The Whining Thread

[northmanlogging]

its 9 am... its snowing again/still, before that it rained for like 40 days and 40 nights, all the trees on this job are well within striking distance of a very nice house, close quarters plus snow = massive butt pucker and heart burn. the last job (the neighbors) I barely made it out without turning the whole place into soup... Had to stack brush as I wen't along for a skid trail, even then it got squishy in places

I wan't to stay home and work on the dumper truck... but its parked in a mudhole, and I don't have a shop...

This is the part of WA winter that makes things a little rough around here, and why most folks move away...

If the snow was just a little fluffier or if it wasn't on top of 3' of mud it wouldn't be so bad, Hel it would almost be fun, but this is just wet, cold, slimy and just a pain to work in.

I know I'm whining... I don't care...

Rant over... finding shoes, out the door I go

 

[bitzer]

That's pretty much been our last two winters. Maybe a total of a months worth of frost. Otherwise, rain, mud, snow repeat. Firewood isn't selling. Pulp mills are tight. Seriously looking at high float tires for the forwarder. Like 40"+ wide kind of stuff. The last 18 months have been garbage. Mud in all seasons. I don't have a shop either northy. I work on it outside too.

 

[Gologit]

LOL...Don't take this the wrong way but listening to you and Matt makes me really glad to be retired.
I did my share of all-night mechanical marathons in the dirt or the mud or the snow because that was just what you did to get ready for the next day. Work all night, grab a couple of hours sleep scrunched up in the crummy, and then back to logging at daylight. Sometimes it made a guy really question his choice of occupations.
It's really nice that you guys are carrying on with an old tradition.
I believe I'll have another cup of coffee now.

 

[northmanlogging]

Currently hidding under the essavator boom waiting on dime sized hail to quit... snowed again too

 

[bitzer]

Get back to the nursing home old man!!! This last year has been stressful to say the least. I asked my wife today of all the things in the world I could do why did I have to pick a job that is so difficult? She replied why did you pick a woman that is so difficult?

 

[Gologit]

That conversation sounds very familiar.

And no nursing home yet. I hit a bump in the road healthwise over the winter but things are looking good now.

 

[bitzer]

That conversation sounds very familiar.

And no nursing home yet. I hit a bump in the road healthwise over the winter but things are looking good now.

I didn't know and I'm glad to hear you're ok. You're one of the good ones Bob.

 

[Gypo Logger]

I didn't know and I'm glad to hear you're ok. You're one of the good ones Bob.

Witch pretty well shows what a greenhorn you are. Bob the Knob is no more a logger than you are.
A logger is one who buys his own timber, falls it and sells. and doesn't work for anybody, unless the price is right.
You wannabe loggers need a good arse kickin. You'd never make it on your own.

 

[bitzer]

Pluck the best 5 trees out of a forty and call that logging. Yep. You're the high grader of the high graders. I've cut more timber in the last year then you did in the ten years you did it. They still waiting in Ontario for you to come back to that ripe thousand acres? Don't touch that timber they say. It's John's timber. Yeah I'll bet. If you were so good John how come you're not doing it anymore? I know plenty of guys in their sixties still buying timber and some even in their seventies.

 

[madhatte]

Ford corporate customer service line is ass. I just want to know how long a spring is supposed to be. 5 transfers later I get an answering machine.

 

[RandyMac]

Cost me 9 bucks to fill the Harley's gas tank.

 

[madhatte]

whoah

 

[northmanlogging]

Last week or so i changed fuel filter on skidder cause it was runnin ******...

Last thurs she died suckin air somewhere, and proceded to fry the starter trying to reprime

Well finally get parts get the starter in and start priming fuel all while ankle deep in these poor peoples yard... when i notice fuel dripping from the filter...

Someone fergot to retighten the drain...

Annnd its windy as **** today so thats all i got done...

 

[bitzer]

That sucks Matt. I've been there. You have anyone you can call for a second opinion when stuff like that happens? Sometimes it just takes another guy to see what you're not. I almost never call anyone and usually learn the hard way which can waste a lot of time. It seems the three times I did have someone come out they wasted more of my time and told me what I already knew. You're welcome to give me a call anytime. I might have been there before or I might not be any help at all.

 

[northmanlogging]

I do, and he's cheap too...

I had only just started messing with the fuel issue, the missus died on wednesday with a turn behind her. Parts weren't available until friday evening...

The fuel line on this beastie is a series of hydraulic lines that snake through the frame, so I was figuring it being just a loose fitting somewhere, easy enough to fix just work through em until you find the loose one, and hope its not the one to the bottom of the fuel tank, cause I have no intention of dropping a bottom guard in a mud hole...

The plan was to get her limping, and move to drier ground then worry about the fuel issue, but being how the drain is literally eye level and I had the wrench's in my pocket since its the same one used to prime the system...

All works out in the end.

The annoying one was the tip over shut off on the excavator, tried fer like a week to get the damn system primed after the wonderful frozen fuel lines episode...

Mechanic dude rolls in BS's fer like 30 minutes, wiggles his nose at the ole gurl and she fires up like a kitten... Granted I no longer have a tip over shut off solenoid but she runs just fine...

I try and avoid hiring mechanics since generally they cost $100-150 an hour, and are about twice as slow as me to fix things.

But for heavy or intense wrenching its good to have the pro's on hand, they have cranes and big ass air compressors with big ass air tools... I have a hi-lift jack and some sLowe's wrench sets, well I do have all the *****'n air tools and a *****'n compressor, I still don't have the crane.

I flat refuse to hire a welder though... got that shizz covered at least.

 

[northmanlogging]

spent the better part of the last three days, both wrenching and chasing down a trans for the dumper truck....

got it in today before lunch, ran the core and tranny jack back, get home start buttoning everything up...


And the U-joint is bigger on the new trans... so take the brand new drive line back to the drive line folks, hopefully they can find an adapter type and the ole pile will be roadworthy again monday. If not they got's to cut the end off the brand new shaft and install a different other new yoke and u-joint...

10 bolts... just 10 bolts away from completion... Think I might start naming these particular 10 bolts, as I've had them out probably once a month for the last year trying to figure out the problem...

 

[northmanlogging]

also, after taking the drive shaft to its 3rd driveshaft experts visit in 6 monthes...

I had to go meet a client, still covered in 90w and with gravel in muh beard. Heluva day...

 

[2dogs]

I haven't been here for awhile but you can probably guess what's going on here in Cali. It's been raining. A lot. I've spent most of my time on the backhoe trying to keep up with the slides, some fairly large. And washouts, creeks jumping their banks, plugged culverts, and DEBRIS FLOWS. Our camp sits in the middle of the Soberanes burn scar (I worked mop-up and falling until the rain started falling) and is the lowest point in the interior of that 132,000 acre footprint.

Most of my saw time has of lately has just been clearing the road. Some of those trees have been bigger than 3 feet in diameter but I didn't anything longer than 20'6". I can't move big logs.

By far our biggest problem has been washouts on the County paved road. One washout left only a 7' wide precarious traffic lane that two of the residents drive across with their Japanese vehicles. Nobody else will cross with anything larger than a side by side. We can get any equipment in and the 966 and the short logger can't get out. We've gone all the way to DC in our quest for help but nothing is happening yet.

I'll add some pictures when I can.

 

[madhatte]

I hope that's a dynamite tree.

 

[RandyMac]

Nah, ya cut the legs and run.