Just comical

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canamkayaker

ArboristSite Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2019
Messages
57
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67
Location
Lavaca,AR
I live in Lavaca AR (close to Fort Smith). We had a few tornados Saturday. No one injured seriously that I know of but lots of tree and structure damage. The amount poulan chainsaws for sale this morning on Facebook gave me a laugh! Either they ran out and bought 1 for the 1 limb down or they are trying to sell 1 way over priced to the people in need.


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We see that down here with hurricanes. We know there's a chance we're going to get walloped, which spurs some generator sales, but it often turns out to be a non-event. For some folks, the generator that they didn't need - that time - suddenly seems like not such a good idea.

Hurricane Michael left us without power for 14 days. I would have to be in a pretty tight spot before I would sell the generator!
 
Ever see the new saws they purchased for the clean up go up for sale after the clean up? You can sell trailer truck loads of new generators too during the cleanup.

We lost power for over a week in one October due to a freak blizzard. I’m a prepper, well half a prepper my two generators were running, one made coffee with my Keurig. The other ran the fridge/freezer. I had everything covered. It was like a test.
Even the whole-wheat pancakes and canned bacon were good.

I have firewood near the house and a chainsaw gassed and oiled up we’re its warm ready to go. I refuse to give up my morning coffee. I have boxes of the creamer that needs no fridge. One generator is just for that. Lol
 
Back in '96 we were without power for 4 days one winter after a snowstorm. At about day 3 we were ready for power again...the fun and novelty of being without electricity had ended. We live way out in the sticks on the end of a long single phase distribution that makes its way through a lot of wooded areas to our house. Since that time we have had many many outages. We now have a 200A double throw manual switch at our main electric service entrance and I own 3 generators...an 800W, a 5000W, and a 16,000W. We actually had a summertime outage in 2005 after a bad storm. The outage lasted 96 hours. At hour 95 I called the power company to inquire about when they would be able to get our power turned back on. The nice lady asked me if I was reporting a new outage. I said, "no, just checking on when the power would be back on...I had reported the outage 4 days ago." She says, "so your power went out again?" "No Ma'am! It never came back on...been off for 4 days since the storm....our entire road has been out the whole time." She says, "Sir, can you stay by your phone...I'll have the lineman who worked your area 3 days ago give you a call!" Thirty seconds later, phone rings. Lineman introduces himself. Then says, "Sir, I turned the power for all the homes on your road back on 3 days ago." So I say, "Neither my house nor any of the 19 other homes on our road has had power since the storm!" He says, "But I drove up your road that night and the lights were on in nearly every house on your road!" So I say, "We all have generators out here...did you check voltage?" Silence...….then he says, "Nope I did not....and that is my fault completely....I am very VERY sorry....we'll have a crew out there within 30 minutes. 20 minutes later power comes on! That lineman came to my house and personally apologized again! I shook his hand and told him I completely understood the mistake and we're all good! He promised he would always check and confirm voltage from that time forward when working outages in our area!
 
It is comical how many news saws show up in pawn shops after the storm cleanup. It becomes a buyers market. Or when the gas goes bad they ebay them or in your local bargain paper they go. You can get some great buys.
 
My uncle was running his Cat track loader on a demolition job a few months ago. Tearing down a house in town. Lot owner bought a new Husky chainsaw at the local big box so he could cut a stump out of the ground. He pulled the saw out of his trunk, filled it with gas and oil, fired it up and immediately shoved the bar into the dirt to cut the stump below grade. After cutting about 2 inches into the root it just stopped cutting and started creating smoke in the cut. He shut the saw off, put it in his trunk and left. 30 minutes later he arrives back at the lot with another brand new saw. Repeats the same procedure with the exact same result. Gets real mad and yells something about Husky saws being junk because they won't stay sharp!
I asked my uncle why he didn't call me. I would have raced over to the big box to buy both of those faulty dull saws!!!!
 
Ever see the new saws they purchased for the clean up go up for sale after the clean up? You can sell trailer truck loads of new generators too during the cleanup.

We lost power for over a week in one October due to a freak blizzard. I’m a prepper, well half a prepper my two generators were running, one made coffee with my Keurig. The other ran the fridge/freezer. I had everything covered. It was like a test.
Even the whole-wheat pancakes and canned bacon were good.

I have firewood near the house and a chainsaw gassed and oiled up we’re its warm ready to go. I refuse to give up my morning coffee. I have boxes of the creamer that needs no fridge. One generator is just for that. Lol

Seems like a 25 pound propane tank and a burner would be a lot simpler and store longer than a generator dedicated to heating water.
 
I bought a Wild Thing in it's case with a quart of bar oil for 20.00 at a yard sale last weekend. Got it home and looked at it. The primer bulb is petrified and the fuel lines are toast, but it has good compression. I still don't know why I bought it. :laugh:
 
I bought a Wild Thing in it's case with a quart of bar oil for 20.00 at a yard sale last weekend. Got it home and looked at it. The primer bulb is petrified and the fuel lines are toast, but it has good compression. I still don't know why I bought it. :laugh:

It was a chainsaw... with a case...with a quart of oil... for $20! I would have done the same thing...and then be asking myself the same question. Sigh.
 
Back in '96 we were without power for 4 days one winter after a snowstorm. At about day 3 we were ready for power again...the fun and novelty of being without electricity had ended. We live way out in the sticks on the end of a long single phase distribution that makes its way through a lot of wooded areas to our house. Since that time we have had many many outages. We now have a 200A double throw manual switch at our main electric service entrance and I own 3 generators...an 800W, a 5000W, and a 16,000W. We actually had a summertime outage in 2005 after a bad storm. The outage lasted 96 hours. At hour 95 I called the power company to inquire about when they would be able to get our power turned back on. The nice lady asked me if I was reporting a new outage. I said, "no, just checking on when the power would be back on...I had reported the outage 4 days ago." She says, "so your power went out again?" "No Ma'am! It never came back on...been off for 4 days since the storm....our entire road has been out the whole time." She says, "Sir, can you stay by your phone...I'll have the lineman who worked your area 3 days ago give you a call!" Thirty seconds later, phone rings. Lineman introduces himself. Then says, "Sir, I turned the power for all the homes on your road back on 3 days ago." So I say, "Neither my house nor any of the 19 other homes on our road has had power since the storm!" He says, "But I drove up your road that night and the lights were on in nearly every house on your road!" So I say, "We all have generators out here...did you check voltage?" Silence...….then he says, "Nope I did not....and that is my fault completely....I am very VERY sorry....we'll have a crew out there within 30 minutes. 20 minutes later power comes on! That lineman came to my house and personally apologized again! I shook his hand and told him I completely understood the mistake and we're all good! He promised he would always check and confirm voltage from that time forward when working outages in our area!


Lmao what a great read!!!
 
The lineman I dealt with was a really nice guy! Especially after all the work he had done for those few days after the outage. A few years earlier, near the end of the 4-day long 1996 outage, I was driving by the line crew that had just arrived on scene to get us back up. I stopped and thanks the guys for all their hard work and mentioned that I figured they all must be absolutely worn out from working all the extra hours. The lineman just looked at me and said, "Do you know if anyone out here is running a generator connected to their power panel?" I said, "Well I don't know about the other homes, but I have one connected to mine!" He says, "Do you have a transfer switch?" I said, "No...but I do have my main breaker turned off with a large piece of duct tape over it stating 'Do not turn on'. He became furioius with me and started lecturing me about how I could kill a lineman with that set-up. I listened intently and was completely understanding. I apologized for the way I had set it up...while letting him know that I did make a valid attempt to attain the safest possible arrangement I could do with the materials and parts I had on hand at the time. But after the lecture, I realized I really should have done better....so that's why I now have a 3-pole, double throw, 200 amp, service entrance rated safety switch on my main service. That switch is physically larger than my electrical panel. The next time a crew showed up at our house during an outage (because they could hear the generator running) I was able to show them the switch! They even complimented me on the set-up and thanked me for doing it right! These REMC line crews out here are a good bunch of folks!
 
It was a chainsaw... with a case...with a quart of oil... for $20! I would have done the same thing...and then be asking myself the same question. Sigh.

My wife and I are moving to a new home. So, I decided to sell a few saws. Sold my 025 to a guy at work. Then I sold my Husky 141 to a buddy of my son's. The guy who bought the husky said, "Thanks for selling me the 141....oh and I have something in my truck bed for you!" Then he proceeded to pull a P3314 and a Wood Shark from his truck bed and handed them to me! Said, "Here, you can have these! They both have good compression and spark...just won't start...probably bad fuel lines or stale gas." Well...so much for thinning the herd!!!!!
 
Photo of the new setup would be nice, please :clap:

No promises as we are moving right now, but I'll try to take a couple photos and post them before we get completely moved out of the house. Our new house does not have this set-up......YET!!!! I already bought another 3-pole switch for it so it's only a matter of time before I'll have the new house wired for generator power as well! It will actually be even more photogenic as I am planning to install two of these switches.... both 200A on a 400A service. One will power the house....the other will power the brand new workshop (Our new house does not currently have a workshop....and my wife agreed that we would need the new shop to replace the shop at our current location...bless her heart!!)
So, here's a line diagram of our current set-up. My future plan was to build a large shop next to the current small one and feed a separate 200A line to it....hence the spare 200A enclosed breaker. New owner of the house may change this set-up so that the current shop will have the dedicated 200A feed. I will attempt to get some photos of the present set-up. Old House Riser Diagram.png
 
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