[Vicegrip]

Originally Posted by jbailey930

Happy for you two that it wasn't the second article!

No doubt. Good thing the woman was my wife too.

In town there is a very good cafe that has real food done well and a huge wine selection on and off tap. Coe, the owner in an interesting guy with lots of good conversation in him. He wrote a book and the Daily did an article on him and the book. The Daily put his picture front and center with a small blurb under it about the article contained on another page. The headline directly above his picture was something like "Suspect apprehended in gruesome Mt Jackson murder" I was talking to him a few days later and he said something like "You know I have lived here for 18 years, owned the cafe for 14, finally got on the front page and that was the headline?!"

[Vicegrip]

Follow up to an earlier conversation on adding a "trunk" to the tractor. The front end loader (FEL) is a handy bugger for sure but it comes with some baggage. When it is loaded up with enough weight the nice big back wheels are way under-loaded and the little front wheels are often overloaded. More than one FEL equipped tractor has just spun the rear wheels when off balance. They can flop over or sink the front wheels deep in the dirt too. Being 4X4 and having power steering helps but the thing is still less stable when you are chugging around in rock strewn woods front heavy. I almost flopped it over already. One front tire was a bit low pressure and I rolled off the pavement with the fully loaded bucket higher than it should have been. Luck would have it that the low psi tire was also the down hill side. Almost a code brown. And yes....the entire event was watched by the Dear wife thus keeping my rep intact.....
I had previously built a 4'X4' plywood box to hold "up next" firewood in the garage. (Storing 1/2 a cord of ready wood in the garage is pure joy as you don't have to put shoes on and go into the cold to refill the wood bag). I would fill it by loading up the back of the PU at the wood shed then toss it in the wood bin. Toss in truck/ toss in bin. I took that bin apart, reinforced it with more wood then construction glued and screwed it back together. Also added a full width and height rear door for easier loading and a side access so shorter folks can reach in and get at the fire wood.
Dug into the steel drops pile and welded up 2 brackets so it can be attached to the tractor 3 point hitch. Now I can counter a full FEL with a full trunk when pulling wood from the woods. During wood burning season I can drive the tractor to the shed, load the back and FEL then drive the whole mess back into the garage and done. No unloading needed. So far I have found the box to be handy for moving bulky stuff, odd size and smaller wood and people too.
Figured I would use it a bit before installing the little side door and then painting it all up. Built strong but I will need to take some care not to overload the box. The 3 point hitch is rated to 1635 lb attachment lift weight so a chock full bin of wet oak rounds would be close to too much. Put less in or load in the bulky stuff. 4X4X4 is 1/2 a cord of wood. A seasoned full cord is (very) roughly 2200 lb so I am well under there.

[BlackTalon]

Surely reinforcing the hitch is not outside your wheelhouse

[Vicegrip]

I think the limits are in the hydraulics used to move the lift arms up and down. Don't want to break Babe the blue ox now...

And please, don't call me Shirley.

[Vicegrip]

I have been bad to a good friend of mine. I put my Sthil 460 in harms way. I was bucking up a big Oak that had done a long slow fall to earth. Cut up and bucked it from the top down. The trunk was about 3 feet off the ground at the root ball end and 0 at the first branch end. Did a bunch of 3/4 through bucking cuts to the trunk in prep for putting it on the ground. Got to the root ball end and got the saw stuck. Hmm, did not calculate for twisting. Took some logs from the top end and put them under the trunk to catch it when it fell. Put the tractor bucket against the log so it had to fall on the "landing log" Took the small saw and carved away at the trunk on the op side of the 460. Creak, crack and whump, the root ball and stump goes from 90 deg to earth back to almost upright, a big gush of water fountains out from the very quickly refilled hole and the log falls right where I expected to to.....Then it rolls forward off the landing log taking the 460 with it dangling under the log by a bit of fiber pinched between the chain and bar. Likely from my trying to pull Excalibur out.
I was watching this in a mental slo-mo of "Noooooooooooo" The 460 is now mashed into the ground under a big long Oak log. Did I mention I have lots of rocks and little dirt? Had to go to the house and get The Beast, an MS-660 clone, to finish up one of the bucking cuts in order to free up the saw.
Not good. Handle/gas tank crushed. Muffler dented in. Poor care for an old friend.

Found a replacement OE tank and clicked on it Hammered the muffler back out and cleaned up the surviving parts while waiting for the ups guy. Went back together no issues and even looks a bit better. I though Porsche was proud of their parts....

[Too Tall]

That's what I like to see. Beat it back into shape and keep going. Those are great saws.
Mine is a DOLMAR PS-5100 with a modified muffler. Revs fast!

Who would think to attach a sharp chain to a running engine and put a handle on it?

[Vicegrip]

What the duck?
Spring arrived and so did some ducks. Been looking into domestic animals to keep but they had to clear two important factors. Don't trash the place and a chance of surviving on a mountain side that backs up to GW Forest. We have a nice mix of venomous and non venomous snakes, bears, foxes, coyotes, weasels, owls, hawks and eagles to contend with. (this is not the place to be a small dog or a cat)
The snakes are not an issue except for eggs. The bears are very few and far between, they don't like the dogs and we are tight about food or smelly stuff left out. They stay far away from the house and we only see them on the trail cams. Chickens, goats, geese all fell to the side for one reason or another Guinea foul got close and I almost went with them but are reported to be loud. Peacocks are real cool but you have to keep them in set numbers, you have to worm them every 3 months and put up with the sound of lightly tortured human babies for 3 months a year.

Ducks. Cheap, convert bugs and weeds into calcium coated breakfast orbs, are heat and cold hardy. loud but not too loud or harsh sounding, like lots of water but don't need a pond. Tend to stick around and always move around in a tight flock. Last but not least, for a barnyard animal they are quite personable.

I have plenty of running water from 2 creeks and an artisan well. Built an enclosure that keeps everything but a bear, weasel or snake out. Built a coop that keeps the snakes and weasels out but not daughters. once grown out a bit the ducks are free to roam all day when we are around. Daytime but not around they have the enclosure. Night they are in the coop. Put the whole mess far enough way from the house but still easy to observe. Dear daughter went from putting on makeup to go to Starbucks to sitting in a coop / poop in her bathrobe.

[Vicegrip]

Image #4 is deceiving. The small out building is level and true. The parking lot and coop are not.

[VaSteve]

How much time between photos?

[Vicegrip]

9 days. They grow very fast. This breed was bred out from mallards and is intended for eating. Egg to “eatin” size is measured in weeks. They grow to 9 to 11 pounds and live the same number or years (if you don’t eat them). The hens can lay 150 or more eggs a year no drakes required