At Home In The Woods

[Coyote machine]

Hey Coyote Machine. It's been a while.

Yes, this thread about the mundane things I do is still going and going. For some reason, some people seem to keep reading it so I keep posting.

I didn't know about Chimfex. I watched the videos. It sounds like something that would be good to for me to buy. I would definitely be willing to pay $30 if it might prevent burning down my house. That's some cheap insurance.

Next season I plan to have drier wood so the risks will go down. For now, I will just periodically clean the chimney.

Obed

Obed,
just amazed that you have kept it going so long- no slam, just blown away that you can find the time to post all the dialogue and pics. What do you do for entertainment, and does it leave time for a life aside from TBN? Have you looked at saws yet?
Guday mate!:thumbsup:

 

[Obed]

Obed,
just amazed that you have kept it going so long- no slam, just blown away that you can find the time to post all the dialogue and pics. What do you do for entertainment, and does it leave time for a life aside from TBN?

Coyote,

For one, we don't watch TV; it is not even hooked up. It's amazing how much time you get back into your life without TV. My big indulgence is whitewater kayaking, something I did about 10 or 12 times last year. Whitewater kayaking is an all day event counting the travel time to a river. I also read, primarilly non-fiction. My most recent books have been about computer programming, outdoor adventures (South Pole expedition, Grand Canyon explorers, Lewis and Clark expedition, shipwreck at the Sahara desert), and the Bible. I hang out on TBN. I also like to play chess on my phone.

Mixed in is time with the family, reading to my little girl or just being entertained by her. I also hike through the woods on and around our property with my little girl on my shoulders. I would like to take more hiking trips in the mountains around here with my wife and girl. That's a great family outing. We only took one mountain hike last year because most Saturday's were spent working on the property.

My mother's health is poor and so she moved in with us a week ago. She needs someone to be with her 24/7 and she is not able to leave the house much. So that will have some impact on what we are able to do for recreation away from the house this year. We hope Mom's health will improve but that might not happen.

Have you looked at saws yet?
Guday mate!:thumbsup:

Yes. See below.

New Chainsaw!

Today I finally bought a new chainsaw. This morning I looked up the Stihl dealers in the area. I chose 2 that were each about 7 miles from here but located in opposite directions. I first went to the store that is on my way to work and would be the most convenient store for getting future service. When I got there, the sales person was a "kid". He didn't know a whole lot. I spoke to him long enough to be nice and then went to the other store that is less conveniently located. However, this store is in a small town in the adjacent county that is more rural than the first store. Conseqentially, this store had people in the store who knew about chainsaws and use them themselves.

View attachment 297438 View attachment 297439

I bought a Stihl MS 391 (64 cm engine) with a 20" bar.

Obed

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

Coyote,

For one, we don't watch TV; it is not even hooked up. It's amazing how much time you get back into your life without TV. My big indulgence is whitewater kayaking, something I did about 10 or 12 times last year. Whitewater kayaking is an all day event counting the travel time to a river. I also read, primarilly non-fiction. My most recent books have been about computer programming outdoor adventures (South Pole expedition, Grand Canyon explorers, Lewis and Clark expedition, shipwreck at the Sahara desert), and the Bible. I hang out on TBN. I also like to play chess on my phone.

Mixed in is time with the family, reading to my little girl or just being entertained by her. I also hike through the woods on and around our property with my little girl on my shoulders. I would like to take more hiking trips in the mountains around here with my wife and girl. That's a great family outing. We only took one mountain hike last year because most Saturday's were spent working on the property.

My mother's health is poor and so she moved in with us a week ago. She needs someone to be with her 24/7 and she is not able to leave the house much. So that will have some impact on what we are able to do for recreation away from the house this year. We hope Mom's health will improve but that might not happen.

Yes. See below.



Obed

Did you get that in halls ?

 

[Obed]

Did you get that in halls ?

I bought the chainsaw at Deals in Clinton.
Obed

 

[Coyote machine]

I bought the chainsaw at Deals in Clinton.
Obed

Sorry to hear about your mother being ill. Sounds like she'll be well taken care of at your home.

Great saw you picked! Allow me to suggest you follow the break-in directions carefully to insure the longest life from the saw. Get a second chain and swap them out each time you flip the bar over, when cleaning out the saw's covers and bar's groove, to keep everything running smoothly.
That saw will blow you away with it's capabilities, so be extra careful getting used to it. With two chains the second one should always be sharp so as to have a sharp chain if you hit something and your primary chain gets dull. During break-in to keep from damaging the engine bearings, loosen the bar and chain slightly, after each use, so the cooling of same does not put excess pressure on the drive sprocket and possibly the bearings.
Get yourself a chain gauge and bar cleaning tool kit, (all in one), which will help the bar groove stay clean and will keep the chain gliding through the bar's groove with less friction. This is especially important for efficient cutting and less stress on the saw/chain/operator.
Enjoy it!

 

[jdonovan]

If you haven't already picked some up, I highly suggest saw chaps. They will stop a errant saw if they come in contact with the chaps. You'll probably still need clean drawers, but you'll most likely get to skip the trip to the ER for stitches.

 

[MotorSeven]

I second chaps, I wear them all the time and somehow they have a duct tape patch over a hole.....right on the right thigh

 

[Ted Summey]

Wow, what an amazing thread! Obed you have amazing perseverance...... With the house build and this thread. Unfortunately I've been under the weather the last couple of days but this thread has provided great entertainment. I started reading from post 1 on Monday and have just arrived here on page 471 and post 470x on Wednesday!

Your story reminds me of our house building and starting our family. I was 26 and started a new job, we moved to the community where my wife grew up, my wife was 6 months pregnant AND I was the contractor on the construction of our new home. Our first child was born in late October and our basement was dug the next day! As the contractor my agreement with a contractor neighbor was "cost plus 10%". Anything he did was cost plus 10% and that included hiring any subs. So the incentive was for me to find and hire subs. I was fortunate that I could work with our contractor neighbor. We started in October and moved in in May. That was 1989

I've learned a lot about several of the "tractor heads" here"! It has been fun.

One suggestion on working on your steep roof is to use the foam rubber from old sofa cushions to move around on the roof. You can sit, kneel and stand on a cushion on a composite shingle roof and not slide. I put a roof on my house (over 30 squares) with a 12/12 pitch and we used groups of two to three cushions to stay on the roof. The cushions don't replace a properly secured harness but they do allow mobility and provide a bit more confidence. The cushions could allow you to work from the roof when cleaning gutters on the high part of you house.

I concur with the suggestions on using chainsaw chaps. I did terrible damage to my shin with a chainsaw about 20 years ago, chaps would have reduced the pain and down time. Suffice it to say I simply WAS cavalier about chainsaw operation and that led to a dumb accident. I encourage you to invest the 70 dollars. The plus is they also help keep pants cleaner and you legs from getting scratched up from bark, sticks, briars etc.

Keep the story going.

 

[Obed]

Wow, what an amazing thread! Obed you have amazing perseverance...... With the house build and this thread. Unfortunately I've been under the weather the last couple of days but this thread has provided great entertainment. I started reading from post 1 on Monday and have just arrived here on page 471 and post 470x on Wednesday

Welcome to the thread Ted. I'm amazed you read it from beginning to end.

Your story reminds me of our house building and starting our family. I was 26 and started a new job, we moved to the community where my wife grew up, my wife was 6 months pregnant AND I was the contractor on the construction of our new home. Our first child was born in late October and our basement was dug the next day!

Sounds familiar!

One suggestion on working on your steep roof is to use the foam rubber from old sofa cushions to move around on the roof. You can sit, kneel and stand on a cushion on a composite shingle roof and not slide. I put a roof on my house (over 30 squares) with a 12/12 pitch and we used groups of two to three cushions to stay on the roof. The cushions don't replace a properly secured harness but they do allow mobility and provide a bit more confidence. The cushions could allow you to work from the roof when cleaning gutters on the high part of you house.

I just can't imagine moving around on a 12/12 pitch roof. Our 8/12 is steep enough for us. Our house designer was strongly advising us to do a 10/12 roof. So my wife and I similated an 8/12 pitch and a 10/12 pitch using a piece of plywood and some blocks on the ground. We quickly saw that 8/12 was absolutely the steepest roof I would want to walk on. I'm am very glad we did that exercise and did not put up a 10/12 roof. All the steeper roof would have done is increase the cost of our house and would have made maintenance much harder.

Obed

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yep, steep looks great as long as you aren't the one who has to climb on it.