At the last board meeting there was some talk about trying to find an arborist to take it down. Finally, one of the guys moved I cut it down at the next work party. Nothing against office people, but these guys are mostly office people and thought this was going to be a big deal. I hadn’t taken a good look at it, just seen it up there growing for many years. It was only about 45-50 feet tall. Saturday was the work party. Several guys warned me I couldn’t get up to it and that it was a big tree that would fall down where we didn’t want it doing damage. Well, that is the point of taking it down under our terms, isn’t it? It was at least 3, maybe 4, feet back form the edge of the hill. There was no sign of instability of the earth.

This little fir in the center is the offender.

I took my little saw http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/1424 up the hill when I walked up there. It didn’t look too big from down below and I didn’t want to carry or manhandle the big Stihl if I didn’t have to. The tree was a bit over 12” in diameter. I cut as many limbs off as I could reach to lighten up the pull out over the target line. Made the under cut to fall it sideways and plenty deep. I wanted it to break off on the heavy side first. There was no way to fall it up hill. The only way was to hold it long enough for the momentum to over come the weight pulling it straight out over the cliff. It was a back cut to swing the tree 90 degrees, but since it was too heavy to twist or swing, the theory of operation became one of holding it long enough to get the upper hand on the weight.

After trimming the branches to lighten it up as much as possible and making my undercut, I started on the back cut. I was cutting about 30 off of parallel to the undercut. I got it far enough it should have broken off, but no fall! ;-(( I cut a couple of falling wedges to put in the back cut and continued a little more. Still no fall ;-(( About then, I ran out of gas. I took the saw down to the truck and brought back a splitting wedge and maul. About the second whack on that wedge, I head a loud crack. It just stood there defiantly. One more whack with the maul did the trick. All the wood I left on the up hill side away from the target structures did its trick. It held the falling tree long enough for it to pick up enough momentum to overcome the weigh pulling it straight down on the target line.

There are a couple more that are gong to be worse on the left side of this picture. They are madronas and they are leaning about 15 degrees out where we don’t want them landing. That is a lot more tree than I can turn or control from the stump. I have a 15,000 pound Warn winch to mount on my truck. Just another of those years old projects that have been waiting for a nice day without migraines. The winch will take care of them if I go up with my spurs to get a little leverage. Nice thing is not having to climb straight up. It will be like walking on a sidewalk ;-))

It is kind of hard to tell in this picture, but the one behind the little green bush on the left is leaning out over the cliff. The others on the edge will be easy, except of bringing out the firewood ;-))

Edit: I forgot to mention, there was a small madrona growing through the fir in the line of fall. It was about 5 inches in diameter. I was afraid it would divert the fall to out over the target line, I cut it off, but it was hung up in the fir. I cut the bottom end of it off leaving it swinging in the fir adding a little weight pulling the way I wanted it to go. You can see the end of it sticking up on the target carriers.

Tonight I needed to make some serious dadoes 3/4” wide. I had some salvaged 1/4” hardboard. I roughed out an insert and friction fit it on the ends to hold it securely in place.

I probably would have figured it all out, but thanks to LJ, I abandon the wobble blade! I have a set of real Dadoes. After all the info I this site, everything went off without a hitch just like I knew what I was doing ;-))

Low and behold, I found one with about 900 pounds pull with a shape that that would easily work for a shop made feather board. The guy was apparently selling some stuff from a machinist’s estate. He had over 4,000 sales, but a 99.5% positive. Anyone can run into an unreasonable buyer and get a few negatives, but I have learned the hard way to avoid sellers with less than 99.9% positive.

Most of the items weren’t worth shipping alone, but he said he would combine anything that fit in a flat rate box for $12.95. That sounded reasonable enough. I won a few items with no other bidders; a machinist’s protractor and the magnetic switch among them.

After a few days, I got a nonpaying bidder case in my inbox. I contacted the seller. He said eBay does it automatically. With the way eBay corporate has pushed the sellers to only take payments through Pay-Pal, raised their prices and generally done about everything they can to push reasonable people away, it did not surprise me to hear that they would start picking on buyers. To make things fair, why not pi$$ o&& everybody involved in a transaction. After all, that is the corporate way in American management, isn’t it?

I just ignored the first one. A day later, another. I contacted eBay by email telling them the seller agreed to flat rate box shipping. I received an email telling me to call their customer service line. After another unpaid case, I called eBay. I was told the seller was doing it and he was the only one who could stop it. I always treat others the way I expect to be treated. I do not have the proper temperament to be dealing with a liar as well as an obvious imbecile. I contacted him telling him to remove all the unpaid item cases he filed while I was still bidding his items per the shipping agreement. He made no mention of any time limit in the original contact. All of this happened in a little over a week.

Along comes my regular Rockler email with the usual 20% off coupon. They seem to be in my inbox every week. I haven’t been there since the first of the year. I am beginning to lose hope that the coupons will escalate to 30% off ;-)) I was passing within a mile of Rockler today. The temptation was too great! I could resist no longer! ! My will power totally failed me today! ! ! I printed the 20 off, gave up hope of 30 off, gave up hope of finding cheap mag switches and brought home a real, genuine Magswitch reversible featherboard starter kit.

The words “starter kit” sort of scares me. What could, or will, this lead to?

20 minutes after fininshing the filing, I hit a nail!! Murphy’s law, I thought about that before I filed, but it did cut very well and I could defiinitely tell the difference after I hit it. The filing job must have been ok, eh? :-))

BTW, I cut for several days breaking down pallets before I hit the first nail ;-))

A few whacks with the maul on a couple of wedges turns this

into these ;-))

This double grab hook comes in real handy

Easy to open when it gets bound up too tight :-))

Handy for lifting logs too

The Tree Farm is on the far end of the low hill in the foreground. It is just about dead center in the picture where the darkest green gets a bit lighter for the next hill beyond the gully.

Looks like rain commin’, again ;-)) Guess we’d better quit :-((

Tonight as she looks down on earth, I hope she sees her flag in the light of my solar lights. I can’t help but think of my folks who have flown a flag every day for many decades. My neighbor across the street can look out and see my flag; day or night. He always flew one when he was able. I haven’t seen him outdoors this year yet. He quit flying it a couple years ago when he was in a nursing home for a few weeks. He and my folks put it out every morning and brought it in at sunset everyday. Being the lazy cuss I am, I put lights on my flag pole so it can be out 24/7 ;-))

I thought I’d post this ¾ done project that has been lying about for, well, a long time…. Most of the projects I post are rather rough in woodworker terms. I thought the gang will be happy to see I am not just a wannabe ;-)) I have no schedule to finish this up. I don’t shoot ML pistol anymore.

It is a scratch gun, not a kit gun. I assembled the parts from a friend who was in the muzzle loading gunsmith business a while back. The stock is maple, not really high grade curly, rather plain. It is far enough along to be shot if I fitted a sight to it. I haven’t found the hammer yet, but I’m 100% sure it is there somewhere and will turn up. If not, they are easy to come by.

Inletting the barrel, tang, lock and trigger guard does take a bit of time and patience, trust me!! ;-)) After the inletting, most modern gunsmiths bed the parts with epoxy to strengthen the area. That is what I did, but it doesn’t help with the fitting and inletting. One little sliver missing will stick out like a sore thumb ;- (

The parts come as rough castings. They have to be filed and polished. The barrel has to be draw filed to take the machining marks off. The lock is the only part that comes ready to install.

WE took a quick trip to Mt Vernon and LaConnor. The saw mill was running on Hwy 20. Shouild be a good sign for wood workers. They must have some orders!! :-)) Just across the highway to the south: there must be trouble in Tulip World. Only about 25% of what we used to see up there 20 years ago. I don’t know what they are growing, but ther must be some long Yankee Green in it. Some fields without tulips had 3 or 4 giant John Deeres pulling 30’ wide springtooths with discs just as wide right behind them. Those must be about a quarter million a piece!

Budda, Budda, Budda, Tht’s All Folks!!

I am using some free cedar fencing cutoffs. They will not be finished, just natural. I am going to pre-drill some nail holes so the kids can nail them together themselves. The entry holes will be slightly different so the species will hopefully be different. I do not want one box to be vacant just because it is in a pairs territory so no others will come close.

The thought of how talented birds are popped into my mind. They use the meagerest of materials, no glue or fasteners to build nests that are strong enough to withstand the forces of nature and protect their young. We should be so resourceful! I hope the birds appreciate the efforts I’m making to make their lives a little easier :-)

When birds fall in love and are preparing to create a family, do they kiss? It would seem to be nearly impossible to line up those sharp beaks without anyone getting hurt. I have never been bird watcher, so I don’t know, do you?