Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Guess I don’t need to take the truck down to my shop for an engine overhaul. Most of the smoking was carb and thin oil but I did find it was sucking trans fluid in from the vacuum modulator. I replaced it and the truck is running well So I’ll be taking it off the trailer and putting it back in the barn IMG_6822.jpeg
 
Forgot who it was that was interested in my options on the Estwing splitting maul.

In short. I dont like it as much as the Fiskars maul. The Estwing somehow ….is more unwieldy than the fiskars if that is possible. And more vibrations make it to my elbows and shoulders with the Estwing. Not bad but definitely more than any of the Fiskars. I dont think it splits as well as the Fiskars either. And I personally think the handle shape is to “tall and thin” in the hand. Like holding a 2x4 that has had the edge’s beveled.(exaggeration but you understand)

The pictured log was not splitting with the Estwing. I gave up on it after a good 20+ hits. Never do I ever swing that many times at one long, but for the sake’s of ye old “testing” i gave it a fair chance. Fiskars took care of it much faster.
 

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1325ft deep! Does it taste like rice? Halfway to China there!
Mine is 50ft and one of the deeper ones in the area. My in-law's well is 35ft deep.

Mine is at 65. I don't know what depth they hit water but they said it was 24gpm and the static level was 10' I am on a huge aquifer that runs way back up into the Idaho mountains. Drawback is that 20 years later it still pumps very fine silt. I had to put in a filter
 
The over flow pipe runs like this 24/7 .I have often thought about pluming it to the house and running it through a radiator with a fan . Would cool at least one room . Water temp in the heat of summer is in the low 50s
I already tried it and it works fine, my water stays in the 40's and it will cool the whole house... BUT, my heat/vac buddy brought over a complete house AC unit for 300 bucks, he then installed it, and it works great.

So, central air won and it's great...

SR
 
I already tried it and it works fine, my water stays in the 40's and it will cool the whole house... BUT, my heat/vac buddy brought over a complete house AC unit for 300 bucks, he then installed it, and it works great.

So, central air won and it's great...

SR
I’ve only put a window unit a handful of times in the last 10 years . It gets hot since the house is in direct sun all day but it cools right off since I’m surrounded by woods . Also the we did the spray foam in the attic that cut the heat gain tremendously and the heat lose in winter also

My rental has central air I put it in when it was my main residence. Cape in direct sun all day in a development it never cooled off at night
 
I’ve only put a window unit a handful of times in the last 10 years . It gets hot since the house is in direct sun all day but it cools right off since I’m surrounded by woods . Also the we did the spray foam in the attic that cut the heat gain tremendously and the heat lose in winter also

My rental has central air I put it in when it was my main residence. Cape in direct sun all day in a development it never cooled off at night
My central air doesn't run all the time, but like today, it's hot in the evenings, so it comes on for a few hours until it cools the house down and by then it's cool outside. I'm really glad I have it after working outside in the heat, it's just so nice to come into a cool house.

It only pushes my electric bill up 50 bucks a month or less, and that's really cheeeep for all the comfort it offers. I have a lot of trees around my house too, it really helps to have shade trees by the house too.

SR
 
I use my rotary cutting tractor in some pretty serous brush, and limbs kept hitting the upright muffler until it cracked where it mounts. SO, today I took it off and straightpiped the tractor with a shorter pipe!

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It's not much louder, but I don't run ANY equipment without hearing protection, so it really doesn't matter either way to me...

SR
 
My central air doesn't run all the time, but like today, it's hot in the evenings, so it comes on for a few hours until it cools the house down and by then it's cool outside. I'm really glad I have it after working outside in the heat, it's just so nice to come into a cool house.

It only pushes my electric bill up 50 bucks a month or less, and that's really cheeeep for all the comfort it offers. I have a lot of trees around my house too, it really helps to have shade trees by the house too.

SR

I have central AC. Something I learned long ago. Kick the furnace fan ON. The circulating air will keep the house comfortable, sometimes for hours, without need for the AC. With fan ON the house is comfortable with teh AC set at 80.
 
good for you! no doubt a bit of a big job!! 👍
It actually wasn't that bad using my tractor with forks and two straps to go from the fork frame to the far end of the bed. The bed is fairly light for the size of it. I lifted the back end up by hand and put a board under it to be able to slide the forks in without wrecking anything. I had a board on the rear of the frame to install the new bed so I wouldn't mark up my recent frame paint job. I did have a friend stop by to hold the gas tank filler neck up while I lowered the bed into place. The only real change was wiring in the LED license plate lights on the newer style bumper. My old bumper was junk and had standard light bulbs. Hopefully today I can swap out my hood. My truck got hammered by a dead tree a few years ago. The bedside was destroyed along with the hood and 2 minor dents on the fenders that I will fix in the future. Those dents should pop right out. I should have taken pictures of the bed install. When I am really busy I just don't think about taking photos.
 
My well was originally (1985) at 525 feet and the static level was 100'. When they replaced the pump, the static level was 200'. Then, more folks had to drill deeper and during a dry spell I went dry. My static level was 500'.

They drilled to 1,325 and did not hit any additional water, but I think some seems opened up after that. The guy diagonally in back of me had to drill a few years ago and hit additional water at about 750 feet. I think he, the person next to me, and I are all on the same vein, so that bodes well for me.

The house next to me on the other side, and the house across the street from him both had to drill past 1,000', but both hit good water between 900 and 1,200' (10-15 gal/min).

We are on a clay capped (naturally) hill, so a lot of the water is not absorbed, and it was once all summer homes, so it is overbuilt. Lot size is 100' X 150' with well and septic. The current zoning has increased to 2 acres. Luckily, I also own the vacant lot in back of me, and the lot across the street from me is also vacant.

But when someone has to drill deeper, it often resembles a game of dominoes, and the drillers stay busy for a while.
We have 2 neighbors to the right side of our place with wells at about 125 feet each. My in laws old farmhouse 200 yards away on the leftside of our house has a recent artesian well that hit a massive vein at 120 feet. I believe the output was over 12 gallons a minute. All on my town has a clay layer 2 - 3 feet under the surface. We own the hilled lot across the street. I can tell you that there is ground water seeping out of it in plenty of places at the base of that hill. There are two hand dug wells on that hill that were used to feed the farmhouse next door. One is 6 feet wide by 12 feet deep. That is the lower well at about 20 feet higher elevation than the farm. The other is 4 feet wide and 25 feet deep at about 75 feet higher elevation near the top of the hill. Both were gravity fed wells down to the farm. The quantity of water was limited. That was the reason for drilling an artesian well.
 
Did manage to change the oil and run the 68 . Oil was like piss water with so much gas in it . But I’m sure there’s no sludge in it
View attachment 1100392
Kerosene works better for cleaning the innards of a motor. I saw a Chrysler Town&Country 440 loose its oil pan and valve covers because it had gas in the oil. The car was towed into the dealership where I worked. The service manager told one of the mechanics to go over and jump the car. As soon as he hit the starter motor the engine backfired blowing the covers off and rupturing the oil pan. We were all shocked at that one.
 
Kerosene works better for cleaning the innards of a motor. I saw a Chrysler Town&Country 440 loose its oil pan and valve covers because it had gas in the oil. The car was towed into the dealership where I worked. The service manager told one of the mechanics to go over and jump the car. As soon as he hit the starter motor the engine backfired blowing the covers off and rupturing the oil pan. We were all shocked at that one.
I was being a little sarcastic :) .Gas in the oil is never good I didn’t run it long just enough to get it on the trailer . We used to us a quart of kerosene before an oil change on cars that were neglected and had sludge in them . Run it for 10 -20 minutes drop the oil .
 
Guess I don’t need to take the truck down to my shop for an engine overhaul. Most of the smoking was carb and thin oil but I did find it was sucking trans fluid in from the vacuum modulator. I replaced it and the truck is running well So I’ll be taking it off the trailer and putting it back in the barn View attachment 1100404
I remember those days and blown modulators.
 
I was being a little sarcastic :) .Gas in the oil is never good I didn’t run it long just enough to get it on the trailer . We used to us a quart of kerosene before an oil change on cars that were neglected and had sludge in them . Run it for 10 -20 minutes drop the oil .
At a Ford dealership we used to use 2 quarts of kerosene to 3 quarts of oil. We run the motor bout the same amount of time. Watching the globs of sludge come out was always a good laugh.
 
Man..........I'm gone for another week or so, and I'm 17 pages behind again? You guys have got too much time on your hands LOL!

Question, again, keep in mind, I'm not a professional cutter by any means, although I do consider myself half-way decent with a saw. I've got a tree at my house in WI that's leaning right towards a corner of the house. It's a conifer (I'm not sure which type exactly, maybe a Jack Pine), that I want to take out before a storm does it for me. I've only got about a 6' gap between that corner of the house and some other hardwood trees that are healthy and I don't want to damage. So, I'm thinking about "directing it" with my tractor.

The only problem is, my wife doesn't want to have anything to do with driving the tractor, and she doesn't know how to use a saw. No friends in the area either. So, I'm thinking that if I get in the tractor first, and use my long arborist's rope attached to the tree, to initially pull the tree away from the house, in the direction that I need it to fall, and just put enough tension on the line to see the tractor pulling the tree in the direction that I want it to fall in, and then STOP pulling with the tractor, and put the brake on, keeping the pressure on the line, then go to the tree, skip the notch completely, but start cutting the tree with the back cut, and when I get deep enough into the cut that I can see the gap opening up from the tension on the line from the tractor, and stop cutting. Then get back into the tractor, and pull it over exactly where I need it to go. Do you guys think that would work?? I'm open to all feefeedback.
I just tighten the line enough to hold the trees steady pulling approximately 180 against the lean so it can set back(pull direction may need to be adjusted so the tree will start in the direction of fall intended if it's not already leaning a bit that way).
Cut my notch, make a bore cut to set the hinge, drop down 2-8" below the bore cut and cut until the back cut is just past the bore cut.
Warning, everyone has told me for yrs it's dangerous, okay, stay at the stump and do your thing 🤣.
Now, the real warning, if this isn't a tree that's in a very similar situation to what you've already practiced on in the woods, you probably shouldn't be trying it out in a target filled environment!
All that being said, please have your wife video it :thisthreadisworthlesswithoutpictures::lol:.


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I was aiming the large branch that ran parallel with the main towards the stump(about 4' left of the stump, missed it by a ft) the main had substantial side lean and all the branches off the side it was on.
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I've done this hundreds of times. Once again, if you're not comfortable/experienced with what you're attempting, consider the cost of the repairs if things "go sideways". After hearing your questions and what you would do, I'd either rent a lift or pay someone :). I've heard it said, the lessons that cost us the most we are the slowest to forget ;).
Be safe bud, and if I was there I'd be happy to help out.
 
I have central AC. Something I learned long ago. Kick the furnace fan ON. The circulating air will keep the house comfortable, sometimes for hours, without need for the AC. With fan ON the house is comfortable with teh AC set at 80.
I have overhead fans that do the same thing, but one thing fans don't do, and that is lower the humidity. That's a BIG part of why AC works so well in the first place. There's no dessert around here, it can get humid at times...

SR
 
I have overhead fans that do the same thing, but one thing fans don't do, and that is lower the humidity. That's a BIG part of why AC works so well in the first place. There's no dessert around here, it can get humid at times...

SR
Good thing it's only 91% today :baba: . Heading over to south of you to do a few more trees at the place in the pics/vid above, hope we don't get rained on, looks like it all went just south of us.
 
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