How'd it go today?

Isn't that the way it seems to go Steve? Thats pretty jacked up!

Well I went to straighten the rim on my bike, it's worse than I thought, I broke two spokes clean off. It's going to have to go to the shop to get fixed now!

Just got a call, I guess I get to try and be Stephan for a few days? 11 acres need brushed, mowed and trees removed and trimmed. Should be really interesting for me to bid this one, and I have no idea what they have budgeted for this. They are living in an RV while trying to remodel the house, working full time and raising two kids and think they want to have a tool sale. A bit over extended comes to mind. I told them we could see what they had budgeted and what I could do within that range to get the most bang for the buck.
It's 60 miles away from home, but they think I can use the FIL's tractor and brush hog at least? Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun:roll:
 
Do it by the hour Andy.... Just an estimate and by the hour. Bidding brushing is a good way to lose ya butt.

Just climbed 4 white oaks and one live oak so far today to take some good sized limbs over roofs and what not. Swing and lower most of them. Shat everywhere to hit. Rob been going like a mo fo with the pole saw and dragging. Fire counsel is supposed to chip this for free for the HO on grant money. We might have to go back and burn the brush later this year if they don't get to it. They are talking that they might be out of grant money for the year. I had to come home and get my gaffs:|:. Was supposed to be all trimming and I did not see a tree up against a shed breaking the roof:|:. It was hidden behind another tree when I did the estimate. So now I have a TD to do :) Eating lunch at home is nice though :D I am trying to keep in budget for the HO as their money is tight. I will stick to my estimate to get more work out of them. Big ol dead white oak needs to come down and a smaller one behind the house that I saw decay in while I was above it. Might be 50 or so over, but I think I will easily make it back from them. They are a great referral also. See ya all tonight .. TTFN
 
I agree it sounds like it could be problems. I would look at the tractor and bush hog to see how they look. Bush hogging is a very dangerous job, not really a job for a kid. I used to mow orchards and it is pretty scary. A local was mowing around his barns and somehow rolled the tractor over and ran himself over. He died in the hospital from complications. He was experienced operator too. I think he probably ran over something in tall weeds.
 
lumberjack said:
Broke the timing belt.

Why they have to use a belt instead of gears on an interference motor, I don't know, this is the 3rd one in 2300 hours. Deutz recommends changing them every 3k hours although some rental fleets wait until 5k.

The belt and push rods were $190. The fuggin bit to remove the safety bolt was $50 (T40 with a hole in the center).

The tools to align the cam and crank I got for a steal on Ebay for $67, they're normally a couple hundred. Why they couldn't use marks like everyone else, I don't know.

The $1k tension gauge is a simple deflection gauge. There's no reason you couldn't set the tension with a torque wrench on the eccentric cam on the tensioner pulley, but belt tension isn't that critical.
Click to expand...

lumberjack said:
Didn't like the way I did it, B?

Looks like I'll have to call my diesel mechanic to come over and play with it, I'm obviously missing something.
Click to expand...



I got some new intel today which turned out not to be the answer, but lead me to discovering the answer to the fuggin problem. The spring that holds the throttle rack to the governor broke, leaving the fuel rack in the shut down position. The spring alows the rack to move to shut down by the shot down solenoid. With the spring broken, when the solenoid was energized (run position) nothing was there to pull the fuel rack back against the governor.

I took out one of the pumps, moved the rack up against the governor (with the solenoid on) and put the pump back in. The motor fired right up for about .5 seconds, until the governor snapped from WOT to idle and the spring wasn't there to keep the rack from coasting to shutoff.

Clear as mudd?:|:
 
Had lunch & nap, tire place called and tires were in so went into town again to get them put on. Drove through some big puddles on the way home and I'm really happy with the lack of hydroplaning, Also they are a lot quieter than I expected.
 
OTGBOSTON said:
Spent the morning at the Arborist supply store stocking up on schtuff. We're expecting some weather from hurricane Bill on Sunday. I sure hope Fiona is ok.
Click to expand...

Greg, I hope for all intensive purposes, you all get spared, the wrath of Bill. I know on Rt 6, there are massive amounts of dead, brittle-looking, trees, from the Sagamore Bridge, and stretch to at least to Hyannis.


I just took the day and relaxed. I feel better. :)
 
Good money day for me, but I'm beat. Everybody is slow but the jobs they are getting are the sketchy dangerous jobs or the ones requiring lots of climbing for not a lot of money. Therefore I'm getting calls almost every day and my half dozen regulars are keeping me booked over a week out.

I've been at the same rates since buying my first bucket truck 4 years ago and I think I'm much more productive now with the bigger truck and a lot more experience with the material handler. I'm going to start implementing a rate increase for all new clients. I'll keep my current regulars at the same rate for now, probably through the winter. A couple of them regularly overpay me anyway so it isn't a big deal.
 
full day no rain...sweet

robbed one hive of a full medium super of honey....50lbs or so
 
Pro Bono Work

I just offered to help this guy out. I guess I felt sorry for him when I saw this story, so I e-mailed the reporter and offered to clean up the mess. :|:
 
Today was cool. Ended up driving Grandma around instead of working, but she enjoyed having someone drive her around instead of taking the Wheels bus.

Had lunch with Mike(the climber we worked with Monday) and had a great time. We talked for awhile and it turns out he wants to seriously consider coming and working for us, which would be awesome!! Would really free Dad up to do business work, and bids, plus more training for our guys. I'm really hoping we can work something out with him8)
 
rumination said:
Sweet! You have an extractor?
Click to expand...

nope....headed off to my buddy who has the full on "honey house" to extract.....then back here to put it in jars. I 'll be interested to see who much it comes out to. Sounds like most folks only got one super per hive here.....pretty lame. He has 60 supers to extract from 70ish hives....few years back he was getting up to five per hive

I only have one hive that produced...the others are building up for next year(swarms I caught).....sucking down sugar water like there is no tommorrow:O

I keep you posted Brian8)
 
What is the motor on LJ? Good for you Brian. Good for you Brett. I just got back from a couple of bids. I found out I was underbid on the tree for our church. My bid was $1100 and another tree company from town was the same and the big tree co. from Modesto who is usually higher than heck did the job for $875. When I was looking at the tree I was going back and forth between 900 and 1100 in my mind and decided what the hell, I'm dealing with the high priced competition. Oh and the job that I did last week I found out my bid was half of the other bid. I can't win for losing.
 
Good on you Brett! An act of kindness should come back twentyfold!

Yeah Stephan, I am thinking bid what I can and the rest is hourly/pay as I go until the money is gone. I'm thinking $45hr for me and another is pretty fair?

I will disscuss having someone local come in and brush hog it Brian, I would think there are pleny of locals that would love a cash job. They just probably hadn't thought of that, or don't know how/who to ask. But I wouldn't let anyone I don't know and trust run the tractor. This is BYOT!
 
cybergeek23851 said:
Greg, I hope for all intensive purposes, you all get spared, the wrath of Bill. I know on Rt 6, there are massive amounts of dead, brittle-looking, trees, from the Sagamore Bridge, and stretch to at least to Hyannis.


I just took the day and relaxed. I feel better. :)
Click to expand...

HAHA That ain't my jurisdiction, my cape house is before the bridge, and I'm going to RI for the weekend anyway:D

I'm glad you're able to relax bro.8)
 
I found out this morning that the neighbor put all of his land up for sale yesterday. He's the guy who has the almonds and peaches to the east of me. The price is about a third of what he was offered a couple of years ago.
 
The bigger grinder, Steve. Looks like getting the govenor off might be a big PITA, so I'm going to wait until I'm sure it's gotta come off.
 
No_Bivy said:
nope....headed off to my buddy who has the full on "honey house" to extract.....then back here to put it in jars. I 'll be interested to see who much it comes out to. Sounds like most folks only got one super per hive here.....pretty lame. He has 60 supers to extract from 70ish hives....few years back he was getting up to five per hive

I only have one hive that produced...the others are building up for next year(swarms I caught).....sucking down sugar water like there is no tommorrow:O

I keep you posted Brian8)
Click to expand...



I figure next year I'll probably be where you're at now. At least that's my plan. If I can get my swarms early enough in the season I might get some harvest out of them if I'm lucky. I might even try buying some package bees just to see how that goes, although I think swarms are usually stronger.

I'm starting to get into bonsai too, collected a few Juniperus communis from the forest the other day. I'm unconsciously copying all your hobbies.:|: Some new pictures of your mini-trees would be cool, if you have the time. :)

EDIT: when I was growing up my Dad always criticized my writing for starting too many sentences with "I". Rereading this post, I realize that hasn't changed much...
 
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