Staying Busy and out of trouble, 2020-21?.

WV Sawmiller · May 13, 2021, 08:37:22 PM

Sounds like a great day and thanks for the history lesson. I think I mentioned visiting an old, working tannery in northern Cameroon one time. They had dug out pits they filled with water and bird crap and seeds and such to preserve the leather. I love seeing, hearing and reading about those processes. I did a project at Corning HQ in Corning NY one time and they told me all the supplies used to come up the river on barges which amazed me as the river did not look that wide or that deep.

In Norway we visited the last water powered steel mill. It was basically a working museum now. They used to the water to turn a bellows which added O2 to the charcoal they used before folks discovered Coke made from coal. The extra air burned the charcoal hotter and melted the iron ore. Prior to the UK discovering how to make coke from coal they used charcoal and Norway produced the world's highest quality steel. When they learned make Coke the UK could also produce high quality steel and they took over the world's steel making leadership. I had done a project at a Steel mill in northern WV/Eastern OH and knew the basics but had never thought about using water power to pump air or using charcoal instead of coke.

I wish the kids today could go visit working sites like that to help them understand and appreciate the work it takes to build things. That's why I like to do workshops with my mill and I can see mushroom workshops being a big hit too. At the end of the workshop you need to feed the students a good mushroom and sausage pizza. :D

Old Greenhorn · May 13, 2021, 09:21:31 PM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on May 13, 2021, 08:37:22 PM.......... At the end of the workshop you need to feed the students a good mushroom and sausage pizza. :D

As the Brits say 'Not bloody likely'. :D ;D I don't eat mushrooms. Besides I am just a sideshow at this thing (if it even happens). I will be playing the part of the 'old guy who brought the logs down from the mountains'. I expect I can do that just fine. That's all I can do. Let's just see how this progresses over time.

WV Sawmiller · May 13, 2021, 10:33:51 PM

Dang! And mushroom and sausage is my favorite pizza. I guess I will have come up with another plan to scrounge a meal. Maybe I can call the MM and get him to give me lessons as he posts the best ones I have seen here.

Old Greenhorn · May 14, 2021, 08:09:25 AM

Not to worry Howard, if it's a free meal you want I can easily arrange that to be something much better than pizza. Sorry, no grits around these parts (I think we have a law or something), but there are 4 very nice restaurants within a short walk of the museum where you can enjoy some fine food while sitting outside and overlooking the water. In fact, the one closest to the museum has a deck and dock hanging out over the water. One of those places used to be Barge's favorite watering hole (or so I have heard) when he worked at the marina when the boat was in for repairs, just a half mile down the creek. I myself have been known to throw back a few there during business lunches.
So, opportunities abound. ;D

WV Sawmiller · May 14, 2021, 08:44:17 AM

Tom,

Thanks for the invite and reassurance I won't starve when I come up. I can pack grits to bring along just like any other essentials. I had an uncle stationed in Minnesota or some other glaciated clime and he kept asking the local grocery for grits. The owner finally told him to get grits he had to buy at least 100 lbs and he did not think he could sell that many so my uncle told him buy them and if they did not sell, he'd buy them himself. The man bought them and advertised "We have grits" and had so much business he had a hard time keeping them in stock.

I'm still trying to get my mind wrapped around the fact the New York Mushroom King does not like to eat mushrooms. :

Its kind of like finding Smithfield foods is a Jewish or Muslim conglomeration or that Tyson's Poultry owner the head of PETA or such.

Old Greenhorn · May 14, 2021, 09:12:44 AM

Well I know you are not a drinking man Howard, but try to think of it this way: Would you patronize a bar where the bartender was always drunk? ;D

Hilltop366 · May 14, 2021, 09:14:05 AM

The grits were probably used as a substitute for traction sand. ;D

WV Sawmiller · May 14, 2021, 10:02:06 AM

You know Southerners will eventually inherit the earth because we are more flexible. We love our grits but we can easily accept and adapt to a diet of hash browns, home fries or cottage fries or such when none are available. The next time we have a huge potato famine like Ireland had between 1845-1849 the Eskimos up north will be dropping like flies while the highly adaptable southern gentlemen and their Belles with be chowing down on grits and leftover mushroom pizza.

Hilltop366 · May 14, 2021, 11:44:31 AM

We will have to revert back to the old times around here when poor people ate lobster and haddock, the poor kids were embarrassed to go to school with their lobster sandwich on homemade bread and would try to trade with the richer kids for baloney on store bought bread.(true story)

WV Sawmiller · May 14, 2021, 03:06:19 PM

Hilltop,

Yes. I read somewhere that indentured servants coming to work for families in New England even had clauses in their contracts certifying they would not be fed lobster more than 2 times per week.

In the south the slaves were fed the lesser cuts off the pig such as the ribs and shoulders while the owners ate the hams and loins and such. They had to figure a way to make the ribs and such tender and tasty enough to eat so they came up with slow cooked BBQ and such. The owners tasted it and realized how good they were and those became prime cuts.

I remember when chicken wings were dirt cheap. Then people figured out if they cut them at the joints and fried them they were very good so they became expensive too.

I had a S. Vietnamese co-worker in Bagram, Afghaniland who had been a POW to N. Viet Nam. Another POW had been an Ag teacher or such the North Vietnamese captors put him in charge of raising a pig. When it was grown they would butcher it and the officers got the choice cuts, the guards got the next and the POWs got the offal and scraps. The teacher was also familiar with the local plants so when the pig was nearly grown he would feed it a particular plant and it would start frothing at the mouth and staggering around so he would go report to the guards "Sir, the pig is sick." The guard would look at it, concur and shoot it and tell him "You and the other POWs can have it" and they would give him another pig to raise. I don't guess they ever caught on to what he was doing.

I mentioned above why Southerners will outlast the northerners. To take it a step further Cajun's will outlast us all as there is one thing they will not eat but nobody can remember what it is.

nybhh · May 14, 2021, 03:34:00 PM

I was born in Alabama, spent the first half of my life in Georgia and know a thing or two about grits. The second half of my life has been spent in grit deprived New York but thanks to a healthy Italian population here, there is no shortage of Polenta which, at the risk of blasphemy, is every bit as good as grits and usually prepared a heckuva lot better.

Andries · May 14, 2021, 03:39:38 PM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on May 14, 2021, 10:02:06 AM. . The next time we have a huge potato famine like Ireland had between 1845-1849 the Eskimos up north will be dropping like flies . . .

I'm enjoying the banter between the Southern gents and the wanna-be glaciated folks, . . . But.
Our bison herds will sustain us Eskimos, just fine.
Spuds, grits and whatever famines notwithstanding. There may be a polenta famine brewing, dunno. These are strange days my friends.

Old Greenhorn · May 14, 2021, 03:41:00 PM

Oh boy, and just when you think you know a guy!

Andries · May 14, 2021, 03:48:07 PM

Which American was it that said there were the things he knew he didn't know, and the things that he didn't know that he didn't know, but it was knowing that he couldn't ever know - was that knowable?
I like that guy, a thoughtful thinker! 😆

Old Greenhorn · May 14, 2021, 03:53:09 PM

I don't know, unless, maybe I do?

Hilltop366 · May 14, 2021, 04:58:48 PM

Quote from: Andries on May 14, 2021, 03:39:38 PMthe wanna-be glaciated folks

I'll admit I'm in one of the warmest places in eastern Canada where after Christmas it is 6 weeks of bad snowmobiling or as I say if you want to teach a kid patients give him a sled for Christmas.

HemlockKing · May 14, 2021, 06:05:01 PM

Quote from: Hilltop366 on May 14, 2021, 04:58:48 PM
Quote from: Andries on May 14, 2021, 03:39:38 PMthe wanna-be glaciated folks

I'll admit I'm in one of the warmest places in eastern Canada where after Christmas it is 6 weeks of bad snowmobiling or as I say if you want to teach a kid patients give him a sled for Christmas.

:D :D Snowmobile around here you're lucky to get one good storm to even use it

gspren · May 14, 2021, 08:24:38 PM

Quote from: Hilltop366 on May 14, 2021, 09:14:05 AM
The grits were probably used as a substitute for traction sand. ;D

Maybe kitty litter

Old Greenhorn · May 14, 2021, 09:13:17 PM

Yeah, I think I am going to hold some back on my taxes until they get this climate change/weather thing straightened out. ;D

Today was a work at home day. I did some surfing that took up a good part of the morning looking at ideas for a UTV forestry trailer that might suit multiple needs. Just spit balling and thinking it through. I find a lot of these manufacturers come and go, so you find one you like then find out the company isn't there any more. I'm just kicking tires at this point and thinking. I like these conversion options a lot of them have so I could move and dump dirt, but convert it with bunks for log hauling. Still looking, lots of time. I am building my spec list.

Anyway, got out around 9 and started getting the yard ready for mushroom logs. I have a pile of bucked up sugar maple in the way so I dragged out the splitter, split all that and loaded on the trailer, then moved it and stacked it. I had my youngest grandson 'helping' me and it is pretty amazing how him just handing me up rounds saved a lot of time. He helped me stack until he got bored. ;D After lunch we all took some naps.

then we got in the Mule and headed to the old mill shed and I got a few tarps I had stored there and some environmental cloth I wanted to use to cover the mushroom loogs. I also ha some hemlock poles cut and stacked there that I forgot about, so I took a bunch of 4 footers up. The tarps were covered in mouse poop and 'other stuff' so we stretched them out and hosed them off with extreme prejudice. Then we took those hemlock shorts and I arranged bunks where I intend to stack the logs. We moved the trailers and splitter around to make for easy access. I think I am ready to get started on the next phase. I cleaned out the backseat of the truck to make room for the stuff I just want to leave in there while doing all these remote jobs, like my spare clothes bag, bottled water, and some other stuff. For the first time I can remember I removed my trauma bag and brought it in the house. It takes a lot of room. Maybe I will rethink it in a few days, but my other bags pretty much cover the immediate needs and are much smaller. Maybe I will take a half day and try to condense stuff, I dunno. These are hard transitions. I still miss not having an O2 bottle behind my seat., but I haven't needed it in a while. ;D
Tomorrow I am back in chainsaw pants for the day taking some trees, chipping and moving logs. My legs were shot after yesterday, but this morning felt fine and got a workout on the firewood. Looking forward to a good work day tomorrow.

Oh and a little tidbit. My son found himself up at the yard where that first trailer 'I bought' was still sitting so he talked to the owner and asked if it was for sale. He said yes and my son asked the price, he said "well I am asking 4k, but I guess I could take 3,500." My son offered 2,500 and no more. The guy said "Well I had another guy who was going to give me 2,500, but he just disappeared and I never heard from him again [that would be me]. I want at least 3,500 or I will sit and watch it rot." My son just said, 'well let me know if you change your mind' and walked away. My wife talked to one of her lady friends yesterday who knows this guy for 30 years and said, 'yeah, that's Steve, he does this all the time and everybody knows it'. I am just glad I took the high road and called him on his bluff. I don't need to waste time and energy doing business with guys like that. I like to enjoy people, not do mental battle with them. However, I will say that having been railroaded by many of these hard driving folks in my younger years, I am glad that for once I finally got to take it back to one of them and let him chew on it.
Tomorrow is another day and the weather is looking good.

WV Sawmiller · May 14, 2021, 11:19:12 PM

I fat-fingered a long reply %#@)*K^ so I'll start over.

Glad you had you GS to help. A 10 y/o kid can double the production and effectiveness of a grown man handing him tool, hooking and unhooking, holding a board while he cuts, etc.

I would never pay the lying idiot even one penny more than we had previously agreed. If I owned the pipeline the Rusky's would still be waiting instead of $5 mil richer. I'd never have caved and did not 2 years ago when they tagged me.

I'd look for a trailer I could haul my UTV on then use it behind the UTV to haul loads if possible.

A repeat customer came and got 4 buckets of sawdust to mix with wildflower seeds to plant. The sawdust shows where he has already planted. Dad used to use grits. He went to our community store and told Miz Elsie Davis he needed 10 lbs of grits to mix with his turnip seed and plant. He told her if she had any old buggy grits they were fine and he was planting them. She asked why and he told her "The grits come up first and shade the little turnips and keep them from getting sunburned." Boy was she hot with him.

Dad had a co-worker and his buddies were picking at him and told him to get some macaroni seed and plant macaroni. He asked Dad where to get Macaroni seed and Dad told him "Those boys are pulling your leg. You can't grow macaroni where you live because the crawfish will eat them up." The guy went back and told the others he was on to them and knew they were setting him up and the crawfish would get his macaroni. Boy did they get a kick out of that!

A had another repeat customer who relocated here from NYC who came and bought all my remaining RO - about 100 bf - to finish a trim work project in his house. He was speculating if it would be enough. I told him I have about 100 bf of QS RO and showed him that as a back up if he just needs a board or two.

He said his daughter is getting married this summer at their cabin in Maine and he was considering making a bench or such and have the guests sign it then coating with poly or such to preserve the signatures. I don't know how such ink and polyurethane or such work together.

I finished reorganizing and loading for my Fairgrounds flea market tomorrow and local flea market Sunday. My local dealer called and said he sold my other 2 raised planters I had on consignment there and wanted 2 more. It will likely be Sunday before I can make and deliver them. I may have to start using fresh cut poplar and use up some more of my ash. I have some maple that has not been moving that may also be an option. That's 4 planters in under a week. if he'd called an hour earlier I'd have knocked one out today.

Take care and keep juggling those projects.

Old Greenhorn · May 15, 2021, 07:03:26 AM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on May 14, 2021, 11:19:12 PM
....... I'd look for a trailer I could haul my UTV on then use it behind the UTV to haul loads if possible. ........

That's what I have now Howard, a 5.5 x 10' bought exactly for those reasons and it works great and I have been quite pleased with it. But now things have changed and I need a trailer that can haul more weight. In theory, the trailer I have now would be maxed out with just 100 logs on board, that's not much (35 logs 40" long). Calculating the loop time from the harvest site to the roadside for loading is short, so I could have a trailer loaded with small trips of just 25 logs/loop (weight limit on the mule) in pretty short order. Dragging a trailer through the woods won't buy me much unless I have a longer haul from the site out to the road. In addition, the damage done to running lights, etc. would be a problem as well as the terrain around here is seldom even close to flat or smooth enough for an over the road trailer.
OTOH, my loop time to get the logs home and get back to harvesting is about 3 hours minimum if I don't stop (there is unloading time not included here), so getting more logs in per trip is where I need to invest first. It will be a learning process and I will adjust as I learn more. Right now I am jsut looking for a 7,00# trailer with dual axles, 7' wide and 14 or 16' long. That will be about 'right sized' for my needs and my truck.
I was only looking at those multipurpose trailers it would allow me to get logs out of the woods on other jobs, I could use it for moving and dumping dirt and fill in my swamp, and a few other things. It is possible it would save me some time when I move over to the second harvest site and see how long a loop I have, but I do have some other options I can explore using things on hand and doing some modifications (a little Belbenizing can go a long way). :D
That guy with the trailer is already fading in my memory. That ship sailed and is sinking into the sunset. At this point the local younger fellas are just having some fun with him (my son would have never bought that trailer) because they are none too keen on his manner of conducting business and are pretty ticked off at how he treated me. It is kind of nice to see that they keep bringing up the point that his handshake is no good. I thought only us older folks cared about that. Makes me feel good to see that in certain circles, even today, a person's word is something important. Perhaps there is hope yet.
I hope you have good luck at this weekend's sales, you seem to be hammering it out. I have wanted to try those planters, but with my own little construction twist, I just can't bring myself to use up a precious log that could be giving me lumber. Also, I have no time available yet, so maybe when the summer gets a little more mature I will take a Sunday and try it out.
Well it's time to pull on my suspenders, load the truck and hook up the trailer and get off to work. Today is another day.

zippski · May 15, 2021, 08:10:48 AM

IMHO, the nicest trailer that meets your specifications in the NA market is this brand, which I bought after researching trailers all over the continent pre-COVID. (keep in mind these are CAD prices posted):

N&N HD Galvanized Steel 14,000LB and 21,000LB Hydraulic Dump – Action Trailers

These N&N trailers have so many nice standard features. I have a 84" x 12' HD model (yeah, I should of bought the 14' model, but this one was on a fire sale) It's is a beauty in both form and function. I have had it for a little over a year and the galvanized material still looks like new, and should look like new for a lot longer than a painted trailer.

My HD model is rated by the manufacturer for 7-tons but I have a legal 5-ton sticker installed (by the factory, on request) The reason for de-rating the trailer is twofold. First, I am towing this with my Ram 1500 Limited and it maxes out at just over 11K GVW. More important, here in Ontario we have annual inspection requirements and special licencing for any trailer rated at more than 5 tons, and the de-rated version skates in just under the limit. Same physical trailer, BTW. Every jurisdiction is different however, in what is allowed and not allowed.

For us fellow Canadians on the list, I can't say enough good things about buying from Action Trailer.

Of course, I never, ever try to sneak around with more than 5 ton loads, that would not be legal.

Leigh
zippksi

btulloh · May 15, 2021, 08:25:44 AM

Tom, too bad you're not closer. I've got a 7x16 flatbed 7000lb trailer I'd sell for 1500. Even got sides, front, and back that fit in the stake pockets. Sounds like what you're looking for, but I'm quite a ways away.

VB-Milling · May 15, 2021, 08:57:39 AM

Quote from: btulloh on May 15, 2021, 08:25:44 AM
Tom, too bad you're not closer. I've got a 7x16 flatbed 7000lb trailer I'd sell for 1500. Even got sides, front, and back that fit in the stake pockets. Sounds like what you're looking for, but I'm quite a ways away.

Oh really? ;D

btulloh · May 15, 2021, 09:09:40 AM

Yep. I really need a 20ft but haven't gotten around to selling this one. Just another task to fit into my schedule. I find that buyers sometimes can be as difficult as Tom's sellers ;D But that wouldn't be the case with a ff member.

Of course if you want it I'd give the FF the usual 5%.