How'd it go today?

. Trying to turn a perfectly round ball shape is difficult.
It sure is. These aren't perfect, but as good as I can do, from just eyeballing them. these have a tubular piece sticking out, that fits into the lower part, so I can't change the direction of rotation while turning them, like you can on a completely spherical shape.
 
Post Office closed at noon, DMV closed, don't know about the banks. Everybody wants to take advantage of a holiday for a day off. Is the hydraulic place usually open on Saturday? I want a paid day off. Oh, that's right, nobody will pay me.
 
Tired of being sick. Wife went to the Dr. Tuesday. She had walking pneaumonia and pink eye. Her eye is ok now but she is still pretty bad.

I've had a cold all week. Been couped up inside the house since Tuesday afternoon. :(
 
Now Dr Smith will tell you the cure for a bad cold that has you down .Take a good double,triple of some hi power hootch,not enough to get a load on just a healthy ration Bundle up in the bed and sweat it out . You might be surprised how well that works .
 
Today went well... Nothing got broken and every one came home safe and alive. :lol:
Had an estimate for some tree removals this morning and landed that job. Not far from home so that is really cool.
Good day filler as we work around there a lot and if we need to slap an hour or two on a day... go drop a gray pine :D
Today I took down a small twin codom gray pine that was quite dead in a memorial garden. Set a high line for my life line across two oaks. Still had to climb 5-8 feet above that. Rig down the tops and then bomb sections down to 10 foot to fell the spars. I had two narrow LZs I could land sections in. Gaffs were pulling bark off at the 10-15 foot mark. Trees were 45' or 50' high with 18-20" DBH. If you shook one codom.. the other bounced about the same.. Friggen messy... We only had to move the large branches and wood to out side the garden.. HO rake :D
Now she wants some limbs off the playground ... More day care credit. :D
Supposed to start snowing tonight and into tomorrow so I am going to just cook my little heart out for a couple days and enjoy a quiet New Years :)
 
Now Dr Smith will tell you the cure for a bad cold that has you down .Take a good double,triple of some hi power hootch,not enough to get a load on just a healthy ration Bundle up in the bed and sweat it out . You might be surprised how well that works .

It's New Year's Eve. I might as well try Dr. Smith's cure all. :)
 
Well the last work day of 2010 went very well as it were .Being on the short side of retirement I can show them where the bear chit in the woods and nobody questions it .Love it,love it,love it .:D
 
Survived two nights in a 4 person snow cave on Mt. Rainier, at around 5000' and 15 degrees F. First one was not so hot, as I got super wet in the digging process. I was the main digger, and others shuttled snow out. A tough team effort. Snow caves are supposed to get up close to freezing from body heat and insulating snow.

Breaking it down in the end was educational. Even though the ceiling has slumped about 6 inches over the two nights and one day, it was still hard to break. We cut it away to study the snow layers, and icing up of the ceiling from breathe and water vapor off our wet clothes. It still needed a lot of jumping to collapse the roof, which is reassuring. None of us had done it before.

My wife was getting claustrophobic as we dug it, but got through it. I was not into venturing out into the wind, soaked through my shell layers, to the close-by car for the tent through the wind, but would have.


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southsoundtree/5319917385/" title="Amy and I, partially deconstructed snow cave by South Sound Tree, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5130/5319917385_8110fbe152.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Amy and I, partially deconstructed snow cave" /></a>

Robert, Sarah, and Amy ahead of me, up on a ridge during our daytrip. Robert was overheating from "skinning up" on his telemark skis. The three of us snowshoed. I left my skis at camp to spend the day doing the same thing as my wife, rather than skiing with Robert.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southsoundtree/5319916637/" title="Robert Sarah Amy on Mt. Rainier by South Sound Tree, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5249/5319916637_191106de49.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Robert Sarah Amy on Mt. Rainier" /></a>

The top of snow cave entrances are meant to be at least 6" lower than the floor, helping to trap the warmed air within. 3 vent holes were poked through the 2.5-3' snow ceiling with an ice ax shaft then ski pole with basket. One is seen top left.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southsoundtree/5320517542/" title="snow cave entrance tunnel by South Sound Tree, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5122/5320517542_c967e814ce.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="snow cave entrance tunnel" /></a>

Here's Sarah waking up on the far side of the cave, with the picture shot from the other far side.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/southsoundtree/5319915599/" title="Sarah waking up on far side. by South Sound Tree, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5209/5319915599_80c14087aa.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Sarah waking up on far side." /></a>
 
I'm jealous! I always wanted to try that. My uncle told me how to make one when I was young but we don't get deep snow too often anymore.
 
I took off my shell layers, and pulled on another synthetic thermal layer top and bottom. Crawled into my synthetic sleeping bag for the night. Dried somewhat overnight, pulled on the shell gear in the morning, got on the snow shoes, and hiked to the bathroom (wife wasn't into "blue bagging it", I used to be a back country guide, so it would have been easy for me). The warmth of exercising warmed me up, and helped to dry my clothes. While snow shoeing during the day I continued to vent my shell layers to keep from sweating, and at the same time continue to dry my clothes.

The second night we filled our water bottles at the bathroom, rather than having to melt so much snow, and filled quart bottles with hot water. These go into an insulating layer, like a jacket or hat, and into the sleeping bag. The heat leaks out slowly, keeping you warm, and having something warm/ tepid to drink during the night, then boil for coffee and breakfast in the morning.

In 2003, nightly, I used (2) quart/ liter Nalgenes with boiled water to keep from getting hypothermia in Colorado for three weeks in October at 12,000' while backpacking in a wilderness therapy program with teens. I had cold feet for all three weeks. After that trip, and paycheck, I ordered a bunch of new gear.
 
I'm jealous! I always wanted to try that. My uncle told me how to make one when I was young but we don't get deep snow too often anymore.


You can shovel and "work-harden" (stomp it down to compact) snow in a pile, then dig it out. It would be hard to get enough snow to have a low entrance, but the snow would still insulate, and you could block the wind coming through the door somewhat with a pack, or build an interior wall partway to the ceiling.

Snow saws are cool. I think that good tree hand saw would do well enough. Cutting blocks of consolidated snow is cool too. You can build different types of snow shelters.

If you are doing it at home, you can bring as many blankets and hot water bottles as needed to be comfortable.

We use a sheet plastic on the floor to stay drier.
 
With the right gloves/mittens, you would be OK. The right clothing makes all the difference. I tried winter camping in a tent when I was 20. Upper teens out. I thought my sleeping bag would be OK. Not. Never had the urge to try it again. A nice down sleeping bag would do the trick though.
 
Thats good stuff. I wish I had the time to get lost like that for a while.
 
My left hand fingers started to go numb. I mostly used my right hand on the plastic D-handle, and my left on the metal shovel blade (small mountaineering, telescoping shovels).

I had to keep digging to keep warm.

For better or worse, I wore gray Atlas gripper gloves the whole weekend. I wore them into camp while skiing, then just got right into the snow cave building.

When I really started to get cold during the one break I took, I did some furious digging, and was able to warm up and de-ice my left hand.

The rest of the weekend, the Atlas gloves were fine. The latex part is waterproof.
 
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