Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[GrizG]

I was looking out the back windows at mom's and noticed a doe browsing and moving to the SW in the woods behind the house. Then I noticed some motion to the right of it maybe 50-60 feet away... I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an antler. With that I grabbed the binoculars and went outside. I snuck around the house thinking that they were both going to move to the SW inside the tree line. I figured I could get a better look from there but couldn't find them.... However, with all the thick brush I kept looking as I didn't see them break cover. I eventually moved to the other end of the house and started glassing again. Bingo! It turns out that the buck had bedded down within feet of where I saw it. It looked like a decent sized buck (especially considering all I was seeing was multiple 4 pointers, what was probably a 6 originally but now a 3 on one side and a broken off stump on the other). I held my position and the buck and doe were watching me... I took some photos with my phone.

I take this as a good sign as all the deer that move through that area end up in the woods where I hunt. One year a 10 pt. was behind the house and he's been hanging on my wall for years.
It's kind of early but that buck seemed to be exhibiting rut behaviors, e.g., trailing the doe, hanging out close by. Maybe I'll get to see a good chase through the yard!

Bedded down


Following the doe

All the dead trees you see in the photos are ash... or perhaps I should saw were ash! When all the ash were alive those woods were park like... trees with no understory. It's different now! There are lots of song birds again like when I was a kid.

 

[GrizG]

@svk whats a job you can turn off??

I’ll be on “vacation” in a deer blind and get phone calls from work. Or be at the beach with the wife and kids.

One time, I pulled the car over and got out because I didn’t want the family to hear my vocabulary

The worst, I was pulling into the cemetery to bury my grandmother, boss calls with “where are you, I have Mr XYZ in my office and he is upset”

I came uncorked. Lost my mind!!! The day prior he and I drove his truck towing my trailer showing him the trailer brakes work just fine and it’s not his truck but his trailer. He went home, tied his broken trailer again and then came back convinced it’s his truck.

I must have dropped the F bomb 20 times all F him, that mother F

Whole time boss had me on speaker. Never had to deal with Mr XYZ again. Boss asked him if he and I really took that drive together then excused him from the dealership then apologized for forgetting why I took the day off. I hung up and the. Apologized to my wife and kids for daddy talking like that.

I wish, WISH I could turn it off for a week….

This kind of stuff is a huge part of why I got out of the business. Long hours, high stress and owners who were never happy. I saw a lot of substance abuse, health problems, early deaths, and broken families among my co-workers. Apparently the pressures are worse now as my associates who are still in the business tell me management tracks their every move... It's good you keep your family as a priority.

 

[Cowboy254]

There's a bear showing up at my two son's homes and their neighbor's for the past few weeks... It was laying down under the neighbors peach tree on it's belly eating peach after peach. Took one of my son's bird feeders--all but empty but it it was taken anyway. A coyote keeps showing up too... So far nothing has gotten into the chickens.

It's been quite a while since I stopped in... It's been elder care to the max... The R part of CPR failed to materialize for me while I was waiting for EMS to arrive to tend to my father... He passed at age 90 at the end of July. He was at home and I had taken Mom to a doctor appointment in the morning. When we returned we found him on the floor... My typical day now is about 13 hours long taking care of Mom and doing household chores and fixing things at their home....

If you have elderly parents do NOT believe them when they tell you that they are fine, that everything around the house is OK, and they don't want to bother you... It wasn't until I started spending the bulk of my time at their home that I "discovered" things. I previously took care of many things I did notice... cleaning gutters, soft washing the roof to get rid of moss, washing the garage, replacing 3-way switches, etc., etc., etc.

They only had a few dishes so they hand washed them.... not really, water was leaking into the basement due to a rotted out copper waste line AND the drywell for the kitchen grey water was full and backing up the 4" DWV pipe between the house and drywell. I dug the hole and pipe trench by hand and built that drywell about 55 years ago.... Got $5 for doing it! After replacing the plumbing inside the house and constructing a new drywell the dishwasher works fine!

View attachment 1204040

While going through papers to deal with the passing of my father I found service receipts for the boiler going back 5 years. Tech wrote "needs combustion chamber." I never heard that mentioned... I took the boiler apart to find this:

Front where the burner goes
View attachment 1204041

Back wall... the floor was completely gone.
View attachment 1204042

In process...It cleaned up well and is in surprisingly good condition. New combustion chamber sections are in place in the photo.
View attachment 1204043

I was doing a lot of end of season yard work and found more black snake sheds... I'm up to six now! My son noticed the shed from the big snake that was on the patio. It was under a workbench in the outdoor power equipment room. The big shed is on top of the 6... one was destroyed by the string trimmer and only a little piece was recovered! I'm saving them for my grandsons... Figure they'd be a good show and tell item. I sent one of my sons to school with a deer antler and a buck rub one time and various skeleton parts other times. He earned the nickname Bones in primary school.
View attachment 1204044

The on-going Blazer saga continues... I finally got a chance to revisit it... The delay wasn't a problem because mom stopped driving back around April or May at age 88. With further testing I narrowed it down to the IPC circuit. A new battery and alternator slowed the draw down from "dead in a day" to "dead in 3 days." The IPC was a bit wonky (fuel gauge for one) so I pulled it out today to ship it out for repair.

View attachment 1204045

This is the kind of stuff that is fine... don't believe your elderly parents!

Mate, I'm three weeks behind but I am very sorry for your loss. That must have been a heart wrenching experience. I'm so very sorry.

 

[GrizG]

Mate, I'm three weeks behind but I am very sorry for your loss. That must have been a heart wrenching experience. I'm so very sorry.

Thank you for your kind words. Things with Mom have calmed down a lot… medicine management was a big problem for a couple months—too many doctors at too many facilities. The property management is a big issue… major plumbing repairs, new roof, minor electrical and lots of outdoor maintenance in the past three months. Two more roofs to do in the next couple years… and the gut renovations of two houses need to be finished. I’m training my sons… so they can take care of me and my stuff when I age out (which isn’t really all that far from now).

 

[JimR]

I have to answer when the boss calls or she gets pizzed.(Mrs FS).

That's because she misses you and wants to know where you are and what you are doing.

 

[diver64]

I was looking out the back windows at mom's and noticed a doe browsing and moving to the SW in the woods behind the house. Then I noticed some motion to the right of it maybe 50-60 feet away... I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an antler. With that I grabbed the binoculars and went outside. I snuck around the house thinking that they were both going to move to the SW inside the tree line. I figured I could get a better look from there but couldn't find them.... However, with all the thick brush I kept looking as I didn't see them break cover. I eventually moved to the other end of the house and started glassing again. Bingo! It turns out that the buck had bedded down within feet of where I saw it. It looked like a decent sized buck (especially considering all I was seeing was multiple 4 pointers, what was probably a 6 originally but now a 3 on one side and a broken off stump on the other). I held my position and the buck and doe were watching me... I took some photos with my phone.

I take this as a good sign as all the deer that move through that area end up in the woods where I hunt. One year a 10 pt. was behind the house and he's been hanging on my wall for years.
It's kind of early but that buck seemed to be exhibiting rut behaviors, e.g., trailing the doe, hanging out close by. Maybe I'll get to see a good chase through the yard!

Bedded down
View attachment 1216092

Following the doe
View attachment 1216093
All the dead trees you see in the photos are ash... or perhaps I should saw were ash! When all the ash were alive those woods were park like... trees with no understory. It's different now! There are lots of song birds again like when I was a kid.

That's fantastic. There are a few year around deer at my camp northeast of you but the major action is during the rut when they start funneling through from the north into the deer yards south of me. Many great bucks move through, hang around for some time until the snow gets too deep and then go a little lower in elevation.

 

[MustangMike]

Asian MS-660, has been a lot of work, but worth it.

I got this saw running a few weeks ago - had to go double thick on the fuel line where it goes through the case to stop it from leaking, and I put an OEM 066 decomp cylinder on it with a little port work (opened and flattened the exhaust port a bit and same to the intake, left the transfers stock).

The saw vibrated too much, so I ordered an OEM piston wrist pin and installed it with a new Meteor piston and OEM piston pin bearing. It started and ran but would not re-start and flooded easily. So, I ordered a new Asian carb from the Duke (through E-Bay) and installed it today.

The saw now runs strong, smooth, and has low vibrations and no problems starting!

I took it out back to test on one of my large Red Oak sticks. This section obviously had to be removed before milling. Not sure the diameter, but the small end is 36"!

The 28" bar got it done (going from both sides), but My Peeve would not dig into the wood, just kept removing bark, so I noodled it in place and then moved it, then quartered it. Not all of the wood was solid, but even in the solid parts, the saw pulled nicely!

I guess I'm all set on big saws now! Five running 066/660s, one big bore 660 (99cc) and one ported 661.

 

[Haywire]

This new chain is throwing some mean chips..

 

[diver64]

This new chain is throwing some mean chips..

View attachment 1216241

Dang. That looks like a beaver got angry!

 

[MustangMike]

Asian MS-660, has been a lot of work, but worth it.

I had previously done a muffler mod on this saw and advanced the timing.

With the Asian mufflers, the outlet is good, but I drill a 1/2" hole in the back of the baffle. This gives it better flow, but still keeps some back pressure (which I found retains more torque on many 660s - all depends on the porting).

The timing advance is .020 off the key (about 6* advance). I have seen some guys give it more, but never saw any real benefit to doing more. The .020 makes the saw stronger without making it really hard to start, etc. IMO, it keeps it civilized.

 

[MustangMike]

Dang. That looks like a beaver got angry!

I think the rakers are too low on his axe!

 

[Haywire]

Dang. That looks like a beaver got angry!

Yeah, they had quite a big damn across this trout creek. Always great Brookie fishing behind the beaver damns.

 

[SimonHS]

I guess I'm all set on big saws now! Five running 066/660s, one big bore 660 (99cc) and one ported 661.

How do you find the big bore runs? Noticeably more powerful? Or hampered by freeporting?

 

[GrizG]

That's fantastic. There are a few year around deer at my camp northeast of you but the major action is during the rut when they start funneling through from the north into the deer yards south of me. Many great bucks move through, hang around for some time until the snow gets too deep and then go a little lower in elevation.

Around me there is a circuit that the deer use. You’ll see the same deer in seemingly unrelated areas if you go by the streets. If you go by the deer trails it’s home!

 

[Squareground3691]

Letter rip , tater chip lol

 

[woodfarmer]

With this extended summer I’m still getting the wood off the ground I cut during last winter.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I managed to get this pile of wood,

cut/split yesterday, this is all that's left of it,

The rest of the big ones that are lying around, I'll deal with those next week...

SR

 

[MustangMike]

How do you find the big bore runs? Noticeably more powerful? Or hampered by freeporting?

To be honest, it is not my favorite saw to run. It is obnoxiously loud, and if I put a more restrictive muffler on it, power drops off fast. My 8.6 Hp Asian 660 is "king of the hill", but all the others are close (none of my saws are stock). Most of my 066/660s will pull just as hard as the big bore, and if I'm milling, the big bore is the only one my neighbors really complain about.

Doc Al built it, it was an "experiment", and I don't think he built any others. If it were not so loud, I would like it as much as the others, but ... It is reliable and has never given me issues, it is just unpleasant and does not have any advantages. I also have the Doc Al Asian MS660 that he built to compete in the competition at Randy's, and that is one of my favorite milling saws. I often picked up saws that Doc Al built, but did not want to keep, and these 2 Asian saws were among them.

If I had any sanity, I probably would not have 16 running saws ... but I used to have 20! I also have all the parts to complete 2 more "project saws" (Both with combinations of Asian and OEM parts). One will be a 440/460 Hybrid, with choice of OEM 046-D or 460 jug and the other will be a MS440. Both will have my personal "port work" w/o any machining just to see what I can do with them. I think some of my past work on these saws was restricted by the AM carbs I was using, so I have purchased 2 OEM 460 .070 jet carbs for these projects, so they should reach their potential.

The Asian Clone saw parts have allowed me to play and learn far more than I would have been able to do if the low-cost Asian parts were not available. That said, OEM parts are almost always more reliable and have better fit and finish.

 

[sean donato]

Down working on the log truck again today. We should be done with it tomorrow. Finished making the brackets to hold the bunker on the frame rails. Got them welded on, and bolted fast. Turned our attention turn to the back of the truck, icc bumper, grapple bed etc. Did some pretty nice fab work between the last bunk, icc bumper and some 10ga plate for a light bracket. We called it early @5pm. We'll finish it off tomorrow. Just have to finish up some welding, then mount and install the tail and marker lights. I wish he would kit me take some pictures of our work. It's taken a lot of time to get finished, but it's looking great.
Since we called an early day, I went home and started to "up grade" our internet system. The modem has been giving us some issues and is pushing 11 years old, so I got a new up to date one, and 2 new wifi routers. Got to work in the house first and got all that stuff hooked up. Then turned my attention to fishing the cat 7 ethernet cable through the basement to the new router. (It runs from the house out to the shop. We pulled it with the power/ control wires. Supposed to be shielded or something like that, so it shouldn't have interference issues.) Got that hooked up to the new router. Hooked up the second router out at the shop, then proceeded to watch a you tube video to figure out how to set it to "slave/access point mode". What a pain. Same brand of routers, but the one for the shop is a cheaper model. Said they were compatable for what I was trying to do. They are, but not as seamlessly as I had hoped. But, they both work now. No more having to have the doors open to play the radio on my phone. Small win, but ill take it.

 

[benz66]

Wife told me to come out to look at the sunset . She was taking pictures of the sunset I took this View attachment 1216048

Nice! I had a 67, when it was only 4 yrs old. Front and sides don't matter, but the back end of the 67 is the best IMHO... Nice color! Mine was dark turquoise blue. Beautiful car!