Re: The weather 2019

[SwampDonkey]

Was only 65F here a bit ago, will probably hit 70 this afternoon. I was gardening and picking up the trash around the garage build and the water was running off me. The mosquitoes and black flies are ferocious. In shade of the new garage the mosquitoes are in swarms. :D There is no water around here for a mile, to the nearest swamp or brook. :D

[thecfarm]

Swampdonkey,than why all the flies?  :D  I have a brook about 1000 feet away and the pond is not that much father away either. Than wet holes on my land. And than another pond about 2 miles from me,than one through the woods is maybe 3 miles away. 
But back to the weather.  ;D  Another nice day. 2 days and no rain!! Bright sun,with a few clouds. I even turned the heat off to the house!!! I have only done that 2-3 times total this year.

[lxskllr]

A bit cooler today, but humid. Laid out a bridge pier and some stormdrain, and finished about noon. Decided it was time to deal with that ash. Been debating about climbing it again, but it's only getting hotter out, and the tree's getting more dangerous, so I decided to drop it. Got it on the ground with sniper-like precision, but my stump was a disaster as usual. Made a picture perfect face cut, with the bottom shelf nice and level(I cheated. It was so close to the ground it was easy), and my cuts perfectly mated. Bored the middle, and when it popped out the other side, I was below my face shelf  :^S  Rebored it from the screwed up side, then released it.

The tree had two main leaders, and I aimed the trunk at a fence post hoping the leaders would straddle the post. Hit it perfectly, and the post barely got scraped. Very pleased with the result, but I really need to work on keeping my bar level. Been thinking about making a magnetic fisheye bubble for the bar. I'm thinking the saw will vibrate too much, but it should be cheap enough to try.

Got to use my new Logrite cant hook, and that thing's the bees knees. Sorry I didn't get one sooner. The Stihl dealer suggested one when I got my first good saw, but I was still in shock after paying $800 for a saw, and at that point, I wasn't *into* this stuff. I just wanted to take a tree apart cheaper than I could pay someone else to do it. It would have been very helpful with my oak though.

Still have to finish cleaning up the mess, and move the bigger logs to a place to practice milling when my mill gets here next week, but it was a productive day, and I did my best job yet dropping  a tree, though there's MUCH room for refinement.


realtime edit:
Against my better judgment, here's a pic of the stump...




No, I didn't impressively take it down with my 2511. I just happened to have that in hand when I took the pic  :^P  I used my 362cm with a 24" bar

[SwampDonkey]

Swampdonkey,than why all the flies?  :D 

Remember that Star Trek episode where the people on the planet were shoulder to shoulder from high population density. That must be it. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

@lxsklr Was that tree dead? If it was, the hinge is fine, better too big, than too small. better to pull some fiber than have it go wrong. If it was live, maybe the hinge was a bit thick, I see some long fibers, but you are splitting hairs. The tree went where you wanted, you are still upright, winner all around. Keeping the bore level takes some time and mostly thought when you start the cut, which was my problem, but practice paid off.
 I never saw the point in you climbing that tree, it would gain you nothing that I could see worthwhile.
 Good Job.

[lxskllr]

The tree was semi live. It had some leaves and was sprouting suckers, but it was on it's way out. The main reason I climbed it was just to do it. Get a little more experience climbing, and try a hardwood. I justified it by shortening it so I wouldn't hit the fence posts. I didn't get it short enough for that, but I did get the dead limbs overhead on the backcut. I was debating climbing it again, but it's getting too hot for wearing a saddle and all the other gear. There also won't be many more days when it's 'merely' 80°, so I wanted to just get it done. I don't like doing tree work when it's hot, but this one wasn't as optional. Waiting would just make it more dangerous to cut.

The ash cuts nice, but it's really a mess. Makes a lot of dust, and left a layer of crud on my chain cutters. I'll probably have to use a solvent after milling it.

Overall, I'm happy with the outcome, but my sloppy cuts are disappointing. I guess I just need to put more time in it. I have limited opportunity for falling trees. I don't want to drop trees just to do it, so I only get the occasional chance when something dead has to come down, or is a problem for one reason or another.

[thecfarm]

I'm not use to this warm weather. :D   72°  I am working in the garden. This is the first warm day that I have been home for. ;D  A very nice day. Day three with no rain.

[SwampDonkey]

Brought in the rest of the firewood for in the basement. One load had some tamarack. Don't tell me that ain't full of spiral. You're full of yourself. Bahaha :D The Collins just bounced, and once split after multiple whacks, the grain certainly spirals along the split grain. I was splitting the but ends and good thing they are only 18 year old trees and no bigger than 10" on the ends. ;) A couple had to be coaxed with a chain saw cut. :D

Been beautiful here all week and none of that scorching heat. Very blessed we are here on the hill. Nowhere any better. 

[goose63]

92 today may have to start a night shift

[lxskllr]

Decent day. 75° and sunny. Didn't do a single thing. I'd have liked to have made up a chain for my mill that's due next week, but I left my chain stuff at work.

Right hand neighbors had a couple spars removed. They inexplicably left them standing years ago when they cut them all down. Tulip poplars. All the bark sloughed off, and they were starting to rot. These are the neighbors I don't like much, and I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't amuse if they dropped the one spar on their house. It wasn't them doing the work though. They got a small tree company I wasn't familiar with to do it.

I have too many trees to discreetly watch the proceedings, so I didn't get to see what they were doing, but the one near the house was interesting. Heard the saw stop running, and heard pounding, presumably a wedge. I looked over and saw the guy swinging a maul overhead, and the top of the spar dropped over. It was pretty high up; maybe 6', and he wasn't climbing. Thinking about it now, I'm wondering if he just did snap cuts, and beat it over with the maul...

His saw was bigger than mine. I'd guess a 661. Stihls, at least the new ones have a distinctive sound. They're kind of clattery, and very 'metallic' sounding. I can definitely pick them out over other brands. I didn't like the way the guy ran the saw. Very blippy. That's why I thought it was the neighbors were doing it themselves, or a friend doing it for them. Got me excited for some carnage.

[lxskllr]

Rain. Someone got in the office over the weekend, and stole my brushcutter and ms362. Better not showup on craigslist. I'm not a 'right to lifer'...

[thecfarm]

lxskllr,sorry to hear about the things stolen.
Rain here too. Even the driveway was dusty the other day.   We had 4 great sunny warm dry days before this rain. I got a little bit of a sunburn. Most years I don't. But with not much sun this year,than all at once sun for 4 days,I am a little red.
The heat is still off. This should be it turning the valves off and on. This is the first year that I had the heat on this late. Most years I turn them off and on a few times. This year it was a steady on.

[chevytaHOE5674]

We had 3 warm days last week in the 70s and even hitting 80 Saturday. Been raining on and off since and in the 50s to maybe 60. Was 40° this morning. 

The 10 day guesstimate shows the warmest temp to be 64°... hopefully July warms UP.

[SwampDonkey]

Been 70's and yesterday 82F here. Done with the heat here I think as well. Going to put the humidifier away and turn on the dehumidifier in the basement now. :D Going to stack some firewood on Saturday with what I cut. Then more later when I buy a load of maple.

[thecfarm]

Just about an all day rain yesterday. But we had 4 great days of dry weather,sun and warm temps. ;D
Good idea on the dehumidifier,with new construction. I ran one here for years. Have not ran it for 4-5 years now. But I do have a box fan,I mounted it from the ceiling upside down,so I can just reach up for the controls. That has been on for at least 2 years,maybe 3,steady. I never turn it off. I want the air movement. I do open up the cellars window this time of year. But with a dehumidifier I would not have the windows open.

[Crusarius]

We need some seriously hot dry weather to get rid of the crazy amount of black flies we have this year. can't even enjoy being outside with the crazy amounts of them around.

Wonder what temperature they melt?

[thecfarm]

The heat is on. Started to rain an hour ago. I was cutting some bushes and wanted to get that area done. I worked out in the rain and got a little wet. Came inside and put the heat on. They said PM rain.With my day off I was hoping PM stood for Past Midnight.  :D We had some dry sunny days,

[Ljohnsaw]

The heat is on.

:D
Well, that has a different meaning out here!  Cooling off now - down to the lower 90's today after 2 days of 104° and several days before that of upper 90's.

[SwampDonkey]

Your right about them black flies. They are in cloud formations this year. :D  No more heat here come Sunday. I just put the humidifer away today. I'll be turning off the electric furnace. It never comes on during the day anyway. It was 70 earlier, dropped back to 68F now. Breezy. Nice though, there is a mugginess about it. Was working at levelling the gravel in the garage floor and the water was dripping off the ball cap. ;) No rain yet, but it is coming. Corn seems to grow 2" a day in the garden. Potatoes will be in blossom in 2 weeks. My potatoes are way ahead of the farmers'.

[Al_Smith]

Couple days of dry .Dry enough I could grade out a little over 40 tons of crushed limestone with my 65 year old bulldozer .I never claimed to be the best dozer operator in the world but I manage ,just takes me longer .Beats a shovel and a rake. Drizzel  today off and on as far as rain .That the ground can soak up.  A 2-3" frog drowner it can't .

[Al_Smith]

I don't know what the story in my garden is .3 varieties of tomatoes ,all doing well,cucumbers ,crooked neck yellow squash same .One scroungy green bean plant .I think something ate the seeds .I'll replant them I guess . ???

[chevytaHOE5674]

The heat is on here too via the wood stove. Frosty again this morning. Yesterday it never reached 50°, today its 60°. Finally had to mow the lawn. Father in laws garden isn't doing anything, but why would it when it has frosted 3 times in the last 10 days. Crazy weather.

[Al_Smith]

The heat has been off since the first of the month.Supposed to get down to 50 tonight but a well insulated brick  house I doubt gets very cold inside  That said it has been crazy weather .Aprils rains all May and continuing into June .It might be that proverbial cold day in July .Odd indeed .As crazy as it is it might be picking vine ripened tomatoes in November as large as a softball .It might be polar bears in the back yard too .The cats would go nuts . :D 

[lxskllr]

Fantastic day! Amazingly cool for a mid June MD. It barely cracked 70°, and was sunny and breezy all day. Work was easy, and after getting back for the day, I took out a willow limb my boss wanted down with my first successful DRT climb. I had multiple failures, and an arborist would have laughed his butt off at me, but I'm calling it a huge success.

Had some trouble getting my throwline in the tree due to the rats nest of vines. My cambium saver that I found today failed. It was a 1"x36" piece of well pipe I found in a treasure box(jobsite container) today. I saw it, and thought "Huh... That might work as a cambium saver". There's a few potential problems with it, and the one I ran into was it was too stiff, and didn't stay in the crotch. I haven't given up on the idea, and I've sawn kerfs across the top to allow it to flex down more. We'll see,,, The rope ran directly in the crotch, but willows are durable. I don't think it did significant damage.

I tried using the tail of my line in a Blake's hitch to the running end, but I couldn't get it to grab. I saw it in a book, and it looked like a good idea, but same size lines won't grab as well. Perhaps I didn't dress the knot well enough. It was in a book afterall, so it works for someone, but I ended up using my prussik cord as a traditional prussik, and that worked great. Didn't get the binding I did last time when I had it around both ends of the line(Didn't want to run the rope through the crotch of my walnut and damage it, so I was trying to footlock up the doubled line, but I never got off the ground to to the hitch binding).

Got my saw stuck when the kerf closed faster than expected. Had to climb down and get my Silky to rescue it(Note to self, when saddle goes on, Silky goes on too).

It was an easy climb, about 12' up, and I cheated by bracing against one of the other multi trunks part of the way, but I also did a little proper DRT climbing, and I got the job done effectively, and safely. I have some trust issues with the gear cause I'm not experienced, but everything worked as it should. The prussik grabbed when it needed to grab, and released when it was supposed to release. I'm *very* pleased with how it all turned out.

Also ran a tank of fuel through my new brushcutter. Still getting sore shoulders, but I'm feeling more comfortable with it. I think I can feel the extra 3cc over my last one. It seems to cut a bit better, but that could be due to the new blade that hasn't been ravaged by rocks and junk yet.

[Old Greenhorn]

Fantastic day! Amazingly cool for a mid June MD. It barely cracked 70°, and was sunny and breezy all day. Work was easy, and after getting back for the day, I took out a willow limb my boss wanted down with my first successful DRT climb. 

OK, I gotta ask, what is a DRT climb? In EMS we use the acronym DRT to mean "Dead Right There" as in "On arrival patient was DRT". SO you can see why I am curious. Glad you had a good safe day, really sorry you got robbed.