How'd it go today?

No collision on older truck, and I just had my premiums already increase over 100% adding the new pickup. Plus, if I tried to push it through insurance, stupid tow company would impound both truck and trailer (neither of which were really damaged) until insurance company "settled". While I could live without the truck for a while, I couldn't afford to have the trailer/dingo stuck in that limbo.
 
Didn't do much today. Upgraded my system to debian bullseye. It won't be officially released til the end of the month, but I got impatient. I also wanted to use the bandwidth now since my internet will reset in a couple days. Took ~.5hr including download on my not terribly fast connection. Only problem was my conky(the infobar on the right) broke. It was an old config, and it finally updated enough to not work. I downloaded a config that was close to what I had, and tweaked it til it was about what I'm used to. I'll play with it some more, and get a little more familiarity on how it's laid out. Otherwise, no major changes. It's pretty close to the way it was, which suits me fine.

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Sloppy day today for a couple of friends/neighbors. Started w/a 40ft. blue spruce removal and stump grind right next to front door for an old family friend, then pruned a white birch cluster and helped prop up/tie off some lower hanging leads. Then knocked out a 50ft. dead white pine for the neighbor across the street after I whacked his wife's "prized mailbox" teaching one of the noobs how to drive/reverse the chip truck/chipper into my driveway. Stupid thing hangs out in the road and he paid over $400 for it. Found it on Amazon for $300, so he bought it, I helped install, and did the tree to help defray the cost. Then removed a nasty 40ft. white pine for the guy behind me from his neighbor's house. The tree used to be triple stemmed, and 2 stems already broke off, one of which hit his house. I was able to drop all three trees, so no need to climb and get sweaty/sap covered from any of them. Woo-hoo! :boogie:
 
The truck is packed with gas, oil, sleeping gear and a LOT of saws.
Half the team, me included, are going logging on Island Møn the next 2 months.

We'll do it our usual way, work 4 10 hour days and take 3 days off.
That way the guys get to have a life besides work.

10 hour days will be HARD for the old man with leukemia.
I got a dose of chemo last wednesday, which doesn't help my stamina any.

It will be harder yet for our new apprentice.
He has hardly any logging experience, so he'll be out far of his comfort zone and working harder than he has ever tried in his life.
The last brand new apprentice we had down there was so worn out, he fell asleep during dinner ( It is a company joke that he fell asleep with his head in the mashed potatoes, but that is fiction only. We sure got a lot of mileage out of that one, though.)

I'll try to get some pictures.

I can log in on my phone, but I hate writing on it after crippling my hand, so my posts will be short and few till the weekend.
 
Shot trap yesterday in like 104 heat.
Had some issues with my favourite gun Wed at practice. I had replaced a broken part previous, and it was working fine. But Wed. It gave me fits. So I went to my O/U and finished practice. I took the 1100 apart, went through it, cleaned, lubed, found a small issue, fixed it for the time being and ordered another part. Got out to the trap tange for thevshoot. Bought a practice round and two birds in, nothin.
Shot with the O/U.
This particular gun I have a love hate relationship with. My O/U.
I grew up shooting single shot 100 year old shot guns. 410 and 12 ga. Dove, quail, clays. I was pretty damn good with one in my youth. Not even a bead on these old suckers.
Just for shits and giggles, I took one of mine I have dated early 1900 I keep in the pump house for surprise vermin. Shot 10 straight before she got too hot and swelled at the breach lock. Have to let her cool down to open the action again :lol:
These old timers arent ment for reapeated rounds in short order.
Now my O/U has a tad shorter set of Barrels than that 1100 trap. Sight picture is a tad different. But low and behold. I shot a decent average on a windy day. Bumped my doubles score up a tad. I needed that to happen. Doubles have damn near become misery for me over the last couple years not getting enough trigger time I guess. Finally creeping back up to my old scoring there. That 1100s trigger is faster and lighter than the O/U which helps. Going to dig back into her today after I pull my drive axle out of the 1 ton. Drive axle needs to go to the mechanic to put a new carrier bearing on it Mon.
I have a sneaking suspicion I know what happened to the 1100. I found a hull missing a primer from my last practice. I'd bet money I know where it went.:/:
 
The truck is packed with gas, oil, sleeping gear and a LOT of saws.
Half the team, me included, are going logging on Island Møn the next 2 months.

We'll do it our usual way, work 4 10 hour days and take 3 days off.
That way the guys get to have a life besides work.

10 hour days will be HARD for the old man with leukemia.
I got a dose of chemo last wednesday, which doesn't help my stamina any.

It will be harder yet for our new apprentice.
He has hardly any logging experience, so he'll be out far of his comfort zone and working harder than he has ever tried in his life.
The last brand new apprentice we had down there was so worn out, he fell asleep during dinner ( It is a company joke that he fell asleep with his head in the mashed potatoes, but that is fiction only. We sure got a lot of mileage out of that one, though.)

I'll try to get some pictures.

I can log in on my phone, but I hate writing on it after crippling my hand, so my posts will be short and few till the weekend.

for a second i read it as the island of man.......hell yea whens the race!......But sadly I re-read it
 
Storm cleanup for most of yesterday and ended with a locust reduction. Raced home in time to shower and leave for a graduation party. Two of us watched as the wives drank more and began to stumble. I was laughing because we have my son’s birthday party today and plenty to prep. His wife had to be at work at 6 am. We just watched the entertainment. Out to late and up to early. Now it’s pissing down rain. Gonna be fun with 50 people here at the house. If the rain ceases I will be lighting a fire and hiding out close to it. Already a challenge to be around that many family members. I really don’t want to be confined to the house and garage and canopy.
 
Water heater sprung a leak last night. My wife woke me up at 5:00 am to inform me that our laundry room was flooded. The 25-year old shutoff valve wouldn't shut completely so I had to turn off the water at the meter out near the curb. Luckily, I had a new valve in the garage so I cut the pipes dragged out the old heater and installed the new valve so we could at least have cold water in the house until I get a new water heater installed. Sunday funday.
 
Pretty humid today. Went outside and topped that little walnut I was talking about. I'm feeling less confident about my plan. I think it's already to big to pull over. I was gonna try climbing up freestyle, but I kept spinning around the stem when I got a little way up, and I wasn't in the mood for thighlocking it with the associated rash. Botched the cuts cause the ladder I was using wasn't quite high enough, and the stem was flopping around while I handsawed it. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

Sleeved my oak tether with a piece of well pipe. The rope had already cut into it pretty good. Not enough for any real damage I don't think, but more than I'd have liked. Tensioned it up a little tighter. Also trimmed up some stuff around my lightpost. Gonna go slow with that, and see what develops. Alright day I guess, but I'm ready for summer to be a dot in my rearview mirror.
 
That sucks. Not sure I could even do that work in your heat Stephen. I'd consider 4.5hr a full day, even without the smoke.

Nothing exciting around here. Hot. humid, routine stuff. Power went out yesterday, and I thought I might get to use my new genny, but it came back on in ~10 minutes. I was almost disappointed. Almost... Yesterday, I also got to use the "grapnel" I made. Boss put the stakebag on top of a bees nest. He said they were yellowjackets, but they didn't look like the yellowjackets I'm familiar with. I clipped the "grapnel" to some stringline, hooked the bag, and dragged it off the nest. It wasn't flawless. The bag capsized, and dumped the stakes out, but it was far enough away I could gently get the stakes back after they calmed down a minute.
 
Another day of estimating. Mostly irrational people today. I spent a lot of time explaining that we won’t do that and call someone else if that’s what you want done. Reasons why were given. Was told multiple times that “I’m the customer, do as I ask” I respond with no. But you’re highly recommended. Not for this shit and I leave. The office laughs as I walk in. Apparently I’m a complete asshole according to several different people today. I told them to prepare for social media blasting. They know how to respond. That’s the best part of it. The office will make us look good out of this. And I get the chance to tell people to piss off. 😎
 
Smoky skies up at the lake.
Pike are jumping and following my lure but not biting. Got back to the cabin and was able to rouse the kids quick enough to see a black bear before it disappeared into the bush. That plus the fox, deer and pelican I spotted earlier made for a good morning. 20210713_065912.jpg
 
I love firing customers lol. If someone would flat out say I'm the customer do what i want i doubt i would even say anything else, just get in the truck and leave hahahahaha. Nicely done man
 
what'd they want ya to do that wasn't going to happen?
 
Today was a big shit sandwich. Shredded my legs cutting line, fell in a swamp, spent a couple hours just driving, was hot as shit, and I had to work late. Best part is there's two days left of this week, grass needs to be shortened, and there's 12+ weeks left of summer. Life's just grand :^S
 
Day three of of a bigger gig. Going thru the whole perimeter of a 2.5 acres property and canopy raising and deadwooding many spruce and arbs. Deadwood 25 smaller spruce but tall ( maybe 10-14" DBH and 55'-65' on some of the taller ones, yes this is Wisco you PNW guys) all the way to the top and twiglets are a must remove. Canopy raising and cutting back the tree line of what was 15 year neglect of a fence line lined with arbs that are 40 sum trees and are 45 YO. Deer grazed for decades and the custy wanted all of that raised up. I don't think me and Ibuki have made so many cuts in one day before. My arms are fried, elbows are twitching but the end is near maybe two more days of clean up. God bless the burn pile as we could burn the back of the property which would have been a 300 yard mini drive per pile ,one way, and there were MANY MANY f u c k i n g piles!
So me and five LakeFront brewery IPA's at 6.7% have become friends. Ok I feel better.
 
What kind of insanity is cutting twiglets at the tops of trees? I guess this is a high dollar property?
 
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