|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Oct 14, 2023 19:06:01 GMT -6
I wanted to update on the electric weed eater. Because of all the car parts we’re buying, I have yet to acquire a lawnmower and have been using exclusively the weed eater to MOW. Cumulative, it’s about 3/4 of an acre.
This Hart Electric weed eater is kicking some weeds and grass, lemme tell ya. Still growing strong. AT the coupling where the attachments fit, the tubing rotates away from the button and I gotta watch that. Basically, the tube or the leader or whatever you call it = the main shaft? It comes apart in the middle so you can switch attachments. No brained that this is causing a weakness. Only a permanent weld would fix the problem. But I wanted to use the attachment feature, so I’m willing to be patient with it. The occasional movement (mostly when I bump the housing for more line) isn’t bad and I’m certain to stop and adjust when necessary. It only does it when I bump it.
The battery lasts for about an hour to hour and half depending on its work load. And I’m using it on low and it’s chewing things up just fine. I don’t mind taking a break while the battery is on the charger.
I am STILL hatcheting, raking and burning tree trash. Now, I am also cutting down poplar saplings as I finish piling the storm damage wood and move onto this year’s overgrowth. SO bad, I must also do the vacant neighbor lots. Good grief!
I’ve been applying the Brush B Gone by drilling and injecting at multiple points on the trunk and also into the roots.
SO, my shoulder has permanent damage now from the old lawnmower timing going out. That hatchet gets a bit heavy and some of these saplings are 3” around. Many lower limbs on the trees need to come down. Those are about 6” this year. I need more power. Bill freaked when he heard that I pulled out the skill saw with his good blade on it.
We purchased a 10” chainsaw extension for this 40v Hart weed eater tonight. We considered the independent hand held chainsaw/trimmer. The weed eater chainsaw trimmer comes with an extension. I won’t need a ladder, so that’s what we got. Looking forward to using it tomorrow.
Will update.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Oct 14, 2023 21:54:25 GMT -6
It sounds as though you are definitely getting it done, FrostyTurnip. Good going!
I would have loved to have seen Bill's face when he found out you had "borrowed" his Skilsaw and good blade. 🤣 hahaha
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Oct 15, 2023 5:50:00 GMT -6
Frosty, my wife has a bad rotator cuff in her shoulder and I had to pull start anything for a cord before she can use it. One of our daughters is a physical therapist. She gave her some simple exercises which have really helped. With time, she gets a LOT of relief... until she over does it again. I'm glad you're finding some equipment solutions. Bill's skills are invaluable.
|
|
|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Oct 15, 2023 11:20:03 GMT -6
woodeye I know, right? I should laugh, but I bet his cussing echoed through the shop that day. I didn’t know it was an expensive blade. I was just trying to get er done. Wasn’t trying to manipulate, but it prompted the purchase. ROFL
macmex That’s exactly how my shoulder is working. Turns out, neither Bill or myself can pull the cord on the old lawnmower. He fixed the timing by replacing the key, but as far as timing goes, the only one who can pull it is my son and he’s always at work.
Looking forward to getting the electric mower. Start up with the push of a button.
——- The GMC had been missing for a while. I told Bill. I kept driving it to take my son to work and earlier this week when I was pulling out of the cafe 25 mins away from home, the engine exploded. Threw a rod? It still started up, still ran but it was angry loud knocking, so I parked it, called Bill over in Tulsa who took off work and was ready to head my way, Tulsa all the way to Perkins. He got out to the parking lot and his truck wouldn’t start. Brand new starter installed by the mechanic shop. He’s been constantly working on that truck every weekend for a couple months now. Stopped working on that once to repair the bike even.
With the help of my son’s coworker and terrific boss, I got home to my daughter, son arranged a ride home from work and I waited on Bill. I actually tried to start the bike to get my husband stranded in West Tulsa, but I couldn’t feel the clutch. I’ve never ridden it. It’s a heavy bike, not a dirt bike with which I am very familiar. He spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong with his truck. 2 hours before sundown, He hooked up the winch to his boss’s truck and jump started it. Thank God it was a stick! Drove home,left it idle, I hopped in, he hopped on the bike and we dropped it off at the mechanic. From there we rode the bike to Perkins and checked out the GMC. Thank you Father for the bike! We were riding into the sunset on the way to Perkins! It was fun and took away the stress.
A spark plug had blown out of one of the pistons. That’s the explosion I heard and the source of the ticking noise. Engine was fine. Threads were stripped, tho. Couldn’t replace it right away. We drove it home just fine. He bought a re threading kit and yesterday he fixed it. His truck is already out of the shop. With the starter being under warranty, the cost was minimal and he had the bike to get to work.
He is absolutely invaluable and deserves so much more than life has thrown at him. I vowed to master the beast in case of emergency. It’s the least I can do.
Seed Saver/Biker Babe bon
|
|
|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Oct 15, 2023 12:26:00 GMT -6
The chainsaw attachment works really well. The chain was loosened and my arm tired long before the battery wore out.
Today was like the heavens opened up above and granted me long overdue justice. I cried. All the years of extreme poverty, hardship and memories of futility came to the surface. I wasn’t expecting that.
In about an hour I covered months of hand work. All the limbs and branches are still alive. I can run them through the chipper.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Oct 15, 2023 18:44:02 GMT -6
I'm so glad that you had a good day today and got all the trimming taken care of that quickly, FrostyTurnip. Good job!
I better clarify what I wrote about wishing I could see Bill's face when he found out that you had borrowed his Skilsaw. I still wish I could have seen his face, but I want to add that I hope I was seeing it from a distance.🔭
I would not want to be close to him when he found out about it...🤔🤣
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Oct 16, 2023 6:07:40 GMT -6
Ron, call me if in doubt. I will do the same.
Frosty, chainsaws each seem to have their own quirks. Takes a while to figure out some of them. Most, however, when starting out with a new chain, will loosen after they've been used for a while. After they've been readjusted, they're usually good for a good while, though you have to always keep an eye on the chain tension.
Yesterday after church Jerreth and I worked on two trees a neighbor had down and offered us for firewood. We worked like crazy and managed to cut each up and load the wood into our woodpile at home for splitting. This required four trips with our little quarter ton Tacoma. We like the Tacoma because it's lower to the ground and easy to load wood, though, it can't handle as large a load as a 1/2 or 3/4 ton truck.
My hearing isn't very good but thankfully I still pick up on some things, even while wearing ear protection. At one point I heard a different sound, a whining, coming from the bar of my chainsaw. Had to stop an examine it before I noticed that the chain had jumped out of it's groove, on the underside of the bar, up close to the motor. I don't believe I've ever seen that before but I'm sure it would have caused a problem if I hadn't caught it.
Thinking of Frosty and the motorcycle...
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 17, 2023 21:17:35 GMT -6
George,
I love the Biker Chicks meme that you posted above!
Frosty,
In the past, I've used a di-grinder to split the outer fitting on a two-piece fitting, so I could use the split to shrink the diameter and tightened the crud out of the fitting using a hose clamp or lots of baling wire. Would something like that fix your loose weed eater shaft? Or maybe something similar to J.B. Weld or Locktite? (Just a thought).
Also, Harbor Freight has fairly cheap Skilsaw blades. I bought a Bauer brand carbide tipped blade for an old 7-1/2" belt-drive table saw there a few weeks ago for $4.99 It's holding up very well so far. They sell several sizes of circular saw blades there ranging from 5-3/8" to 12" inches. (Not for the same price though) The bigger blades cost more. www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/power-saw-blades/circular-saw-blades.html
|
|
|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Oct 19, 2023 6:47:34 GMT -6
I love that meme! Yesterday, Bill asked me if I wanted him to just buy me a smaller bike. I’ve been able to start the beast up and have been sitting on it and rocking it side to Side to gauge my stability with its weight and exercising those leg muscles. A smaller bike would be better. Maybe after house renovations.
heavyhitterokra Thank you for the suggestions on the other thread. I’ve been seeing those pruning saws in the stores and wondered if it would be helpful. I should pick a couple up while I can afford it. Back in the poverty days, Bill gave me an old band saw. I broke it. Dunno what I’m doing half the time. That’s when the hatchet became my bff. It could handle me bludgeoning things. Then, I learned how to sharpen it, even stupid sharp but it takes a whole lot more time to hand sharpen an axe to where it is stupid sharp but maintain a solid edge that will hold up.
The middle portion of the chain saw shaft isn’t too shabby. It’s holding up pretty well. There is a coupling or a rather large swing nut that is hand tightened. For now, it is only bumping the weed eater that causes too much pressure that cause the shafts to need readjustment.
This baby chainsaw on a stick is just that = a baby. It requires babying. After I read macmex post about the chains loosening early on, i picked it up and tried to snap it. Yup. It was very loose. Initially, I didn’t understand how this whole tensioning gadget worked so the chain ended up falling off and I unhoused the whole thing to see how it worked. That was a mess until I aligned the bar adjustment with the housing nut as close as possible. I took it from there. In the end, I found out how this one likes to sit with the tension and work with it constantly. It only takes about 30 minutes before it’s screaming for momma to make adjustments and baby it, but if that’ll keep her working for me in the long run, so be it.
This entire thing is great for a newb to learn how to use a chainsaw while being safe.
There is a group of 2 story cedar trees I’m working on right now in order to lift their skirts. I had to clear all the dead limbs just to get to the skirt limbs. I worked slowly and carefully through this mess. Avoiding situations where kickback or pinching could happen, selecting limbs to provide room for the blade and to avoid using the tip. Glad it’s on a stick and away from me. f
One of the cons of a battery powered equipment is there is no safety trigger. If the trigger hits, it runs. It’s best to set it down and pop off the battery. You can uncouple it at the shaft, but that blade is too close to the body.
It’s amazing how much power this thing has.
I have that inner urge to plant wheat. Plant wheat, I said! So I stopped to remember why I’m diverted. Every single year, I find it difficult to garden because I’m too busy cleaning the yard(s). By the time I actually get to the garden, it will feel like a piece of cake.
I’m fairly confident that a full sized chain saw (with a pair of chaps) is in the future to handle the larger stuff. Every time I try to burn the larger trunks and limbs, I set the yard on fire.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 21, 2023 20:54:24 GMT -6
I guess I'm lucky in a way. I've operated a chainsaw out of necessity since I was probably 12 years old. It's hard to remember a time when I didn't know how to run one. My brothers and I cut many a rick of wood growing up.
We lived in an old shack when I was a kid, which used to be a halfway house on a stagecoach route. The halfway house was built in the mid-1800s. (Kind of like a hotel for stagecoach travelers). It was called the "Halfway House" because it was located halfway between Tahlequah and Wagoner on the stage route that traveled between there and Fort Gibson.
Since the building was so old, it had no insulation whatsoever, unless you counted rat, mouse, squirrel, wasp, and dirt dobber nests as insulation. In cold Winter, wood heat was our only way of avoiding frostbite. Many a night, we slept in the living room, huddled next to the woodstove because the rest of the house was too cold to sleep in.
Mama kept a glass of water sitting on the kitchen table. If the glass had ice in it when we woke up to go to school, we knew it was going to be cold outside waiting on the bus to drive by to pick us up that morning. We were the first ones on the route at 7:00 a.m..
One weekend, my Great-Grandad drove down from Tulsa to spend the night with us. It was forecast to snow that weekend and he wanted to hunt rabbits when it did. He and I slept in the same bed that night.
The way the old halfway house was designed, each of the original 4 rooms had a door leading to the next room, plus a second door that led outside, so guests could trek to the outhouse without going through the other guest's rooms to get there. Each room was 14' feet by 14' feet square. The entire house was 28' x 28' on the outside. It was just a small, 4 room guest house with no provision for cooking when it was built.
Originally, each room had its own woodstove which tied into a central brick chimney, but while we lived there it only had one woodstove in the front half, so the remaining 2 bedrooms had no heat whatsoever.
Dad had torn out a wall between two of the original rooms, making the front half of the house into a combination living room and kitchen that was 28' feet long by 14' feet wide. The house had a hip roof, cedar shingles, wooden walls, a 9-foot wooden ceiling, and uncarpeted wooden floors. When we first moved there it had no wiring, so we used kerosene lanterns. Later, Dad wired the house with lights in the front half and added a plugin for a refrigerator, and a plugin for a radio, but the bedrooms never did have electricity. We didn't have a television back then. We just listened to the channel 6 news on a little 5 band radio.
The door that led outside from my bedroom had no trim around it. It was just bolted shut against the wind. When my Great-Grandad and I woke up the first morning of his visit, there was a streak of snow lying across the foot of the bed, on top of the wool blankets that we were covered up with. I remember my Great-Granddad telling my Dad that morning at breakfast, "Son, you need to fix that boy's bedroom door. We woke up with snow across the foot of the bed this morning."
Dad never did fix the door.
That house had a colorful history, as it was located near Effie Crittenden's house and played a part in the shoot-out between the Cook Gang and the Light Horse Cherokee posse that pursued them there after robbing a mail coach and shooting a Manard, Oklahoma merchant by the name of Joseph Glad in 1894.
The Cook Gang, (No known relation of ours) hid out along 14 Mile Creek that Spring, but the law finally caught up to them on a Sunday morning, June 17, 1894, the day Cherokee Bill shot and killed Sheriff's Deputy, Sequoyah Houston as Houston was riding along the creek bank tracking the outlaws.
Some say Cherokee Bill fired the fatal shot from the doorway of the Halfway House, some say he fired from Effie Crittenden's house. (It all depended on which old-timer was relaying the story). I know one thing for certain, the Halfway House had a bullet hole through the skeleton key lock that kept our front door from latching properly.
Cherokee Bill escaped that day, but was later captured and went before Hanging Judge Isaac Parker of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Cherokee Bill, whose real name was Crawford Goldsby, was hanged for that crime on March 17th, 1896.
If interested, below are links to a couple of different accounts of that incident.
www.historynet.com/the-cook-gang-plaguing-indian-territory/
www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1989/02/06/grandson-cant-forget-slain-lawman/62624635007/
The hanging of Cherokee Bill: www.nps.gov/fosm/learn/historyculture/execution-of-cherokee-bill.htm
|
|
|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Nov 8, 2023 15:57:26 GMT -6
Calling all prayer warriors.
The overlords are here and they want to change things. Keyword: stakeholders
And it’s killing me, literally.
Moreover, this is a heads up. This stuff is unstoppable. I pray that Abba pave a way for us and that he equip me with the ability to handle it.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 8, 2023 18:52:17 GMT -6
We're on it, Frosty. More importantly, God is on it.
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Nov 9, 2023 6:40:32 GMT -6
Will pray, Frosty. Also, if you get a gas powered chainsaw, I'd strongly recommend a Stihl. Nowadays, that and Jonsered are the only two that I know to be really sturdy and dependable. Stilh even makes some with an easy pull feature. One can slowly, evenly pull the cord a couple times and when it gets enough tension it will take off and start. I had one once and after I learned how it worked it was a great saw.
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 9, 2023 18:42:01 GMT -6
George,
That's really sound advice as far as I'm concerned. I can vouch for the quality of a Stihl. I've got an old Stihl chainsaw that I've had for about 20 years. It still runs, but it's not as spry as it used to be about 85 or 90 ricks of wood ago. Stihls are tough chainsaws. I finally bought a new one this summer. Surprisingly they are about $20.00 cheaper than they were 20 years ago. If this one lasts as long as my first one I'll never need to buy another chainsaw as long as I live. There's no way that I have another 85 or 90 ricks worth of wood cutting left in me.
P.S. both of my saws are Stihl MS 250. That's a good in between size that's not too heavy for limbing and not too light for backlogs. The new ones weigh about 10.1 pounds empty and about 11 pounds gassed up. If you can lift a 10 pound bag of sugar you can lift an MS 250.
|
|
|
Post by FrostyTurnip on Nov 10, 2023 0:25:51 GMT -6
When I get all the larger logs placed onto this property and all the brush and smaller logs removed with the 10 inch blade, I’m going to try my Hand at the larger chain saw. You know, in the safest possible way to get a feel of the weight and strength of the kick backs.
2 days ago there was a 1-1/2 story tree that had fallen and was resting its upper limbs on the eve of the old shop. It’s trunk had fallen onto the chain link fence and folded it over in the direction of our drive. Not only did it want to roll, but it was buoyant atop the fence. It was already dead and the 10” blade cuts like butter through deadwood. So, it had a lot of weak points.
Even this was beneath 3 single story trees all tangled together in one spot. One limb, one branch, one tree at a time until the biggest one remained. I just learned a TON
Early this year I burned about 1/4 ton of tree trash. I burned so aggressively, I set the yard on fire. Now that I have the saw, I can cut down those longer limbs and burn properly.
I now have about 3/4 ton of tree trash stacked up again. And there is probably at least 1/4 ton remaining to be felled, cleared, cut and chipped. For weeks I’ve only touched the trees along the outside perimeter of the properties. Inside is next and it contains much more storm damage, felled saplings. After all this, remaining trees need to be felled. Decades of neglect.
I gotta say, I do not know why these poplar trees are dying. They were weak when the storm hit.
The trees I’m clearing now are bordering our property and the neighbors. It’s actually quite a tight spot. Every single one of the trees fell over onto our side of the border. All of them. Praise Yah!
I appreciate all the advice. The chain on the blade is perfectly snug.
|
|