Making it through another year, '23-'24

[aigheadish]

The burning rant was very well said, Tom. I really enjoy the FTF episodes where they discuss the benefits of burning, and I've learned a lot. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Austin, having spent a lot of time on the fire lines around these parts, and then returning a few years later to see the effects, I can say, we need more burning, properly applied if we want to improve our forest in a significant way. That's all I got to say about that.

Doc, Nebraska, et al: When I first saw this painted dried, I immediately called it "Boy Scout Brown" and it will remain so. It is the exact same color I spent year slathering onto lean-to's, out houses, and dining halls all around my home Scout cap as a boy. This shelf unit is so hokey when freestanding that I am more than hesitant to take a photo for evidence. But I'll see. When it's installed in a week or 3 the LED lights inside the trailer will likely throw the color off. But it is brown, by any sane standard,

[doc henderson]

got it!  sort of a NY scout brown color that in bright led lighting looks much like the school color for Kansas state University.     

[WV Sawmiller]

I bet its purple.

[doc henderson]

well Howard, I went to KU so I am not sure... hmmmm.        

[doc henderson]

I could not find out the exact color, but they seem to like this song.

Kansas State and the Wabash Cannonball (youtube.com)

[Old Greenhorn]

Geez, you guys are like old dogs with their bones. Give it a rest, will ya? Or at least find something new to chew on. Wait, on second thought, just give it a rest.

[WV Sawmiller]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYrr4Sb6YuA

Here is the correct Wabash Cannonball

[doc henderson]

OK, send pics and if it really is brown, I will try to stop.

[Old Greenhorn]

I don't really think, no matter what you may say, that you fellas will ever let it go. This is brown:

Here is the shelf unit, also BROWN:


 OK? Now practice that word with me fellas: "It's Just plain old B R O W N".
 So let's just put this one to bed. OK?
______________________________________
 Not a great weather day, tiny little snow coming down you had to squint to see, pretty humid and full overcast with a 15-20 wind in some places and 5mph in other spots a couple hundred yards away. I went out to cut some trees and got just under 20 in the truck. If I add to the count everyday it adds up.
 Ran into Bill and he had a stack of big cookies he wanted to get sanded so I took those and one of Bill's new guys back to my shop and we worked on that for about 45 minutes before he came and collected his new guy and they all headed off to a tree job. I stayed behind, had lunch and finished up this last ash cookie.


That's about 24x40" and there were 3 of those. Then he also had 3 thicker but a little smaller hard maple cookies, maybe 26" rounds. But those still need to dry a LOT more. I stopped after 2 passes. I could feel it moving as I sanded almost. They were just run through the slabmizer a few days ago and are already cupped and bowed. I can't do nuttin' with that.  So I off loaded the truck and stacked logs.
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 I had a long talk with my last log order client, he is new. He wanted 1,000 logs. I called him to tell him I would start on his next week and was just checking in that he still wanted them. He still wants 1,000 logs and is pushing hard for me to up my number. I said I MIGHT be able to do more than 100, but likely not quite 200. He asked if I could send him an invoice showing my costing that he could use in his financing applications for his farm loans, so I did that. We will see how this goes, but I don't like the feeling I get when I tell somebody I can't do something and they keep pushing anyway. I am not greedy and it's not all about the money. Of course I could use it but I am not going to kill myself for it. I've been hurt 3 times this season and would like to keep it at that. Also, I gave him some references for other cutters, but he hasn't talked to them yet (6 weeks now), so I don't know what he is expecting here. But frankly, he ordered after I was underway and filled up. I am trying to help him out by pushing out another 100 logs maybe more if I can, but he just keeps asking for more and I am not happy with that part of it. We'll see how this goes.
 Hopefully I have 2 maybe 3 big white oaks coming down this weekend (hopefully) that will make a dent in his order and we'll see what we have. 
 Tomorrow is another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Well, I must admit that upright has a bluish tint to it. I will just agree it is BS Brown.

    Good luck on the mushroom log customer. Just remember not to get too far out of your comfort zone. Retirement is supposed be a low stress time of life.

[doc henderson]

He must be a resale guy?  or is he a farm guy?  It is the brownest paint you have used.  it looks good must be the lighting.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I suppose that is the closest I will ever come to getting you guys to relax on the color thing. So I will be happy with that. If you look at the photo of the cookie, do you see green moldy looking spots like I do? I did a double take after posting then went out and looked at said cookie. There is NO green on it at all and those sections are actually included old bark and very brown with some black. Colors can get screwy, between the camera, flash, LED lighting, resizing, all serve to confuse the issue.
 No Doc, he is trying to start up a new farming operation and I get the feeling he is some kind of NYC business guy and this 'farm' may be either an investment or a tax shelter. Either way, he is a bit pushy and trying to make his problems into my problems.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I know there are color issues of what you see and what gets photographed or printed. My wife is a free lance photographer and she has to be careful to get her computer monitor in sync with the printer so what she sees on the screen is actually what will be printing. There are adjustments available for her and our IT guru to do that. 

   It used to be when she'd take film to be printed that was the same with the printer at Wal Mart or the drug store. The operator would look at screen on the machine and lighten or darken the print to enhance it then they'd run the whole batch of film on that setting. One lady who is our DIL's sister used to work there and she'd check every picture and adjust each as needed. When taking senior pictures at a local park in the evenings after school and the light was fading quickly down between the mountains there could be a lot of difference between the first and last picture she took in a 1-2 hour session.

  

[doc henderson]

Well, I know the kind of guy you are Tom, but for this special client you may want to give him a few larger logs, so you get more from the tree you are cutting up.  Tell him the commercial operations use 12-foot logs and he will need to pick them up!     Maybe I am color blind and I trust what you are saying.  But it has been a bit fun to invent our own color.      all in fun my friend!   

[Peter Drouin]

Either way, he is a bit pushy and trying to make his problems into my problems.

I don't ever let that happen here. Some try and I show them the gate. Custermers like that are problems all the way to the end, then they try to talk you down on the price too.

[Old Greenhorn]

Pete, he already tried the price thing early on since he thought 1,000 logs should get a break. I explained clearly that it is not less work to do a 1,000 log order, in fact, for a big order like that I will throw all the equipment at it I can use (along with the fuel and hired help if I can get it). So my profit margin is actually lower. He accepted that and never mentioned it again.
 I will ride it out through this order then see what happens down the line. There is a certain amount of time I am willing  to give to educate my clients. Basically they get one chance and if they keep pushing me, the next time I will be way too busy to cut their logs.

[Nebraska]

I did see the green and I suppose that's why one shelf still looks a weee bit not brown.   1000 logs is a good check but lots of work, cut what you can with out tearing yourself up.  

[Old Greenhorn]

....... 1000 logs is a good check but lots of work, cut what you can with out tearing yourself up. 

Dang tootin' it is, BUT I already tore myself up fairly well this season and other stuff is backing up that I HAVE to get done.. Times like this I have to stop and remember it's not about making every buck I can, it's supposed to be enjoyable too. Part of that enjoyment is saying 'not thank you' when I have had enough. Always leave them wanting more, right? I don't want to step back into that hamster roller cage thing I was stuck in for 50 years, because I no longer HAVE to. I worked hurt and worked sick for too many years. Done with that.
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Well, I am posting earlier than usual today because I am spent and pretty near bone tired. Bill does a Sunday breakfast at his p[lace Sunday's for some friends with their little kids. The kids play and have fun, the adults enjoy coking, drinking coffee and tea, and eating excessively large breakfasts. I have a standing invitation but have my own morning chores and stoves to tend and cook my own usual breakfast and sharpen saws. I get their to help finish off the coffee pot, but today the forced a 1-1/2" thick slice of French Toast on me and then some pancakes. After my usual breakfast of 2 sausage patties and 2 fired eggs, it was easy for me to skip lunch. I was uncomfortable until I worked it off. Old folks eat less.
 Anyway, we stated work around 11am. Today the goal was to take at least some of the trees around Bill's driveway that HAD to come down. I think we took about 6 or 7 trees. 3 of these were EWP's,  2 were long time dead (LTD) and one  was still live but not in great shape and in a bad spot. We took a couple of scraggly hard maples that I could use, and then one really nice WO that had a broken and deformed top, 16" on the stump. All the tops from these trees dropped on the bedrock area in the center of his driveway and the dead stuff EXPLODED when it hit that beck. Quite the show. Rather than cart all the brush off, we just made a fire right there. Pretty handy working in the yard with any piece of heavy equipment within reach, rare too. SO we had the 12' snowplow already on the Toolcat and used that to push al the branches into the fire, we had the skid steer with a rotating grapple to pick up the logs and move them to neat stack and the whole thing went lickedy split. But doing my logs means marking bucking and moving and I had not brought my trailer. so that tok some time. Plus the trees we took opened some thing up for sun and there was a very nice WO that will grow well now, but had some poorly formed lower branches that now needed to come off, so we fire up the skidder bucket and trimmed those, giving me a few more logs. That WO will grow into something really nice, I wish I would live to see it.  
 I dropped that last WO in the driveway area, we limbed it and burned the small stuff. Bill picked up the main trunk and piled it and a big leader along the driveway while I bucked some mushroom logs from the other leaders just to clear the driveway area. I will go back and finish bucking up those logs tomorrow along with my trailer to fill and clear all that out.

 As I said the main goal today was more about clearing trees Bill needed gone while also getting me a few logs. There are still a few big pines that need to come out on another day, but we have a pretty quick system worked out now doing the burning right there. There is 'technically' a burn ban on now. But we follow 'dirt road rules'.   Besides, Bill and I are/were both firefighters, there is a 750 GPM fire pump 40' from the fire and a pond that is 17' deep feeding the pump. Our safety confidence was 'somewhat high'.
 But I am ashamed to admit that I am pretty spent, just 6 hours straight through, but I feel a little embarrassed. I have to face that fact that I am, in fact, starting to feel my age. Just 7 trees and I am shot. Pretty pathetic.
 Ah well, laugh it off and tomorrow is another day. One more WO in that area, then move on.

[doc henderson]

well, use it or lose it!  At least you are using it.  

[GRANITEstateMP]

Tom,

I like the term "safety confidence".  I may need to steal that from you!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well life is (or should be) a series of risk assessments, at least in this type work. As long as you think it through and have a mitigation plan, you should be good to go, even if things go a little wrong. It was also a way to teach his young daughter how to keep a fire watch. Life is also about learning opportunities and using them when they arise.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, today was routine. I went down and planned on cutting that last WO we left yesterday when the old man petered out. But I couldn't take that one because one of Bill's guys had parked his truck too close to the fall line and I wasn't going to take a chance on a nice looking truck. So I loaded all the logs we cut yesterday on the trailer we put down yesterday, I counted 50. So that more than finishes the current order and puts a few logs on the next (and LAST) order.
 So I headed to another area we marked and I took one tree I had to wedge over to avoid whacking a storage trailer. I needed 3 wedges to get the lift and had to walk all the way back to my truck for more wedges. Sometimes those smaller 10" trees are the hardest. So I bucked 11 logs off that and left them lay. I have 3 more good sized ones in the same area and access in there is a little tricky, I'll need a SxS to get in there, might have to move some 'stuff'. I cut in there last year, so I know it's do-able to get the logs out, it's just an extra step and handling.
 Headed home, dropped the trailer, did lunch, ran errands. I kept forgetting to look for paint for the inside of the trailer. I wanted something in a white, as it is now. But I didn't want to buy a gallon of prime stuff, so I checked the 'mistake colors' at HD and sure enough they had 2 quarts cans in a light blue that was close enough, for 2 bucks a quart. SOLD! A half gallon would be just about right. Not my first choice, but the price was right.
 Got home and started to change out the battery in the Mule. That turned into a project because I bought a battery 3 times the size of the original because of the winch, stereo, front and back lights, heater fan, defroster fan, and all the other doo-dads I added. Putting on new wire terminals and making it all fit took about 3 hours. Seems to work fine now.
 Tomorrow I'll cut in the morning and then I managed to schedule two clients to come pick up their logs at about 3pm, saving me some lost work time in the woods. I can work in the trailer while I wait for them. The weather is improving (except when it isn't) and I have to get a move on. I let both stoves got out today. The shop only gets down to the high 50's overnight and it takes minutes to fire it up in the morning and get the temp up to 70. So why waste wood. In the house it's just comfort heat form getting sweaty during the day. A hot shower has the same effect.
 I've been on business austerity spending for about 8 months now and since I am building the bank account up, even thought I am spending for the trailer stuff, it's time to start placing some of my annual stock supply orders. So last night I began making a list(s) of routine stuff I order a year or two's supply of and am now low on. Flagging tape, lumber crayons, some work clothes, jeans, shirts, wedges, safety glasses, earplugs, that kind of stuff. Madsen's must have missed me by now.  

[Resonator]

Save your receipts, supplies used for the business can be tax write offs.

[SawyerTed]

The thought occurred to me that 1000 mushroom logs is about 150 21' logs or 100 30' logs.   

That's a bunch of trees and, of course, a huge amount of physical work - stating the obvious. 

Would a firewood processor speed things up?   Are firewood processors for hire (like sawmills) or for rent in your area?  Maybe you could get mushroom logs cut and some firewood in the process. 

Just a thought on reducing the physical toll but staying in the business.

Another thought might be subcontracting the logs to stationary firewood processors?