Making it through another year '21-'23

[Old Greenhorn]

...

  Glad your wife's show went well. I like the idea of having a wealthy wife. I wish I had one. ;)

I wish I had one too. ;D This was her first major show since Sept or '19. What she makes in a year I can make in a month, but this is what she enjoys so.....
 Yeah, I am messing around with flag colors but I don't want to go nuts and the flags can sometimes be hard to find. I used green for approved trees and blue for trees I marked needing approval. I just got some blue/white tape that is easier to see and I am going to give him a roll to keep in the crummy so he can mark any trees he comes across. We are coming closer on what we both choose and I am going to make an afternoon we can walk together and mark a bunch for winter cutting in January thru March. He is beginning to see that he is getting free TSI work and getting into it a little now.
 We worked out a deal that I find fair to both of us wherein he just pays by the BF I produce at .30/bf. That way it doesn't matter when I work or when I come and go, or how long it takes me. It just works for us. The only issue I have to stay ahead of is when I am milling and he is grabbing stacks and getting them nailed up as I go. It can be hard to keep track of what I did. But that's on me to stay up on. If you look beyond the log deck in my previous post, you will see some lumber. Saturday around mid-day that area was full of lumber of various sizes but he needed it on the shop extension so was gabbing bunches through the day and when I took that photo Sunday there wasn't too much left. 
He's a generous guy, I have no complaints. I do some other odds and ends like troubleshooting machines and repairs and such he just can't make time for. Today I removed a burned out relay from a PC board and replaced it with a new one for his OWB controller That's something he is not equipped to do. He also likes having an old guy around for his young help to watch and learn from. ;D
 I get to mess with equipment I have never run before and learn some stuff along the way. I'm old and like many I know a lot, but there is a lot I don't know and I always enjoy learning and getting good (or moderately competent or even discover I suck) at new things. I also enjoy working with the younger guys.

[Nebraska]

Sounds like things are working out pretty well. When you started down this rabbit hole did you ever figure on being a mushroom logger and a paid sawyer?

[Old Greenhorn]

Sounds like things are working out pretty well. When you started down this rabbit hole did you ever figure on being a mushroom logger and a paid sawyer?

In a word ....................... NO.
I had only hoped that on my trip down the rabbit hole I could pick up a few bucks here and there and maybe get into something totally different than what I had been doing the last 50 years. When I fell in, I didn't know what a mushroom log was and when I first saw a WM hydraulic mill it scared me a little. :D Never expected any of this.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   That sure sounds like a fair deal to me especially since I gather he provides the mill, bands, fuel and maintenance materials. The TSI in exchange for mushroom logs and firewood and such also sounds like a good deal for both of you.

   I have an old neighbor 1/4 mile away who asked me about some logs off some trees she was having cut. She had a tree trimmer cutting them away from her house. I agreed on a decent little red oak and even a beech butt log. I took my tractor, trailer, chainsaw, cable and snatch block down and cut and removed the logs I could use and her daughter and SIL had stacked a big pile of limbs and brush in her yard. I did not think she had any way to get rid of it so I asked, she did not, so I offered to haul it off in my 5X8 trailer behind my ATV to a burn pile in my pasture. I did that today. The tops and limbs I will go cut, and cut and removed the first load today, into firewood. It is nice wood and I was going to have to cut some on my place anyway so I figure I might as well get that out of her way and we both benefit this way. Sometimes things just fall into place.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, my neighbor across the road got all of his skid roads cleared and his woods cleaned up for free and I got about 3 years of firewood out of it. Still get a little now and then when I have the time. win-win.
 Yeah, Bill takes care of all expenses, I am just a grunt, In fact he gets a kick out of it when I find a problem and give him a part number to order or adjust and fix things. He just doesn't have time to make it the way he knows it needs to be. Last week on a Sunday he installed a 25 gallon off-road diesel tank next to the mill with a crank pump, so all I have to do to re-fuel is stick the nozzle in the tank and give a few cranks and the nozzles kicks off when it's full. He said he has been meaning to do that for a year, had the tank and everything but when he saw me humping that 5 galloon jug around he just decided to get it done. Works really slick. Probably in the spring we will do a small rainwater collection system for lube water. I bring water from my system at home every week or so.
 SO far, so good,

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I had planned Tuesday for a full workday but that tanked when my neighbor had a boiler issue and I had to hang around and let the service guys in. (The neighbor is back in the city.) He needed 2 new expansion tanks, they were water logged. Lucky it didn't get worse and run the boiler pressure up too high.
 So by the time I got to the mill with a full deck on it I only got a few logs done and it was drizzling anyway. I got home around 5.
 Yesterday was much better. I got to the mill before 10 and started right in, knocked out a couple of hundred board feet without issue. Shut the mill down at noon because I sensed the fuel was low (it was nearly out) so I shoved the nozzle in to fill it and only got a couple of cranks and found out the storage tank was out of fuel. I couldn't tell exactly what I had in the tank but it wasn't much and no point in starting back up just to run for 20 minutes and have it die in the log. So I cleaned up and did my tally. I headed across the road and up into the woods and found a nice place to sit and enjoy lunch. Then I cut a few more mushroom logs, cleaned up the brush and staged them by the 'road'. By then my back was getting pretty sore and I decided to quit for the day before I did something dumb.
 A funny thing happened. When I drove into the woods I went through to spy out the marked trees, went to the top of a little knoll to turn around and park, then cut my way back down the road. As I was getting gear on, my phone 'pinged' with a text message. I know I have mentioned several times there is NO cell coverage in that area, but apparently in that one spot on top of the knoll, a text will come through. So I sent a text to Bill, letting him know I needed fuel, had found and marked an Ash log for another order and where it was, that he needed to pull out slabs because the pile was getting too high, etc. (I didn't get a reply until after 9:30 last night telling me it was all done and ready for me again. ) It did take about 10 minutes for the text to go out, but it did go, so there is that. 
 I still have a few more marked trees to take and I am hopeful that I have enough to cover the two orders I have on hand. Tuesday I had a phone chat with my monthly client trying to find out what his needs are going forward so I can figure out my plans. He is well pleased with what I have supplied him and it frees up his time for other parts of his business which are growing, including those inoculation workshops. Not having to cut logs makes it easier for him to schedule a workshop every month except December-March (weather) and perhaps November. He also picked my brain on how it is going and together we worked out a plan that leaves either one of us an 'out' if things change. After I finish the current orders I will get with Bill and we will mark a bunch of trees while there is still some leaves so we can assess their condition. These will serve as the 'standing inventory'. Then when he needs logs or I get another order I can cut those trees needed as time and weather permits. This assures him the logs are available, it gives me a big mental buffer (finding trees is my only stress point in this game) and life is easier for both of us. He doesn't need to commit to anything and those trees can stand until needed. The landowner knows exactly what is coming out ahead of time. Everybody wins. My client also said if I am really looking to sell logs, he will gladly hand out my cards at his workshops and give me a plug. Last night he did the radio show I will be doing next week and he not only mentioned my name, but also the business name and gave me a nice plug and let folks know I will be on next week. It's still not a lot of money, but it is getting to be more regularly enjoyable work as I tweak the operational side and arrange things better. It is turning into the nice fill in work I had hoped for.
 Today we have the monthly chiro visit and the timing is perfect because I need some mechanical work done to keep me going. :D Too many heavy slabs. My wife has a list of errands to run after that in prep for our annual visit to my cousin in VT this weekend. I need the weekend for work here, but I also need to just relax for a weekend and catch up with family a bit. This is one of those times where I am forcing my self to stop and have some R$R. I might get to the mill this afternoon, but I am thinking it's not likely. Friday I will hit it harder and see if I can get the deck cleared off. That would leave me with a good feeling, then next week get the mushroom logs done and delivered.
 Today is another day, lets see what happens.

[Tacotodd]

At least you keep priorities straight 👍

[WV Sawmiller]

  Sounds like you are getting a good system with the marked logs ready to cut on demand/as needed. Kind of like keeping deer on the hoof till needed. 

   I have about a 3 day job 15 miles away then about that much more the opposite direction for the same customer that I am doing alone and was going to start today but it is drizzling rain and looks the same for several days ahead. I had hoped to go catfishing 2-3 days next with a couple of old neighbors but looks like that may be hard to schedule.

[Old Greenhorn]

Catching things up. I did make it down to the mill Thursday and just milled up one log which was Ash to cover 3 different orders. Some 10/4 planks for trailer ramps, some 6/4 planks for dump truck side boards, and 3 10/4 slabs with one live edge for bookmatched table slabs all 12' long. Only 220 BF but handling those slabs was a bit of a bear alone without a forklift and I didn't have time to go fetch one.
 Friday I went back and knocked off the last 3 of those customer logs and tallied up the trailer total. 657BF total to close that out for the customer. I cleaned up and buttoned up the trailer. Then I went over and cut some more mushroom logs, headed home and packed for the weekend trip after sending the boss a list of what was done and what is needed at the mill next. ;D
 Saturday morning we headed off to VT and there is always a ton of traffic this weekend because everyone from CT and MA and NY goes to Wilmington to see the fall colors and spend money, I guess. We didn't even stop at the quilt shops in town, I guess my wife is done with that nonsense. (She knows all their inventory by heart.) We did stop at the WIlmington Flea market where I always look for and buy several folding knives with a belt clip because I lose a couple in the woods every year or the clips break. I get them for $5-10. bucks and look for smooth blades, not that dang serrated nonsense. I found a few, plus a Trump knife for my buddy I think he will like.  It's a good flea market and there are a few vendors I always buy cheap shop supplies from and sometimes even find a 'treasure' I have to have. This year I found two pulp hooks and a hay bale hook at the same guy, he had the hay hooked marked at 7 bucks, but I picked up all 3 and asked 'how much?' and he said 'how does 15 bucks sound?" I said 'that sounds like a deal to me' and walked away happy. I had looked at getting a pair of pulp hooks for lifting and loading mushroom logs 9 months ago, but at 40 bucks a piece I took a hard pass. 5 bucks each is much better to try out the concept.
 SO we got to my cousins house and settled in. They have added a full bathroom upstairs in their house just for our convenience and it is super! 100 year old farm house and it's tough going down those narrow and very steep stairs in the middle of the night. We had a great steak dinner and lots of great family conversation. Every year when we go on this weekend many of my hunting cousins go further north for early deer season and are not around. But my one cousin is now fighting prostrate cancer so he was home and we got to see the new house they are building. It's a timber frame and they are doing a super job. My cousin appears to be having success in his cancer fight. We also visited his Pop, who is, I think, my oldest first cousin now at 93 (still driving every day). Good family visits all around. We did some driving around on the way home and the women all went up to a craft fair an hour north while the guys messed around at home. This morning I went out to the back of their property to check on their apple trees that are over 100 years old. Lest year they never grew a leaf and they looked dead and done. This year they popped out leaves on the top third and one had some fruit, I collected some apples in a bag, but not a lot, maybe 5 pounds. Then I hiked over to check the trees on the north end of the field and in the process I found the soft spot in the field where the water came up over my ankles and filled my low hikers.  ;D Anyway, that one had popped back nicely and there were a lot of great bright red fruit on the ground in perfect shape, so I picked up another 5 pounds. It was worth the wet feet. I am glad those trees are coming back. They really need pruning, but should survive anyway. I do wish I had thrown another pair of shoes or boots in the truck. Mid-morning we said our good byes and headed home (me with soaking wet feet). We di stop at a place on our way out of town at a place my wife thought was a pottery store. It was the Vermont Bowl Company and their products for sale were 95% wood. Half the store was turned wood products, cutting boards, spoons, forks, shar-too-ray boards, etc. The other half was tables, benches, and slabs, either finished or not. Thata was the Vermont Live Edge store. Pretty good prices (fair, I thought) an I picked up a few ideas. The boss wasn't around, I would have liked to talked to him. When I got home I checked the website they listed and they have good photos I can reference to try some ideas. We did get a few small things my wife wanted. (Note to the bench makers here: go take a look at the benches on www.vermontliveedge.com just another set of ideas different from what we do.)
 Anyway, we made the rest of the drive without event and when we got home I unloaded everything and we had lunch. I sharpened up those pulp hooks and gave 'em a try and I think they will work fine.
 I walked up the road to look over my buddy's new Egg stand he set up by the side of the road, diagonally across from us. He put it in last week, but didn't level and stock it. I guess he did that over the weekend. His only scratched a price on a piece of scrap paper and it looked poor, the wind had flipped the paper over. So I came back to the house and printed out a proper sign on the computer and made a pair of multi-colored signs to put on the sides that just said "EGGS" so that folks would know it wasn't one of Howard's bus stop/deer blind/out house's and that they could get eggs if they just slowed down. I laminated everything and brought them down and stapled them up. Bill was out building a road for somebody somewhere, so I sent him a text and told him I made an improvement he should check out on his way home to make sure it was OK. He texted back and said "OK I'll check it out, I hope you didn't mess up my awesome sign".  :D :D :D ;D "Nope, I left that sign just the way it was". (I had forgotten to pull it out. ;D)
 I heard his truck stop down there earlier, but I haven't heard if he was OK with it yet.
 Tomorrow is 'back to work day' and I have a full week with milling, the radio show, and a mushroom log delivery.
One day at a time, right?

[samandothers]

Nice benches, I like the wedged tenons on the stretchers.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Glad you enjoyed the family time. Many happy returns. Now for those apples you just need a big jar of crunchy peanut butter and and a stadium cup full of unsweetened ice tea with lots of ice and plenty of refills. digin1

   I checked out the website. Very pretty wood and apparently it is moving at the prices listed because many were marked Sold. I was hoping to see the joinery he used to conned the top and legs. Nice leg stretcher design.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I was curious about that too. No visible fasteners. It appears he puts a long rectangular tenon on the top the leg and a tight matching mortise in the seat bottom and it just sits there. The stretcher holds things stiff and square. That would allow for flat packing and shipping.

[WDH]

The benches remind me of the one that I made for Raider Bill. These pics are before the pure tung oil finish was applied.  No fancy joint for the legs just lag bolted on with the holes plugged with walnut plugs. 

At the price point on the benches in your link, OGH, you can't spend too much time on fancy joinery unless you like to work for free. 




 



 

[Old Greenhorn]

From what I can glean, he has some pretty nice equipment in his shop. He can probably knock in a through mortise in a couple of minutes that would take me a couple of hours. I just found his design concepts interesting.

[aigheadish]

OGH, you guys have a good method to dry the 10/4 ash? I haven't messed around with drying anything, officially, yet but that seems on the thick side. I have a ton of ash that I'd love to do stuff with and plan to turn a shed into a kiln of some sort over the next several months and I'd like to keep it thick, but also flat and straight. Just the normal sticker and stack methods?

[WV Sawmiller]

Danny,

   Those crotch wood legs look real sharp. Very well done!

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Danny, those crotches caught my eye. Nice application and execution. I am hoping to get back on some benches this fall/winter if the milling and mushroom logs ever dies off. All these ideas are dancing in my head that I want to try.
------------------
 Yesterday was 'back to work day' after the weekend of leisure. I guess I need some re-retraining after 3 whole days off. I forgot my belt knife and my smaller tape measure, both of which I depend on for daily work. I got to the mill and was cutting on the first log by 10am after filling, fueling and a little arranging. Just starting the second log and saw that the top of the band was holding sap and sawdust even after I turned the flow way up. This has been getting more and more annoying in recent weeks. I just can't seem to keep that blade clean, top and bottom. I decided it was time to figure it out or go no further. SO I cleaned the head unit and tested it and found nothing coming out of the top nozzle. Well, that would do it. SO I removed it and fond that besides being plugged, it has taken a good hit from a band break oe something and the hole was closed off with mushed up brass. Of course I didn't have any small drills or a needle file set at the mill and no knife to work with. SO I drove up to the shop and with nobody around searched for needle files. No joy, but I found a hacksaw and could use that to open the hole a little and I found a tiny drill to ream it a bit by hand. It was passing air, so I drove back down an put it in and it worked better, but not perfect. It got me through the remainder of those 10'+ logs. Just as I finished up, Bill showed up between truck routes and showed me he had a brand new spare wire tied to the machine, so we swapped it out and I took the bad one back to my shop and fixed it last night. I still have one 12' log to do today, but the 2x12's I did yesterday were scooped up before I left and brought up to the shop for rafters. The guys were notching them when I left. Seems like I can't stay very far ahead of the build requirements and whne I do get ahead, we stick a customer order in and I am behind again. We got another small order over the weekend. Anyway, I finished up there and did a quick minimal cleanup, then headed across the road into the woods and took a couple more mushroom trees, bucked and stacked for pickup on Thursday's delivery. I only need 20 more for what I think is (the third version of) the end of the season. It may rain this weekend, and if it is enough to prevent roof work, Bill and I will walk and mark trees for winter cutting on a different part of his property he is exploring and I have not yet looked at.
 WHen I finish this I am back to the mill to get that 12 footer done then back home by mid-day for a shower, lunch, and clean clothes. I have to head out to Roxbury for that radio show at 5. If any of y'all have a  boring life like me and you want to waste an hour, you can listen live on WIOX HERE, just click on the "Click Here to Listen" button. The show runs from 6-7PM eastern time. It should be available for replay in a week or so on the Catskill Forest Assoc. web page. Let's hope I don't make a fool of myself, I think it should go fine though. Tomorrow I have logs to load and deliver.
 Time to get on it.

[WDH]

They are actually WDH-made crotches.  Imagine a live edge piece about 22" to 24" long and 14" to 16" wide.  A rectangular piece.   This will become the crotch leg.  Split the piece into two equal pieces.  Cut angles on each half so that when the angles are put together, the two pieces create a flare with a point on one end and a large splay on the other end. Trim to shape the crotch leg.  Take a jigsaw and match the angle of the natural live edge with the blade then sculpt the insides of the crotch leg with the jigsaw to match.   

I take a piece of cardboard the exact same size as the original live edge piece and fool around with the angles to find the right one to give the bottom of the splayed leg that sits on the floor the same width as the width of the bench top to make a super-stable bench.   

A picture is worth a thousand words.  With this technique, the WDH Crotch Leg Technique (WCLT), you can make beautiful crotch leg benches from any slab.  



 

[doc henderson]

  "Those crotch wood legs look real sharp"


oh good @WDH I thought this was a prosthetic for a pirate who lost his leg very very high up... :D :D :D

[HemlockKing]

 "Those crotch wood legs look real sharp"


oh good @WDH I thought this was a prosthetic for a pirate who lost his leg very very high up... :D :D :D

The heck is all this crotch talk and drawings of pants? lol 

[Old Greenhorn]

Now I am really glad I edited my first response which went something like "Danny I really like how your crotches look on that bench".
 So now we need to know the rest. How do you join the crotch pieces together and do I see 4 screws going through the seat into the ends of your crotches?

[WDH]

Clamping is a little tricky but I glued them.  It is mostly long grain so the glue joint on the crotch leg is strong.  As to the attachment to the top, on the bench pictured, I simply used long 1/4" lag bolts to bolt the top to the legs and plugged the holes with walnut plugs.  Did not try to hide it, instead, I wanted to make the walnut plugs a visual feature.  

On another one, I cut a blind mortise into the bottom of the bench top and made a tenon on top of the crotch leg and glued the leg to the top.  However, that is a time consuming procedure and I decided that the time cost/value relationship was negative in that I could not recover that effort/cost easily in the selling price for a rustic bench.  The lag screw approach is not fine wood working or all that fancy but it is relatively fast and used with glue, it is strong.  

A better way might be to use dowels as floating tenons instead of metal lag bolts.  I think that I will do it that way next time.  I don't make these for charity so if I cannot make some money doing it I may as well do something else that does return value. One good thing is that every bench that I have made, and most of them used the Rite Legs, I have sold for enough to make it worthwhile for me.  

If someone wants something for nothing, they can go elsewhere.  If someone wants something cheap, there is Walmart or IKEA (although the IKEA junk is actually not cheap junk it is expensive junk).  I spend a good bit of time on drying my bench stock properly for the intended use (8% for indoor use) along with a good bit of time on the sanding and finish.   Nothing worse than making a fine beautiful piece then doing a crap job finishing it.  

[firefighter ontheside]

Good job Tom.  I missed the first part, but I heard the last 30 minutes.  Before I met you I had never heard about the whole mushroom log business.  It's interesting.

[doc henderson]

Tom you sounded like a natural mushroom log expert.  the audio was great, but I never got the picture to tune in.  lol   

[doc henderson]

 "Those crotch wood legs look real sharp"


oh good @WDH I thought this was a prosthetic for a pirate who lost his leg very very high up... :D :D :D

The heck is all this crotch talk and drawings of pants? lol

at least in the diagram he labels where the waste is so you know how to put the pants on...wait there are 3 of them..