood in small piles for the mini to move to a staging area. Twas a nice day.
 
Chunked down the bottom, thick 25' of the long ago topped bigleaf maple I had previously stripped. Chunked it up on the ground for manually loading splitting. Lots of noodles.

I rent out my hydraulic splitter to customers, knowing how much run time to expect, and that they might rather break up splitting over several days, which is expensive at the rental store. Otherwise, they have to do a lot of labor in their 24 hour window.

Usually, it just takes up space in my shop, otherwise. Extra $100 here and there doesn't hurt. Most customers are really close by.

Hard to break a splitter.
That being said, maybe I should have a shield welded on, over the engine and filter.

As long as all safety devices are in place. (Not being snickety, a litigation like that could finish you)
 
Good day. I spent the first hour bucking up some locust to 8' lengths. That was in hope of the boss taking them back to the farm for fence posts, but the primary reason was to clear a path to make it easier getting a machine into the woods for perc tests. I then spent a couple hours brushcutting...

20210415_102809.jpg

Kicked my ass a bit. Haven't done that in awhile, and most of it was using my arms to lift the whole machine to get briars down from above head height. Cleared some paths so we can get control to the back to find property corners.

After a bit of that, I debarked the locust I cut...

20210415_144301.jpg

Peeled off one section, and an EAB ran out. I axed it what it was doing there, but he wasn't feeling good, and he rolled under the log, so I couldn't get a picture. I thought that was interesting. Boss surprisingly wanted to load the wood in his truck, so I didn't waste my time. Wood was heavy as shit. The pickaroon I got a few months ago really helps. Surprisingly so actually. I've read other people saying what a great tool they are, but I was skeptical. Turns out a 12" tool makes moving wood a lot easier. Good purchase.

edit:
I bucked the locust with my PoulanPro. It continues to behave itself. Feels a bit underpowered. It isn't as strong as my echo cs400 despite being 2cc bigger. Might look into a muffler mod. Tuning sounds like it's about right.
 
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Felled a tree today...

20210416_105400.jpg Thought it was gonna be soft and quick, but ended up being a bit of a slog. Also had a limb blocked, so it didn't want to go over. Got it though, and it only cost me a blister.
 
Here we go again!

Back in the summer of 1962, might of been 63, I was 14 years of age, and with two old friends chopped down a cottonwood tree in a creek bottom east of Oakdale, Ca. Took a full day, and part of a morning, taking turns with that dull axe, splinters and wood fiber flying, before the giant, creaking and moaning, fell with a mighty crash. We hit the lay!

And lo there be sunlight in the creek bottom where shade once prevailed, and there 3 young hooligans celebrated their conquest over sardines and peanut-butter and Jelly sammies.

In retrospect we, kids, never had any formal training in felling trees, but we knew enough to aim the face cut where we wanted the tree to fall, and we, somehow, knew enough to read the favor of the tree.

Considering the day we probably learned it from Donald Duck.

 
Long day today. With the rain last night we ended up using a lot more plywood than anticipated. That and added a quick 2 hour removal first thing. Which meant plywood to load and unload from the bucket truck. Gonna do it again tomorrow because no one reads my notes on the estimates. 8 hour removal with the elevator or standard bucket with an A climber. Apparently the elevator isn’t available and we only have one real climber all of the sudden. Since I was supposed to be craning anyhow, it just gets put on my list of shit to do. If memory serves me right I’ll be able to do it in 8 picks and then off to the job I had scheduled the crane for originally. Grumpy rant over. Tomorrow will be a glorious day
 
Greeted back to New England by driving into the tail end of a spring nor'Easter. Sleet snow slush rain, welcome home! Seriously looking forward to sleeping in my bed instead of the car.

40 days on the road, 12 national parks, about 12k miles, and 330 gallons of biodiesel. Can't wait to do it again, and maybe visit some of y'all next year
 
Butchered a yew and boxwood yesterday with a chainsaw. Finally had enough of those things, and did a major "reduction". This is what it looks like today after hitting it with some pruners...

20210417_172918.jpg

The yew will certainly make it, but I'm not sure about the box. Don't care that much. I hate both of them. If the boxwood recovers, I'll have to do some more pruning. Take some long limbs off the yew, and shorten the box more. As much as I hate those bushes, I feel exposed now. Way too bright and open on the porch :^/
 
I managed to smush part of the web and some meat between my thump and forefinger of my left hand...driving the head of M's splitting maul down onto a new hickory handle with a 2 pound ball peen hammer.

Stupid move that hurt more than a little.

Ouch..I can imagine that. That smarts.
I saw someone on TV hit the bottom of the new handle into the new hammer head while holding the new handle...
basically hold it upside down and hit the new handle in. They used a rubber mallet. :)
 
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