How'd it go today?

I like the way the high viz Petzls look, but they wouldn't work well for me at work. Reflective surfaces near the prism I use can give incorrect distance measurements. It was especially bad when I had a robot. I'd sometimes start a search so it would find me, and it would pickup a reflector and stare at itself. Especially frustrating when you're 400' away across 6 lanes of highway, and the bridge is gone :^S
 
Boss had stuff to do, so I screwed with the chipper anvil, and cut a little wood. I didn't find what I expected with the anvil. It's supposed to be 4way, but I only had two. I don't think it was ever touched. Looks pretty gnarly. I flipped it, but I'll have to add an anvil to the shopping list.

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I planned on using coins as a feelergauge, but that didn't work out due to clearance. I used a piece of stainless strapping that I clean my bars with, and guesstimated a smidge wider by feel. I think I'm pretty close to the lower end of tolerance, but within spec. Any thoughts on the chip quality? I chipped into the same area as before, but it's the finer stuff on top...

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edit:
I was just thinking about it, and I can probably get away with flipping the anvil two more times. I'd lose the handle cause there's no hole installed for it, but that isn't absolutely necessary. It makes installation a bit easier, but a strong magnet would probably work well enough.
 
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Looks good to me.
First job of the day was a wash. Guy estimating thought it was no big deal to set up on the road and reach over the primaries. Problem is the tree was 50’ to the closest pick and the primaries were 45 foot high. Also never thought to notify of a road closure. We did some talking to neighbors and are waiting for permission to use an empty lot for the crane. So off to another site to remove a pin oak that has become a maintenance issue for a church. PITA setup but easy tree. Hopefully coming back tomorrow to remove a tall declining sugar maple. Another PITA set up but an easy Friday job.
 
Kept having dream state ideas as to what it might be, so I got up at 2:50 AM and back to the shop to figure it out.
That is good chit right there.

Pat, where did you come by your electrical expertise?
 
Boss had stuff to do, so I screwed with the chipper anvil, and cut a little wood. I didn't find what I expected with the anvil. It's supposed to be 4way, but I only had two. I don't think it was ever touched. Looks pretty gnarly. I flipped it, but I'll have to add an anvil to the shopping list.

View attachment 135259

I planned on using coins as a feelergauge, but that didn't work out due to clearance. I used a piece of stainless strapping that I clean my bars with, and guesstimated a smidge wider by feel. I think I'm pretty close to the lower end of tolerance, but within spec. Any thoughts on the chip quality? I chipped into the same area as before, but it's the finer stuff on top...

View attachment 135260View attachment 135261

edit:
I was just thinking about it, and I can probably get away with flipping the anvil two more times. I'd lose the handle cause there's no hole installed for it, but that isn't absolutely necessary. It makes installation a bit easier, but a strong magnet would probably work well enough.
Chips look good to me. A lot of the quality depends on what you're chipping. Bigger limbs make better chips. Twigs tend to get stringy. You can use the remaining three edges on that anvil, although the edge adjacent to that curved side will wear faster simply due to lack of material.
 
Oil burner is driving me crazy. Little to no heat for past four days. Having a hard time sourcing the simplest of parts locally. 60* B nozzle, R8184G primary, ($180:O), etc. I've got the burner running, and now it looks like the heat exchanger is plugged. Tomorrow's project. Hope I get it figured out soon, a cold snap is coming.
 
When should an anvil be flipped? I'm assuming it's well before what I have shown above. My brain froze when I removed it. I was expecting a rounded edge, but not that huge pretty radius. For a couple seconds, I thought my anvil was different than the manual showed, and that radius was supposed to be there :^D
 
I am in the same boat with my boiler. Old one sprung a leak. Got a take out from a guy who switched to gas for free. Quite a bit of work to install it. Got a guy coming tomorrow morning to vacuum it out, put some new gaskets in it., clean the screen in the pump and do the flame adjustments on it. Good guy. Retired and just puttering. Cold is coming. Hope it is all good. I aired it up and it holds pressure so thats a good thing.
 
Cory said:
“That is good chit right there.

Pat, where did you come by your electrical expertise?”




Cory,
In 1975 and at 19 years old, after having worked at three other bicycle shops, I started my own shop. I rented five contiguous, unheated, single-car garages off of Main Street. In each there was one bare overhead lightbulb and one ungrounded electrical outlet on the back wall.
Tearing down the walls between them, inserting beams, setting cement block walls in place of the garage doors (leaving windows in three and entry doors in two), installing a furnace, and wiring it to produce a showroom and workshop space was all on me as it was a ‘net-net-net’ lease.
One of the bicycle racers I knew, Tom Hartley was a student at the university in town. At 18 he was already a journeyman electrician having worked for his father at Diamond Electric in Dover, Delaware since he was 14.
He taught me most of what I know in wiring that shop, from where tge service drop met the weatherhead, down through the meter box, to the distribution panel, to each properly grounded and terminated outlet and light fixture. Now Tom runs Diamond since his dad retired.
In Delaware anyone can apply for an annual ‘homeowner electrical license’ through the DPR (Dept of Professional Regulation) as long as you get your work inspected by a third party organization set up to do electrical inspections.
If you search for me on the DPR website you’ll find me listed as having several licenses: my nursing license and on three or four occasions, such electric licenses.
 
We can do electric work in NY as long as Underwriter inspector oks it. I have done quite a few jobs. I would have been in electrician's union if they had been taking apprentices when I was young. Or an ironworker. Nothing doing in mid 70s to mid 80s, Should have got in the RR with my bud. He wanted me to. He worked with a bunch of flops. He repaired cars and did derailments. Ended up being the boss.
 
So, yesterday's did not go exactly to plan. Weather was completely uncooperative. 35-40mph winds driving snow to white out. It was supposed to clear out by noon, it didn't. Still, I promised sledding, so we piled into the car and got going.

We didn't make it to the sacred sledding spot, had to turn around and find a hill in town. Conditions were too bad to risk it, as well as not being able to get the car off the main road. Not worth risking every body's safety. So we hit the hill behind the new car wash for a while.

My daughter is an obligate carnivore, apparently. Her request for birthday dinner was steaks and shrimp. So I cranked up the grill, found another coat, and burned some cow in the cold.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my concern, not many pictures were taken. Another day spent living in the moment, rather than in the phone.

Oh in case yall were wondering, we got her roller skates, pads and a helmet, and i managed to find her an innertube for sledding. 1000001477.jpg
 
Didn't do much today. Staked some septic in a different county. The drive was longer than the work, especially cause the boss dicked up the directions, and we took the scenic route.

The crane operator from my noisewall job wants a tree dropped, so I texted about Sunday. That's no good cause he won't be there. A bit of a relief if I'm being honest. I'm always nervous about doing work for other people. It's a tree leaning over a fence he wants down. Pictured in my head, it's spur up 10', fall the tree over the fence, then chunk down the rest. Reality could be anything, hence the nervousness. I asked for a pic so I can prepare, so we'll see if I get one. If not, it'll be 100#+ of gear hauled to the back of a farm so I'm prepared for anything. I'm hoping the tree's at least healthy.

The office this morning...

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Mist coming over the dam from released water after the storms a couple days ago. Another flood watch tonight. Yay... :^|

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Furnace is up and running. Let's hope it keeps it up. Good thing is the guy who helped me set it up is right in town and stocks a bunch of parts and has lots of know how. I have a mechanic friend like that also. I help him out on occasion also. Works out well. Only thing is he is old. Older than me even. Still working 10 or 12 hours a day. How many people that are young are doing that?
 
That's great you have a support net close to home. 10-12 hours a day is long by any age standard. More power to him. Work keeps you alive and young(er).
 
Job went good this morning. The weather was pushed back till late afternoon but we worked like it was coming in early. Lots of mat tossing to get the bucket and crane in but worth it. Then back to the shop to get everything prepped for the next week of cold weather. We got three bucket trucks, four chip trucks, and the crane inside along with the mini skids. Tarped my chipper off as well. I also got my crane boom, cable, and rotator bearing lubed up. Now I’m taking a quick break from helping cook dinner. Afterwards we have about 38 pounds of fresh chicken tenders to vacuum seal and freeze.
Not sure what I’ll get in to tomorrow yet. Might split wood, might change a valve on my personal chipper, or I might split firewood. No matter what, it’ll be a great day.
 
I always call Bob Auer from First State Inspection Service to check my work. He is older than the hills, but for years he has trained the younger inspectors and really knows the NEC. A stickler for detail he always teaches me something during inspections.
 
Cleared about 1/4 mile by 60 feet of downed trees, broken tops and brush today for fire safety.
I guess when my wifes Suburban catches fire on the road right there, and it almost runs up into you and a neighbors yard; time for some reassessment and action :lol:
Yesterday, same property, took down some trees and burned all our piles from previous visits. Nice to have fires when its in the 20s out.
 
My life is currently extraordinarily crazy. I'm genuinely struggling with my reality and with my personal identity.

I know in my heart that it's time to start a new chapter in my life, but a part of me is afraid to move on. I have to re-define some sense of purpose for my existence on this planet.

As much as I don't want to leave the past behind, a significant part of me wishes to start over anew. Permanently. I realize that geographical cures are a bit of a myth, but I know that moving back to Massachusetts would be good for me.

I genuinely want to get involved with legitimate tree work and I have an "in" for several tree work and landscaping companies thanks to my father's extensive networking as a trustee for his townhouse complex.

Leaving a six plus year relationship wouldn't be easy for anyone. Right now I'm a bit of a "nobody" by social standards. I currently collect SSDI and work part time at a burger restaurant. I'm barely getting by, I hate my job, and because I was too busy using drugs and being hospitalized by my disability to graduate college, I'm part of the undesirable portion of today's workforce.

Apartments are exponentially more expensive in MA versus AZ. I already barely have any money and, after moving, I will have even less. So I need to really consider giving up my SSDI (which only allows me to work part time) and working full time doing something I enjoy (hopefully), and I believe that job might be tree work.

Anyways, just thinking out loud. I hope people appreciate my candor on this forum. I'm not a bullshitter; I keep it very real...sometimes to a fault. My ASD (autism spectrum disorder) ensures that I remain unsually honest. While this characteristic can often backfire, or come across as being rude to others, I consider it to be an endearing part of who I am. Because if you're friends with me, you will see that I will never judge you or lie to you; I'll just speak my mind genuinely and I usually am very straight forward.

Most people aren't like this among a group of people they barely know. It may be a social faux pas to be brutally honest among so many relative strangers (as well as several friends), but that's how I roll. I know I'm not a shitty person and therefore have nothing to lose by being as authentic as possible.
 
I guess you want to be close to your parents. Could you do better economy-wise slightly out of state, but still fairly close? Dunno what the market's like in the NE generally, but Maine is one of the top places I'd move to if I decided to move. How about VT or NH?
 
I guess you want to be close to your parents. Could you do better economy-wise slightly out of state, but still fairly close? Dunno what the market's like in the NE generally, but Maine is one of the top places I'd move to if I decided to move. How about VT or NH?
Belive it or not, I don't even have a driver's license or a car, so I need to stay in MA and close to the public transportation until I pass the driving test and can afford a car. I'll figure it out...usually. Only time will tell. Besides, I love MA and my parents are senior citizens at this point and pretty soon I'll have an opportunity to repay them for all the help they gave me (and still give me) over my lifetime. I had hoped I would be a wealthy entrepreneur by now, but there was far too much red tape. I've thought about writing a book about my life; an autobiography mostly about substance abuse and addiction and mental illness. I'm actually quite an adept writer, but that project has taken a back seat to finding legitimate progress somewhere, anywhere in my life. I have had so many different interests throughout my lifetime; topics that grab my interest profoundly. I've lacked a sense of purpose my entire life. I've fatally never known who or what I want to be when I grow up and I'm 35. Ultimately, it will be up to me to define and create that purpose. Again, currently, my hope is that tree work will fill this gaping void.
 
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