Did something dumb today.

[samandothers]

Nebraska, at least if you fell you would fall into the loader bucket  .  

My thinking exactly!  It is not the fall down the roof that worries me, it is the sudden stop after going off the lower edge.

[firefighter ontheside]

When I built my house I had to get up on the roof while the roof was under construction to blow snow off.
I have a 9/12 pitch so its pretty steep for being up there on snow.  I was doing well for a while until I lost what I was holding onto.  I sat down and went for a ride down the roof.  I knew that I had already installed a 2x8 gutter board which was attached to the 2x6 roof deck boards, so it was sticking up above the deck by about 6".  I put my heels down right on the deck and hoped for the best.  My feet hit the gutter board and I kind of stood halfway up and sat back down when I came to a stop.  I'll never forget that.

We have ladders on all of the firetrucks that we call roof ladders.  They have flip out hooks to hook the peak of a roof.  You carry that ladder up another ladder to get to the roof and then slide the roof ladder on its side up the roof until the top is past the peak.  Then you lay it down.

[Don P]

Ridge hooks. Mine have rags duct taped over them to keep from scratching.
If you get a pair and a pair of ladder scaffold jacks you can set up 2 ladders some feet apart and run a plank between them across a section of roof.
I've tied 2 extension ladders together over the ridge as well.

When I confirmed the Olympics had not passed over a ski jumper while on my practice run going from the upper roof to the lower last year, we were under there looking up at a broken rafter not long ago. Gentle was not on my mind, I stuck the landing  :D.  Happily the purlins and stretchy metal saved the day.

[richhiway]

Well I know  somewhere there's rules about ladders and the forum.... My son was around today so I had help. We patched up the barn roof. It will leak but be better than hole the storm made 3 weeks ago.  Roofing contractor is supposed to give me a bid.  I doubt any work will happen until spring.  Ladder in the loader bucket  isn't the way I wanted to do it, but it got done and all is better for now.

 

 

32x50 doesn't look like much. A board and batten siding job is on the list  new roof first.

How old do you think those shingles are?

[firefighter ontheside]

During construction we made two ladders using 20' 2x4s with 2x4 rungs nailed on every 16".  We tied them together across the ridge and would move it back and forth as needed.  That ladder stayed on my roof for a few years.  It came in handy for a long time, but eventually I had to take it down.

[Nebraska]

Well I know  somewhere there's rules about ladders and the forum.... My son was around today so I had help. We patched up the barn roof. It will leak but be better than hole the storm made 3 weeks ago.  Roofing contractor is supposed to give me a bid.  I doubt any work will happen until spring.  Ladder in the loader bucket  isn't the way I wanted to do it, but it got done and all is better for now.

 

 

32x50 doesn't look like much. A board and batten siding job is on the list  new roof first.

How old do you think those shingles are?

I will have to study a couple pictures I would guess maybe the thirties. There's a scale house built in 1943 across the driveway from it and  had the same roof. The original farm house is  cut nails so it was pre 1890 because  the lumber yards got modern 
nails by then. The barn was probably a newer structure  replacing original buildings. I don't think cedar shingles last super well out here. The roofs I've seen them on here had gaps in the sheeting so they could breathe well enough.  Or maybe I expect too much. Pretty sure the steel on that was on much  longer than cedar was exposed. Lead head ring shanked nails holding it down and it  didn't  leak before this. Every so often a gypsy paint crew will come through and coats roofs and grain bins. I turned them down 10 years ago or so. If they would have came through this year I would have bitten as the steel  and the couplula needed it but I guess that isn't an option now. Anyone know ow long have lead head nails been gone?

[firefighter ontheside]

Well I did something dumb on Wednesdat, but discovered it today.  I think I got lucky because its cold.  I've been painting this project that I built for a customer.  Wednesday I finished up some painting about 5pm and promptly went inside to clean the paint brush, but never put the lid on the paint can.  I went to do some more painting this morning after I've been at work for 2 days.  That's when I found the can with no lid.  I was scared to check the paint, but luckily it was gooey on top but dried to a film.  I was able to add some water and mix it back to a good consistency.  I finished the painting.  That Benjamin Moore paint would be very expensive to waste.

 

[Old Greenhorn]

Thats a nice color, but what kind of wood are you covering up? Looks pretty.

[firefighter ontheside]

Its nothing special...yellow poplar, i think birch plywood and some sort of nondescript 1/4" hardwood plywood.  It was all chosen to be painted.

[Crusarius]

I do like the color.

[firefighter ontheside]

We have a winter storm coming this week with the potential for heavy ice.  I needed to check on the generator and make sure it would run if needed.  Of course the battery was dead and so I had to jump it.  It cranked and cranked with no start, so I got some starting fluid and gave it a squirt.  There was a little bang from the choke, but no start.  I gave it another start of fluid and cranked.  A fireball came out of the exhaust pipe and scared the heck out of me.  I took that as a sign that it might start.  Unfortunately I failed to align the generator correctly in its little house so that the exhaust would be aimed out.  It did start and filled the shed with smoke.  I had to shut it down and move the gen.  Finally I got it aimed correctly and it started again.  Now if we get the ice and lose power, at least I'm sure the generator will start.  Off to town to fill some gas tanks and we are as ready as we'll ever be.

[pineywoods]

Old injuries can come back and bite you. Years ago I tore the muscles in my left shoulder loading logs on to a trailer. It  eventually healed and had not bothered me for quite a while. Dis-abled wife needed help getting out of the walk-in shower and into her wheel chair. I had her about half way there when she panicked and went limp, throwing her full weight on that shoulder. Now it hurts a bunch. The dumb thing--Sitting in the next room was a gadget called a hoyer lift, a medical tool made for lifting and moving people. A jazzed up version of a shop engine hoist. wouldn't have taken but a few seconds to fetch it, what can I say...dumb..

[OlJarhead]

Those old injuries suck -- they are biting me something fierce now....My dad tells me it's called 'old age'   Thanks Dad.

I did something dumb but it wasn't today! lol it was in November but I only just found out it was dumb this past weekend.  If you've seen any of my latest cabin videos you know what it was ;) but for those who haven't, I left the taps open in the bathroom (sink) after winterizing the cabin, blowing out the lines and shutting off the main valve from the gravity water system............

Seems there was a drip and the system was slowing dripping away...and then it froze in the drain and backed up....until the sink was full and then overflowed onto the floor....

Lucky for me it wasn't too big a flood before I discovered it and a little clean up etc and I think I'll be ok but won't completely know until the spring that  ;)

:-[

[SawyerTed]

Boy did I pull a boneheaded one a couple of weeks ago. I sawed for my best repeat customer.  He is a very high end furniture and cabinetmaker.  Every month between November and March, I saw walnut, cherry and ash logs he collects.  Occasionally he throws in a cedar or poplar for drawer parts  Some months I saw twice if he has logs.  

When I wrote his invoice at the end of the last sawing session some kind of "fuzzy math" moment struck me.  I wrote the invoice, he paid me and we went on our way.  For two weeks it sort of occupied a corner in my mind.  

Yesterday before I went to saw for him again, I pulled my copy and sure enough there was my "fuzzy math".  I had told my customer that my rate went up first of the year so he didn't think about it. But my rate had not gone up $20 per hour!  

Yesterday when we finished up, I told him about my error and discounted that invoice with s "pre payment".   We laughed shook hands and scheduled another sawing date.  

It was dumb and embarrassing 😳 but easier to admit it and correct it than live with it.  I don't "need" the money and the idea of losing a very good customer over my mistake would have hurt my reputation more than the money is worth.  

[firefighter ontheside]

 @pineywoods  yeah the Hoyer lifts come in handy often.  Often we will run EMS calls to calls where they need help getting up or down or whatever the case may be.  Sometimes the pt. ends up getting a hoyer lift and it makes it easier for them and us in the future.

My most recent dumb things were a few weeks ago finding a check that someone had paid me with for sawing.  It wasn't a large check, but it was from March of last year.  The check is no good.  I contacted the man through his son and asked if he would mind writing me a new check, but I"m not gonna press the issue.

The other thing was coming home from 2 days at work and finding the kiln/shed door open with the light on.  Luckily there is nothing running in there right now.  I had sold something out of there one day in the middle of sawing and got the white oak out for a customer and helped him carry it to his truck.  Went right back to sawing and forgot all about the door.  I asked my family if they noticed a strange light coming from behind the camper for 2 days.  

[terrifictimbersllc]

I sawed for a repeat customer last fall who explained that he was in a really good mood that morning because he had just found $5000 in his truck door pocket that he had forgotten was there. 

[sawguy21]

Sooo, how does anybody put 5 g's in the door pocket and forget about it? Inquiring minds need to know!

[firefighter ontheside]

Sooo, how does anybody put 5 g's in the door pocket and forget about it? Inquiring minds need to know!

Right.  Hopefully he looked high and low for it and just didn't find it, as opposed to totally forgetting he had $5000 in cash.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Reminds me of the tale of the guy who rolled up several $100 bills and stuck them in the end of his shotgun for safe storage and did not remember till he shot at a rabbit, duck or grouse or something. :

[terrifictimbersllc]

 :D :D :D.   As best I understood he just forgot about it and a number of months later had a pleasant surprise.  Interpreting what I know, I think he was very distracted by being in the middle of a divorce which possibly explained the stashing away, and then the forgetting, as he had other things on his mind. 

[sawguy21]

I was doing some wiring in dad's garage workshop when I got a rather unpleasant surprise. After my heart stopped racing double time I investigated and found my 15 yr old sister had popped the breaker to her room, found one off on the panel and switched it on. She had hidden a coin under the bulb in her bedside lamp and forgotten about it. That earned her a good tongue lashing. :

[Old Greenhorn]

I sawed for a repeat customer last fall who explained that he was in a really good mood that morning because he had just found $5000 in his truck door pocket that he had forgotten was there.

Dennis, you should have said "Well, you DO look really happy! If you want to see what your face looks like, just give me half and we can BOTH be that happy!"
 I mean, if he 'forgot' about 5k, he probably didn't need or miss it very much.

[Hilltop366]

Back in the 70's my uncle a fish buyer came to town to pay the the lobster fishermen that he had been getting lobsters from, he had some time to kill so he stopped by our house for a visit. After a while talking to my Dad and drinking a coffee he says "Oh I left some money in a paper bag on the seat of my truck, do you think it's ok?" (door unlocked and key in the ignition too) Dad says "should be" to which my uncle replies "I hope so, there is about one hundred thousand in there.

[SawyerTed]

Where I work you could leave $100k on the break room table for a week.  But don't get up from the table and leave a donut and expect it to be there when you get back! :D

[Daburner87]

Had a bad day Sunday.  It was only my second log ever, the first went very well last weekend, but the second was a bad one for me.


First there was still snow on the ground, and the log was frozen to the dirt.  I should of skipped trying to mill it, but I put a goal of one log every sunday and tried to live up to that.


This log was 8ft long, probably around 27" diameter on the bigger end.  It was a pain just getting it rolling from where it was frozen.  My 60" logrite couldn't budge the sucker, finally used my 6ft steel pry bar and freed it.   While hand winching it up the ramps it got a little crooked and before i realized it slipped off the ramp, and I thought for sure the winch cable was gonna snap and hurt me.  It did not, and the log ended up turning almost 90 degrees and pointing upwards in the air....


Pretty scary moment, I was able to loosen the winch cable and carefully roll it back to the ground with my logrite.  


Repositioned the log a bit, as well as the winch cable and started rolling it back up the ramps.  Once again it was crooked and I wanted to let it back down.   The hand crank winch is something Im not familiar with.  I hit the switch to unwind and the handle spun rapidly smacking my forearm hard due to the weight on the line.  Stupid mistake!  Reposition, and roll the log up again. Now I had to chainsaw a chunk off just to clear the saw itself, and finally got her on the bunks.  The log was dirty and I wanted to hose it off. Unfortunately the hose was frozen stiff, and i filled a 5 gallon bucket 3 or 4 times with water to clean the log. 

Finally made a few passes, and Im ready to rotate the log, but I simply cant.  My 60" logrite was no match for rolling this log. After about ten minutes of wrestling with it I gave up and cut slabs.  This log kicked my ass.


All I wanted from this log was a ton stickers.  Instead I made a bunch of slabs and put them on the mill sideways to edge them and then I hit a log dog. *DanG.....

A lot of mistakes were made, and a lot of lessons learned.  Definitely should have spent the day putting the battery on the mill along with the electric winch instead of wrestling a log in the snow to no avail.