Making it through another year '21-'23

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sorry to hear it. 

   Eat plenty of grits and drink lots of fresh OJ and you should be running on all 8 cylinders in no time.

[Nebraska]

Hope you get to feeling better soon. 

[JD Guy]

OGH, Plenty of rest and get well soon! Wife and I have both had it, not fun but you should come back fine😁

[Spike60]

How ya feeling Tom? 'Bout time for an update here.

[Old Greenhorn]

Still feel like crap and going a bit crazy. Not sleeping well at night and coughing all the time. Other than that, things are great! :D
 Now this evening my wife is feeling poorly and thinks she has it, but tested negative. She's pretty mad at me, it's all my fault.
 This too shall pass.

[thecfarm]

Thinking of you.
I hated to cough a few months back. :(

[Wlmedley]

I don't know how good the tests work.I have been feeling bad for a couple weeks and have tested myself twice.Both have been negative.Figured it must be allergy's and told myself to quit being a baby and get back to work but something is wearing on me.I haven't had it yet but a lot of people around me have.

[Nebraska]

I was sick 10 days ago I tested my self but wasn't positive, took 5 or six days to shake whatever it was. My wife only got a sore throat out of the deal.  Hang in there hope you are much better soon.

[Ljohnsaw]

I don't know how good the tests work.

My sister's youngest flew in from Texas for the 4th of July BBQ.  She was coughing when she came off the plane.  My sister was feeling bad by the end of the next day.  Took a test and it was negative.  Then read that the newest variant is more in the throat then in the nose and to use the swab in the back of your throat.  That showed positive.

[Ianab]

And don't forget the normal Flu, RSV, Common Cold and the other regular random viruses are still circulating, and making up for lost time (cases were down when no one was travelling). Although we are still seeing some Covid cases, more older folks are currently ending up in hospital with Flu, and younger kids with RSV.

[doc henderson]

yes even the seasonal prevalence of viruses is off due to the changes around mitigation for covid.  so yes masks, social distancing and hand washing have reduced the winter outbreaks of influenzae, rsv, and parainfluenza (croup).

[JD Guy]

Hey OGH, How are you and your wife getting along with Covid recovery? Missing you here😁.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

[Old Greenhorn]

Any rumors of my demise have been somewhat exaggerated. It's ben 12 days for me and I tested negative a couple of days ago. However this cough is relentless and making me miserable. The energy levels are still very low and I am not getting anything done.
 My wife on eh other hand had symptoms come on quick one evening and tested positive. She was pretty mad at me. But the next morning she felt just fine and no sign of it since. She still tests positive, but it seems to have not hit here the way it hit me.
 Yesterday I did a walk around looking for some task to get started on and I found so many things I have to get done, that I didn't/couldn't choose one. So I came in and took a nap. >:(
 I always have gotten over these things slowly in the past, but fall is upon us and I am in rough shape for winter prep.
 I'll live, but I gotta get back to work pretty soon or it will be a rough winter.

[JD Guy]

Yeah, I know your frustration 😬. Some folks the Covid is like a bad cold and in a week or so they feel fine. Others it hangs on for a while. Get well soon, miss your daily happenings and quick wit 😁

[Old Greenhorn]

Well my friend Bill checks in on me about every day with a text message to see if we need anything and wants to know how I am doing. Besides you guys, he seems to be the only one who cares. ;D
 I have been meaning to cut the back lawn every day now for the last 3 days but just didn't have the energy. Today I got that done, including the messing around to get the lawn tractor started. Rain coming for the next couple of days, so at least I got something done.
 The cough seems to have died down overnight and I slept all night for a change. Now I just have the plugged up left ear which will probably take over a month to clear, I don't know why.
 As I haven't done a dang thing but watch bad movies and read the forum, I have nothing to report. I have that table delivery coming up in a couple of weeks, a log order due in mid-October when we will finally try out all that stuff I built in the spring and not much else on the calendar but firewood and some milling for me ( I have those ERC logs I am dying to get drying).

[trimguy]

Tomorrow's another day 😁. Just do what you can, but don't over do it.

[Nebraska]

Glad you are feeling some better.  Hope your ear looseness up soon.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Glad to hear you are feeling better. Sorry to hear I will not be inheriting your mule and purple sawhorses after all. :D

   Take care and don't over-do it. We don't want to hear of any relapses. ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

I started a response, then lost it when the phone rang. Trying again...

 Nearly 2 weeks with nothing done and I am frustrated. The shop is a pig-pen, stuff everywhere. No room to do anything and no surface left I can work on. It's as cluttered as it can get.


 

I focused on getting the machines moved so I decided to take out the upstairs rail and move the finishing bench to make for an easier direct lift. Lots of moving around of stuff.


 
 But this allows me to come straight in  with the machine and take one saw down and put the other up. Of course I have a lot of finagling to jockey things around upstairs, but it's just a move, so no big deal. From down below:


 

It's a little frustrating having a lot of work to do and not much energy. After 2 hours of moving stuff around my legs were getting shaky. I still have to build a riser for the forks because they won't reach as high as I need, but that's for another day. One step at a time.
 At least I am moving forward.
 The whole shop condition depresses me a bit. I need to deliver that table and close that out, then swap the machines and sell the old TS. I could spend a whole day just putting tools away at this point. Rain for the next couple of days, so maybe I will try to get going on that.
 One day at a time, or so they say.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I keep trying to push myself back to whatever normal is, but energy is slow to return.
 Yesterday I hooked up a little 4x6 trailer and loaded on the branches from those trees we trimmed off a month ago, hauled them out to the swamp and piled them for burning. I was shot and needed a nap after that. Pitiful.
 Today I did another load in the morning getting most of it moved out. I still have a 30'EWP remaining after topping and a 15' red maple to drop. I took a long lunch break and went out and dropped the EWP leaving the RM for last as a buffer in case the ewp went wrong. It was weighted toward the driveway a little and I had a hole picked out for it to fall in. I had a slight concern it would pull from the weighting. Decided not to take a chance and have a little fun at the same time to keep my skills up. Besides, as I said, I am still shaky with the heavy work so wanted to be a little more careful. SO I used a tenon cut.


 

I made a long tenon just to be sure. It dropped right on the money.


 

Yes, it's frivolous, but it made me smile.  The tenon dropped right into the mortise on the way down, but I was walking away and didn't see it happen. I do note that the weight of the tree did take it to the left but the tenon held it from getting very far, so my guess was right on how the tree would behave.


 

 Everybody says this is a waste of time, but frankly with that 562 this sure didn't take much more time than a standard notch. In fact I worked harder getting that RM to fall over with nothing on top. :D That RM should be firewood, but it has a lightening strike from 30 years back, so I want to open it up on the mill and see what I can see first. There is also a rot hole up from the bottom about 18" or so.
 Simple work that didn't take much time but I was soaked in sweat by the time I got the limbing work done. Now I have more branches to clean up. ;D
 Bill has some cut lists for me and my table client scheduled delivery from me for Monday so I have to get back in the swing one way or the other.

[JD Guy]

Seeing that tenon cut was very beneficial for me as I've never even heard of that procedure 😁. Thanks so much for sharing your work. At 71 years (young?) I still have the urge to learn and grow however don't know that I would attempt the cut unless it was a smaller tree and out in a field by itself 🤣🤣.

Glad that you're getting your strength and stamina back even if it's slow going!

[thecfarm]

I have been looking forward to using my chainsaw since May. 
I wait until about now to use it. Much cooler.
I did use it for the first time at high noon. That took the looking forward part out pretty quick.  ;D
Could use it first thing in the morning, but the pile of wood is about 50 feet from the bedroom window.
Wife gets upset when I start the chainsaw at 6 in the morning. 
I want to get that sawed up before I start to fall any trees.
I have been laid up since May. Took and taking a while for things to come back.  :(

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Ray, in your case, you need to let that heal up. Me, I was just sick for a bit but this COVID stuff has some weird boomerang effects sometimes. I thought it was cool when I started working (75ish) today, but man was I soaked in no time. I blame that on my poor condition right now.

 JD that's a simple cut and it feels silly to use it, but it does work. That is about as small a tree as I would want to use it on though. You need enough meat to hold it all together. Sometimes a guy just has to play around a little. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Never hear of a tenon cut. Looks neat. Looks like you cut a tenon through the tree then cut a short cut from both sides then cut down to the tenon hole. Is that the sequence or do you cu the vertical cuts then the upper horizontals?

   Do you notch the front the direction you want it to go before cutting the tenon?

[Old Greenhorn]

Howard, the sequence I use is as follows: I bore out the square plug at the bottom, then run the two side cuts straight up keeping the top of the cuts even. I put a conventional face notch in the front, then I cut in the back cut from each side forming the hinge thickness. I drive a wedge in the back cuts and just a few taps pushes it over.
 The risk on this is you only get a couple inches of hinge on each side of the tenon, so you have to take care to think that through and get the most you can. I cut one hinge a little think on this one, but it held long enough and the tenon kept the stem on track.