Good morning!!!!

[Kyle_in_Tex]

rs, when you get a chance, please post some pics of the wood pecker. I have seen pileated only 2 or 3 times around here in 11 years. The one's I saw were very large, maybe 12" from beak to tail.

 

[Larro Darro]

For decades here in Texas, the Colorado river has been dammed up by multiple dams with Lake Travis being the body of water that they let rise and fall the most. It was built way back with the purpose of helping the downstream rice farmers during the summer. Even in years with plenty of rain, they still, by contract, had to release X amount of water whether the farmers needed it or not. In the last 25 years, the municipalities have had tremendous population growth and demands on the same water. After years of drought and the lake at all time low levels, I believe last year or the year before the LCRA somehow changed the charter contract document for the water and the rice farmers got drastically reduced water amounts. I think that if the lake is very low, they don't have to give the farmers ANY water now. It has also been determined since the dam has been constructed, how important the freshwater inflow is to the coastal bay ecosystems. We don't have salmon, but many species are dependent on the freshwater. It is a very tough situation to have to govern who gets water when there is not enough. I am thankful that Lake Travis has come up almost 40 feet in 30 days and now they are in much better shape.

River Report

I pray for rains to come to California.

We {Florida} are in a long drawn out water war with Alabama and Georgia over the Flint, Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. Apalachicola Bay oysters need a certain amount of water flow to thrive, and neither Alabama agriculture, not Atlanta are getting any smaller. It's been going on for years with no end in sight.

So far this year there has been rain. When it dries up, so do the oysters.

 

[rswyan]

69F and partly cloudy ... nice tomorrow with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.

Got the splitter moved up to the shed and set up, after doing a little more clean up and moving some brush.

After doing some tweaking, I cut, split, and stacked about 5 bucket loads - mostly pine - before knocking off around 20:00 for dinner and to watch the Cavs/Golden State game ... Cavs were in it all the way ... until it went to overtime ...

Got the part for the brushcutter picked up this afternoon ... going up in a bit to start working on it.

 

[rswyan]

Me and the axe are out of the question. LOL. Good luck with that stuff, be careful.

Thanks ... after this afternoon, I've gained a new appreciation for just how much those large rounds can weigh

 

[rswyan]

RS that is some big wood you have.

Yes, it sure is ...

You should probably hang a turbo charger on your splitter.

LOL ... after today, that sounds like a good idea.

If nothing else, I'm gonna take a look at settings on the relief valves

But I might end up upgrading to an 8 HP engine at some point ... just have to see.

I just read that firewood dries faster through the end grain than from a split face. Makes sense I guess since that lines up with the trees water transport structure.

That's a principle that I plan to take advantage of ...

Maybe you could saw 8" thick slices off those bigger ones and split the slices into chunky blocks.

Here's what I ran into today - 22" - 23" long sycamore round (very green), probably around 32" - 34" or so in diameter (just a guess - will measure it tomorrow):

Rolled that sucker on there - which was a bit of a feat itself - and then hit the handle on the log lift control valve and ... nada ...

Using the log calculator over on woodweb, it probably weighs in the vicinity of 550 to 650 lbs. Tried splitting it in half on the ground with the sledge and a couple of wedges and the water/sap puddled up real good where I sunk the wedges ... just a-oozin' out ...

Plan at this point is cut all the large logs into rounds and let them sit for a couple of months to put 'em on a diet, and split the smaller stuff that I can lift now. Although tomorrow I might try cutting one shorter - say 18" - and see if the lift can pick it up.

That would probably drop the weight of the round by 130 lbs or so ... but even so, I'm not real keen on wrestling around a 400 lb. round on a 6" wide I-beam ... although I can leave the lift up now that I modified it, so that would help some ...

Still ...

 

[rswyan]

rs, when you get a chance, please post some pics of the wood pecker.

Will do ...

Gotta get a battery for the Canon Powershot and clean the living room windows off (they are way overdue anyways) to get a decent shot. My iPhone sucks in low light and has no zoom.

When I walked into the living room tonight the female pileated flew up and landed on the suet feeder just as I was picking up the remotes and about to sit down. She was about 6' from me.

They seem pretty tolerant of our presence ... as long as you don't make any fast movements.

I have seen pileated only 2 or 3 times around here in 11 years. The one's I saw were very large, maybe 12" from beak to tail.

Yup, they're huge ... 30"+ wingspan ...

First time one landed on the suet feeder, The 'Cake sez (excitedly):

"He's going to tear that thing down !"

They haven't yet ... but they sure can do quite a bit of damage to a suet cake in a big hurry

 

[RoyJackson]

2015-06-05, 0226

53 right now...high of 76, maybe a thunderstorm.
Boy...awake tossing and turning since midnight...going to be a long day!

 

[Eric Salop]

We are set for a lovely day again.
If the forecasters have it right it will be like Goldilocks eating baby bears porridge - not too hot and not too cold - just right.

The railway fencers have made a good start. They brought with them a fancy tracked post driver so they can knock in the largest posts without breaking into a sweat. Some of the fence wire coming out looks in very good condition. It would be a shame to see it all go for scrap so I will have a word with them today and see if they can be persuaded to forget to collect it.

RS : At one time I used to despise sycamore as it grew like a weed in the garden. Now we have a wood burning stove it is all gratefully harvested in. I find it soon dries when cut into rounds like you are doing. The mistake I made was to leave it in a pile instead of spreading it out. A year on and those on the outside had almost completely dried out, while the rounds on the inside of the pile still had a lot of sap.

 

[Buppies]

60 this morning high of 75 later today maybe a shower later today but not a great chance. Back to work

 

[vtsnowedin]

2015-06-05, 0226

53 right now...high of 76, maybe a thunderstorm.
Boy...awake tossing and turning since midnight...going to be a long day!

That's a pain when your sleep pattern is thrown off. Doing ten hour days outside has solved that problem for me.

 

[ronjhall]

Drinking second cup of coffee. 60° with clear skies this morning. Heading to 76° with lots of sun. Did not get much done on siding project yesterday. May not get much done today. Dealer did not call on picking up car. May not get time to pick it up today if they call.
Today is my mother 96th birthday. Taking balloons over to her this morning. Then a small family party this evening.
RS, get a set of logging tongs to move them large pieces around with tractor. Also a Cant Hook helps to move large logs. Sure saves the back.
Good Morning All.

 

[KevT]

68 now going to 90 with 60% chance of rain. A lot of thunder last night, but no rain.

 

[dave1949]

Ron, Happy Birthday to your Mom! 96!

These long daylight hours can mess with my sleeping pattern sometimes.

48F. 70 and cloudy today.

 

[Thomas]

52F mid 70's for high rain arriving late tonight.
have some dirt work for the tractor also jockeying trailers around,than motorcycle needs inspection hope to have all done before 3pm,so I better get snapping.

Hope your pillow bring peaceful sleep tonight Roy.

BIG happy birthday to your mom Ron.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[txdon]

Good Morning! 68 heading to the mid 90s - still dark so no cloud report. I'm glad I have hundreds of dead trees to choose my light fire wood from after seeing those RS logs.

On TV last nigh they were showing a 600 year old cyprus tree that got washed down stream in Wimberly TX during the deadly floods last month. Then they did a major jump back in history and said this is the most rain they had in a short time in 600 years. I guess the tree assumption seems logical since they have been keeping rain record for only 130 years but there seems to be factors that they are not considering.

Ron, wish your Mom a Happy Birthday from the TBN Good Morning group.

 

[riptides]

57 out this AM. Chance of rain. Need it to dry out and get sunny. Grass needs attention.
A/C got replaced. Sheesh. A nine hour job. Unit is 2 steps up from what we had installed when we "remodeled". Big, fancy, need instruction book. I just want simple. Everything is so complex these days. Has WiFi connectivity, to what? Most anything. Yeah, that ain't happening in my house. It is a set and forget mode for us.
Anyway, painted the last of the doors in the rooms I reclaimed. All back to original now.

Need to clean up for some guests this w/e.

Still looking for a real job. May need to lower standards and expectations.

Everyone, have a great day, and a fantastic weekend. Be safe!

 

[daugen]

good morning all. Cooler day, rained most of the night, everything is sopping wet outside.
A friend told me that there was a tractor meet/old time engine show in Edenton tomorrow so I have to check that out and might take a drive there tomorrow. I need to get out more...
But today is errands, shopping, and primary doc appt.

ended yesterday with a successful visit from one of the oldest surveyors in the area, and we agreed on his surveying my entire property, which hasn't been done forever. I showed him the jungle he had to get through and he said, we use machetes...wow, good luck, your quote is most reasonable considering they have to go through intense briars, barbed wire and a swamp. If I'm going to buy the acre of land next door, I have to get this done anyway so we are going to mark that acre while he's at it. On the other side, where I back up to a bunch of neighboring back yards, it will be interesting to see who has put a shed over the line. Pretty sure one has, and I know another has dumped junk in the woods.
Not sure, so only way to find out is to survey it. Surveyor figured four days work to do the job.

This older gentleman said he paid $36K for his gps and it was accurate to a few inches. But that is used only in certain places, not on the corners I believe. He had a thick file of GIS mapping and other maps filed with the county so he was quite well prepared. And he knew the former owners pretty well. I should have asked him if he did this place 30 years ago when it was all woods before the bulldozers came in.

 

[txdon]

Has WiFi connectivity, to what? Most anything.

Now that might be nice. I'm walking to the mailbox and get hot, I call up my ac to lower the house temp a few degrees so when I make it back the house will be cooler.

Just wait - in 2020 vehicles will not start if the driver has been drinking when you touch the sensor start button.

Drew, I'm surprised the a survey was not done in the transaction. 3 months before I bought my property I spent two machete days with the Surveyor and every place he put a wooden stake on the property line I put a red painted re-bar rod - 20 years later all the rods are still there.

 

[riptides]

Good luck on the survey, Drew.

Machetes are fine tools. Especially in the hands of skilled operators.

When we had our survey done, we had some issues with all the historic markers and title paperwork. Had to get a lawyer to make things right because people just let things go over the 100 plus years.

 

[riptides]

Now that might be nice. I'm walking to the mailbox and get hot, I call up my ac to lower the house temp a few degrees so when I make it back the house will be cooler.

Noooo........... LOL.

The thing even has a fancy screen saver. I will upload a picture that says "Touch this and YOU pay for the electric bill".