Sawing in the heat today

[Snag]

Anyone in the heatwave areas saw today?  How'd it go?  I actually planned to saw a few hours this afternoon, but think I will pass :-\.  It is supposed to be 95 here today with the heat index at 106.  Is this what its like in the south?  DanG its hot.

[Kevin_H.]

We did a little sawing yesterday, it was 102 yesterday with a heat index on 115 I think...

The last couple of days we have been sawing in the morining and then going back out after 6 pm and sawing some more, but yesterday it was to be 90 at 10 pm so we just quit about 2.

We have to make a couple of deliveries today but i think that will do it until we get back from the piggy roast..

[broker farmer]

Yesterday at noon it was 99 degrees, 2:00pm = 102 degrees, 5:00 pm = 105 degrees..............too hot for me.  My mill didn't need to be running in order to stay warm here in central Missouri.  Some things can just wait.

[Bro. Noble]

Our mill is on a ridge and we get a little breeze if there is any air movement at all.  Also have a fan in the mill shed that helps.  We saw until 3:00 PM pretty much year round.  Then after a short break it's time to get the stoopid cows in and milk.  With the heat and dry weather,  we have been creen chopping to try to keep milk production up.  Sawing in the heat is fun compared to moving stoopid cows,  green chopping,  and being cooped up in a steaming hot barn with a bunch of stoopid cows.  Shure makes a good long shower,  a big glass of tea,  and my old recliner feel good at the end of the day :D :D :D  

[Norm]

Noble I heard it was so hot in your area that all the dairy cows were producing was evaporated milk. ;D

[broker farmer]

Bro. Noble, what have you been green chopping, corn or sudan?  'Gonna have enough feed for the winter?

[tcsmpsi]

Most likely some of those imported, hybrid collards.  Real good stuff for stoopid cows.  And other critters.

[Bro. Noble]

Norm,  I think you must be right,  but if a guy was to run the garden hose in the tank to put things back right,  he would be unemployed right quick.  They test for that each pickup and can tell if water has been added :D :D  I really feel sorry for trhe old cows-----they get just as hot and cranky as the milkers :D :D

Broker,  We are chopping johnson grass.  It's dangerous to graze because of purussic acid poisioning,  but when you chop it the poison goes off as hydrogen cyanide gas and there is no problem.  Sometimes we plant green graze and irrigate it to green chop,  but we have had surplus forages in recent years.  We have enough hay in the barn to last the winter,  a barn full that we will sell, and probably will get a fall cutting so we are in pretty good shape as long as it rains this fall.

[Corley5]

Zach and I got matching sunburns at the lake yesterday and are going to continue them today ;D ;)  Gonna add a little more sunscreen ;)  Momma wasn't happy that her little boy was pinker than normal last night.  Wasn't worried about me though :  She's just jealous she had to work and couldn't get a burn too  ;) ;D :D :D 8) 8)  I'm ready for some frosty mornings after this nonsense.  It was 85 degrees here at midnight last night.  That's unheard of for this country.

[getoverit]

I havent cranked the saw up for several weeks now. Its just plain too DanG hot to saw. When it cools off some, I'll get back after it. I have been gathering logs during this time, and have several real good whacks of several different species now, including some pecan and cherry. When it cools, I wont have any problems with not having enough to do

[Radar67]

My max temp reading for the day so far is 128 F. I have a termometer in the sun, so I guess you could call that the heat index.    All I know, is it is hot, hot, hot!!!!! Still got to keep on working in it though. If I waited for it to cool off, wouldn't get nothing done.  ;)

Stew

[Burlkraft]

I sawed a couple of 30" cherrys yesterday. It was DanG hot, but I was sawin' by myself so that took all day. A little shade and plenty of water and it was still too Dang hot to saw....so today I'm out pickin' logs up  ;D ;D ;D

[mike_van]

How about welding? Thats me the last few days -  : Working on that log turner -  The helmet fogs, glasses fog, and I fog too I guess - Corley5, i'm with you -  Treading water 'till fall -

[Bibbyman]

It's 100 with an index of 103 right now.

We've not done much sawing in the past two weeks.  We've been working on the outside of the house in the morning until the heat indix gets up to or over 100.  And we've been trying to keep in the shade while doing it.

In all the time we've been working on the house we've found a couple of snake skins and bugs and bees of all types.  Yesterday morning I told Mary, "We sure are lucky we ain't got stung or something worse."  About two boards later a hornet came out from under the eve and got me right dead center on the nose.  He didn't buzz around or anything. He just nailed me. Sure made my day.  Hurt like the dickins for about an hour and then I felt like my nose was stoped up the rest of the day and night.  >:(

This morning we had a guy pick up some lumber we'd sawn a couple of weeks back.  He dropped off another 30 logs to saw but he's not in any hurry - too hot.  Then later this morning we got another nice order for oak lumber but they also said not to hurry - too hot.

Soon as the heat wave breaks,  I bet everyone will want something all at once.

[Cedarman]

When I built our saw shed  45 x 130 int 1992, I put 6" insulation over the ceiling which is 12' and is roofing tin.  No heat comes down from the roof.  We have fans placed as needed.  The building stays relatively cool.  We start at 6:30 or 7 and get in 8 hours every day.  We do have to pace ourselves and drink lots of cool weak drinks or water.

It is not fun.  More like work.

[Max sawdust]

Yesterday we broke our all time record high of 93 it was 95 we escaped to Lake Superior where the water is 60 something ;D  Sat in the water all afternoon ;D  Sorry us Northern boys are wimps, much rather run the mill at -20 :D :D :D
max

[Tony]

    Yesterday I cranked the mill here at home, ran fine, hooked up and
headed to customer. Everything was almost perfect, lots of shade, logs
stacked and ready (ERC and some pine), and plenty of help.  ;D ;D

Then ready to start and guess what happened nothing, motor turned over,
cranked and died  :( :( :(    All the help were electricans so we had to call a
mechanic (I'm neither, just the sawyer)  :  2 sparkplugs and gas treatment
later we were making sawdust.  ;D ;D  Thank GOD for friends who will drive
10 miles out of their way to help ;D

           Today was much much better, milled around 1000bdft. At lunch time
somebody said the temp was 95 :

                                          Tony 8)

[timcosby]

i'm afraid to look at temp but its hot and humid so humid i have been making slabs out of the air and stacking them to the side. 15 minutes of sawing after 6 pm and i'm soaked all the way to the ends of my socks.

[VA-Sawyer]

What a bummer week !
Sat. I welded the ramp support lip back on a customer's 7 ton trailer. It failed when he was loading his T300 Bobcat. I spent 5 hours grinding off the old welds, fabricating proper end plates to give the lip proper support, and welding everything together.
Sun. and Mon.  I spent cutting 20+ ft 10X10 White Oak beams for that same customer. ( At least he let me use the Bobcat to move them)
Mon. about mid-morning our Husky went past the radio fence and got hit by a car. We took her to the vet and she had to be put down because her jaw was fractured. I think the heat made her delerious and she wasn't aware that the collar was shocking her. She was 14 years old. I will miss her very much.
Today, I cut the side boards from those big W.O. logs into 2X8,2X10 and 2X12's. No Bobcat today. The sawing was easy, but moving the boards on and off the mill by myself almost did me in. The thermometer on the Blazer said 106 when I went to get fuel. ( that was the observed temp after about 20 minutes at 65 mph, not a 'sun cooked' temp)
Now I see that there is a Tropical Storm 'Chris' forming in the Atlantic. I hope it doesn't screw up our Cruise that is supposed to begin next Mon. The way my luck has gone this week, I'm getting more parinoid than usual.
VA-Sawyer

[Ron Wenrich]

No problem.  AC in the booth.   8) 8)   We have also had fans put up in the past to move the air.

[Snag]

Sorry to hear about your dog VA-Sawyer.

I feel your pain with the bee Bibbyman.  Monday when I wasnt sawing I took a stroll out in the woods looking for some white oak (I confirmed that I dont have any- all red) and ended up standing on a ground nest of hornets or somethin'.  12 or so bites/stings later....  they hurt for awhile, but man are they itchy....

[GF]

I just heard some bad news from a neighbor down the road 1 mile, I cut alot of Pine off his place so he could plant a pecan orchard, he was mowing grass and had a heat stroke and passed away.  They found him in the yard next to the mower, he was 60 yrs old, but was in pretty good shape .  I am ready for this heat to break also, to much to long.

[bedway]

  being a dog lover,,,and loseing one of mine a few months back, i feel for ya. i have a jack russel mix who does a pretty good job of makeing up for the one i lost. it actually got down to 80 here last night,,man i hate this heat and humidity! :(

[Tom]

I'm feeling for you fellows who are losing dogs.  What a lovable friend to lose?

Sixty and succumbing to a heat stroke makes want to stay inside.   The air is even hot at home.  I arrived in Saginaw this noon and found that the hot air is here too.  Even the breeze is hot.  There is little cooling. 

on this forum is a thread about working in the heat.  If you haven't read it, this might be a good time to do so.  If you have read it, go read it again before you do something stupid.   I'll post a link if I can find it.

[thecfarm]

Sorry to hear about your dog VA-Sawyer.That's my little dog on the left here.I would not want that to happen to him.Got up into the high 90's.I went to HD and bought 30 PT 4x4 todayThey was having a sale on them..A great place to be,in the city and all that tar.Probaly was 100 there.Get me back to Chesterville.No sawing for me.I did do some hand mowing on the grown up pasture.All I could do was 2 hours.

[VA-Sawyer]

Tom,  Sorry to hear about Straight. I read your story about losing him shortly after posting here last night.  I lost a favorite cat a few years ago ( PAWS). He passed away in Shirley's lap while we were watching TV one evening. It was a Saturday, and we had just been discussing that we would probably need to have him put down at the vet on Monday because he was suddenly showing signs of his old age.  Shirley was petting him and said that he was getting cold in the hindquarters. He  was still doing a quiet purr and slightly moving his head when she scratched his ears. About ten minutes later he was gone.  He was the first cat I actually liked. Acted more like a dog at times as he was raised by our Sheltie. Reading about Straight last night really made me think about Paws again.  Thanks for posting about him.

To the others,
Thanks for the condolences. I will miss Pepper, but I won't miss watching her suffering in the heat. I would try to keep her in the A/C cooled bedroom during the hottest part of the day, but she really prefered to be outside, and sometimes wouldn't come in when called. That is what happened the morning she got hit.  Well, life goes on. We have a German Shepard and a small Bulldog still with us, and they are both fairly young. Hopefully they will be around for quite a while longer.
VA-Sawyer

[OneWithWood]

Guys and Gals,
I am really sorry for all this heat.  If I did not have a deadline to meet I most certainly would not have been sawing these past few days  :
Cheer up though.  Next week we are scheduled to place the water bars I am fabricating and the ground needs to be fairly dry.  I am sure this will bring on the rain!  :D
The water facilities I am under contract to finish by September also require realitively dry weather so count on a wetter than normal August  :-\

[4woody]

110  here today

[mike_van]

Our heat is gone, gone, gone - low 80's now, d.p. 60 - Tonight will drop into the 50's -  8)  I don't know how you guys down south can stand it - hazy, hot & humid for months on end - Bless you all - I hope a cold fronts in your near future - 

[4woody]

icetea cronbread greens fatback an you good to go  two hrs in the river helps

[pineywoods]

My mill is in an open shed under a shade tree, but it's still too hot to stay at it. I cut up one log early in the morning, load another on the mill, and go sit under the AC  till late evening, even finish up after dark. I have a fan riged up on the saw head so it blows down my back, that helps some.

[GF]

I installed one of these in the sawmill shed this weekend, I also located one of the nozzles in front of an industrial fan mounted on the wall, it help out alot for cooling, well worth the $18.

[Bro. Noble]

Well I guess this heat is something you get used to.  It's supposed to get to 105 today and looks about the same for the next week.  We were sawing this morning when  around 11:30 two guys walked through the mill yard   They were wearing hardhats,  long coveralls,  bandanas tucked under the back of their hardhats and were wearing rubber gloves and carrying large backpack sprayers.  They waved and just kept walkiing.

About a month ago our electric co-op sent out letters saying that they would be spraying the right of way (by vehicle where possible and by foot were necessary). 

Well these guys had just covered some pretty rough territory and were heading for some that was worse.  I didn't give them much more thought after being thankful that I wasn't on that job, and we took a break for lunch.

About 1:30 I saw my son Tom jerk his head up and give kind of a startled look.  I looked to see what he was staring at and there were the two spray guys heading off down a lane that went to our bottom fields.  There are no electrid lines,  public roads,  or anything else that they would be needing in that direction.  I hollered at them and walked over to see what was going on.  Turned out to be two very lost,  and hot,  and thirsty,  Mexicans that didn't understand a word of English.  They had a walkie-talkie,  but it was worthless unless the other party was on a nearby hill and they had no idea where they were or where they were supposed to be.  I got them some water ( they didn't have any food or drink with them but had got a drink out of the river)  and took them to an intersection of the main highway in our area and the nearest county road.  It's on a hill,  so maybe their radio woill eventually get someone.  When we quit a while ago,  I checked and they were gone.

I asked Tom if they were taking away jobs from anyone he knew-----he said he didn't believe so :