Making it through another year '21-'23

[nybhh]

I look forward to camping next door to you at the pig roast.

Careful what you wish for ;).
Looking forward to hearing some good stories when OGH gets back from that!

[doc henderson]

next door campers is better than sharing a tent!  not as many sounds and smells can get through the camper walls.      8)  

[Old Greenhorn]

Truly, we have thought this through. ;D What's that old saying about fish and company having something in common? :D
 We arrive Thursday afternoon/evening and depart Monday morning, so that puts us in the area for 3 days. That is of course assuming I don't have to pick up some migrant work to pay for the gas to get home.
 Not to worry Brandon, Doc is a big boy. He will soon see the error in his choices all by hisself and make better choices next time. ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well yesterday I delivered another 62 logs and only have 20 to go on that order, plus some extra. Today was a rain out and I can tell I needed the rest because it was 10am before I realized I had been goofing off catching up on the forum all morning. I got an answer back from the next (and last) client that she does indeed want 100 logs in what sizes I can provide. So that means I am not wrapping it up tomorrow as hoped, but have a couple more days in the woods yet. Oh well, maybe it will change the bottom line a little. 
 The Schooner Captain invited the wife and I out on a evening music cruise he is skippering Thursday. A couple of Virginia boys playing an eclectic mix of of Banjo and guitar tunes. Sounds good to me and it's a solar powered boat so that should be interesting. My wife isn't much for the water (motion issues), but she is game, so what the heck? It's a short trip anyway. I miss being on the water. I miss live music, so win-win, right? I haven't done anything 'just for fun' that isn't also related to work in a long time, so maybe I am due? As it is I will use the trip to deliver the last of the logs and save on some mileage. ;D
 Time to get the saws sharpened and clean the truck up between the rain, looks like we have a steady few hours of rain this morning. I also have some follow up emails to get out.
 Today is another day.

[doc henderson]

Benadryl, Dramamine or scopolamine patches.

[aigheadish]

The cruise would be loads of fun OGH! The romance of that sounds beautiful!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well no cruise for us tonight. It sold out within a day and I was clear I did not want to take up the seats of any ticket buyers. The museum needs the money more than I need an hour on the water. ;D
 So yesterday when I was about to head into the woods another neighbor showed up to see what I was up to. In a rare twist, this fella actually knew what mushroom logs were and I didn't need to explain. He turned out to be the same age as me, we came from the same area as 'kids' and we had a lot in common. He used to be an arborist. We talked for a while and I didn't get cutting until 10am. But I'm retired and I make a point never to walk out on a good conversation when I don't want to, so no regrets. Nice fella.
 It was a PERFECT day in the woods, cool, low humidity, a few clouds, I could have worked a lot longer but I still get tired. None the less in 5 or so hours I only loaded 48 logs, not my best day by far. It's getting harder to find 'right sized trees. Since Sunday I have 2 more orders for a total of 120 logs THEN I am done. I had hoped to finish yesterday, oh well.
 Today I delivered the final logs to the museum so that is done. Now trying to arrange payment. I put 24 logs or so in my pile for the orders so just need 100 more. It will take 2 more trips, but I was hoping to hammer it hard tomorrow while the weather holds and maybe get 70 done so that on the last trip I can just load 30 in the truck bed and bring the Mule home and be done. 
 BUT I got the call today that the videographer is available tomorrow and would like to come up to collect footage. I know this is going to slow me down. Especially since I told him to meet me at the store at 7:30 and he wanted to make it 8am, then settled on 7:45 (ish). It could be a long day. Hopefully he shows up on time, he gets his footage, and heads home. I don't see much that is very exciting in all this, small trees, most of which do not fall over when cut and I have to piece them down as I dance around them. Oh well, I guess that is his problem. :D I have carefully considered my wardrobe for this 'thing' and it will be my same old ratty chainsaw pants which are now very overdue for washing, and the rest of the usual stuff. I believe I will wear my "Big Johnson Sawmill" shirt to get @trimguy a little cameo. I don't have any of my own shirts yet.
 I just need to get this done soon, the video guy will slow me down for sure but I did say it was OK, just thought it would have happened earlier.
 Ah well, tomorrow is another day and I'll make the best of it I can.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Drat! I guess there is no time for me to get a "Green's Sawmill Services" hat up to you in time for your camera appearance is there? Just my luck. More free advertising out the window. :(

    I agree on the talking to the new guy. That sounds like time well spent. Stay safe. Enjoy. Smile big for the camera. Remember all us little guys when you hit the big screen and become famous.

[gspren]

Do you have a Forestry Forum hat?

[samandothers]

I am sure the dangers of dancing around the trees will be dramatic.  Don't drop a tree on him!

[trimguy]

Well if your going to wear my shirt tomorrow, no screw ups ! 😁

[Old Greenhorn]

Gee, I never thought of opportunities to provide brand exposure. That might have been one way to get my over $9.00/hr on this project. ;D
 I don't have an FF hat.. yet. Maybe in August?
 Howard you could send it FedEx overnight if they can guarantee delivery by 5:30am. ;D
 I am not much of a dancer, but hopping around trees comes naturally.  If I drop a tree on him, it will be because a) he is not fast enough on his feet, or b) he is keeping me from getting anything done.
 I just hope I can find the trees I need, having this guy on my back will likely throw me off my pace. I have a couple of trees tagged, but they are more difficult to get to and will require work work to get them into the mule. Not ideal. So I will take a new survey to see if I can find some better ones. If I hit a pocket of stuff I missed before, then the day goes quick. But I think I am out of those pockets, part of the reason my last trip came up short. But I talked to Barge this evening and maybe my horizons just opened a little. ;D There's a few bigger trees I've had my eye on, but the bottom log will be a firewood log for him. Win-win. ;D ;D There's also some car/trucks/tractors/farm implements that can't be removed until the trees are cut out of them. So I might as well, as long as I am there. ;D 
Trimguy, I shall endeavor to maintain the honor of your t-shirt. If I drop a tree on or near this guy, it will likely not be an accident, it will just be a physical manifestation of a Freudian slip.
 It is what it is, just another day in the woods.

[Hilltop366]

Take the hard to get to trees so they know how hard you work for their mushroom logs and will understand why the price is going way up. ;D

[Nebraska]

Yes if 1/2 inch plywood is 63.12 a sheet, mushroom logs are surely worth more next season... 😉

[Old Greenhorn]

Well it's 5:45 Howard and sadly your hat did not arrive. I will look for the fedex guy as I head down the road and flag him if I see him. I guess I will just have to wear the sweaty hat I have in the truck. ;D

[thecfarm]

To make The Big Time, you have to talk about a tree smoother.  :D

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I guess I sent it to the wrong address or it was on that plane that went down in the Pacific with Tom Hanks.

   If you are going to do another video session be sure to let us all know a week or so ahead of the event and post the address to send our advertising and you can walk into the ring with more FF member advertising on your body that Rocky meeting Apollo Creed.

   Let us know how this session went and if you need help dragging the vidiographer out from under the tree. I can just imagine his final conversation:

 "I see you have stopped complaining about everything I say and do. I am the expert you know. By the way, why are you cutting that huge pine? It is way bigger than all the others you have been cutting and they were all hardwoods. Don't you think I should move further back? Are you sure this is a safe spot for me to stand. Okay, I'll stand right here and start videoing. Wow. That tree sure looks big through this lens and it looks almost like it is coming straight for me instead of falling the opposite direction like you said it would. Hey, it is coming my way. I've got to goooo..."

[Old Greenhorn]

Sorry, I know a couple of you wanted to hear how it went yesterday, but I was really shot when I got home. After taking my daily junk in from the truck, I promptly fell sound asleep in my desk chair. Woke up for dinner, tried to catch up on the forum after, and was in bed by 8pm. I was spent.
 The video guy showed up pretty much on time and I explained the lay of the land and what I was doing. Nice fella in his early 30's. So we went up to the property and got setup. I had warned him that if he was looking for the transitional clip of a tree being cut and gracefully slamming to the ground it was not likely to happen that day. The woods are too thick and overgrown. I am also having to look harder for trees so time would be consumed by that.
 So we found some I had marked previously and I managed to drop it all the way down. Limbed and bucked it as he worked around for different camera angles and such. Then found an cut another right near it. As I was limbing the second one the saw tip got pinched in a little branch and threw the chain. This is only the second time I have thrown a chain in my life, the first being about 2 weeks ago. Still not sure why that happened. Anyway in the process of resetting the chain and talking to him I really must have messed up because I found myself with the side plate in my hand with the brake band activated. Try as I might I could not reset that brake band and after 15 minutes of messing with it and him standing around I just apologized and grabbed that silly battery saw I keep on the mule to cut myself out of a pinch and finished up with that. I really didn't want that on video, but what else could I do? Meantime the video guy was trying to angle shots so that the junk cars and treasures carefully stored in those woods would not show up in the photos. He though it unappealing. I explained to him that this is the real world. All forests are not pretty and filled with flowers and happy little critters dancing around collecting food. This is property management and in order to get this 'stuff' out and restore good growth, some trees have to come down. It's called 'work'. I don't know if the message made it home.
 I left him in the woods and ran back with the short load and got the 372 out of the truck and returned. It seemed overkill to cut 6" trees with a 28" bar, but what else could I do? So we cut more trees and moved around a bit and I showed him some of the other work going on. At some point he said he needed to do an 'interview' which would be an opportunity for me to explain my business and talk about why and how I do what I do. He clipped a tiny mic on my suspender and asked prepared questions written by the fellow who hired him. He seemed quite pleased with the answers and I managed to keep them fairly short (well, for me anyway). Apparently the purpose of this video is to show this project, the people involved in it, how the work is done, and how the whole thing affects a good forestry management plan. They want to present opportunities for small operations like mine to get a little wider exposure. I didn't know this until the interview began. So I got a few polite plugs in. But as we all know, what I said, and what they will use are two very different things. ;D
 So I shuttled the camera guy back up to the truck and he took more video of me loading the trailer. Then he wanted some wide overhead footage so he launched a drone. While he did that I took a quick walk just to say hi to Barge and his mechanic who were finishing up all the other work they had done on the Timbco and putting it all back together.
 The video guy packed up and left I think around 11am. I had only about 24 logs in the trailer, not good. So I went out for another round with the 372 and found a couple of good trees with high yield and a firewood log for Barge besides. But the 372 was giving me issues, the low idle was set too low and it kept stalling, then as I finished that last tree, I could not re-start it. I was frustrated and considered bagging the rest of the day. An otherwise prefect workday. It was now hot, I was soaked through and equipment issues make me lose my cool.
 So I went back and unloaded, brining me up to about 38 logs. I sat in the shade drinking water for a minute and decided I needed to fix that 450, so I pulled it out of the truck box and took it apart, cleaned out the junk, took apart the side plate to make sure the brake band was not broken, put that back together and eventually managed to get the brake reset. But I had another problem. When I threw the chain many of the drive teeth on the chain got all burred up and would not run in the bar slot. Another new experience. Once I figured out what was happening I put another chain on, put it all together and I was off to the races. The whole mess felt like it came from the pages of "Did something dumb today", and yes, I even had a witness, but no pictures.
 Back into the woods and I found a few more trees putting on a full load in the mule. I was now well past the normal time I quit and I was also pretty tired and starting to feel sunburned and dried out. I finished up with 60 logs which is just 3 short of my best solo day. Good enough. 60 was my minimum goal and 75 was my stretch goal.
 I packed it in and closed the gate at 3:15 headed home. Too tired to even stop at the store for a milkshake. I had a hard time staying awake the last 10 miles, but at least the driving was steady, which says a lot for a Friday evening at the height or tourist season. Last night was the first time my back was just too tired to unload, so I left it for today. I only need about 40 logs to finish up my current orders, so one more cutting trip and I think another to fetch the Mule home. Maybe I can do it in one shot, but it would be a push with all the weight, unless I find small logs.
 I have no idea when, or if this video will come out but when it does I'll let ya know. ( I can say no videographers were hurt in the making of the film.) Not having Howard's hat, I wore the one I have in the Mule which is from my friend Steve Martin's 'Unreal Bluegrass' radio show. He recently sent me a new clean one, so now I can wear the old one for work. I doubt you can see it very well in the video, but it is pretty sweat stained. I guess I should get a couple of my own hats made up. @trimguy I did wear your shirt, but I don't know if there are any pictures of my back. Wish you had something on the front, it would have shown up in the interview part, I think.
 2 days ago I had thought I would try to get back up today to finish off, but there is no way my body can do that, so it will have to be tomorrow. I have saws to work on today and a trailer to unload. And a disgruntled email to compose. It seems I have been playing tag with the accounting department at Cornell trying to get paid for these logs. The guy I dealt with said it might take a week or two, but now that their purchasing department is handling it, they can't seem to find an acceptable way to pay me in a timely manner and want me to fill out forms to get registered as a vendor. They say they have payment schedules of 30 or 60 days and expect me to understand 'that's how they do it'. Well I don't. Working with getting money from an academic institution is not new for me and it never goes well. They shut down for the summer, only answer emails every couple of days and think the world just goes on hold for them. Very frustrating and one of the main reasons I retired. I do not suffer fools well.
 Its another day, time to get at it.

[trimguy]

We had that Debate about the shirt before we ordered them. I said on the front, wife and two young uns said on the back. I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. 

[Old Greenhorn]

OH, I was thinking the nice art on the back and a smaller logo on the front. Still thinking about how I will do mine.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well tomorrow is slated to be hot. It is also planned to be my last day cutting for this season. They say temps in the high 80's with a heat index over 90 something. Back to the weather we had last weekend which nearly sucked the life out of me. I need at least 40 logs to finish up, 50 would be better. My plan is to get in as early as I can and walk and mark trees I can find, then start cutting by 9am. It is Sunday, so I want to respect the neighbors, even though I don't know if they can hear my saw. I am just a visitor there. I am also going to try using chaps instead of the pants and see how that goes. I haven't worn chaps for a couple of years now, except for a quick tree or two. I can say that already I can feel the higher humidity coming in and I am sweating as I type this, for no reason at all.
 In theory I should be able to pull 50 logs by just after noon, if I can find the trees, which is getting tougher. I think I left two trees marked yesterday, so that's a start, maybe 8-10 logs. 40-50 logs is just a bit too much to fit in the truck and haul the mule behind in the trailer. I could, probably, but why push my luck? I'll make another run up Monday or Tuesday and grab the mule. Maybe the wife will go along for the drive. (hey, it could happen. :D )
 Today I got my saws sharpened, tuned up the 372 so it runs better, I think, and fixed the chain that got buggered up when it throwed itself yesterday. Charged the battery saw too, so I have 3 saws on the truck to get through the day. That should cover me.  ;D 

[doc henderson]

be sure and wear some clothes under them there chaps.     you may find you get 100 logs with your wife, and will need her in the future.   :D.  good luck!  need to invent a ac/fan unit to push some air to the Netherlands.      8) 8) 8)   : : :    ;) :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Nah, not likely. The wife would just be going along for the ride, but I might give her a tour of the woods before I load up the Mule. At least she can see where I was killing myself working. ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well today was IT! I got the last 45 logs and called it a job. On the site was a lot of activity involved in removing the rusty treasures contained therein and I didn't want to add to the congestion any more than I had to. It was interesting and enjoyable for me to see some of that stuff come out from under the undergrowth into the light of day again. Truly there are a lot of treasures in there for sure.
 It was hot, but moreover it was HUMID and I sweated like a pig all day, just soaked through. I was glad I used chaps but I made a stupid rookie mistake and wore jeans instead of cotton work pants. I felt like an idiot and suffered appropriately for the error. I had to work hard for the wood, only one tree fell, the rest I had to piece down. Last tree of the day was a small one and it was right next to a '73 dodge Ramcharger, the first truck I ever owned and the roof on this one was better than the one I owned in 1982. ;D There were 2 or 3 poplars growing up right along the body lines, and I knew they would never pull that out with those trees there, so I took them down also.
 Here's one of the last full loads going out.


 
 
That load kind of squished the tires a wee bit. ;D

Anyway, done and loaded out. I have to take a run back up there to fetch the mule. No way to get that and 45 logs home in one shot. I don't mind the extra trip, I like watching the progress. Not yet sure if I am gong up Monday or Tuesday, depends on if I can schedule a delivery for tomorrow or not.
 I am pooped out, time for a break.

[aigheadish]

Glad you can finally call it a day(s)!

I had a 1977 Ramcharger that was my grandparents. I never had it running well enough to be reliable and back in those days I didn't have a place to store it, or money or time to work on it, so I got rid of it. Probably my biggest vehicular regret. That thing was cool.