How'd it go today?

[treebilly]

I should’ve stayed in bed.
broke a shoelace while lacing up this morning ( strike one). Pulled into the shop and could plainly see that I had a headlight out ( just replaced the other one last week. Strike two). Meeting with the land agent and property owner went well just took two hours (strike three). Excavator blew an o-ring in the fuel system ( second batter strike one). That’s shut down and mechanic tells me at least two hours ( strike two). Bobcat grapple cylinder cap comes loose ( second batter is out). Mechanic comes out fixes the excavator. Looking good. Mechanic buries service truck (here we go with another strike). Finish chipping and the seal blew on the grapple cylinder ( strike eight). PITA property owner from the morning meeting comes down screaming about how we chipped all his firewood. We weren’t even to his property yet. Tried to calm him down and ended up calling the sheriff. Three strike outs today. Good news is the sheriff advised him to stay out of the ROW and talk to the utility not us. Apparently tree workers are known to be volatile. I drank my first beer since New Years. It tasted way to good. Locked my wallet in my truck and told my wife to take my keys so I’m not tempted anymore. Had a talk with her and I’m feeling better. It’s been a while since I’ve been this frustrated. Should’ve stayed in bed. Oh well tomorrow has to be better. One good thing, today was absolutely beautiful.

 

[cory]

Hella post.

Good on ya for venting here.

Curious, did you scream back at the property owner when he screamed or how did that go? Asking because I had a very bizarre run in last week that I coulda handled better

 

[pantheraba]

"Apparently tree workers are known to be volatile. "

HO probably got saved a good ass kicking.... hella day for sure. Smart move recognizing how to limit temptation.

 

[treebilly]

I thought about a lot more than screaming at that point but held composer for the most part. I’ve learned to “be nice” because at the end of it I come out looking good. The only time I raised my voice and yelled a bit was when he started walking toward and yelling at my guys who were trying to finish up with the end of day stuff. I had a bad enough day that if things escalated, I wouldn’t be home tonight.

 

[pantheraba]

I'd really like to hang out with you sometime and just watch you resist giving in to the temptation to just bust the f,,k out of somebody.

 

[treebilly]

I think I’m gonna shower and go to bed. I Want this day to be over. Sorry it just got worse. Most know why.

 

[Nutball]

I wonder how well a load of dry wood chips burns in the wood stove compared to logs? The first issue is drying them and keeping them dry without having them turn into a pile of dirt.

 

[flushcut]

Having burned chip piles before they like to smolder instead of burn. Not enough air space.

Tree workers volatile? Never. Calm and composed every second

 

[Mick!]

I wonder how well a load of dry wood chips burns in the wood stove compared to logs? The first issue is drying them and keeping them dry without having them turn into a pile of dirt.

i believe it’s been raised before, there’s the possibility of a build up of gas without ignition. Can cause explosion.

 

[lxskllr]

Sucks about your day Rich. Hope today's going better.

I've never had an issue with clients, but I've had adjoining property owners get into it with me. Being 6'5" and covered with knives keeps things from escalating too much :^D I don't have patience with assholes, especially entitled pricks.

I'd like to own a little grocery store as a retirement job just for the pleasure of throwing people out that act like dicks. I don't go by the adage "the customer's always right". The "customer" is usually an imbecile, and think far too highly of themselves. The look on their face when I tossed them out would be priceless. I'm absolutely serious. There was a little vacant store near a park I like that was in my price range, but it had zero parking. After my vehicle was there. there /might/ be room for two other cars, but really only one extra.

 

[Mick!]

When you react, they win.

 

[treebilly]

Even though it rained most of the day, it was much better. The property owner got the message yesterday. He was out there all day but kept his distance. The only time he approached was when we filled his firewood area and began stacking logs outside of it. I told him we can’t stack the logs any higher than 4 foot because it isn’t safe. Company policy. Relayed the story from a few years ago where a home owner’s son got rolled over while they were cutting from the stack. He agreed to let us extend the area. The rain made it slow today but also fun. Took the excavator skiing down the hill a few times. Just keep the tracks pointing down hill is all I was thinking. Didn’t have time for pictures today. We worked from 7 till 5:29 when they told us we had to get off the ROW. I’ve got about an hour of fixing the excavator ruts in the morning.
Tomorrow sounds promising as well. I’ll be hauling the excavator to another clearing where one of my crew will get time on it. He will be stacking trees for chipping at a later date. I’m getting to run a hydro-ax with supervision from its previous owner. Also a bit of hand felling of large diameter trees. Haven’t seen the job yet but should be interesting.

 

[flushcut]

Ran two estimates, sold them both. Then had a guy approach me at the coffee shop that has 8 acres he wants cleared so we'll be doing that walk through Friday. Since the roads being posted work has been rolling in.

 

[pantheraba]

Get it!!!

 

[Raj]

Things are dead up here. With the Country wide blockades, coronavirus, bad employment and economic news, low dollar, and stores running out of stock, people are not doing anything. Trying to get out and get jobs, too wet.

Been cleaning up the shop and basement, gathering supplies for the work shed at the GF's place. Glad I save stuff, free is better than cheap any day.

 

[Merle Nelson]

"I wonder how well a load of dry wood chips burns in the wood stove compared to logs? The first issue is drying them and keeping them dry without having them turn into a pile of dirt." Nutball.








I've heard of chips being augured into a whole house/shop furnace. Worked great, set up to feed automatically. Just refill a big hopper every so often.

Better yet, I saw a furnace that kept whole castles warm in Europe. They had a big barn they kept dry logs in - about 4 foot long. They would then chip those and feed chips into furnace. A week or so of burning and ash was less than a wheel barrow full because it's set up to burn so completely.

 

[stig]

The ones we run here measue moisture content in the chips and smoke and adjust the amount of air blown in accordingly.
So they burn quite cleanly even with wet chips.

 

[stig]

We have a category 2 storm moving over, so our castle lift job has been shut down.
Bummer.

 

[pete mctree]

We have had to shut down too Stig - forecast of 49mph winds with gusts of over 60mph are too much to be workable.

 

[stig]

We went out anyway today and slayed 11 Linden at a parking lot.
Plenty of room for error, there was only a lamppost and a fence, we had to avoid hitting.
But man, it was windy.
We went into " lets get this shit done and go home" mode and had them down and stacked for chipping by 10.30.
I love those days when you go into overdrive and everything just works perfectly.

 

[FireFighterZero]

What did those trees ever do to anyone?

 

[Raj]

They attract junebugs.

 

[stig]

Good question.
I was wondering about the same.
But we were subbing for the forestry coop, so we just kill whatever they point us at, no questions asked.

My guess is they needed more parking space.
Place belongs to a car importer, usually the place is crammed full of cars.
Since it is in one of the areas with a LOT of muslim immigrants, they have a zyclone fence with live wires around it.
It looked like a conzentration camp, it just missed the guard towers and the " Jedem das Seine" sign over the gate.

The apprentice totally cracked me up, today.
I got my saw stuck in a twisted branch and asked him to cut me free.
He looked at me totally dead pan and said: " Stig, you really need to pay better attention to which way the bind lays, so you don't get stuck".

Guess what we have been saying to him all winter.

 

[Ryan]

I'm surprised to see a brickwork parking lot from my sheltered part of the world. Around here you generally just get them on rich people's driveways.

 

[stig]

That stuff is used all over here.
There is a machine that can lay it, so it is really not so expensive.