How'd it go today?

That's cool SST. I've done lots of overnighters and longer in the winter. Used to do caves and then graduated to just digging down a 'grave' or a grave with a overhang for the head if it was snowing and laid out in the bivy under the sky. Some unbelievable star filled nights were observed that way. Also much less labor intensive if you're touring on the next day. Also much much colder than a cave though. Gore tex bivy and synthetic moonstone(bag) with an extra liner and 300series fleece with poly and maybe another lighter fleece underneath and can't forget the booty's and a big ass down jacket too. Sounds gnarly with those little gloves I always had gauntlet gore tex overmitts with double knit wool liners to keep my fingers toasty.
 
Nice going Sean! I lived in a snow cave for several months one winter on White Pass and found it to be quite comfortable once you get the details worked out. The best snow caves are like what you dug, without using any compacted snow or ice. The lack of air spaces in compacted snow makes it a poor insulator, so caves are always warmer than igloos. The part about the roof sagging a few inches is bad though. You are supposed to make the roof conical, so that any melting water will drip down the sides and make the walls & ceiling stronger over time, instead of heavier and weaker. If you ever see icicles forming on a snow cave roof, GET OUT NOW! You did a good job with the vent holes, which many people forget and don't realize they are depending on the entry to let in fresh air. Vent holes should be about 1/2 way up the walls and go up at approx a 45 degree angle to the surface, and should point in the same direction the prevailing wind blows toward. After nearly asphyxiating during a particularly bad storm, now I always set my alarm to wake up every 2-3 hours and clear the vent holes, because they can be clogged surprisingly quickly by heavy snow fall. Once you have good vent holes, you can block the entry with some snow and it will get a lot warmer inside pretty quick. I remember that during the time it took me to boil a pot of water to make dinner with, my cave would heat up to about 40-50 degrees inside, in spite of sub-zero temps outside. Setting up a tent inside the cave can make sleeping even warmer.

I can't believe you made it through the whole weekend with those gloves! You are TOUGH man! Somewhere you probably have an ancestor in northern Europe who is smiling in his grave right now. 8)
 
Northern Europe.
Don't you mean Scandinavia?

That sure looked like fun. I've done lots of winter camping but never slept in an igloo or a snow cave.
It's on the bucket list, though.

Just be happoty for synthetic sleeping bags. Back when all you could get was down, once you got wet, you froze.
I've spent a lot of really bad nights in down bags, nowadays I simply love synthetics!
 
I had some other gloves, some fleece so not good for working in, or being dextrous, and some ski gloves that would have been okay. We were always cooking, boiling water, or on the go, so I just wore those, or none at all.

I used to have some Dr. StrangeGloves from LoweAlpine or someone with the single index finger, and thumb, with the rest a mitten, with long gauntlet cuffs. Went away somewhere, sometime. Best gloves I ever had.

I'm going to be looking at some end of season sales to stock up on some new items. My second hand ski shell pants are good for skiing for a day, then going home. I'm surprised my Mountain Hardwear Goretex shell jacket didn't keep me drier.


I've been really liking these North Face boots http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog...-filter-category-boots/mens-valdez-short.html. $125. Lightly insulated. Good ankle support. Comfortable for spur work (resting on climbline now and then) for removals, and good for spurless, too.
I wore them with NEOS insulated overboots for most of the trip. Something like these http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___44910 with the additional thermal insole, or like these http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___44906

I wore these NEOS with down booties in Colorado at 5*F and had warm feet standing outside for hours.
 
Good tips Bounce.

In the heat of the moment, and everybody wanting to get inside, and it being our first snow cave, we ended up with that. I wondered about a stove in the cave. I read not to, but with adequate ventilation, it would seem fine, and form a better ice layer on the inside.

When we deconstructed it (before jumping on it) we were checking out the ice shell forming on the ceiling from our breathe and clothes drying on our bodies. I was surprised at how much the ceiling slumped. It was not in the shade all day, which I would imagine would help out the situation. My friend Robert was breaking trail, and dropped his pack when he got exhausted (city dweller) and started digging without coming up with a good group consensus (the other three of us said to go more out of sight in the trees). I took over digging when he got the winded working on the entrance chute, which was also a lot of work.

I'll bet a smaller cave would lend itself to a better shape/ stability. Smaller is meant to warm up better, but my wife would have totally, totally lost it with claustrophobia in a two-person cave. Next snowshoeing trip will be with a 4 season tent, and maybe build snow walls to shelter from the wind, and make a sweet couch and kitchen molded into the snow.
 
Frosty morning.. Brrrrrrr Got a good start on the day and took out some brush off a creek and rocks to start with. Fire sure felt good as did the hot coffee we brewed :) Place came out pretty and the HO came home just in time to hand me a check and walk her new path through her woods next to the creek. :)
Since we finished that job early, I had that apple tree I needed to finish pruning just down the street. I had been rain out of it the last time I was there. Got that done and got paid :D HO hired me to do another one. I did not have my orchard ladder with me or it would have been done. Too hollow to climb and been let go. So next visit I will make sure I Have all my goodies. ;)
Lost my damn schedule book today, I made some calls and found it. But damn ! Made dinner late so Katy went to work hungry :(
I made some pork fajitas and I made HM refried pintos and black beans. :)
Just finished data entry into the spread sheets for the year and I should be able to get all the data into the tax program in the next couple of days or my day off this weekend. That feels good..
I got a check in the mail today from a client that is prepaying for weed eating in July :lol:
These clients of mine are amusing sometimes... :lol:
It is just a deposit, I will put it in my account for deposits that is like an escrow account I don't pay myself until the work is done... Just tickles my funny bone when someone does something like this...
 
Ha!

Nice avatar, Willie. Punk is comedy?

Been rockin' Danzig, couple days this week.
 
:/:
:D

Today went well. Got on Plan B instead of C. Got to make some money and have some fun at the same time :D
Did a quick mistletoe job on the ranch we work at from time to time. Then the HO cut us loose on slaughtering gray pines :D
Not my favorite tree to fell, but hey, a challenge non the less. Most of these have huge multiple tops twisted and running in different directions to straight up. Fun to judge weight on for the fell. No targets but other trees. Try to fall the trees into clearing we can use to burn them in. Pile the brush for next years burn. Buck wood to 18"(the down side :P ). Some fatties up on the hill. So far the largest is about 42 DBH. I have some 30s and 36ers to do first to get to that one. I wish I could talk the HO into at least keeping that one. It has a real cool canopy. Oh well... So more of the same tomorrow. The new felling dogs on the 066 took some getting used to this AM :lol: They got bite! :D I like the new sprocket cover too. Just a stream of chips flowing. It is wider than what was on the saw and has the flap on it. I would slice off a 30" or so round and it would bury my foot :lol: Seems to work better than the OEM on this sappy soft wood.
 
It's not so much a jinx; it just feels like I'm working for free when I do get around to doing the job.
 
Helped a neighboring tree service on a job yesterday and a day last week. Got to drive a Kubota tractor for skidding logs and pushing things into a burn pile. Hadn't driven a tractor before. Getting the right angle and height on the bucket makes all the difference in the world, and a good operator makes it look effortless, whereas a newbie like me kept slipping over the top, until I got the hang of it.

Going to do some more work with a tractor today, skidding out logs to be loaded by a self-loader, just limbing and bucking logs after the fells, no clean-up.

Logging up some trade days for when I need some help. I'll need it coming up. I've got a crane job to do next week (weather permitting) before I go to Chicago for week, then ride the Amtrak back to Seattle, wife in tow.
Chicago through WI, MI, ND, MT, ID, to Seattle, I think. Should be scenic. We are getting their economy sleeper room, twin bunks.
 
Trimmed a Magnolia of a roof today got home to a call and Email for a position I had applied for at this place http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Plantation,_Florida
The managment co that does all the grounds is starting a tree service division they want me comes with full benefits 401k and a profit sharing program. Start next week with an new crew equip etc. Hate the thought of working for someone else after 7 yrs self employed but the benies and no stress doing the countless hrs of things a owner operator has to do to keep busy. Told them from the get go that I would not work for a hack company so sign on for a week and see how it goes. I'm liking the fact that it is much like a condo association or much more of a urban enviroment than my town.
Only guaranteed 30hrs so it should allow me to still maintain my current client base.
 
Cool deal, Joel. I did that for several years and it really helps keep the schedule filled without putting any effort into it. Just your referrals will keep your dance card filled so you can pick the better jobs and you don't have to compromise on price to stay busy.
 
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