Random Thought Of The Day

[Wilhelm]

WTF comes up randomly all the time!

 

[Johnmn]

I accidentally hit an Iron horse video on my phone, I truly cannot believe people watch that!

 

[3browns]

Thought I would pop in after an extended absence and say hello to the few folks I semi regularly interacted with in the past. The last year has been tough on everyone and on top of Covid I had a number of family issues that took me away from all the things I love including saws.

We left our house in Hawaii 8 months ago to go to our daughter's wedding in Alaska and we have never made it back. Shortly after the wedding my oldest son fell off the wagon, ended up in a hotel drinking half gallons of vodka at a go for a week straight, and ended up in the emergency room in Juneau almost dead. Not his first rodeo and years of this behavior have taken their toll. He pulled through only to find out he had contracted an MSSA infection in the hospital and had to stay an additional month for daily IV antibiotics. He got out in September and unknown to anyone the infection wasn't fully cleared from his system so a month later he was back in the hospital in Anchorage after being medevaced from Juneau on LifeFlight. His kidneys had shut down and he was in a coma for 3 weeks. They kept him on 24/7 dialysis for 5 weeks. His heart developed problems, liver is shot, etc etc. Aside from the infection 15-20 years of substance and alcohol abuse has already taken its toll and left him vulnerable to all kinds of issues.

On top of that my wife had a knee replacement in October and within a week was back in the emergency room 4 times with chest pains and other symptoms. They ruled out heart issues but to this day aren't really sure what hit her.

It was while she was fighting this that my son ended up back in the hospital. Almost too much for me to cope with.

My son finally got out of the hospital just after New Years and had no where to go so ended up in the tiny B&B we rented because we had sold our house here in Alaska to our other son in September and we had no where else to go.

I didn’t want to be left out so in late November I slipped and fell on the ice and jammed my right arm up into my shoulder really bad, and if that wasn’t enough I did almost the exact same thing again 2 weeks later during a bout of freezing rain. Turns out I destroyed my rotator cuff. I have seen the orthopedic surgeon that did my wife’s knee and he is going to try and fix me up but it has to wait for my wife to get her other knee replaced in mid March and then recover so probably early May. I might get cleared to fly back to Hawaii in time to have been gone almost an entire year.

I know this sounds like a bad country western song and I am not looking for sympathy here, just checking back in and hoping to be able to rejoin the great group of people here.

I know everyone is suffering now to some degree or another and I wish everyone well.

Regards

Michael

 

[Terry Syd]

I know this sounds like a bad country western song

Gawd, don't we all have them time and again. Welcome to 'Life', too bad there is no manual for this crap when you are born.

 

[3browns]

Gawd, don't we all have them time and again. Welcome to 'Life', too bad there is no manual for this crap when you are born.

Boy ain’t that the truth

So sick of kids and grandkids whining about how life’s not fair

I certainly don’t remember that being promised to me 65 years ago

Carry on

Michael

 

[Terry Syd]

Near as I can tell, it is the 'tests' in life that make your spirit what it can be. Fork me, two tours of combat in Viet Nam, up against the system in the legal system, relation ships with drop-kicks of worthless females, yadda, yadda - how in the Hell did I ever survive?

I'm 73, and I ain't taking on any more problems in life. Well, I still got to trim the vines and trees on my permaculture property, but really, that is as far as I am willing to extend myself. - Your mileage may vary...

 

[3browns]

Near as I can tell, it is the 'tests' in life that make your spirit what it can be. Fork me, two tours of combat in Viet Nam, up against the system in the legal system, relation ships with drop-kicks of worthless females, yadda, yadda - how in the Hell did I ever survive?

I'm 73, and I ain't taking on any more problems in life. Well, I still got to trim the vines and trees on my permaculture property, but really, that is as far as I am willing to extend myself. - Your mileage may vary...

Absolutely

Life is a test from your first breath to your last gasp and if it ain’t hard you aren’t doing something right

It’s what shapes us and molds us and we either get tougher or we break

Thank you for your service

I graduated in 73 with a draft number of 9

I went down to enlist and they politely told me the war was over and they no longer needed me

Not sure what I missed but I always regretted it

As you say, YMMV

Cheers

Michael

 

[Terry Syd]

Not sure what I missed but I always regretted it

Dealing with the horror and controlling the terror were the big hurdles. It takes some time, and then you become a 'vet'. - Then, if you survive, you get chucked back into a society that doesn't have a clue what you have experienced or become. You're forever different to those around you. Some make it back into the 'society' with their own private ways of dealing with things, others don't.

Count yourself lucky that you missed out.

http://northwestvets.com/spurs/shulze.htm

 

[3browns]

Dealing with the horror and controlling the terror were the big hurdles. It takes some time, and then you become a 'vet'. - Then, if you survive, you get chucked back into a society that doesn't have a clue what you have experienced or become. You're forever different to those around you. Some make it back into the 'society' with their own private ways of dealing with things, others don't.

Count yourself lucky that you missed out.

http://northwestvets.com/spurs/shulze.htm

It has always been a source of national shame the way you guys, in all countries, were treated when you got back

I had a lot of friends that would have gone back over just to get away from the stigma the unknowing and uncaring public heaped on them

Again, thank you, to all the VETS out there, for the freedoms that we have

Regards

Michael

 

[popopboat]

Just found out that some people dont use full throttle on chainsaws Uhm?

 

[stihl_head1982]

There is nothing feminine about female flatulence

 

[Wilhelm]

Thought I would pop in after an extended absence and say hello to the few folks I semi regularly interacted with in the past. The last year has been tough on everyone and on top of Covid I had a number of family issues that took me away from all the things I love including saws.

We left our house in Hawaii 8 months ago to go to our daughter's wedding in Alaska and we have never made it back. Shortly after the wedding my oldest son fell off the wagon, ended up in a hotel drinking half gallons of vodka at a go for a week straight, and ended up in the emergency room in Juneau almost dead. Not his first rodeo and years of this behavior have taken their toll. He pulled through only to find out he had contracted an MSSA infection in the hospital and had to stay an additional month for daily IV antibiotics. He got out in September and unknown to anyone the infection wasn't fully cleared from his system so a month later he was back in the hospital in Anchorage after being medevaced from Juneau on LifeFlight. His kidneys had shut down and he was in a coma for 3 weeks. They kept him on 24/7 dialysis for 5 weeks. His heart developed problems, liver is shot, etc etc. Aside from the infection 15-20 years of substance and alcohol abuse has already taken its toll and left him vulnerable to all kinds of issues.

On top of that my wife had a knee replacement in October and within a week was back in the emergency room 4 times with chest pains and other symptoms. They ruled out heart issues but to this day aren't really sure what hit her.

It was while she was fighting this that my son ended up back in the hospital. Almost too much for me to cope with.

My son finally got out of the hospital just after New Years and had no where to go so ended up in the tiny B&B we rented because we had sold our house here in Alaska to our other son in September and we had no where else to go.
1àà¿
I didn’t want to be left out so in late November I slipped and fell on the ice and jammed my right arm up into my shoulder really bad, and if that wasn’t enough I did almost the exact same thing again 2 weeks later during a bout of freezing rain. Turns out I destroyed my rotator cuff. I have seen the orthopedic surgeon that did my wife’s knee and he is going to try and fix me up but it has to wait for my wife to get her other knee replaced in mid March and then recover so probably early May. I might get cleared to fly back to Hawaii in time to have been gone almost an entire year.

I know this sounds like a bad country western song and I am not looking for sympathy here, just checking back in and hoping to be able to rejoin the great group of people here.

I know everyone is suffering now to some degree or another and I wish everyone well.

Regards

Michael

Wow, sorry to read all that!
You are living proof of the saying "when it rains it pours".

Take care of Your family and Yourself!

 

[Nutball]

My dumb phone can't even sort files by name. It's simple counting!

 

[3browns]

Wow, sorry to read all that!
You are living proof of the saying "when it rains it pours".

Take care of Your family and Yourself!

Sorry Wilhelm

Next time I’ll open with a good joke

lol

Take care

Michael

 

[av8or3]

Sorry Wilhelm

Next time I’ll open with a good joke

lol

Take care

Michael

Lol

 

[Nutball]

Why is the 800p the only saw not listed on the Echotools.com website?

 

[66Fleetside]

I didn’t figure this was worthy of its own thread. Try it here:

Spring is arriving much more suddenly than I expected, and as per usual, I didn’t get all my winter chores done. Namely, there are quite a few trees on my place I’d like to drop this year for various reasons. We will make firewood out of them, some for us, some to stack and sell.

Conventional wisdom is that it’s best to cut when sap is “down”...and the wood will take less time to season once split. I’ve never had the luxury of being far enough ahead to worry about that, so I’ve never studied it closely enough to know how big a difference that makes.

Couple ways I can attack this:

1). Go on a felling rampage and just get them on the ground before too much sap gets up. Knowing full well it will be weeks (at best) before I can buck/split/stack the wood. Might have some degradation in quality in some of it.

2). Not worry about sap, and just cut throughout the spring and summer at my own pace. Wood won’t be getting punky on the ground, but will certainly not be cut during dormant season.

Which approach would you take?

 

[Wilhelm]

Unless the wood species is known to resist the drying process even after having been split I'd take the trees down as I see fit to buck and split them.

Hornbeam, beech, ash and oak will dry fairly fast once split - just stack them in the open so that they can air out.

Conifer species and turkey oak won't season for two-three years and it truly doesn't matter when You took them down.

That is my very limited experience with processing and seasoning firewood.

 

[stihl_head1982]

Saw a car on the interstate this morning. It's 4 lanes wide. The guy is in the second lane from the right -- tire is flat all the way to the rim. He's going
45 or less in a 75, not attempting to get off the road. I believe he may have been having suicidal thoughts. If not the way the cars were coming at him
he must have been looped from the night before.

 

[kingOFgEEEks]

I didn’t figure this was worthy of its own thread. Try it here:

Spring is arriving much more suddenly than I expected, and as per usual, I didn’t get all my winter chores done. Namely, there are quite a few trees on my place I’d like to drop this year for various reasons. We will make firewood out of them, some for us, some to stack and sell.

Conventional wisdom is that it’s best to cut when sap is “down”...and the wood will take less time to season once split. I’ve never had the luxury of being far enough ahead to worry about that, so I’ve never studied it closely enough to know how big a difference that makes.

Couple ways I can attack this:

1). Go on a felling rampage and just get them on the ground before too much sap gets up. Knowing full well it will be weeks (at best) before I can buck/split/stack the wood. Might have some degradation in quality in some of it.

2). Not worry about sap, and just cut throughout the spring and summer at my own pace. Wood won’t be getting punky on the ground, but will certainly not be cut during dormant season.

Which approach would you take?

If you are for sure going to cut them this year, mark the trees and girdle them now. (Remove all bark and cambium around the whole tree - google it). That will prevent the sap running, and potentially shorten your seasoning time. I wouldn't worry too much about it, though.