Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[chipper1]

Anywhere man has been presents this risk!

I recall sitting on a rock out cropping on the top edge of one of the taller peaks in the Catskills one time thinking how untouched it was. That illusion quickly passed when I found a cut iron nail laying in a small depression. Coming across signs of man in other “remote” areas is the norm. I’ve found small graveyards, rubble foundations, farm implements, gate hardware, dug wells, miscellaneous trash, tools, stone walls, ditches, etc. in some very unlikely places. Add in the fact that as a kid I personally built three separate “forts” and an accessorized camp site in the woods—all involved nailing—and nothing surprises me. Not even this… found along the boundary of the property I hunt.

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That must be some hard cedar, had to use a tapcon to screw it up .

 

[Haywire]

That looks like a "Jet Sled" brand sled like we use for duck hunting. Did you add the metal handle? If so, how?

Yeah, it's a Jet Sled. This is the hitch kit they make for it:

 

[MustangMike]

Anyone use "Huztl" brand Carbs and parts?

Have not purchased any for a while, but they were hit or miss. Almost all of the MS660s worked as well as OEM, could not tell the difference.

Many of the ones for the MS440 were junk, and often the MS460 stuff was really MS440 carbs. You will not get the same performance from them.

I've purchased a few of the "older" OEM MS460 carbs for my next projects (Models with the .070 jets).

When I get to these projects, I will keep you posted.

Also note that (when doing timed cuts in Hickory) I tried a Walbro 460 carb on my 10mm 044, but that saw liked the original ZAMA carb better! (It is a 10 mm 044 and the carb does not have a snorkel).

One of my ported 460s liked the 461 carb (it is a different design) better, the other two did not!

Often, it is just experimentation!

 

[SS396driver]

Picked up some more bar oil at Tractor today . They called me saying my rain check was filled. 5 gallons at 6.99

 

[sean donato]

For AM carbs for small engines (chainsaws, weed whips, lawn mowers, etc) I've tried to use only "Hipa" brand carbs. Seems to be a little more reliable, but maybe my loyalties are misplaced? Anyone use "Huztl" brand Carbs and parts?

if I'm going after market, I just get whatever is cheapest with the best shipping rate. Most show up as no name carbs anyway, so I'm fairly sure they are all made at the same place anyway. So, I don't get hung up on the "brand" name. Every now and then a lemon comes through, depending on cost, I'll either return it or just get another. Generally I have pretty good luck with them.

 

[GrizzlyAdams86]

Some years back I found a bottle near a pair of ash trees that had uprooted and blown over. It was half buried in the dirt and if I hadn't seen the sunlight reflecting off it I would have just kept walking over it. The bottle said "Pluto Water-America's Physique" and had a logo on the bottom. Did some research and Pluto Water was mineral spring water billed as a "natural laxative" and also had lithium salts as an ingredient. Sales were stopped in 1971 when lithium became a controlled substance. When I told the landowner about it he laughed and said "clean your body, bowels and mind in one fell swoop with it". Cleaned up the bottle and it's up on top of the kitchen cabinets with some other stuff on display.

 

[JimR]

Today in the freezing cold I wired up my tractor heater and installed a new set of LED spot/ flood lights on the brush guard. My older lights had lost a few segments. These are really bright. I'll take a woods shot the next time that I am out after dark. I have 4 more for extras. If I like these I just might replace my rear work lights.

 

[chipper1]

Some years back I found a bottle near a pair of ash trees that had uprooted and blown over. It was half buried in the dirt and if I hadn't seen the sunlight reflecting off it I would have just kept walking over it. The bottle said "Pluto Water-America's Physique" and had a logo on the bottom. Did some research and Pluto Water was mineral spring water billed as a "natural laxative" and also had lithium salts as an ingredient. Sales were stopped in 1971 when lithium became a controlled substance. When I told the landowner about it he laughed and said "clean your body, bowels and mind in one fell swoop with it". Cleaned up the bottle and it's up on top of the kitchen cabinets with some other stuff on display.

That's cool.
Last spring I found a Thomas Edison Battery Oil bottle, do you know what those are.
Here's some of the posts from when I found it and responses.

Cool bottle - never heard of those batteries.
.Thomas A. Edison Primary Batteries were widely used on railroads to energize track and signal circuits. The battery consisted of a glass jar 6" in diameter and 10" high. Each cell produced 0.8 volt. The elements had to be renewed at various times due to train density and other factors. The new elements consisted of zinc and lead plates, a can of caustic soda, and a small glass of oil. The caustic soda was mixed with water, the elements were suspended in the solution, and the battery oil was added to the top of the solution to prevent evaporation....The earliest patent date is July 23, '08. These batteries were still in use in the mid-60's...O.M. Middleton, Oregon, OH

And Charles Turner of Redfield, Iowa described battery oil as " a pure nonconductive oil that is added to the potassium-based electrolyte in old Edison nickel-iron batteries to reduce water loss due to excessive gassing... These batteries were used with wind generator electric systems because they can be cycled at high rates without damage. Due to their high-charging characteristics, the Edison battery will boil the water out very quickly without a film of oil on the electrolytic fluid"...

I hadn't either.
I guess the one plant burned down, so it's easy to know that ones label as mine are at least made before the new plant in 1915.
The creek out back follows where the old tracks ran, probably the other way around lol. Theres some glass insulators down there you find now and again too, but most have been shot off the crossbeams. There was also a large turntable down there for turning the engine around, and a dam where they held water for filling the steam engines back in the day. Neat stuff.

 

[chipper1]

if I'm going after market, I just get whatever is cheapest with the best shipping rate. Most show up as no name carbs anyway, so I'm fairly sure they are all made at the same place anyway. So, I don't get hung up on the "brand" name. Every now and then a lemon comes through, depending on cost, I'll either return it or just get another. Generally I have pretty good luck with them.

It's like Forest mama said, "life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.".
Got the seals for the bay door yesterday, the ones that I put on the posts/header are very supple, the one for the bottom of the door looks great, but it's hard as a rock. The good hing is there's a brush seal that will go in front of the hard seal on the ground, but I'll probably end up changing it out this spring/summer.

 

[MechanicMatt]

Looking good Chipper1!!

I love walking old long forgotten rail beds, ALWAYS find “treasure”

 

[old CB]

After seeing this I no longer feel bad about my occasional less than perfect felling outcomes…

At my camp property in St. Lawrence County, NY I get quite a bit of timber fall from beaver. The big pond is about 30 acres, and the beaver run riot around it. Several yrs back I built 7 nice wood duck boxes--gave away all but two that I mounted in trees adjacent to the pond. One, I climbed a white pine and wired it into place about 20' up. The other, I went to the opposite side of the pond, got a climbing rope up into a bitternut hickory (no limbs on which to free climb), then ascended on rope and wired the box to the tree about 20-something feet up. (If the box is too close to the ground, snakes or coons will sense the young, and clean out the nest.)

A year or so back on one of my two annual visits to camp, I scanned the far side of the pond with binocs and wondered, Where the f--- is my duck box? Walked around to the hickory tree duck box and found that a beaver had dropped the tree into the pond. Box was pinned beneath it in the mud & crunched badly.