Sunday sawing with the Mighty Mite

[GareyD]

I'm really starting to feel a little sorry for ya fellers that live north of the Mason Dixon Line...I sampled a little of the pains ya must go through to saw in the cold...Started the day out at a balmy 23 degrees F. today...us southern boys ain't got the clothes to be outside in this kinda weather....

Go to start the mill...man, this battery don't sound like it would lite a flashlight...much less turn over the VW on the mill...walk up to the shop and find the booster box....get the motor to turn and catch....BOY, she catches and immediately revs to about 4,000 rpm....shut her down and start lookin for the problem....the governor musta had a little ice on it somewhere...the Mighty Mite either doesn't want to idle, or wants to run above red line on the tach which definitely ain't recommended by the manufacturer...a little judicious use of the heat gun finally solved the problem....

Ok...now we'll just start the Kubota and get a couple of logs on the mill...tractor runs about 5 minutes and dies...got a little condensation in the fuel filter that is frozen solid as a rock....now where did I put that heat gun??...Get the filter canister to thaw out and change the paper filter...now we gotta bleed the injectors??...

Finally get a White Oak log on the mill...now all this nonsense has only taken about 3 hours just to get started milling...

How do ya fellers up north ever get anything done??



Here is what I finally ended up getting sawn today...Some SYP for the new barn to house them nosey cow critters...and....some white oak that is all quarter and rift sawn.

Thank goodness it's 'sposed to back to normal and in the 60's by the middle of the week....I just ain't cut out for this cold.

[sprucebunny]

A lot of days in the north you got to start by FINDING the mill and digging it out...before you can get to the starting it part.
 :D :D
Looks like you accomplished a good bit  ;)

[HORSELOGGER]

Actually Garey, thats the stuff we went through back in October, so by now all the cold weather kinks are worked out.Got 8 more inches of snow yesterday with 40 mph winds, thats on top of the 2 inch thick sheet of ice from the 7 inches a week ago that was followed by 50 degrees and pouring rain , then back to zero degrees ??? Finding the mill is easy, just keep goin back and forth in the lot with the skidloader bucket down till i hit somethin solid, then... Dig ;)

[Ga_Boy]

Nice job Gary.

I know what you mean when it comes to cold milling.  Music Boy and I dis some last week.  The lub mizer on his mill forze solid.

Did you lumber get thicker the colder it got at the end of the day?   As soon as the sun set behind the treeline, we started milling a lot of 6/4 and 8/4 material.



Mark

[OneWithWood]

Garey,
Soundin' a lot like my day yesterday.  Only I never got to the milling part, just the firewood making part!  
Working in these conditions is why those of us residing north of the MD are so young looking, healthy, and handsome!! :D ;D

[RacinRex]

All I can say is... Welcome to our world!!!

It was -20F this morning when I started my car to come to work. And I still miss farming, see what kind of sickness an honest hard earned living can be? I spent the last two days outside and in the garage working on things. I don't mind the winter one bit most of the time. Except on days like today where I'm sitting in a nice warm office tolerating political pettiness and general stupidity from the time the sun comes up till after it goes down in hopes of making enough money to support my milling habits.  :D

[pappy]

GareyD,
It's simple this far up north ...

summer sawing ... mill open;

The Mrs. taking a turn at it;


Then there's winter;


Shut 'er down and stay inside where it's warm  

[slowzuki]

Was that a belted Galloway nosing around?

I agree it is too darn cold to saw up here!  I couldn't hardly convince myself to fix the tractor yesterday and that was out of the wind!

[GareyD]

sprucebunny & HORSELOGGER...Around here digging the mill outta the RUST is more the normal  ;D

Ga_Boy...managed to keep all that white oak at 5/4...I shut it down when the sun got behind the treeline  ;D

OneWithWood... Working in these conditions is why those of us residing north of the MD are so young looking, healthy, and handsome!!...yep, sumtimes the cold can muddle my thinkin' too!!  ;D :D ;D

termite...Arond here we try to saw in the winter...come summer the metal parts on the mill get too hot to handle  

slowzuki... Was that a belted Galloway nosing around? ...UhHuh...dem are my wife's critters...that is the nosey bull ya can see behind that whack of lumber...he's makin' sure it's nuthin to eat there  :D :D :D

Here is another pix of part of her herd.....

[sprucebunny]

Oreo cows ;D

[Brad_S.]

150,000 btu salamander style heater assisting the glo plugs for the equipment and 1000 gram thinsulate boots for me helps get things going around here. :D

[pappy]

GareyD,
yup your winters must be just about the same as our autumn and early fall.  A very nice time to saw!!