Old and Gray

[MJR]

The truck and trailer were loaded Friday night. Saturday morning I left for my land at 4:30am. I was unloading the mill by 6:45am and had the first log on the mill by 7:30am. By 5:00pm my body wasn’t working to good, back hurting, muscles cramping, dehydrated, 88F. sunny with high humidity. At 6:00pm the equipment was loaded and I was heading home. I was home at 8:30pm, showered, and bed at 9:00pm. The days work produced 49 2”by6”by9’ and 64 2”by4”by9’ (Norway Spruce) to be trimmed to 8’. This work was done by my self on a small manual band mill with no heavy equipment. To be “honest”, I was going to spend the night and mill Sunday. It looks like the body caught up with the gray hair. It is Monday morning and my body is still sore. I can’t wait to do it again next weekend. I am in the process of milling the material to build a small hunting camp. With the taxes going up so high around Fort Drum I can’t afford to go BIG. Once the project is complete I will post pictures of the build. I hope you all had a good weekend.

 

[BobL]

Nice Story MJR, looking forward to the pics.

There is a cure to your problem. If you do this 5 out of 7 days a week for about 3 months eventually it won't hurt as much and you will have a have enough timber to never have to do this again! ;-)

 

[carvinmark]

Watch out for that heat. Sounds like you got a load cut up.

 

[oldsaw]

Watch out for that heat. Sounds like you got a load cut up.

Yeah, watch the heat. I was milling with a couple of friends on a very humid 100 degree day, and JR, one of my cutting buddies keeled over from a heart attack, temporarily dead. I did CPR on him, and he's around for me to play with today. Listen to your body carefully.

Mark

 

[BobL]

Yeah, watch the heat. I was milling with a couple of friends on a very humid 100 degree day, and JR, one of my cutting buddies keeled over from a heart attack, temporarily dead. I did CPR on him, and he's around for me to play with today. Listen to your body carefully.

Mark

Crikey oldsaw that's "magic plus"!!!! Must be worth 100 greenies.

 

[BC_Logger]

sounds like some one needs a beer or two

 

[MJR]

I got dehydrated bad once back in my days as an Army Infantry Scout and every sense I get dehydrated easy. I also get my paycheck from an air conditioned factory so the heat “kills” me. This weekend should be mid 70’s with clouds – much better. I should be in good enough shape to have a beer or two after the work is done…

 

[oldsaw]

Crikey oldsaw that's "magic plus"!!!! Must be worth 100 greenies.

Scared the ever loving crap outta me and Lester, the other guy that cuts with us. I actually have a picture taken less than a minute before JR had his heart attack.

Here it is:

Lester took the picture, talked to me for a couple of seconds, then went to put his camera in the car. JR sat down, and then fell backwards, had some convulsions, and then nothing. Lester ran over and grabbed one arm, I grabbed the other, laid him out on the shed floor, opened his shirt and listened. Nothing. Gave him a nice push on the chest, and his eyes popped open, he took a huge gasp of air, then told me he was "just taking a nap". I told him, "yeah, a dirt nap".

This picture is my reminder of just how quickly things can change. Almost lost one of my best friends that day. I'm glad that Lester is much better at taking a camera than I am, and actually using it.

Mark