Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Cowboy254]

We went to the cemetery today to visit my dad and grandparents.

I had a falling out with my parents in 2012, mainly over the way my mother treated and spoke about Cowgirl which had been going on for some time and reached a point where I felt I had to make a choice. It wasn't very pretty.

Though I knew that I had plenty to thank my parents for (which I acknowledged before I cut them off), I spent several years being angry. Dad invited us to a couple of things which I declined (fairly politely). But after a while, I realised that they would not live forever and I would feel very bad if they dropped off the perch with things being that way between us. Three years ago I called Dad on his birthday, which was the start of a reconciliation. Later in the year we all caught up and it was pretty much as though nothing had ever happened, everyone was on their best behaviour.

Things are good now. Dad will be 80 next year (but is in fantastic condition, he rides his bike a couple of hours most days) and my mother a year behind and we visit regularly. I shudder to think now if something had happened to them in those bad years. Both have a wealth of knowledge in different areas, Dad is a very practical man with much experience in many areas (though I now have the edge in chainsaw matters) while my mother is very artistic as are my children and they have much they can learn from her.

20 years since you lost your dad. I'm sorry for that, Steve.

 

[djg james]

Blain’s Farm and Fleet has 1 gallon jugs of Bar oil for $3.99 right now. If you have a rewards account (if your cool like me[emoji41]) they are $3.49

Just ordered 6 for a drive through pickup[emoji16]


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

Dang that's what I use to pay for the generic stuff. Stopped at the farm store yesterday and they wanted $8/gal. Didn't even check the price of the Stihl oil.

 

[svk]

I had a falling out with my parents in 2012, mainly over the way my mother treated and spoke about Cowgirl which had been going on for some time and reached a point where I felt I had to make a choice. It wasn't very pretty.

Though I knew that I had plenty to thank my parents for (which I acknowledged before I cut them off), I spent several years being angry. Dad invited us to a couple of things which I declined (fairly politely). But after a while, I realised that they would not live forever and I would feel very bad if they dropped off the perch with things being that way between us. Three years ago I called Dad on his birthday, which was the start of a reconciliation. Later in the year we all caught up and it was pretty much as though nothing had ever happened, everyone was on their best behaviour.

Things are good now. Dad will be 80 next year (but is in fantastic condition, he rides his bike a couple of hours most days) and my mother a year behind and we visit regularly. I shudder to think now if something had happened to them in those bad years. Both have a wealth of knowledge in different areas, Dad is a very practical man with much experience in many areas (though I now have the edge in chainsaw matters) while my mother is very artistic as are my children and they have much they can learn from her.

20 years since you lost your dad. I'm sorry for that, Steve.

Thank you. My dad and I were very close, probably as close as you can be as a 20 year old at the time.

OTOH I absolutely understand your situation. My mother struggled with mental health issues for many years. She was never very nice to my wife. She really became troublesome around early 2015. I went to her siblings and suggested we stage an intervention for her wellbeing and was met with a brick wall. They all told me she was “fine”. I more or less cut all communication from the whole lot of them. A few months later she crashed and burned figuratively and they weren’t too happy to hear “I told you so”. I didn’t speak to her for 39 months until she was having severe health issues. We patched things up and although most of “her” is gone mentally she’s still happy to see me when we go to visit the assisted living.

 

[SS396driver]

Tapered live edge legs? What's the top gonna be? Another epoxy adventure?

Yup not sure if I'll leave the live edge on the legs though. I put it together and make my decision. The other one is in use now

 

[muad]

Thanks for the bar oil comments gents.

I run Stihl brand "high performance" mix in 100LL for fuel. I mix a little heavy on oil, I bought a gallon and I refill the small one gallon mix bottle for mixing. I always fill it a touch higher than the line on the side. Before that, I was using some Klotz that was left over from my Dad's RC airplane days. That stuff smells AWESOME.

 

[chipper1]

Thanks for the bar oil comments gents.

I run Stihl brand "high performance" mix in 100LL for fuel. I mix a little heavy on oil, I bought a gallon and I refill the small one gallon mix bottle for mixing. I always fill it a touch higher than the line on the side. Before that, I was using some Klotz that was left over from my Dad's RC airplane days. That stuff smells AWESOME.

I wouldn't run the stihl ultra myself because it stinks , but if you bought a gallon it may be a while until you need to buy more. I'm not sure 100ll is needed as 87 does just fine in saw engines.
I do the same for my mix, use an old mix bottle but I use maxima K2, smells great too .
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Maxima-For...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

[chipper1]

And not one scratch on the tail gate!!

I thought I saw a spot of patina that was rubbed off though lol.

 

[chipper1]

Search boosted boys turbo odyssey on YouTube. I think you'll like it.

If it's the same one I'm thinking of I've seen that guy at the track(in his videos), looked pretty fun. I'm not into all the tuning so I'd rather just get a blue top and run it, 200hp is much better than where it's at currently and it would be a fun vehicle that would also tow very well.

 

[mountainguyed67]

I also brought this black oak home the other day, I forgot to mention it before.

 

[LondonNeil]

I wouldn't run the stihl ultra myself because it stinks , but if you bought a gallon it may be a while until you need to buy more. I'm not sure 100ll is needed as 87 does just fine in saw engines.
I do the same for my mix, use an old mix bottle but I use maxima K2, smells great too .
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Maxima-For...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

100LL is avtag, aviation fuel is given a RON via a different scale...there is RON, RON, RON...oh som many! 100LL is about the same as UK auto regular pump fuel at 95RON, US RON IIRC you 87 is slightly

Ok this is confusing...conversations on bar oil at the same time as 2-stroke oil!?

I win for smelly bar oil after I mixed a half gallon of hypoid ep80 gear oil I found when cleaning out dad's garage, in with a half gsllon of stihl synth I had. I'd forgotten quite how eggy hypoid gear oil stinks.

as for 2 stroke, I use decent stuff and mix a little strong. I was slowly using a litre of stihl green ....the ms180 is frugal so it was slow use. Then I bought the 365 and husky say use their performance oil at 50/1 or anything else at 30/1. Although i strongly suspect green is as good or better thsn xp I couldn't find the spec that xp complies to I didn't wish to go as rich as 30/1, nor to have 2 sets of mix so I bought a litre of husky xp, and mix half half with stihl green at 40/1.

 

[SS396driver]

And not one scratch on the tail gate!! My wood hauler, 89 F150 is on it's third tailgate and I could almost take a bath in the dips in it.

The truck had a camper on it since new . So the gate was stored for 47 years

 

[SS396driver]

My next project . Made the live edge legs for it

 

[psuiewalsh]

This was a limb from the neighbors maple. The entire tree is huge.

 

[muad]

I wouldn't run the stihl ultra myself because it stinks , but if you bought a gallon it may be a while until you need to buy more. I'm not sure 100ll is needed as 87 does just fine in saw engines.
I do the same for my mix, use an old mix bottle but I use maxima K2, smells great too .
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Maxima-For...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

Thanks bro. yeah, I've had this gallon for a while, LOL. she's getting low, so I'll be replacing it soon. I'll look into that maxima for sure.

I only run 100LL, because I've been burned too many times by gas going bad using ethanol laced, garbage pump gas. Since switching to 100LL, I've never had to worry about gas going bad.

I just bought 25 gallons recently, so I should be set for at least a year. LOL

 

[KiwiBro]

Dragged all but the trunk of that gum tree up to the hill around the back to buck and split.
Slash pile all done.



Here are the limbs worth splitting. Left a heap of zogger wood in the slash pile as can't really be bothered with the really small stuff without Kermit's help.


Bucked them and loaded up the first ute load onto the loadhandler mat and backed up to the splitter. Without Nemo and the high capacity bucket, the loadhandler is fantastic. The ute bed is a great height to pull rounds from.


Split what I could reach



Half a dozen turns of the handle on the magic carpet and the next batch of rounds are at my fingertips ready to split

 

[KiwiBro]

split that batch, wound another batch to the back of the ute


with just a few stragglers to grab manually


Time for lunch. Will be back with more pics from this arvo. Hopefully will get the trunk split up.

 

[KiwiBro]

Bucked some of the trunk


noodled it, loaded into ute, hustled back to the splitter hoping could make it up the wet hill with this load on



split it and having afternoon smoko. No noise after 5pm so will try to get what's left of the trunk bucked and noodled before then. Have just put a chain on dolly I classify as evil - about a 9 degree raker angle - not sure what depth that equates to but it's a little wild for gum tree wood. Only ever works out OK when the chain is razor sharp. The moment the cutter corners go off the boil it's a pig of a chain that probably isn't doing dolly any favours. Looking forward to mowing through the trunk with it though.

*edit* @Cowboy254 does it look like acacia to you, rather than gum? I haven't had much to do with the former before and the bark doesn't match the stuff I've cut, but the brown heart and white sap wood makes me think maybe is still acacia?

 

[mountainguyed67]

The entire tree is huge.View attachment 821497

Post pics of the huge part when you get a chance.

 

[Cowboy254]

Post pics of the huge part when you get a chance.

I forget how many girls have said those words to me .

I do know how many times I've been able to comply

 

[Cowboy254]

Friday arvo farm trip. There was a bit of mucking around getting at these blue gum logs since they were stacked on other stuff and each other and on a slope. Worked it out and got them sorted.



Loaded that up. Halved a few rounds with the X27 but only what I had to do to get it to sit nicely. I'll split it up properly when I have a spare 4 hours.





Since I stihl had some fuel in the 460 I thought I'd make a start on the remaining two logs which are both peppermints. Much easier cutting than the blue gum and I was pleased to zip through all that was there. The biggest log got punky half way down but punk burns as well and it will dry out quickly. Having hardly used the 460 this year I had half forgotten what an angry saw it is. Very happy with its performance even if it is a bit heavy compared to the current generation saw.







Tomorrow is the traditional 'Go Scrounge With Ross Who Has Left It Until It Starts Getting Cold Before Scrounging' day. In his defence, we did plan to get out earlier but it didn't happen for various reasons. Roscoe is fairly inexperienced with a saw though he does have a nice little Makita 50cc unit. Generally I cut until I'm buggered and he loads and ferries the wood home. I was planning to take this peppermint home tomorrow but since some of it is a bit sub-optimal I think I'll take it to him instead, probly a couple of loads there along with a couple of long skinny peppermints that are nearby. It'll save me more work later tomorrow and since I'm already nearly four years ahead, I think I can spare it.