rarefish383

Thanks, I thought I did that this morning? The last time I was here I didn't have a problem.

You guys have some real steel over there. My biggest tractor is a Massy Ferguson 135, 1967, gas. Then I have 3 John Deere lawn tractors, a 265 17HP with 3000 hours on it, an X540 with 1000 hours, 26HP liquid cooled, and an X500 with 16 hours on it. I used to use the 265 to pull my Vermeer 630A stump grinder through residential lawns. I have a friend that had 3 rental properties. One of his renters got behind on the rent and had to move out. This was back in 2004. His rent was $2500 a month and he was 4 months behind. He had just bought a NorTrak 204C, 20 HP diesel, 4X4 loader, made by Jinma. He gave the tractor to my friend. Last year my friend sold the rental properties so he didn't need the tractor. He sold it to me for $2000 US. It only had 248 hours on it. I've put 100 hours on it since I've had it. I'm having trouble posting pics, I think the Trans Atlantic cable is eating them. When I figure it out, I'll post some pics of my little herd of tractors, Joe.

It amazes me how birds find food. I haven't had any Morning Doves. I got a new bag of bird food that has a lot of cracked corn in it. The birds that like Sunflower seeds throw all the corn out of the feeder. Now every morning and every evening the Morning Dove show up and eat all the corn. My daughter said she didn't get any pics of the Eagles. They are pretty common around here, I'll try and get some.

Last time I had the pics posting? Try clicking on the link. I hope I can get it right for the Eagle pics? Joe.

I had some time so I thought I'd stop in and see what birds you have seen this spring? My Blue Birds, over the last 3-4 years, have worn the hole in the box bigger, so other birds are interested in the box now. So, they moved to another box I can't see from my desk. Common House Sparrows moved in. My daughter found a Bald Eagle nest. That thing is giant. It looks like a 6' long green ice cream cone in the tree. Before the leaves started coming out she said you could see the adults setting in the nest. Now with the leaves out I could just see the nest, but no birds. If she sends me the pics, I'll post them. I live in the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains and we have a very diverse and abundant variety of birds. A few days ago I looked out from my desk and got a pic of a Ruby Breasted Grosbeak, only the second time I've seen them, a Blue Bird, and a Red headed Woodpecker, all in the same pic. I'm going to try to post a pic. I think the last time I had trouble posting and forget what I did to resolve the problem? Clicking and dragging is not working for me. I'll try IMGUR again? https://i.imgur.com/r10DMIo.jpg[/img]

They must still live with Mom, the floor is clean and the chairs have no rips in them. Same the world round.

As humans we tend to forget quickly. When my Dad started climbing before WWII he used nothing but hand saws and axes for limbing out trees. There were no small chains saws. In the 60's he still climbed with big hand saws. Any thing under 16" he cut with a hand saw. I remember being 8-10 years old and tying a Disston DA211 two man chain saw on his rope to cut big wood up in trees. I jumped ahead, so if someone already said this, my apologies. If you are going to use these saws, besides files, you will need a "Tooth Set". It looks like a weird set of plyers. As the saw is used, the constant dragging of the blade through the wood, flattens out the teeth. Periodically you have to "Set" the teeth. It bends them out slightly. Here's a couple pics of Dad's climbing saws. The one hanging on the wall is the last one he climbed with, so it's in nice shape. The helper handle on it was not there when he used it. I found it somewhere and thought it looked nice, so I put it on, the holes to mount it were there. The curved hand saw with the scabbard was from the 70's and is Teflon coated. When Dad retired in 1986, I kept using it until I quit climbing about 10 years ago. It cuts on the pull stroke. One of the first times I used it, I was cutting a limb about 4-5 inches, and on the third pull it cut through. I was pulling so hard it kept going and stuck in my right knee. I had to come out of the tree and have one of the ground crew pull it out. I never was good with cross cut saws. Dad said a good team always pulls on their stroke. If you try to push, and you are faster than your team mate, the blade will buckle and snap back and hit you in the face. By the time I started climbing we had plenty of chain saws, and the big cross cuts just hung in the barn. I have one in good usable condition and another one that hangs over the door of my shed. The curved Teflon coated saw will still cut sticks 6" or so. But, I'm 65 and can only cut a few pieces and I'm done. Cheers, Joe. https://i.imgur.com/0VCObN3.jpg[/img] https://i.imgur.com/xYYHokF.jpg[/img]

If I were going to drink Canadian beer, especially if I was in Nova Scotia, it would be one of Alexander Keith's. I have never had one of their beers that I did not like. Way back, 30-40 years ago we used to drink Molson's and Labatt's. Of the British beer/Ale we can get I always like Boddinton's, New Castle Brown, I'd really like to try Timothy Taylors Boltmaker. I might try and find some soon. I've always like Guinness Stout. We had a young man from Ireland stay with us for a month or so. I always had Guinness in the fridge. He said if I liked what we had here, I would love the real stuff back in Ireland. My daughter flew to Ireland twice for Saint Paddy's Day. She said the Guinness on tap there was much better than what we get here.

My wife holding the Plumb Cruiser.

I wish I had of checked this forum sooner. I used to throw at Mountain Man Rendezvous'. I was taught, not to flip the knife or ax, tomahawk. The natural arc coming over your shoulder gave it the correct rotation. It worked for me. I found an old Plumb Boys Ax that was so rusted, I started to throw it on the scrap heap. But, I could still read Plumb on it, so I started grinding. It was a 2 1/4 pound ax, and I ground 8 ounces of steel off of it. It was winter time, I had a lot of free time, but no haft to hang the bit on. I found a piece of White Ash in my fire wood pile and carved a haft for it, it turned out OK and throws a treat. Way years ago, when I threw a double, it was a Plumb Cruiser. My mate hand carve a new Hickory haft for the double. It's octagonal and fits the hand. But, now it's too pretty to throw. Here's a few picks. Oh, just a bit of American humor. My target slab is Highly Valuable Black Walnut! Joe.

Well, I guess Holiday is over. I came to visit a friend, I think I made a few more. I hope I made a few of you laugh. I feel any day I can make at least one person laugh, is a day well lived. The grass is growing, so I have to get back to work. I'll stop in now and then, but probably not every day. Be well, work safe, and God be with you, Joe.

Woke is not a term we hear over here. So I did a quick search and got the Wiki version. "It is a term that refers to a "perceived" awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice". Over here it is common for a media person to become "woke" to an issue, and when in debate, they yell, scream, and don't let the other side talk. Then they call the other side names and accuse them of not caring or being aware of the issue. Two months later, the same media person will become "woke" to another issue. Completely discard the first issue, yell, scream and call the other side names. Over the course of a year, they may do this a half dozen times, getting nothing accomplished on any of the issues, but still yelling, screaming and calling names. To me, they are displaying all of the negative traits they are blaming the other side of? As another person, with friends all around the world, who does care about others, how would you have me understand, the term "woke"? I added the quotes on the word "perceived" awareness, because it's in the Wiki definition. Perceived could also mean faked, it's just how good of a job one person does fooling another that they really care? So, does it mean I'm truly "awakened to an issue"? Or, does it mean I could have deceived you into thinking I'm concerned about the issue? Thanks, Joe.

A gent on arboristsite said when he was in Guatemala 30 years ago, they used axes of the pattern in this Elwell. I got 4 axes from the auction, the Elwell, I had to go $130 on it. A nice "no name" Double, an OK Stanly single and another "no name" single, that came with the double.

Not worth starting a new thread in the chainsaws, but this auction had a bunch of older Stihls. There was an 066 in one of the pavilions. A not very chainsaw looking guy asked if it ran"? Said dunno. He gave it a quick yank and it fired right up. The bid on it was $400 when I left. I have a 660 and an 075, so I passed, but it sounded good. I still have some bids in on double bit axes, Joe.

I've heard them called a pole axe, but this has not had the spike cut off. The surface is uncut. The good news is, the auction just ended, and I won the bid. Paid a lot more than I wanted. Had to go $130, plus $26 in tax and commission. That's the most I've ever paid for an axe. It's more than I pay for most of my chainsaws!

Oh My. My son in law is of Chinese decent. I've got to drop that one on him. Thanks to those that understood my point. It was historical only. We all have things in our past to be, "not so proud of". I have a 10 volume set of Kipling, it's a beautiful set of leather bound books. Much of the leather is worn thin from years of reading. It may have been in one of those volumes I first heard the term. My apologies, Joe

I bumped my bid up to $80. I really didn't want to go that high, but it's the only one I've ever seen. As I said above, I might go $100, and call it my birthday present to me?

Well, yes it was some very good advertising. Some of the funniest adds going way back then. But, now it's all geared to week water flavored beer so one guy can drink a 30 pack over the weekend. I went into my one mates garage with a six of Guinness. Then his wife walked in, so I asked her if she would like a beer. My mate says, "She doesn't drink beer". She held one finger up at him and said, "I don't drink YOUR beer" She asked what I had and I held up the six pack, She then said, "Yes, I'll have one of your's . I'm very partial to IPA's, then Dunkle's, then a good lager. If I'm at a cook out and get offered a Lite beer, I might drink one, just to be polite. Some times I'm just rude, and say, no thanks, I don't drink horse piss.

I wonder what idiot came up with the idea of, "The American Committee for the Defense of British Homes"? Don't confuse the "People" with the Government. One mantra we hear over here is, "Why do all of these other countries have use of this new, latest, greatest, drug, and our FDA( Federal Drug Administration) is sitting on it's approval? Like all things, you can't have it both ways. We can't kill half the world releasing deadly drugs, and then kill the other half by not releasing them. Forgive me for the use of the term I'm about to use. I know it's a derogative term, but not exactly how it's viewed over there. I've been an avid adventure reader since I was a child. One thing I could never reconcile with soldiers in India, finding great sport in running over "Wogs", and keeping point counts. We all have Histories. One of my favorite stories from my Father in Law, he was a school teacher, was when he had a group of Irish exchange student on a field trip. They were at the oldest lived in cabin in the US. As the tour director was going on about how old the building was, my FIL heard one of the Irish boys say, "Me house is older than that". Some histories are just older. I only read the first and last page of this post, and I am offended that my brother Tree Climbers would start a thread for the sole purpose of bashing me. I'll paraphrase the quote from Tommy Lee Jones in "Men in Black", "A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky dangerous animals....". To a man, every one here has treated me as a welcome guest, so I'll continue to come back. But, I guess I learnt me a lesson, watch your back, Joe.

neiln told me you have an axe forum, I haven't been able to find it. I found an old Elwell at an auction. The sale started Monday, and ends tonight. The axe has a round handle and round eye, kind of looks like a big tomahawk. I've had the winning bid from Monday, at $24 US, till I got up this morning, and it was $65 Us. I think that's about 48 pounds. I really wanted this thing, have never seen one before, and can't find any info on it. My mother in law gives me $200 for my birthday, I might go $100 on it as a birthday present from me, to me, What do you guys think?

I like old fashioned board and batten. it stays pretty dry, but doesn't seal tight. How To Install Board-and-Batten Siding - Hobby Farms WWW.HOBBYFARMS.COM Try this simple, traditional siding method to protect your home build barns, sheds or outbuildings.

I remembered the name Rygaard from the Ax Men series, they were based in Washington State. We are just outside Washington DC, District of Columbia, which is not a State and on the other Coast. Please don't think I'm being condescending, I don't know my world geography near as well as I should. We just have two Washington's. One is a beautiful State, the other is a quagmire of politics. Unfortunately, I'm stuck by the quagmire. I just did a search and the Rygaards are the ones out West in the beautiful State. I have friends out there I hope to see in person some day.

That's a pretty bird! I did catch a Weasel once, it was actually a Mink, and the thought of pissing in it's ear never crossed my mind, but it was awake, and mad.

I was about to go off topic, and felt this would be the appropriate place instead. I was about to tell of my Dad's family, his outdoorsmanship, where and how he was raised. People think of Washington DC as a big modern city. Actually, before WWII there was very little there, and most of it was swamp land. Dad was raised on a farm that was half in DC and half in Maryland. They were poor and lived off what the could raise , catch, and hunt. He made Rabbit Gumm's, which were triggered box traps, much like a modern haveaheart trap. They caught rabbits, opossum, raccoon, and skunks. He learned how to call many animals in to traps. His grand father had an excavation company that cleared roads, they did tree work as an off shoot of the main business. His father started digging basements with a team of horses and a scoop. Tree work was just starting to become what we know of it today. He saw he could make more money and geared more toward trees. When Dad got out of WWII he started his own tree business, and when I got out of collage, I went to work for him, making me the fourth generation. His family came from France and settled in Canada, eventually moving south to Louisiana, then back North East to Maryland. They settled in Montgomery county in 1721. The stone Manor House they built is still lived in, but no longer by Bonifant's. My Dad's father married Hellen Muzzy Bladen, from Bladensburg MD. A direct descendant of Thomas Bladen, Colonial Governor of Maryland, and a member of the British House of Commons. This is all grand family history, but, I was adopted, and my birth mother was Norwegian. So, on any given day I can claim to be related to Vikings, British Lords, or French Huguenots. It's a small world, and if any of you ever come to the states, especially the DC area, let me know. There is always a cold beer and a spot next to my fire pit waiting for you. Just a side note, I only drink good beer, no Lite served here.