Making it through another year, '25-'26

[Old Greenhorn]

 Well I have survived another turn around the sun, which also means it is time to end the preceding thread and begin a new one as we explore all the tedious and boring things, as well as some of the less mundane things that fill up my days, weeks, and years. There might even be something interesting in there also, who knows?

 Not much cooking today and the weather was unpleasant enough that I blew it off. The winds stayed high all day and night, the sky was solid overcast all day, and the temps were cool. 20 miles west at my daughters house they had mostly sunny all day and they worked on their garden most of it. We all got together last evening and they took me out to a birthday dinner. I finished off the day watching Montreal get eliminated from the playoffs. That was one sad game to watch.

 Today, I have (finally) my last log client come to pick up their order. It will be good to get those logs clear of the yard finally so I can move onto firewood and other things. It's two guys working together, one has his act together, the other not so much. One has my cash in hand, the other wants to work out a payment program or not take his logs. Guess which one ordered the most logs?  SO this won't be the usual fun and easy transaction, but at least it will be done.

 After that I have to figure out whcih 'thing' I will get into next. Too many choices.
 But it's another day, time to get at it.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yes, but it still beats selling lady's shoes.

[doc henderson]

I would ask the partner if he wants to buy them all and then he can arrange sales to the other guy.  Or sell them by the log.  and he can pay as he goes and get more logs, unless by chance they all get sold.  If he has no cash today, then he will likely not ever be paying for the logs.

[SawyerTed]

Yes, but it still beats selling lady's shoes.

Depends on the ladies...

[doc henderson]

Opportunity at Amazon starts here

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

   Is this a peak into your new retirement gig or are you just giving pointers to Tom?

   After watching the video I am wondering if there is not a cabinet post or special ambassadorship opening waiting for that guy.

[doc henderson]

It is good the show is decades old, I am sure it offends many, but it is funny to see him say things we know we cannot.

[Resonator]

 Yes, but it still beats selling lady's shoes. 

Have you ever seen what a pair of Louis Vuitton high heels sells for?! 

[WV Sawmiller]

Yes, but it still beats selling lady's shoes.

Have you ever seen what a pair of Louis Vuitton high heels sells for?!

Sorry, they clash with my eyes so I am not current on the the prices right now.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, sometimes you gotta do that. But selling ladies shoes in not, either now nor ever, on my list of "Things I'd like do do". I'd rather be sitting in a conference room arguing about colors on the bar charts, and i don't want to do that either.

This morning went fine. The one guy paid me for his 50 logs, no problem. The other guy is going to pay me over time. They could not fit about 35 logs which they may come back for. I really don't care. As far as the guy owing me, I am going to treat that as an experiment in humanism and see what happens. If he does pay me, good for him and my trust in mankind is secure. If he doesn't then I have a reason for whatever adjustments I choose to make. Either way, most of them are out of my way and I can reconfigure now.  We consolidated what is left so I have the space I need. Moving on....

After they left I decided to mill another of those logs into 2x10's or as wide as I could get, which turned out to be 12"+. It was a 10'8" log about 24" diameter full length. The mil was working great, but it is manual so I had to relearn some things. Flipping that log on the first two opening cut was a bear and I nearly hurt myself, my thighs were screaming. I also pushed the blade far too long until I noticed some terrible waves. Changing the blade went a lot faster and easier than I recalled and then it cut easy again. Love those 4° blades! I got down to a rectangular cant and a couple of flitches I edged against the cant, but my legs and arms were getting kind of shot, so I took a break, then came back and finished off the cant. I only got 7 2x12's plus a 6/4 x 12, but I earned it. 2 x 12's are heavy stuff and I feel old today. I'd like to do that 3rd log tomorrow, they are getting a little smaller as I work up the tree. The high only hit 62° today, but I worked up a sweat for sure and am doing my Advil tonight.

The second half of this week looks like poor weather with cooler temps and rain on Thursday to Friday. I need to get those 2 remaining logs turned into lumber to get them out of the way as well as have lumber for whatever I want to build. Yes, I am re-thinking that bridge. I could really use a woodshed for the shop, a big one. This tree won't provide enough for that, but it's a good start. I've got a dead pine on the front lawn to knock down, I might get a few 2x4's from it, but it's only 14' on the stump, so not much wood, but the only other use is the OWB down at Bill's or camp wood for the new neighbors, whenever they show up.

Just another day in paradise and tomorrow is another one.

[Old Greenhorn]

Not a very exciting day today at all. The high barely made 62° and it was breezy. So I dragged another log around to the mill and nearly busted a nut getting it rolled on by myself. Holy cow! Only 20" ewp but geez. Another 12 footer. By the time I got it set and a wedge under the small end I was ready to quit, my legs were shot. But I washed the log down and started milling. Rolling that log was a bear of a job and I am convinced my manual milling days are slimming down. After the first turn I had to take a break again. For some reason I had to work hard on this one and the slabs are piling up. I got it down to a 12" cant with 1 2x12 and a flitch and had to quit at that point. We have rain coming in tomorrow so I don't know if I'll be able to finish it off, if not, then the next dry day. I figure there are 6 more 2x12"s in there.
 I spent a couple hours corresponding with friends and performers local and distant trying to work out some details on plans and arrangements for Grey Fox in July. There are lots of moving parts and I am trying to get plans in alignment, arranging interviews, meetings, relaxing get togethers, etc. Mostly I hook people up with each other that share interests and might be able to help each other. It's fun to watch when it comes together and sometimes it can be epic. Anyway, it's something I do that nobody notices but gives me joy.

 Tomorrow is monthly food shopping day so most of the day is shot and rain anyway, but it will be another day.

[aigheadish]

Oh yeah, belated Happy Birthday Tom!

[Old Greenhorn]

Yesterday dawned grey and cool and is still that way. Our monthly food shopping took longer than normal and it was after 2pm before I got out to the shop. as the rain started. The weather system is large and full of rain, but disorganized, so the showers are off and on, soft to medium rain.
 The new clutch drum came for the 2050 so I checked the concentricity (within .002" or better on the components and installed it. The chain runs much better now and it's a safe setup. I am calling that part done. The day before I used the saw to cut some slabs and it ran for a bit but then stopped and I could not restart it. It was at the end of the day so I set it up on the bench and left it. When I changed out the clutch drum yesterday I checked the tank and it was all but empty. DUH! so taking Bob's advice, I filled the tank with Aspen Fuel hoping that might help clean it out. The saw started right up again and I zipped off about 6 slab cuts and it stalled again. Again, I could not restart it. I put it back on the bench, frustrated. I know it will start right off when I try it again this morning. For the life of me I cannot figure out what is wrong with this thing. One part of me thinks there is a carb problem I don't understand, and another part thinks it is fuel delivery getting hung up. The filter and fuel line are new, there are no kinks or folds that I can find.
 It's a real conundrum for me. I thought I had this thing running fairly well and just needed to tweak the setting a little more. Now I have no idea. I may have to put up a thread about this over in chainsaws and see what others say. Bob thinks he may have another carb for this, but I hate to start over when I can't find anything wrong. I have taken this carb apart and cleaned it all finding no defective parts. It is a bear getting that thing in and out, worse than any other saw I have.
 I guess I'll just keep staring at it and thinking while I try this and that. It's another new day so maybe something will change...or not.

[Hilltop366]

I find that if the low speed is set a bit lean it can make saws hard to restart then you give it some choke and flood it. If this is the case try backing out the L a little bit. If a saw is warm but cooled off a bit it sometimes ends up in-between so I will put on the choke and give it one pull then take off the choke and start.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well that sounds logical. I'll give it a try, thanks!

[doc henderson]

does it blubber a bit loke a fuel thing, or stop dead like a kill switch?  heat related?  I like the carb adjustment try first.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, been kind of quiet here lately. I am giving those saws a rest after trying the last suggestion. I can't even get the J'red to start now, but I have another 'theory' I have to look into. Maybe during tomorrows rain. Poor weather for the holiday weekend, but it broke a little on Saturday at the perfect time for the kids down the road to get married, my daughter officiated. The wedding was 'off grid' and if the fish cops found out about it they may have had a problem. Seems the couple wanted to get married down at the edge of the reservoir on a little rise at the water's edge. Pretty spot, but it's NYC property, which makes it dicey. Not very long ago, folks would get arrested if they didn't have in their possession a NYS fishing license, a NYC reservoir permit, AND fishing gear. They have loosened those requirements a little, but you still have to be careful. Everybody at the wedding walked down our road and crossed over the county road into the reservoir property. What few of them knew was that they were following the old road, long grown over that lead into the center of the village, now under water. But is some spots you can still see the tracks worn into the bedrock from the stone wagons that came down out road and brought bluestone slabs to the train station. The kids knew none of this until I explained it to them the next day at their party. They thought it was pretty cool. I did too. It's probably the only wedding that has happened that close to the center of the Village in 130 years. I only just this moment realized that.
 
Monday I mowed the lawn as it was finally dry enough, but it was tall and took a while. Yesterday I setup and began splitting wood. I have a pile of junk wood, that is green stuff that came down over winter, came from various places and other work, or culls and butt logs from the mushroom logs. A lot of nonsense wood and almost all green. But as I added to that pile all winter it's became a bit of a mess and it's slow going dealing with the small, short, twisted, stuff that is generally rejects from everything. But it's all BTU's. So yesterday I put a dent in the pile after clearing and getting it setup. I took breaks and tried to finish off a 400 page book I was working on. I didn't finish off the wood, but I did finally finish the book. Very annoying and frustrating, that book. If I have the time I might make a separate post about it here or on some other thread, but I am still too mad about it.

 Today I got back on the splitter and alternated between splitting and bucking up all these short chunks and logs. Buck everything I can reach, then split all that up to clear the area, then buck some more. When I got pooped out, I'd take a break and have lunch, or run to town for errands and then do some more. I also started a new book in there somewhere. I ended the day with everything bucked up, most split and stacked, and just a little more to split in the next session. All told, I think I did about 2/3 cord since I started yesterday, so not much. But as I said, it's all PITA wood and I am using a single wedge (slow) splitter, but the setup allows me to stack as I split, which is a time/work saver.

 Looks like rain all night up til midday tomorrow, so I am not sure what tomorrow's plane is, but that's another day and I'll decide then.