Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Well today is sure a wet one... got soaked inspecting rides. Doubt I'll be doing any real outdoor work at home tonight. Last night I ran and picked up some pressure treat to make my wife a flower bed. Wow, lumber has gone nuts in price. Needed 4 2x4x8, 4 2x6x8, and 2 2x6x10. Nearly $100.00. Almost puked. I've been putting this project off for years and she got stuff to plant in it the other day, so I kinda had to get it done. Wish I would have made it a wile ago now. Oh well such is life.
You guys will appreciate this. Had my brother in law call yesterday evening. Said he needed a blade for his saw. Told him I didnt have any blades, but i may have chains that will fit. (He didnt get it lol) I asked hin what size bar he had on it, the pitch, and gauge? He said "it's an echo cs490 and the blade measures 16 3/4" long." I said "so it's got an 18" bar?" He said no it measures 16 3/4" long, but he was at lowes and didnt have the saw in front of him. (At this point I was rolling my eyes) looked up what should have been on it, and let him know 72 driver links, .325 pitch and .050 gauge. He kept saying they didnt have it in echo brand, so he would have to come back later. Tried explaining that the brand didnt matter so much as long as everything else matched up. (Bang head on wall) finally my sister in law grabbed the phone from him, asked what they needed, I told her. She said is husqvarna brand ok? I said yes it will work. Took her 30 seconds to find the chain, I was on the phone with him for 17 minuets. Told my wife after I got off the phone and she thought it was funny as heck. At least he got his new chain lol.

I once saw a guy take the bars off and measure the overall length of the bar when on the phone with a saw shop. I tried to tell him to measure with the bar still on and round up, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I just went back to what I was doing, and later overheard that all the chains were too long. But what do I know! Ha.
 
I went out to Mitch's again this arvo to collect the remaining good peppermint log and get some bonfire junk wood. Here's the nice peppermint log.

13th Apr 4.jpg

However, Limby was sooking about being left home on the weekend in favour of the 460 and wouldn't start. Of course, I didn't bring the 460 today. I scratch my head sometimes with that saw, much as I like it. I have pulled it out after 6 months of no use with old fuel in the tank and it has started first pull. It has been all of 4 days since its last use and didn't miss a beat then but today he won't go. I tried beating him with a stick but he still wouldn't go. I'll try some more beatings tomorrow.

Since I left the 460 at home and the 241 has not enough bar to cut that log, I went on in search of bonfire wood.

13th Apr 3.jpg

A few peppermint logs here, some were solid, some were downright rotten but ok for bonfire. The 241 got it done and I was pleased that it managed it all on one tank as I didn't bring any spare fuel.

13th Apr 2.jpg

Also found a few branch bits for bonfire poles.

13th Apr 1.jpg

I'll head out again tomorrow but will take the 460 as well in case the big princess continues to be a whiny little bi*ch.
 
I once saw a guy take the bars off and measure the overall length of the bar when on the phone with a saw shop. I tried to tell him to measure with the bar still on and round up, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I just went back to what I was doing, and later overheard that all the chains were too long. But what do I know! Ha.
In his defense hes not a saw guy, and I'm not the most patient person on planet earth, so never a good mix. Hes supposed to be helping with the roof on the house, so I'll keep a few logs laying around and give him a few pointers if time allows.
 
I don't do a lot of stumping so I don't have a dedicated saw but I do have an older worn bar and an almost used up chain that I keep for the task. Smaller stumps in a yard can be exposed easily with a pressure washer.

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Hmm didn’t think of using a pressure washer. I just took down the second tree in my yard. Now I just need to rent a stump grinder from Home Depot. Never used one before but it sounds fun.
 
There is an older fellow up here that charges $2 per inch to grind stumps. He gets them a couple inches below the surrounding ground surface. He has a small contraption on a trailer and he backs it up to the stump either by hand or with an ATV. The rotary grinding head looks more or less like a heavy duty tiller and slowly eats away at the stump. Pretty slick setup. Reasonable to the homeowner and he makes a pretty good hourly rate.

If you are looking at full stump removal, I watched my former neighbor do it with what looked like a ditch witch aka a giant chainsaw type of thing and he beat the hell out of himself for three days removing stumps that could have been pushed up with a backhoe in a couple of hours. But he was a knucklehead anyhow.
 
damn $2 per inch sounds like a great deal. If I can find someone like that here I'm definitely not renting anything lol. I cut the trees down pretty close to ground level now I just want to grind them down a few inches at least below dirt lvl. Maybe I'll watch some YT videos of dumb homeowners using a stump grinder to give me an idea what's in store for me
 
Oh, we’re not supposed to burn green, the permit specifies a number of days you need to wait.

Which makes a lot more sense than expecting us to burn green ****... I was told burn it or haul it to the dump by 6/1

We do not have any restrictions on burning vegetation but cannot burn treated lumber, painted lumber, or anything not made of wood.
 
When stumping, you also have to be careful of a pinched bar, and the exhaust often sends the chips back up into the air filter, so is it tough on the saw.

My Cousin on the farm used to have a Jack A$$. The door to his enclosure was an electric wire line. Even when you took the line down, the animal still would not cross that line!

My Cousin used to hook him to the tractor and pull him out, then he was OK!
 
In his defense hes not a saw guy, and I'm not the most patient person on planet earth, so never a good mix. Hes supposed to be helping with the roof on the house, so I'll keep a few logs laying around and give him a few pointers if time allows.

The guy I referenced is owner of a private zoo, he supplied animals for Hollywood movies in the 70s-80s. But stopped because it’s hard on the animals. A few years ago winds blew down a bunch of his trees. He gives our veteran group special behind the scenes tours, so we went and helped. He also had his employees cutting with company saws, that’s what he was trying to get chains for.

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Mules truly are great animals, tough, reliable, smarter than a horse. The old saying is "it takes a mule to drive a mule"--you need understanding between both parties. I just had poor luck with my arrangement. The first day I owned her, had just tied her up inside my barn and was headed out the door for the house. When I passed behind her, a back hoof shot out with lightning speed and connected with my knee--sounded like a baseball bat hitting a pop fly. Should've known then that things wouldn't improve. But I tried for some time.

There's a very good book, very readable: "The Oregon Trail," by Rinker Buck, who outfitted a covered wagon and drove a team of three mules on the Oregon Trail about ten years ago. The book tells about his trip with much background about mules interspersed. Even if you think you have no interest, this book will keep you interested. Mules in large part built this country, and most of us have no idea of their contribution. https://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Trail-New-American-Journey/dp/1451659172

Was looking for a photo of Blondie, but all our family photos went to our daughter's house in Denver a few years ago when big fire swept through nearby. A house you can replace, photos not so much.
 
It's not fun, believe me!
lol sounds like you have a lot of first hand experience. I also thought taking these two trees down in my yard would be fun. Not so fun when you have to cut and drag all the branches out of a yard. The actual cutting part was fun though but that was the easiest and fastest part lol
 
lol sounds like you have a lot of first hand experience. I also thought taking these two trees down in my yard would be fun. Not so fun when you have to cut and drag all the branches out of a yard. The actual cutting part was fun though but that was the easiest and fastest part lol
Here's the stump grinder that I have rented locally. Works really well.20210413_143323.jpg
Lee
 
So my first dog back on the farm I was too little to know a dog by anything other then puppy. Fast forward to getting gretchen. Old habits die hard, I still call her puppy 90% of the time. Shes never eaten a lot, she eats to live not lives to eat. Now cat crap she can eat all day lol.

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You should call the dog potty mouth


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Here's the stump grinder that I have rented locally. Works really well.View attachment 900931
Lee
I rented a toro model similar to that, worked well. Had the gas engine and I was wishing for more hp, but it did the job in a timely manner. Me mum was thrilled to have all the stumps gone in the yard. So happy she got a swing set for all the kids, and sat it right in top of the largest stump.
 
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