How'd it go today?

SkwerI said:
Exactly why it's best to start early regardless of the size of the job. When I have work to do on my trucks or equipment, I will be out there at first light with a flashlight. Usually wrapped up by 9 or 10 and completely drenched by then.
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We slept in, parents both got lit up by yellow jackets last night and didn't wanna get moving

I'm usually up by 6am and waiting on dad to get moving, when I say we have to go it's always an hour later till we do get moving, he's gotta have his coffee I guess
 
was on the job noon to 3:30, an hour of that was running to home depot for a top rail for a fence (we didnt wreck it this time, customer paid us to fix it after seeing how well we fixed it when we DID wreck it last week)
(was working for his neighbor and had a locust take out the fence, todays customer watched it happen and still hired us after seeing us fix it last week no questions asked)
basically worked 2.5 hours, did a box elder, 2 hackberry and a black locust, none more than 40ft tall and were able to yard them all over into the yard, cut and throw on the burn pile 10ft away


once again, if you break something, just fix it, dont hmm haw about it or anything, ashphalt is cheap to patch, fences are cheap, dont EVER break one on purpose but if you spend the $10-100 to fix it it always comes back 10 fold
 
Could’ve been me if you weren’t on the other side of the world.
Job worked out real well. Barely used the old machine but we did use it and having the luxury of both running at once really sped things up. In total we removed 17 white pine and hemlock, cleaned up four down trees, ground all the stumps, and regraded the area making it ready for seeding. I was home by five. The property owner doesn’t have anything else on his immediate list but said anytime we have or need something to do we can just pick something to prune. He has about 3 dozen pin oaks that are in the yard area and full of large dead wood. That might be my winter side work. He also has no problem with us coming over to split firewood for a day and paying the same day rate.
 
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Tried to forget this. Happy Monday morning to me yesterday. Got some brush tangled and popped the piano wire (anti-two block wire). It’s not too bad to replace but still a PITA. Not sure if another part broke when it popped or if I broke it while working on it but I got it up and running till the new piece gets here. Had to rig it a bit
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Had a customer come by and bought 6 live edge slabs. Red oak, cherry, and beech. All rough chainsaw milled. Will need flattened. 2 years air dry. Gave him a good deal at $250 for all. I just need the room for a trailer. I just need 10 more like him and we’ll be set.
 
Treeaddict said:
John, you ordered crimson clover. I have listened to the song Crimson and clover by Tommy James about 18 times today (the original and almost every cover version). I’ll listen to that song “over and over” when I thinks about it but that’s only twice a year.

I helped a good friend move today. Loaded UHaul and unloaded at new place. 11 hour day. What killed us was switching the washer and dryer between the old and new houses. Turning a 27” front load at the top of the stairs to fit through a 27” door opening was NO fun.
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I helped a friend move. We had to take the door off and the door stop trim piece off to get the washer through. Moving is always a good time. When I was young I helped friends move from one upstairs apartment to another upstairs and they were packrats. Long day. And he hooked his gas kitchen stove up so there was a leak. Good thing I went out for a bit. Came back to a house full of gas with everyone sleeping.
 
For a long while, I really helped a lot of people move from place to place. Really did not care for those upstairs apartment moves. But low and behold, guess which apartment floor I would always end up in. 3rd floor once in MA. Man that was a sum biatch. I had one book shelf made of cherry that was 7.5 feet tall and 4' wide. Had to hoist that sonofagun. Had a chair I bought once that would not fit up the narrow stairs to the second floor of a farm house built in 1830. Pulleys and rope to the rescue off a second floor porch.
Gosh I had good friends.
I always tried to return the favor. Fact was, after working loading docks and at a trucking company that hauled furniture, I was pretty damn good at it. Rarely any thing ever got broke.
 
last year a local church had us remove a large silver maple, a week later they had us bid a failing codom cherry by their soccer field, the neighbor (whos property line the tree crosses) had us consult them on every tree they own, I did notice a codom silver maple that needed removed, we didnt get to do it last year because scheduling conflict and stuff, well they had us come do a consult yesterday (like I specifically asked him to do)

we are removing 2 maples this weekend for them, one has started splitting (noted last year by a small crack and included bark), I can now fit a whole boot into the opening, the other looks solid on one side but its clearly included on the other side along with a ~2x5ft section of missing bark with rot and mushrooms

I might pick up a ctx160 for the weekend, $240 and move 4X what my boxer will, ive been toying with the idea of different equipment, rentals are cheap enough that id like to play with as much as possible to see what fits in with my other equipment, current limitations are: have to have a second truck to haul anything, and the equipment has to haul in a 14K 7x14 dump trailer towed with a 2500 cummins
im still liking the idea of doing a mini skid platform and getting this rickety old bucket off my truck, save some weight and fuel, but the larger minis are too long it seems, the ctx160 is almost 10ft long without an attachment
 
well the local rental place is out of mini skids, they are all gone till monday

seeing if I cant get an 8000 pound excavator with a thumb, so much brush to handle I think itll be the way to go, if I can get a couple extra jobs for it, ive already got one for the weekend and I can extend the rental to all week for like $1300 if I get a few more jobs for it
 
Plumbing work slow. Tree work hoppin.

Got off early again today and bought a trailer. I’ve been working out of the pickup truck and removing all the debris with its full size bed. Sucks. Only got a 5x10, budget was 2K. I can maneuver it easily and it won’t take up too much space in the garage. Our yard waste facility won’t allow trailers over 12’ anyway (at least one of them) It’ll hold 3000 lbs. I’ll plywood the sides to 4’. I’m still going to have to get inside it and run the saw every 12” to really pack it but it’s better than the truck bed only (which will still be used as well). It should suit my 50% prune and 50% removal part time niche.
 

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Nice stuff! That trailer will be super useful. I like the shackle hitch also. That's what I'd have gotten. A useful attachment point without a bunch of steel sticking out to slam your shins on.
 
lxskllr said:
Nice stuff! That trailer will be super useful. I like the shackle hitch also. That's what I'd have gotten. A useful attachment point without a bunch of steel sticking out to slam your shins on.
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Lemme know if you ever need the trailer. It’ll get a workout on the 10 stale breadstick pines we do mid September.
 
Deep cleaned the garage. Lots of moving stuff to shed, out back under porch, and, of course, to trash cans. Wife wants new trailer in the garage but I don’t think it’s a good idea. We’ll see. Got about 50% done and I’ll get to the other half over the next few days. Feels really good to be cleaned up and organized (mostly organized)

Shortened the grass

Off to a neighbor’s bonfire
 
What about wood in the garage, and trailer where the wood is? Keeping the trailer deck protected from the elements has merit though...
 
I never liked the idea of firewood storage inside buildings, especially attached to house. Or stacked up against the house. Too likely to bring pests, bugs, etc. in. Outdoor sheds are the way. Storing the trailer indoors is smart, if you have a place for it.
 
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lxskllr said:
What about wood in the garage, and trailer where the wood is? Keeping the trailer deck protected from the elements has merit though...
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Wood had to be taken out of garage and put under porch. Trailer won’t go under porch due to posts. Trailer may go in driveway once wood gets moved (somewhere?!) or sold.

Wife slightly tolerates the wood. I’ll admit, the place looks more like a sawmill than a home.
 
Sold a couple rough cedar 5x5”s this morning They we’re from the tree I cut down. Groundie friend sold the job without me seeing it. I’d have said no. Power distribution, service drop, and county road sign surrounded the tree. Half the neighborhood came out to see what all the noise was. I was sweating! It went as planned and was a confidence builder.

Went to the pool with the family. I fell asleep in the chair for about an hour. It was pretty much 12 hour work days all last week and garage clean for 10 hours yesterday. I was/am beat.
 
We have a lot of deer on the property, more and more every year.
Anything not fenced in, they wreck.
Finally had enough of it and asked the guys who hunt here if a shooting tower would make it easier to thin the herd.
Yep!

So we cut away some trees and bushes and they put up a tower.
Now effing Bambi better beware.

I asked them to drop 2 dead ones off for me, one for each of my apprentices.
They are both canivores.

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Got a call my mom had a heart attack at about 4 am and had to go pick up my dad and run him down to the hospital. Might be a blockage. Anyway...
Got to take dad out for breakfast while we were waiting for her to be admitted after them asking for our departure at shift change.
Being that I rarely visit these sort of places if I can help it, each time I do, I am reminded of why I would rather not.
Some of the most unhealthy people work here. Wow.
Also, our health care system (for lack of a better term) is in a serious state of demise. COVID just accelerated the downward spiral.
 
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