anyone else quit cutting due to the heat??

[zogger]

Nope

This is a farm, so I work 365. I've taken two half days off in the last six years outside of days my back is spasming. We don't have air conditioning in either the cabin or the rides, so I just adapt gradually with the seasons. MY GF and I seem to be able to handle whatever the weather is here better than anyone else on the farm, they all have air condo to go hide in, so outside I notice they all seem to really suffer if it is excessively hot and humid and or cold.. I think it wusses ya out some.

I mean, I ain't stupid about it, try to find shade to work in, etc, drink a lot of fruit juices and water and at home we have some window fans..but that's it.

Just came in from splitting a ton of wood, about seven wheelbarrow fulls. If I have to cut, I cut, and etc. Moms nature don't ask my permission to drop branches on fencelines, or stop weeds growing, any of that. Did a lot of string trimming today and gardening, and this evening I go back out to mow, and in between I try to keep machinery running. Got no choice, stuff has to be done.+----------- I make one exception to working outside, and that is active thunderstorms,. got nailed by lightning before and lived through it, knocks the macho out of you fast and you realize ain't no job nor sum of money worth it, to chance it I mean. I told my current boss when I hired on I slap refuse to work during lightning/t storms and if that wasn't acceptable I would just move on. Kinda hard to argue with a guy who got hit by lightning and lived to tell about it...

One thing I did notice over the years though, back to the heat and humidity, and not to sound too goody goody or anything, but I *really* used to like and drink "bavarian breakfast juice"...too much..so I quit. Not during the day or at work, after work, but still, it started to get outta control, so just stopped. Since then I can handle the heat just megaloads better. Took me around six months to really truly get sober. Its amazing how much you..hard to describe it... keep "waking up" when you quit drinking. You *think* you are sober the day after drinking, but your brain has been hard wired one way and it takes a long time to get wired a different way. Kinda neat, wish I had done that thirty years earlier. FWIW.

Oh man, almost forgot! Home made gazpacho. Best stuff to drink to beat the heat. No idea why it works, but it does.

 

[jetsled]

Heat index is around 115 degrees here today. I cut for three days last week and am still feeling some ill effects. Got the job done, but lots of r and r this weekend. Plan on splitting at sunrise then quitting bout 9 or 10am tomorrow. those of you in the east hang on, its a comin.

 

[TMFARM 2009]

its so hot and dry here, i thought i saw a tumble weed rolling down the road....
so dry i go to the market for a water melon, the sign on the bin said just add water.....:yoyo:
so hot i watched the robin hatch an egg omelette...:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

 

[forestryworks]

its so hot and dry here, i thought i saw a tumble weed rolling down the road....

Must've came from Texas lol.

 

[Wood Doctor]

its not Alaska, but i would put ya up in Ohio if you cut & split about twelve cords of wood for us...

I realize that it's hard to believe that I have that much gathered so far. I'm the ant rather than the grasshopper. My collection is composed of mulberry, ash, hackberry, locust, elm, walnut, sycamore, and oak. I am now adding cottonwood for salt and pepper.

I have 14 rows that are each 20' long, 6' high, and 18" deep. Most is stacked on pallets. How many cords are thus now on board, mostly drying in the sun? I figure about 19.

I still need to split about 10 cords of elm and cottonwood that I collected last fall. Bark is falling off, so I figure it's about ready. I've also saved about a cord of chunks in a pile that were salvaged from crotch that was impossible to split. Can't stack the stuff, but it sure burns nicely. :msp_wink:

 

[Currently]

Been cutting the last couple of days, nice breeze ... mid to high eighties.
Still working with church groups doing tornado cleanup on weekends.

 

[Whitespider]

Hot and humid, heat index of 115, dew point in the 80's... 8:00 PM and it's only cooled down to 91 degrees out there.
Yesterday I decided to cut and split a dead elm blow-down for use in the fire pit. Wow, talk about sweating, and I was working in the shade, with no shirt. I could have wrung the sweat out'a them jeans when I finished... sweat running off me like water right after steppin' out'a the shower. Somehow found some nettles and poison ivy even though I looked around real careful before I waded in. Feeling it today... too much heat, sweat, bugs, weeds and Budweiser... took today off and spent most of it laying in front of the TV... in the air conditioning.

Gotta' go to south-west Iowa this week to build and raise a tower... gonna' be miserably hot.

This is just silly, this heat. I live in north-east Iowa, not south Georgia. I like it when the high temperatures stay in the low 70's... once the mercury expands past 75 I get hot... past 80 and I complain... and over 90 I just 'bout die. We never get comfortable heat in these parts, always comes with excessive humidity... I mean really, c'mon, dew point in the 80's.

 

[ks_osage_orange]

It's so hot I saw a dog chasing a squirrel today and they were both walking. :hmm3grin2orange:
No end in sight to this heat wave 100+ for all of this week. I want to cut and split a little but when it reaches 90 by 9 am I can't do it.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Even the dogs are miserable.

It's so hot I saw a dog chasing a squirrel today and they were both walking. :hmm3grin2orange:
No end in sight to this heat wave 100+ for all of this week. I want to cut and split a little but when it reaches 90 by 9 am I can't do it.

+1. I let my dog out this afternoon and she immediately saw a squirrel. Instead of chasing it, this time she just barked, stared it back up the oak tree, turned around, and begged to come back in from the heat. Never saw her do that before. opcorn:

 

[deerlakejens]

Didn't even hit 65 here today, I had a sweat shirt on for most of the day. Rained off and on so I'm waiting for drier weather before I go back at it. I have a downed 120' doug fir just waiting for me, I just need some extra time!

 

[avalancher]

When it comes to firewood, I prefer the heat to cold.The hotter, the better.Its been in mid 90's most of the summer so far, and its easy to get sweaty and lubed up faster when its hot. I split or cut until my shirt is soaked, then I wash it out and hang it on the porch rail to dry and grab another shirt.Nothing unusual for me to go through a dozen shirts in a day.

I hate the cold, and cant imagine cutting in weather less than 40 degrees.If I cant split wood comfortably in a sleeveless tshirt, my standard uniform of the day, then I find something else to do for the day unless it cant be helped.I have no idea how you guys in the northern part of the country do it in the winter time.I hate sleeves with a passion, and cant stand to wear a jacket.

The only thing that sucks about sweating so much is when you forget your wallet and phone in your pocket.Phone shorts out and your wallet gets soaked and makes it rather embarrassing to pull out a soaking wet dollar bill to pay for a coke at the curb store.My phone has been replaced two times by insurance because I forgot the dang thing in my back pocket.

 

[avason]

I've been having a very difficult time getting started this year...I am way behind..I blame it on the heat not my laziness:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[zogger]

Wanna talk heat and humidity?

We have a 48 inch exhaust fan in the greenhouse, it burnt out..I just pulled the old one, the motor, and have to go look for another one. The thermometer in there is pegged at 120, high as it will go, and with all the plants, the humidity is saturation level. I am *soaked". The 90 degree heat outside feels like air conditioning!

 

[STLfirewood]

We have a 48 inch exhaust fan in the greenhouse, it burnt out..I just pulled the old one, the motor, and have to go look for another one. The thermometer in there is pegged at 120, high as it will go, and with all the plants, the humidity is saturation level. I am *soaked". The 90 degree heat outside feels like air conditioning!

That reminds me of throwing bales as a kid. When you got out of the barn if felt like air conditioning. Funny how dad switched to round bales once my brother and I moved out.

Scott

 

[zogger]

Got it done

That reminds me of throwing bales as a kid. When you got out of the barn if felt like air conditioning. Funny how dad switched to round bales once my brother and I moved out.

Scott

I am freekin exhausted. Got another motor but it is a different brand and is wired different. Had it together, wouldn't work. It was so hot I had a case of the couldn't think straight rampaging stoopids. Had to go chill out in the shade for fifteen minutes and go back in and look again, then I saw where my mistake was and fixed it.

Does not help I am partially color blind either....

small bales. Back in my 20s worked on a big dairy, he used all small bales...yep, that got to be a lot like work, luckily it was up in Maine and never got that hot. Our record I remember was we cracked over ten thousand stacked in the barn in one day.

There is NO WAY IN HECK FIRE I could do that sort of work today with small square bales by hand and with a bale hook.

We do big, 3/4 ton, big round bales here, whenever the baler is working. It's busted now and I think my geezer boss who is in his 80s is gonna finally retire it and him running the baler. I mentioned we needed the parts to fix it the other day, as our second cutting will be coming up soon, and he more or less gave me that indication. I'll still be doing the mowing, fluffing and raking but I think he is gonna hire out someone else to bale it from now on.

 

[Hedgerow]

When it comes to firewood, I prefer the heat to cold.The hotter, the better.Its been in mid 90's most of the summer so far, and its easy to get sweaty and lubed up faster when its hot. I split or cut until my shirt is soaked, then I wash it out and hang it on the porch rail to dry and grab another shirt.Nothing unusual for me to go through a dozen shirts in a day.

I hate the cold, and cant imagine cutting in weather less than 40 degrees.If I cant split wood comfortably in a sleeveless tshirt, my standard uniform of the day, then I find something else to do for the day unless it cant be helped.I have no idea how you guys in the northern part of the country do it in the winter time.I hate sleeves with a passion, and cant stand to wear a jacket.

The only thing that sucks about sweating so much is when you forget your wallet and phone in your pocket.Phone shorts out and your wallet gets soaked and makes it rather embarrassing to pull out a soaking wet dollar bill to pay for a coke at the curb store.My phone has been replaced two times by insurance because I forgot the dang thing in my back pocket.

Don't ya just love the look on the cashier's face when you give her a sweat soaked bill? But who needs to split wood to sweat that much? I was born in the UP of Michigan... I now live in southwestern MO. I got a built in sweat-o-meter that kicks in somewhere around 70 degrees... These dog days are spent getting the saws in the stable ready to rock come September. Any cutting done now is ~ playing and saw / chain testing... Or in other words... FUN!!!

 

[atlarge54]

Last week we had some 85 mph winds which played Darwin on some of the trees around here. I really don't care to cut cottonwood at all much less when the heat index is above 100. I noodled up a couple 6'x12' trailer loads plus a couple truckloads of tops left by a trimming crew. The good is I didn't have to handle ANY brush and didn't have to put over 1 mile on the odometer.

I'm pretty sure my heart and back are ok.

 

[Ronaldo]

Heat!!

Right at 100 degrees here in Iowa today and is going to be like this all week they say-high humidity too. I try to stay away from cutting and splitting in the summer especially in heat like this! Fall and winter are my favorite times to get it done-can work hard and stay warm even in VERY cold conditions. I have always been able to handle the cold weather much better than heat,though.


Ron

 

[avason]

This thread made me feel guilty as s!@T. I went out today and cut some trees up went out and borrowed my cuz's atv skidder! all i needed was a kick start! Thank you very much for starting this thread! It got me going in 90 degree weather!

 

[zogger]

Ya, but don't kill yourself either

This thread made me feel guilty as s!@T. I went out today and cut some trees up went out and borrowed my cuz's atv skidder! all i needed was a kick start! Thank you very much for starting this thread! It got me going in 90 degree weather!

I am a transplanted yankee and it took me *years* to be able to work in the heat down here. And conversely I bet it would take me a few seasons to get back to being able to handle the real cold temps as well.

When it is this hot, if you ever feel a chill coming on, STOP, douse yourself with water, right over your head, anything, get cooler as fast as possible, because you are seconds away from a heat stroke. Don't ask me how I know this...

Drink lots of liquids with the electrolytes in them *in advance* of working in such heat, and also during, say four times an hour, and take yer time and try to work in the shade and take plenty of breaks and cool off. Heck, drag your trees or branches into the shade first with your equipment, then cut them up. And like most of the guys here, work earliest AM you can see good, then quit before noon, before it gets full hot.

That greenhouse work today kicked my buttinski, I admit that was my outside limit. It really isn't that much work, but it felt like a full shift at normal beastly hot temps. I am still woozy from it, musta drank more than a gallon more liquids since then. If I didn't do it though, all our plants in there woulda croaked, so it had to be done.

Still did my two wheel barrows of splitting tonight though, a little before dark, just a little while ago. Two a day or a scosh more is more than 700 a year, that's a lot of firewood in the stack! I don't make a chore of it, I just whip out the fiskars and the maul when I give the dogs their food, and split while they are eating and before our walk. Not much, ten fifteen minutes or whatever.