It's quite remarkable how one little thing can completely **** up yer plans !!
Had arranged with my old scrappy to come collect an assortment of [s]crap from me on a Thursday, end of October, then I was going to take him up to Ken and Doug's (Pam's elderly farmer cuzs) to pick up all their [s]crap.
Once loaded and away I was gonna stay on there and drop a few dead trees with Charlie, block/pole 'em up and haul 'em back .... they've been nagging us for months to come and get some firewood.
All sorted ..... 'til I get a call from Tony (the scrappy) on the Wed.s evening, to say one of his regulars had called, begging him to go empty their swarf bins, as they were up to the arses in it. He couldn't turn 'em down and I wouldn't have expected him to.
He was supposed to have been doing it Friday and I was supposed to be lifting the neighbour's roof sheets on for him that morning too.
Anyway ..... what was gonna get did then, got done on the Friday instead ... after a lot of re-organising ... mostly Ken and Doug !!
Glad I got Charlie a new chain the previous week ... what a difference .... I've a proper chain grinder/sharpener, but the old 'un had seen some action and was well past retiring age .....
blocked the first victim (or some of it, at least) where it dropped and stuck it on Kens 4x4 pick up, who promptly decided it'd be a good idea to leg it back to Chez Druid with the spoils, for Pam to chuck in't lil' trailer, so's I could at least move it about.
Poor lil' trailer !!!!!
dropped a couple more and stick-ed 'em into 4+ footers to stick on the front loader on Doug's traccy, to lug 'em out the wood and back to the welcoming arms of me bigger trailer
Got back home in time to block this lot up, 'fore tea, but a bit too late for the roof sheet job, so that got postponed 'til the next morning
Deprived the scrappy of a nice length of 14" pipe .... "make a nice 'garden roller' Pam, full of concrete and suitably chassis-ed" I also had a.n.other idea for it too ..... suitably mounted !!!
Dual purpose roller !!!!
So........ was all set to go do yon sheets next morning ..... 'til about 10 that night, when me mate from Ross (the garage dig) rang .... could he come and sort his car out in the a.m.
We've had custody of it for months .... not enough room at his for his works van, his missus car and his, plus all the works occurring .
'Course, it's been here so long the MOT had expired a few weeks ago so needed to do a few things, so's he could drop it off at a mutual friend's who'd MOT it the next week.
Discs and pads all round, drag links, and an exhaust clamp/bracket, which took longer than the rest put together, to get the old bugger off.
Fairplay, he's damned quick on the spanners .... but the clamp was something else!!
" Cut the ba***rd off Serge ... I'll make you a new one "
best decision of the day ... we'd have been there for most of it otherwise.
Neighbour wandered up just in time for coffee and could see why I'd not been down to his yet !!
Anyway .... got Serge finished, re-located all me tools and he left with his mate Ken in the two vehicles, I grabbed a load of slings, shackles, some chains, a 4 ft bucket and headed down to Chris's field!!
Didn't think we'd had that much of the wet stuff overnight ... but 'twere pretty damned slick and 'squelchy' getting in there !!
Grabbed an old leccy pole on the way in, to sling his sheets under and got it leveled up over the sheets, to sling 'em onto it .... 7.5M sheets need careful handling, to keep 'em looking 'new' !!
Picked well and 'the man' was happy with the technique, so we trundled 'em further in to where they had to go ....and I thought the way in was so so !!
I hate making a mess ... especially of someone else's field !! Tramlines were, shall we say .... significant !! Oh for some floaties !!
Cross camber is not my favorite direction of travel, especially one that soft.
would've been an easier lift without that bucket on .... no way was I dropping it anywhere, that I couldn't get at it again!!
In retrospect, I should've drooped a.n.other chain, from me hook over the back of it to the front edge and lifted from there, but hadn't brought anything suitable down with me and had hoped to have had yon 4 footer off out the way ..... however ... 'tweren't 'appening !!
We got 'em up there though, sat securely and not a mark or a ding in the sheets.....
think I'd have had a few more purlins, meself, but I wasn't asked !!
Got the pole detached from the sheets and after dropping it off once, to hop meself over a bit closer to where Chris wanted it, I swung it into a new 'home', ... less messy than tracking about trying to get in position to reach.
Walked meself sideways a bit more to get out the ruts, which were getting slicker by the minute ... it'd been drizzling here all day .. not what was forecast !! and exited yon swamp!!
Trundled back to the patch and parked up, packed the gear away, got out my Oregon splitting mawl and spent the next couple of hours turning blocks into split blocks!!!!!
Before anyone says it .. Stock, Muz, et al ..... no I ain't made meself a splitter ...... yet !! I will have by the time the next lot need doing, believe me .... my back was in half that night .... not the mawl .... picking the ba***rds back up and into the trailer.
It all split incredibly well ..... even the ones that looked like being real buggers .. no problems.
In case anyone was thinking that tomorrow was a Sunday ...... it was'nt .... it was pack the woodshed day .. here at least !!
Woodburners are very nice to look at/sit by/etc., but jeeeeeez they are a lorrawork !!!
Had arranged with my old scrappy to come collect an assortment of [s]crap from me on a Thursday, end of October, then I was going to take him up to Ken and Doug's (Pam's elderly farmer cuzs) to pick up all their [s]crap.
Once loaded and away I was gonna stay on there and drop a few dead trees with Charlie, block/pole 'em up and haul 'em back .... they've been nagging us for months to come and get some firewood.
All sorted ..... 'til I get a call from Tony (the scrappy) on the Wed.s evening, to say one of his regulars had called, begging him to go empty their swarf bins, as they were up to the arses in it. He couldn't turn 'em down and I wouldn't have expected him to.
He was supposed to have been doing it Friday and I was supposed to be lifting the neighbour's roof sheets on for him that morning too.
Anyway ..... what was gonna get did then, got done on the Friday instead ... after a lot of re-organising ... mostly Ken and Doug !!
Glad I got Charlie a new chain the previous week ... what a difference .... I've a proper chain grinder/sharpener, but the old 'un had seen some action and was well past retiring age .....
blocked the first victim (or some of it, at least) where it dropped and stuck it on Kens 4x4 pick up, who promptly decided it'd be a good idea to leg it back to Chez Druid with the spoils, for Pam to chuck in't lil' trailer, so's I could at least move it about.
Poor lil' trailer !!!!!
dropped a couple more and stick-ed 'em into 4+ footers to stick on the front loader on Doug's traccy, to lug 'em out the wood and back to the welcoming arms of me bigger trailer
Got back home in time to block this lot up, 'fore tea, but a bit too late for the roof sheet job, so that got postponed 'til the next morning
Deprived the scrappy of a nice length of 14" pipe .... "make a nice 'garden roller' Pam, full of concrete and suitably chassis-ed" I also had a.n.other idea for it too ..... suitably mounted !!!
Dual purpose roller !!!!
So........ was all set to go do yon sheets next morning ..... 'til about 10 that night, when me mate from Ross (the garage dig) rang .... could he come and sort his car out in the a.m.
We've had custody of it for months .... not enough room at his for his works van, his missus car and his, plus all the works occurring .
'Course, it's been here so long the MOT had expired a few weeks ago so needed to do a few things, so's he could drop it off at a mutual friend's who'd MOT it the next week.
Discs and pads all round, drag links, and an exhaust clamp/bracket, which took longer than the rest put together, to get the old bugger off.
Fairplay, he's damned quick on the spanners .... but the clamp was something else!!
" Cut the ba***rd off Serge ... I'll make you a new one "
best decision of the day ... we'd have been there for most of it otherwise.
Neighbour wandered up just in time for coffee and could see why I'd not been down to his yet !!
Anyway .... got Serge finished, re-located all me tools and he left with his mate Ken in the two vehicles, I grabbed a load of slings, shackles, some chains, a 4 ft bucket and headed down to Chris's field!!
Didn't think we'd had that much of the wet stuff overnight ... but 'twere pretty damned slick and 'squelchy' getting in there !!
Grabbed an old leccy pole on the way in, to sling his sheets under and got it leveled up over the sheets, to sling 'em onto it .... 7.5M sheets need careful handling, to keep 'em looking 'new' !!
Picked well and 'the man' was happy with the technique, so we trundled 'em further in to where they had to go ....and I thought the way in was so so !!
I hate making a mess ... especially of someone else's field !! Tramlines were, shall we say .... significant !! Oh for some floaties !!
Cross camber is not my favorite direction of travel, especially one that soft.
would've been an easier lift without that bucket on .... no way was I dropping it anywhere, that I couldn't get at it again!!
In retrospect, I should've drooped a.n.other chain, from me hook over the back of it to the front edge and lifted from there, but hadn't brought anything suitable down with me and had hoped to have had yon 4 footer off out the way ..... however ... 'tweren't 'appening !!
We got 'em up there though, sat securely and not a mark or a ding in the sheets.....
think I'd have had a few more purlins, meself, but I wasn't asked !!
Got the pole detached from the sheets and after dropping it off once, to hop meself over a bit closer to where Chris wanted it, I swung it into a new 'home', ... less messy than tracking about trying to get in position to reach.
Walked meself sideways a bit more to get out the ruts, which were getting slicker by the minute ... it'd been drizzling here all day .. not what was forecast !! and exited yon swamp!!
Trundled back to the patch and parked up, packed the gear away, got out my Oregon splitting mawl and spent the next couple of hours turning blocks into split blocks!!!!!
Before anyone says it .. Stock, Muz, et al ..... no I ain't made meself a splitter ...... yet !! I will have by the time the next lot need doing, believe me .... my back was in half that night .... not the mawl .... picking the ba***rds back up and into the trailer.
It all split incredibly well ..... even the ones that looked like being real buggers .. no problems.
In case anyone was thinking that tomorrow was a Sunday ...... it was'nt .... it was pack the woodshed day .. here at least !!
Woodburners are very nice to look at/sit by/etc., but jeeeeeez they are a lorrawork !!!
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