Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[sean donato]

Leaving for work this morning, went down the lane and pulled out to find a tree down across the road. (Which explained why the power was out.) Turned around and figured I was going to be late. Called my boss to let him know. Since we're in the off season he didn't care. Had to go 15 minutes in the wrong direction to get out around. Got back into town to find a road flooded. That wad an easier detour. Pulled into work and some jerk took my parking spot. Said screw it and parked in the administration lot, right across from the door I go in. Ran in and punched the clock at 6:03, which is still "on time." Was happy about that, I don't usually give myself a lot of extra time to get to work, but it seemed to work out ok for all the out around driving I had to do.

 

[Squareground3691]

I have a similar thought in my head to go part time at 55, and enjoy life a bit more. Unsure if thats in the cards with some of the things my wife and I have been talking about recently.(buying a place with more property has come up several times now.)
I really hope everything works out in your favor.

I’d like retire to a little early, but the cost of living is creating issues, and only gonna get worse as time goes by,

 

[H-Ranch]

good season

weather was mostly not great

this fall

You guys are on shaky ground with so little weather content in your posts. Thank you for your attention to this matter.


Here in Western SE Michigan:
WEATHER...
Light snow combined with refreezing of residual moisture on roadways has led to slick conditions this morning. Additional snow accumulations under an inch expected this morning. West winds around 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Air temperatures will fall to near 32 degrees at most locations by 7 AM.

 

[djg james]

My scrounge claim.
A twisted mess of spring and twist loaded blown down trunks, unstable root wads, iced over creeks. Hung up wind blown snags and wind sheared tops everywhere. A fun puzzle full of good seasoned Spruce. A bit of it is to far gone punky wood, but about 50% of it is STIHL good and sound enough for decent firewood.


Two of today's three OVERLOADS.
View attachment 1142930


Scrounge on Gentleman!

What I want to know is how you load those last three rounds on top by yourself?

 

[WoodAbuser]

Good night menView attachment 1142918

Beautiful house.

You guys are on shaky ground with so little weather content in your posts. Thank you for your attention to this matter.


Here in Western SE Michigan:
WEATHER...
Light snow combined with refreezing of residual moisture on roadways has led to slick conditions this morning. Additional snow accumulations under an inch expected this morning. West winds around 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Air temperatures will fall to near 32 degrees at most locations by 7 AM.

Thank you for staying on topic.

What I want to know is how you load those last three rounds on top by yourself?

Very carefully.

 

[JimR]

Moderators aren't doing their job here. I see a lot of use of a particular dirty word ...SNOW! Anyone talking about it should be banned!

We had 3-4" a couple of days ago but luckily it melted in the next couple of day. Now all we have is a mushy mess. No scrounging for a while.

Snow is not a dirty word. It is clean shiny and bright.

 

[chipper1]

Snow is not a dirty word. It is clean shiny and bright.

It's a winter wonderland .

Current situation here.

 

[JimR]

We got around 14 - 15 inches of snow on Sunday. During that storm I drove 26 miles to pick up a non running fairly new Ariens Deluxe 30" snowblower with a 369cc EFI motor. The owner told me it needed a fuel pump because he broke off the fuel line nipple. He also said it didn't work. I changed the pump and tried to start it up. It was farting out the intake and exhaust. The flywheel key was sheared. I changed out the key yesterday, installed a new spark plug and fired it right up. It runs great and blows snow really well. Total cost was $450 and I now have a great snowblower for the farm.

 

[Squareground3691]

What I want to know is how you load those last three rounds on top by yourself?

It’s Balsa , light as a feather Lol

 

[JimR]

It's a winter wonderland .

Current situation here.
View attachment 1143016

That is what our place looked like before yesterday's rain came in. Now it looks like this minus about a foot of snow. Did it ever rain last night. There was over a foot of snow on our deck.

 

[sean donato]

I’d like retire to a little early, but the cost of living is creating issues, and only gonna get worse as time goes by,

My wife was really pushing to get a place with more land. With prices at what they are and what we would get from our place, I figured I'd have to work full time till I'm 70 to afford a $500k place. Which I'm not really interested in.

 

[svk]

They pay me too much to walk away…

I’m only 42, I think if I can last to 55 I should be set

Kids colleges will be paid for and I should have a decent nest egg. Gonna not retire, but definitely scale back

My dream, absolute DREAM would be to go to school for gunsmithing and open a shop

But, that is a dream…..

I say keep doing what you’re doing as the end is in sight now.

Even though I’ve been in the same business for my whole career, I’ve held a number of roles. Enjoyed them all except for the couple of ****head bosses I’ve encountered along the way.

I technically haven’t had a boss since 2016. Being my own boss means sometimes I need to kick my own ass to get into gear which isn’t always easy to do.

 

[JimR]

I’d like retire to a little early, but the cost of living is creating issues, and only gonna get worse as time goes by,

I semi retired at 51 back in 2004. I ended up going back to work fulltime 4 years later. My wife is self employed and our health insurance was costing me over $13K a year. That was back in 2008. I fully retired finally at the end of 2021. One good thing about going back to work was that I made more money than prior which added to my SS benefits when I did retire. Plus my health insurance costs dropped to under $3K a year which put $10K a year back into my pocket. It was a win win situation.

 

[chipper1]

I say keep doing what you’re doing as the end is in sight now.

Even though I’ve been in the same business for my whole career, I’ve held a number of roles. Enjoyed them all except for the couple of ****head bosses I’ve encountered along the way.

I technically haven’t had a boss since 2016. Being my own boss means sometimes I need to kick my own ass to get into gear which isn’t always easy to do.

As you know, it's always good to lay out a plan, that way you have a goal to shoot for.
Going back to driving truck wasn't part of my initial plan, but it was part of my contingency plan, bidenomics was the bullcrap that caused me to implement it . Depending on what happens in the next yr or so, there may be a large(read expensive) piece of equipment purchased in the near future, now I have a nice place to store it. Still undecided on which one, but I believe it will become clear in the near future. There are other things on the list though that must come first!

 

[Squareground3691]

I semi retired at 51 back in 2004. I ended up going back to work fulltime 4 years later. My wife is self employed and our health insurance was costing me over $13K a year. That was back in 2008. I fully retired finally at the end of 2021. One good thing about going back to work was that I made more money than prior which added to my SS benefits when I did retire. Plus my health insurance costs dropped to under $3K a year which put $10K a year back into my pocket. It was a win win situation.

Health Insurance, is the biggest sticking point for sure ,

 

[chipper1]

I semi retired at 51 back in 2004. I ended up going back to work fulltime 4 years later. My wife is self employed and our health insurance was costing me over $13K a year. That was back in 2008. I fully retired finally at the end of 2021. One good thing about going back to work was that I made more money than prior which added to my SS benefits when I did retire. Plus my health insurance costs dropped to under $3K a year which put $10K a year back into my pocket. It was a win win situation.

I "semi" retired in 2012 at 42, went back to driving partially because of the insurance as well, but with building the barn I cashed out a lot of my liquid funds, so I wanted to replenish them as quickly as possible. Like you experienced, I'm making more driving than I ever have before, and our insurance is cheaper than it was when my wife was working.

Health Insurance, is the biggest sticking point for sure ,

It's huge.
Hoping I can help get the kids started in a business of their own while they are still under my insurance, it should get them the boost they need to continue forward doing what they would like to rather than taking a job to pay the bills .

 

[JimR]

Health Insurance, is the biggest sticking point for sure ,

It is a major factor that a lot of people don't even think about. If I recall correctly I was paying around $9k in 2004 for health insurance. In 4 years that went up $4k. I was pissed.

 

[Squareground3691]

It is a major factor that a lot of people don't even think about. If I recall correctly I was paying around $9k in 2004 for health insurance. In 4 years that went up $4k. I was pissed.

Yup , every year it’s gonna go up , and ur benefits get worse,

 

[H-Ranch]

I "semi" retired in 2012 at 42, went back to driving

So... you're saying that you're still semi-retired?

 

[Sawdust Man]

"Health insurance "........