We have been going through the wood with the cold spells this winter. We like to run the stove in the basement when the temps get down in the twenties and colder, and we have a foster dog downstairs to keep warm. That doubles the amount of wood going up the chimney. Warmer temps are coming in a few days and I will be out in the woods again bringing in more dry ash wood.
A quick rundown. The hinge should be about 80% of the tree's diameter at breast height, and should be on the side of the tree where it is falling. Placing it back gets rid of all of your leverage if you need to use wedges to push the tree over. The thickness of the hinge should be up to 1/10 of the diameter of the tree. You see no hinge wood at all on this stump. The back of the hinge should be level with the front of the hinge. The taller you make the hinge, the greater the risk of it failing from twisting as the tree goes over. The back cut should normally be made perpendicular to the bole of the tree. That is normally horizontal. You will hear people tell you straight-faced that they angle the back cut so the stump can push up on the tree. Call me if you ever see a stump reach up and push. What that angled cut can do is allow the butt of the log scoot down and out, leaving no hinge to guide the tree, and totally change the balance of the tree. A tree that was balanced forward can be changed 180 degrees, and drop on your head as you try to get away.
Anon: I think it originally looked like these stumps.
Many Thanks for the suggestion, John!
Susan and I took a little detour this week to look at a tree planting project that I hadn't seen since its first year. It looks pretty good.
I remember meeting with the landowner at his shop after he picked up his seedlings. He told me he was going to put them in his pond for a few days before he planted. Whoa! I got that straightened out, and went over seedling prep and care.
I delivered a tree planting machine first thing the next day, and he had a small crew working on his seedlings. One guy was winding roots up tight in pigtails so he could plant them easily. Whoa, again! How do people think of such ideas? Got that straightened out, too.
I just checked the acreage on Google and it is about 18.5, so they planted about 8100 trees. The cedars you see are volunteers, and they are good for migrating birds and other wildlife in need of a little shelter. It looks pretty darn good.
Illinois State Police Resignations In Protest Of HB 5471: 0 and counting...
Robert W. Service wrote all kinds of poems. Sad poems, funny poems, thrilling and thoughtful poems. It is a crime that English teachers in the U.S. of A provide only a few samples of his work that he turned out during his time in the Yukon. Every year at this time, The Haggis of Private McPhee is running through my mind. It is a thrilling tale, and the experiences of McPhee and McPhun are all too real pictures of the Western Front. It might even bring a tear to your eyes.
The Haggis of Private McPhee
I am sorta surprised we don't see more gadgets like this one. I know that some oilfield pumpers have contraptions they can use to crank recalcitrant Fairbanks engines, though most of them spin the flywheels the old fashioned way.
... Is actually the engine room of the Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien. Many Thanks to Merle!
As it appeared in the movie scenes.
These saws make around 200 cuts per second when they are running wide open. Wear Your Chaps!
Here's Number 5; I think there is one more in this series that Merle spotted for us. Thank You, Merle!
There has been a parade of nitrogen tankers in and out on our county road. We kept our ears to the ground and finally found out what is going on. The coal mine has (had?) a fire, and nitrogen is used to extinguish underground fires. They must continue putting nitrogen down the hole until the burned area has cooled so that it won't re-kindle.
...because it is illegal in Illinois. If Chicago politicians don't like it, it must be good! It is a great product, made by Americans, for Americans! All of the video reviews I have seen so far show this new model to be a reliable firearm at a great price.
Bringing the Oil Pull prototype back to life and to the show at Rollag was a pretty big deal. Western Minnesota Threshers Reunion has recently posted three videos of Annie.
In 1921 the Twenties weren't quite roaring yet. This song held up for many years, but I doubt that Millenials have even heard of it. Our shellac copy sounds a bit better than this record, but it does have lots of honest wear. The favorites were played hard and they didn't necessarily get a new needle for every play.
We keep seeing these nitrogen tankers on the county road and it took a while for us to find out what was going on.
A coal mine fire! The trucks are off loading to a tank and nitrogen is sent in a temporary pipeline to a borehole into the mine. We have been told that the fire is out, but nitrogen continues to be sent down to cool the burned area until it will not be able to rekindle.
Number 17 was retired in 1986, and was the last steam locomotive in the U.S. in regular freight service.
We really like August Hunicke and are learning from him, but I am going to keep my feet on the ground!
Don't hold your breath waiting for the IL State Police to make a statement in favor of the Constitutions of the United States and Illinois.
Tuning and maintaining one of these would be well beyond the abilities of most owners.
Thanks to Merle for another great pick. This is another engine that looks challenging to start, but don't be sticking your foot in the flywheel!
Pay attention to the danger of using a foot in the flywheel to crank your engine. These old engines can launch you, and bones will be broken!
Many loggers will tell you to never turn your back on a tree. They will stand right by the stump while the tree is going over, not even thinking about the chunks that will rain down around them. Make a sound plan, and when that tree begins to tip, get out of there!
That would be hard to prove either way, but I wish I could have seen and heard it on that run. There is a good article on Wikipedia with many details. There were several stopwatches on the 999 train during the record run, so I lean toward believing it. The 999 was running a high pressure boiler and it had drivers 86.5 inches in diameter. Start doing the math, and the drive wheels turned 233 revolutions per mile. At 100 mph, it would do a mile in 36 seconds, and be running at 389 rpm. A limitation to high speed is the flat-faced D valves in the steam chests. As boiler pressure goes up, there is more weight pressing the valves to the cylinders, and that is why locomotives were soon switching to piston valves. Many Thanks, Merle for spotting a great video.
I took Susan to rehab at the Hamilton Memorial Hospital and got to see a helicopter come in to move a patient. The Air Evac Lifeteam landed on the helispot and soon had a patient loaded and transported to another hospital. These helicopters and crews save lives every day. Our house at Belle Prairie is on the flight path between Mt. Vernon, IL and Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, and they run any hour, day or night, when there is an emergency. They rattle the windows and we know someone is getting help.
Almost as impressive as when we had a cat on fire....Four small spot fires were the only damage to the landscape.
This is a repeat from ten years ago, of a tree that needed to come down at a state site. I told the site super that the best way to deal with it was to wait for snow, throw some Diesel fuel into the opening, light it and walk away. He was close to retirement and wasn't willing to risk his pension, so I had to cut it. It had a thin shell, and I was able to true up the compressed side to make a straight face in the shell, then a quick plunge cut behind the face from each side to complete the hinge, then zip around fast and get out of the way. It sounds easy, but the danger of a tree like this collapsing when you cut it is real. You must pay attention to the thickness of the shell and make a good hinge when cutting hollow trees.
Yup, she went down the stairs to the basement! Went back up, too. The knee is still swollen, but much better than it was. We are still icing it regularly.
This is a great video, Merle! Many thanks for spotting!
Maybe you have the day off, maybe you get to play. This video will work either way. It is not a hit and miss engine. It is a 2 stroke Bessemer oilfield engine. The grinding part starts at 25:45.
Back To The Old Grind!
