How'd it go today?

How is alder as a firewood? I see it listed as a fish smoking wood fairly often.
Mixed bag, John. It isn't real high on btu content, but it coals very nicely and doesn't pop embers about. If you have a fireplace, especially for atmosphere rather than actually trying to heat your home, it is very nice for that. We use a wood stove, so alder isn't one we hunt down purposely, but when presented with some, we surely will burn it and be happy about it :).

It is a nice smoking wood. I usually use vine maple myself, but certainly have used red alder many a time.

We did go back and followed up on the powerline clearance crew, got another full load, half red alder and half Douglas fir. There is about another half to 3/4 of a load of DF there, so we'll likely get that tomorrow or Monday.
 
Working with Mike on a silver maple removal today.
The tree went pretty well. There's still less than a day left on it, but we got it mostly brushed out. Mike's a working machine! One small mishap. We pulled a telco line down from the house. No damage, and it's an easy fix, but it's just a pissoff when stuff like that happens. I'm still not quite sure what happened, and what should have been done differently. It all went pretty fast, and all I was thinking at the time was "frig!". I'll have to reflect on the tree next time we're out there.

It was still a good day. Warmer than I'd like, but much better than yesterday :^)
 
Doing some street tree hazard removals for one of the nearby towns yesterday and one of our 550s goes by on a rollback. It decided it had had enough, didn't want to play anymore, and wouldn't move. Kept asking to have something seviced, then just wouldn't start.
 
So in my semi-retirement, I repair n sharpen chainsaws in my community among friends n family.

But friends n family don’t necessarily meet minimum standards by a long shot, particularly those that think they’re two stroke capable wrenchers.

I’ve got three grinders, each set for either small 3/8’s, large 3/8’s/404, and one set at 90 degrees to bring down rakers.

Both angle grinders are water cooled by hand using a spray bottle in one hand and depth control in the other.

The latest repair was for a friend who runs a ms461 like mine, but ran into trouble once he’d replaced piston rings n barrel himself.
So when his saw died one day, and he couldn’t determine why, he gave it to me.

I suspected ethanol gumming of the carb and replaced it, but it only fired up intermittently and died. So after new fuel filters n lines it still only ran a few seconds n died.

Turns out that upon close inspection of the spark plug line that my friend had not routed it properly enough to avoid abrasion from the flywheel.

Scavenging a line from an 038 Magnum carcass solved the mystery today, and paid my beer tab for the week.

The ms 461’s a great saw, but no match to a 500i IME.

Gonna have to go back to school to learn how to work on super saws these days……..
 
I got tired of twisting my gooseneck LED lamp from the front to the rear of each workpiece.
I bought a 3”, self-contained LED recessed light fixture. Cut a length of 3” I.D. PVC pipe, painted it matte black, mounted it on a length of flexible gooseneck I had saved from an old lamp, wired the lamp to a cord, and mounted it so that it was permanently focused on the rear of the workpiece.
The lamp puts out 750 lumens, CRI of 90 for true colors, and switchable from 2700Kelvin to 5000Kelvin (I set it on 4000Kelvin).
The switches for each lamp are easily reached so I am not staring into a bright light as I work.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9341.jpeg
    IMG_9341.jpeg
    299.1 KB · Views: 8
  • IMG_9344.jpeg
    IMG_9344.jpeg
    424.9 KB · Views: 7
  • IMG_9345.jpeg
    IMG_9345.jpeg
    448.7 KB · Views: 8
  • IMG_9343.jpeg
    IMG_9343.jpeg
    492.9 KB · Views: 7
  • IMG_9340.jpeg
    IMG_9340.jpeg
    348.2 KB · Views: 8
It has only just begun to think about being a day. There's a faint glow on the eastern horizon, it's still dark, but the stars are fading. The house is quiet, cool, and filled with the sounds of peaceful sleep. In the loft overhead, KV stirrs in her nest of fuzzy unicorn blankets. Sorry, Hug-a-corns, that's what she insists on calling them.

Below me, The Monster Under The Bed shifts position, making a soft snoring sound. His counterpart, Jack is asleep on the floor right outside the underbed kennel, and exactly where my feet will land if I sit up and get down from our overheight mattress. The boys will get let out soon, to run and play before the world wakes up and realizes monsters are on the loose

Baby Esme is simultaneously snuggling against my side for warmth, and kicking the blankets off. Her cat Tom Sawyer, is asleep around her head like a halo, purring occasionally.

Unfortunately, my wife has to work today, and can't really get out of it. She should get off early, it being Sunday, but if things were going how they should, she wouldn't be at work. At least when she got in the car, in the dark place before the dirty ass crack of dawn, the first thing she saw was the anniversary gift I got her, and the card.

It's going to be a good day.
 
Wokeup at 3:15 this morning, and I was wired out. "I guess that's it for sleep tonight...". Working with Mike on a silver maple removal today. I've been looking for my WorkingHands goop, but I can't remember where I put it. I think I have BadgerBalm in the truck, and I'm looking at some BagBalm right here, but that stuff's so greasy, and it seems to linger forever. I usually only use that if I'm gonna have gloves on all day.
I wish I’d have read this before the job. I have 4 containers of Working Hands and would have given you one. Each truck has a container as well as 2 in the house. That stuff is awesome!
 
Yea, I like it cause it doesn't feel like your hands are coated in stuff. Well, not badly anyway. I still feel it. That's pretty much only a winter thing. My hands tend to crack, so it's worth the discomfort of putting stuff on them. I don't usually like anything on my skin.

I can see the tin in my head, but can't remember where that "picture" was taken. It probably found it's way beneath some papers or something. It'll turn up. At this point, I'll have a year to locate it. Cold weather(or what passes for it these days) is almost over.
 
Yeah, I never used lotion for dry and cracked hands until I found Working Hands. I’d just grin and bear it. It’s the only cream I’ll use because it’s not greasy. It actually improves grip (over dry hands) oddly enough. Same here- winter only.
 
Just wow, the TreeHouse, so much good chit to be had here, over time.

This morning, first @theTreeSpyder had a post with a cool book link that led to other good links which I am stoked to explore further.

And now here, this hand cream notion, I click on Working Hands (which I've never heard of) and it's got 72k (!) positive ratings. My hands aren't cracked but they do get dry which means I often have to spit on them a little bit to increase grip before I grab something, which annoys tf outta the Mrs. ;):lol:

So, imma buy some, thx fellas. :dude:

MB :drink: The House :dude:
 
IMG_20240129_101755162.jpg IMG_20240129_102540069.jpg IMG_20240129_103911857.jpg

It could've been worse. It was a muddy shithole, but the couple posts I was hands/knees on were on some of the driest ground on site. Most were marking cages, and I didn't even need my harness. Got 22 posts marked. That was a pretty good run, and they shouldn't need us for awhile.
 
Good pics.

Did they cut many trees for that project?

Does a wall like that have a projected life span? Ya know, all things engineering often consider 'all things', it seems
 
Back
Top