Making it through another year '21-'23

[Old Greenhorn]

Never let it be said that I didn't do the least I could do. ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I seem to remember an old thread on here somewhere where somebody used his mill to saw a frozen elk or hog or such in half to butcher it. As I remember he decided not to do another as it took forever to get the band wheels cleaned out and such. I think somebody even sliced a watermelon but I have not heard of any chickens coming off one yet.

   Sounds to me like your mill at home may be getting a little lonesome and may get jealous and quit on you if you keep hanging around the neighbor's 50. You know sawmills have feelings too. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I know. I have had 3 logs queued up there for months waiting to roll on. First it was all the rain, then other stuff happened. Now I really have to get on fire wood when I am not selling myself down the road. ;D

[WDH]

Yes, Southside has the chicken fixation. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, Southside has the chicken fixation.

ANd I have chickens on the mill and yet nothing. ???

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, so far this has been my kind of week, I guess. Monday I was down at the mill making long 2x8's. Tuesday I finally resigned to get started on the firewood, lest I put myself in a jam. I made some good inroads on that but have a long way to go yet. Starting is the hard part. Late Tuesday afternoon I had just sat down for a sweat break and my phone rang. It was a mushroom guru who gives a lot of classes, guided mushroom walks, and grows a lot of stuff making elixirs and oils and such to sell to stores and at farmer's markets. He is growing himself a pretty nice business and has a couple of folks working for him. We have talked back in January about logs and he gave me some useful free advice, but said he cuts his own and doesn't grow exclusively on logs. Anyway, he called because he was in a bind and was calling anyone who might be able to help him out of it. He has a regularly scheduled inoculation class he runs the second Saturday of each month. He supplies the logs and everything else needed for getting it done, then walks the students through the process. He started to cut logs last week and rolled his ankle spraining it badly and couldn't walk, let alone forage logs. He was looking for 40 logs, by Saturday morning. He knew it was a long shot but he was desperate. 
 This fella knows his stuff and I told him I don't 'stock' but happened to have just found a storm damaged pair of hickories (see other thread). He pulled out his chart and said 'that will work fine'. I also told him what they would look like (not all straight, some smaller, some bigger) and that I might not be able to get the 40 he needed, but maybe 30. He was tickled pink to get what he could and I said I would go down and re-asses the trees for his needs before dark and call him back. I ran down after dinner and figured I could get maybe 30 logs, perhaps a few more. So I called him back and we worked out details on costing (I kept my regular rates).
 Wednesday morning I started on it at 9am and came up with the first 14 and unloaded and gave him a call to find out about pickup. After some dancing around both our schedules we agreed that I would deliver the logs out at his class site that afternoon (35 minute drive) and he would meet me to help unload as he could. But he had a Doc appointment at 3 so had to be done by 2:30 to make it. This meant I had to hustle. So I got at it, skipped lunch and breaks and only stopped to sharpen the saw. Hickory is hard, but rocks are harder and I touched one. I got it done ad loaded everything in the truck in a hasty mess and made the drive out, he met me on time, we unloaded, he gave me a check which he rounded up a bit. I had brought 44 logs and told him to pay me for 40 (I always throw in extras), but he insisted on paying me for every one, added in the delivery and another 20 bucks or so. He then made it clear how much he appreciated it and how I saved his butt and did him a huge favor out of the blue. I explained that I understood having a small 'cottage' business can be rough and we need to stick together, us small operators. I grabbed lunch at a deli on the way home, around 3pm.
 I have a feeling this may have had more value as a developing relationship, than as a one time sale. He is looking to do a workshop every month and cutting logs is getting to be a hassle for him with all the other stuff he does so he mentioned he would like knowing when I find log sources and could supply him with logs for his classes. Since they are scheduled, I will know well ahead of time when he needs logs. It might work into something because when I am doing property improvement jobs it may give me an outlet for those small trees I come across from time to time which otherwise turn into firewood. He was very pleased with the logs and not overly picky like most buyers. I believe this is because he cuts his own and knows the deal.
 So it was a surprise order that generated a bit under an SGU for about 5 hours work. I shoved it all into that short time frame because I have a chiro appt. this morning and need to get back down to the mill either this afternoon or tomorrow. I took no photos, there was no time. If this had been a 'typical' buyer I would have spread the work out over a couple of days and into next week, or even let it go entirely, but I knew this guy was in a bind, and he helped with with some free guidance and advice back in January so I figured I needed to pay that back.
 Today is another day and I will wait a bit before deciding to mill this afternoon or do more firewood. I want to see what the weather is going to do first. We had rain off and on all night. Glad I am seeing the Chiro Doc today, I am a little crampy after the last 2 weeks.

[HemlockKing]

I bet you if someone told you 10'years ago as a machinist you'd be doing mushroom log work in 10 you'd look at them like they had 2 heads lol 

[Old Greenhorn]

I bet you if someone told you 10'years ago as a machinist you'd be doing mushroom log work in 10 you'd look at them like they had 2 heads lol

Probably, and then I would ask "What the heck is a 'mushroom log' anyway!?"

[Nebraska]

You never  know exactly  what life will throw you. 

[Old Greenhorn]

that's true and I gave up trying to guess about 50 years ago.
Now that I am retired and really trying to survive al the expenses, these little 'changes in direction' are alternately fun and somewhat frustrating depending on the day.
 My young boss just stopped by for a beer on his way home and my plan for tomorrow is milling some 2x14x 20' to make a ridge beam up over a 60' span. OK, I've never done that before, lets see how this goes. Saturday's plan is to run his new edger and make 2x8's out of long dried 2x12's, never run an edger, but OK. Somewhere in between he expects to fill a big void in my education and teach me how to finally drive a skidsteer and operate a swivel grapple. This is a bit of a challenge for me because he has 4 or 5 of them and they all seem to have different control systems, some joysticks and some foot control, and some seem to have both. Well, whatever, I am up for it. What could go wrong? :D ;D

[Tacotodd]

If it CAN go wrong, it WILL! :(

[Old Greenhorn]

NAH! I don't see an issue here. But stay tuned and I' let you know ho great it turned out. ;D

[Tacotodd]

AND, the saga continues for another day :D

[GRANITEstateMP]

Tom, once you spend a little time in a skid steer, you'll get the hang of it. First time I ran one I was just barely a teen, it was foot and hand controls.  Last one I was in was all joystick with a roller switch to run the aux hydro's.  Just like anything else, take your time, try and be smooth, and try not to get into too many tight spots until your kinda comfy!  

PS- back up cams are great, but most have mirrors too, I'm pretty fond of knowing what I'm backing into/on/over
;D

[aigheadish]

I agree with Granite and I'm excited to hear about your skidsteering adventures!

I have, essentially, no experience with an SS but I've got a fair amount running a backhoe and while it can be utterly terrifying at times it's also very rewarding and fun. The amount of work you can do is astounding.

[Old Greenhorn]

You never  know exactly  what life will throw you.  

Well today was yet another one of those days. I thought I was going down to run the mill and make lumber and we did do that eventually, but the road was blocked when I got there (long story, trespasser problems) so I went up to the shop, nobody there, so I went to the house and found my buddy, his wife, and friend all starting a lazy day. More friendly conversation than work. We talked about the genset I found him on CL last night and called the seller and made arrangements to see it around 2pm. It's a little 120/208 3 phase genset that puts out about 600 amps. ;D Runs off propane or natural gas. He is looking for something to run the future woodshop off of.
 Then we went up to the shop and fire4d up the edger to make some boards for his friend. We played around a bit with the edger at the same time. It needs blades before we can really load it up. SO his friend left, then a pipe saleswoman showed up and that killed another 20 minutes. Finally we drove around to the mill and pulled a 20' log, got rid of the sawdust pile and loaded it up. We di a tiny bit of skid steer instruction, but got involved in the log work more. He needed 3 2x14x20' for his ridge beam being set tomorrow. So we got that and some 5/4 x 14's for the facia boards. Mission accomplished. We left it on the mill so we could check with his master carpenter in the morning for any adjustments before moving it up the hill to the shop. Then I hopped in my truck and he in the skid steer with a grapple full of 5' slabs for the OWB and headed out, BUT as he rounded the turn he nearly had a head on accident with an amazon van being driven at a high rate of speed around the corner, probably doing close to 30 on a PRIVATE 10 MPH road. He went off. He jumped out and asked her what she was doing there, she said she had to get through. He said back up and get off my land. She said I have to call my boss. He said you can't do that here either, we don't allow cell signals on my land (no way could you get s signal there, no coverage for 2 miles at least). She said 'just let me through this once. I don't think I can back this big truck up'. She was driving a mini-van with New Jersey plates. :DHe went off again and pointed out that she passed 3 signs that said "Private property, landowners ONLY" and 3 signs that said "10MPH MAX speed". She ignored them all and drove like a bat tearing up the road, and on that basis alone, the conversation was over. She just said 'I have to get through'. After a few more choice words, he said "let me make this clear to you" and he climbed back in the SS and lifted the load all the way up and opened the grapple spreading slabs all over, then he laid the grapple on the ground, took the keys out, and walked up the road toward me, I backed out of site so she would think I had another way out and we waited about 3 minutes, when we went back, she was gone.
 Almost every day these delivery drivers come flying through hoping to make it without getting caught. Sometimes they get lucky, sometimes they don't. When I am at the mill I park my truck in the middle of that road. Last week it was a tractor trailer coming through, totally lost.
 Anyway, when we calmed down I headed home to check on the wife and drop my truck, he picked me up a few minutes later and we ran some local business errands, took down two quick trees hanging on telephone lines, and headed out to see the generator. It has either a cracked head or a bad gasket leak, but we picked it up for $3200. which would make it worthwhile to fix or repower with a diesel and then either use or flip it. Cost new is about $30k. It's a bit more power than he will ever need. Could probably power the whole road or most of it. On the way home we stated making calls to arrange the right equipment to pick it up next week. We finally settled on a roll back truck to just winch it up on the bed and chain it down. We figure it is around 5,000#. 
 So not at all the day I planned, but it was a day that was interesting. I have to change into shoes and head across the road for my neighbors informal birthday party. Just a bunch of guys playing music with a bunch of leftover home made hooch from the wedding. What could go wrong? :D
 Tomorrow is another day and I think I am milling again, but I would bet on it just yet. Too soon to tell. :D ;D

[HemlockKing]

Makes me happy my land is one way in one way out, makes harder for thievery too. Sadly that won't be the last yahoo your friend has to get aggravated with for trespassing.

[Old Greenhorn]

....... Sadly that won't be the last yahoo your friend has to get aggravated with for trespassing.

No, it won't. it's nearly everyday. The dang maps show it as a through road. For the 35 years I have lived on this road this passage through there has been a major issue for whoever owned that land. The town won't maintain it but the actual road is not included in any property owners deed. The property owners spend their own money, time, and equipment to maintain the road, which is not easy or cheap, given the winter damage, the flooding several times a month, etc. SO when these yahoos go flying through ripping up the road, yeah, they go nuts. Then there is the issue of some landowners in there who do not contribute to the overall road and only take care of their own piece, but want access through the whole thing. Then there is the issue in that the road crosses a town line. It's a confusing mess.

[Nebraska]

Put gates at both ends that need to be opened to go through.  People are lazy. Yes it's a wee bother  but not insurmountable. I have a set of gates on my drive out to the highway.

Or maybe a big pipe cattle guard  crossing like out here...that would look different  enough  to deter lots of folks.

[HemlockKing]

Or just move out in the boonies like me, that'll solve most of your people problems. And that is priceless to me

[Old Greenhorn]

Can't gate it, but he does have a gate at one end to indicate it's private land along with the bog sign that says "PRIVATE LAND, LANDOWNERS ONLY!". The are other landowners going and coming from their property all the time, but just a couple and they have families and get legitimate visitors. He also gets business traffic during the day, such as tool salesman and material deliveries. That road is a short cut to the next town over and it is a 15+ mile loop to go around the other way. This is why they try to use it all the time. Or they get lost and can't read a map. The maps indicate a normal secondary road, which it is not in any way.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Painful yes but don't shoot yourselves in the foot. Anything you do to make it harder on unauthorized access will make it harder on the bona fide residents too. : An electric controlled gate  or cross-arm would likely solve the problem but then you have to get all the residents to cooperate and contribute to cost and maintenance and maintaining security of it and from your discussion about the unwillingness to contribute to the road work that would likely be hard to do. Also the residents would have to coordinate access with all their deliveries and friends coming to see them which would be a PITA. Could you make it a toll road to collect for maintenance of the road and reduce cheapskates coming through? :D To keep it simple you might hire a couple of former Wal Mart greeters to sit on each end of the road during the day to collect and verify/pass through the ones who were supposed to be there. Maybe you make it voluntary so they just keep what they collect. I always wanted to set up my own private toll gate. ;)

    (In Africa they would build cross arms to block the roads during the rainy season and not let the big log truck and such go through till it was safe. Of course these all quickly became toll gates especially when they saw a white guy like me in the car. Oh well, it was a small price to pay to keep from getting run over by an out of control log truck on a wet clay road in the jungle.)

  I know the delivery trucks are a pain but I bet they are delivering to the residents too. And if the delivery truck got the gate code for a legitimate delivery he/she would have it for future use for personal convenience. No doubt you want those deliveries but you just want them to respect the speed limits and such and not just use it for personal convenience. I wonder if GPS systems are showing that road as a suggested route? If so I don't know how you'd fix that.

  I read last week where a delivery service, I think it was Amazon, had been sued for and had to pay out for loss of overtime pay because the drivers were overloaded and having to take extra time to deliver and unload at the end of the day and were not able to take their breaks and such and not getting their overtime pay for their work so I can understand they are frustrated too. Their bosses were actually changing their time cards to avoid excess overtime payouts and several had kept records of reported vs actually paid hours. We are lucky, our FedEx lady who comes here is very polite and friendly and gets out with a doggy treat for Sampson. Somebody up the road complained about her being scared of dogs or such and I told them it must be someone or something else going on.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, catching up here. The last few days have just been 'box of chocolates' days (you never know what you are going to get). Saturday I worked on that edger getting dimensions and learning my way around the guts of it (see other thread) and did some research. The boys were working on that shop extension tying one roof into the other and it took all day to get it worked out right (two hip rooves at 'about' 90° to each other) and get all the little odd rafters cut. SO they pretty much have the lower halves of the hips done now. Next is the set the ridge beam and do the top halves. They are poking along at a steady rate.


 
Having the bucket truck is mighty handy because it is a ways up.


 

When I got to the end of what I could do on the edger research I came home and did some more firewood. Sunday all the boys came over and 'helped' with more firewood, but I can see I am slowing down and can't seem to work as many hours straight as I could just last year. Not sure why. But the boys had fun and now that they each have their own hard hat, I feel a little better. I gave up trying to get them to wear ear muffs with the hat because it just ain't workin'. Their pumpkins ain't big enough. SO we taught them how to put in foam earplugs. That was a new adventure for them and they had mixed results, but better than the muffs. The youngest wanted to run the saw and I figured out a way to do that safely for a cut or two. (Kind of like putting a kid in your lap when you drive around the farm sort of thing.) We got some wood done and the pile is bigger than when we started, but here it is nearly mid September and I haven't finished the shop pile yet which would mark my halfway point. I have yet to start on the house wood. My log pile is whittling down and I am going to need more for sure to fill those piles. But it will work out, it always has before. ;D
 Yesterday I got on the phones and started making the calls for the edger and got the ball rolling on a blade order, hopefully will pull that trigger today. I went down and got the two dimensions I had missed on the first go-round to finalize the design requirements then talked to my buddy. I guess I should give this guy a name for y'all since he keeps coming up here and is my pseudo boss on some days. His name is Bill. Anyway Bill went and picked up that generator he bought on Friday and dropped it not far from the mill and we looked it over some more. We talked through the rest of the day and he had stuff to do around the property and some short service calls to clients. After 4 he had to go get a load of logs to deliver for firewood. I asked him where and then he tells me he is bringing them to my daughter's house. (He and my daughter went through high school together and she always thought of him as the older brother she never had.) Well, that isn't too far from where I have to pick up some logs so I asked him about doing both and he was game. On hindsight, I should have thought that through better. ;D
 I went home and waited for return calls on the edger project and ran some more firewood. I also called the guy we were picking up from and warned him about when we would be there. Around 4pm, Bill picked me up in his log truck, a 35' tri-axle he had just got back in June. It is beat and he has already done a bunch of work on it, but it needs a lot more and the exhaust leaks like a chicken wire fence. It is also LOUD and you can't talk while it is moving. You can't yell either, it does no good. ;D SO we went and picked up this full load of firewood logs, then did the long route around to my daughter's place (weight limits and bridge clearances really change one's perspective quick). We had some engine issues (you should see the mocked shocked expression on my face :D) but it cleared itself and all was good. Then we figured out how to get to that pickup house and after 're-arranging some of the decorative rocks' he had lining his serpentine driveway, we managed to get the rig backed in for easy loading behing the house.


 

Anyway, we high-balled it back home on familiar, winding, up and down roads at speeds that kept me alert. ;D It was well after dark when he dropped me off around 7:30. I am hoping he can sell some of that red and white oak. They are clean straight logs about 18" but were cut off at varying lengths between 9 and 12' and not a lot of them, maybe 6-8 nice ones. If not they will be milled for flooring or something. Nothing goes to waste around here. ;D The scrappy pieces might wind up in my firewood.
 Today is another day and I am still waiting around for a return call from the blade guy. I'll probably do another round of firewood and then find something else that needs getting done.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well today was as routine as it gets. Made another call looking for that edger blade quote then went out and cut.split stack firewood for a while. Then ran down to Bill's to collect some gear left in the loggin truck last night and try to measure up that drive key for the floating blade on the edger. Came home, made some egg salad for lunch (I love that stuff, actually I love eggs and the fact that we get ours free from Bill is even better). I sometimes wonder if I eat too many eggs, but I don't know that you can. Anyway, I went back to splitting wood, the neighbor (known herein as the idiot) came over to ask if I had any wood in the 3x3 range he could use for an oddball cabinet finishing job. After playing 20 questions, I showed him some basswood I had messed up when I milled and came out small at 3x3x 10'. He thought that would be perfect and I explained it should be ripped to final size+ and then planed for cabinets. He said 'yeah, I get it, I can do that. It's rough but there is meat on the bone to work with. He wanted it tonight, so after he left I pulled it and put it in the shop. Then I went back to splitting. At around 4 my wife came out and gave me the signal to shut the splitter off "now!". She was on the phone with my son. He was sick. Pretty sick. He sent his guys out to work and stayed home for the second day in a row, he didn't feel well at all Sunday when he was here. The guys came back from work and were cleaning the gear while he was talking to them from the back door. He finished and closed the door and passed out. Woke up on the floor an minute or two later and began to think he might need some help, so he called. My wife drove him to the local clinic. The RN that took care of him was a gall that 'apprenticed' under me when I was the EMS Captain. My son was in the department in those days too. They gave him a rapid test and checked him out otherwise. While they were doing the exam he passed out on them again. His orthostatic B/P was a mess and would drop when he stood up. My wife texted and said they were sending him to the hospital by ambulance. It would have been faster and easier (and a LOT cheaper) to drive him. That's when I found out who the attending nurse was, so I texted her directly. Now HIPPA applies here and she can't violate that so I will just say that she was very helpful without violating any laws. ;D Then the medic on the ALS rig was also someone I worked with in the fire service. He found out who my son was and talked about how great I was all the way to the hospital, so I assume he had me confused with someone else. The hospital wouldn't let my wife into the waiting room so she sat in the car waiting for a message from the nurses desk. This hospital is in sad shape. I call it a medical sewer, but let me be clear, it has nothing to do with the fine professional medical staff that works there and much harder than they should. The administrators have killed this hospital in the interest of profits and have patient loads for Doctors and nurses that are beyond workable. Last week they lost 40 nurses and as a result, several others just quit because they could not properly care for the number of patients they were given. It continues to get worse.
 Anyway, there he sits, waiting for tests. He is positive for Covid, we know that and have already notified his ex to keep the kids home and notify the school. We are pretty sure one of the grandson's brought it home from school last week and passed it along. The wife and I aren't too worried because we had the stab, but the ids are another story. Just to be cautious, we will stay home for a few days and do a rapid test Thursday (they are sitting on the shelf, I got them just in case something like this went down). I am anxious to get my son home and resting. I don't want him admitted there in any case. So my wife is home and we are waiting for his release to go pick him up. That's our plan, but this hospital, who knows. His doesn't have any of the things that would indicate admission, but they have a habit of taking forever to get things done and make decisions.
 Yeah, Life is like a box of chocolates and today we got a sour one. Yeah, I am worried, but we will figure it out and do what we have to. I am hopeful somebody will think to do orthostatic B/P's to see if the IV hydration is making a difference. If it is, then we have and answer and a discharge. I hate that hospital.

[thecfarm]

I wish him and the family well.