Here's a "Talk About Anything" thread

Getting old, I cringe at doing large logs like that anymore. I still have several butt logs that are at least that diameter that still need bucked and split.

My wood/logs are in "the back 40" so it's probably 3/8 or 1/2 mile to get them home. I stop filling the bed when the rubber stops above the rear springs are just about to touch the frame.

them big ones are an ass kicker.Here is 1 of 2 I did last season.This was the smaller of the 2

bczoom said:

Getting old, I cringe at doing large logs like that anymore. I still have several butt logs that are at least that diameter that still need bucked and split.

My wood/logs are in "the back 40" so it's probably 3/8 or 1/2 mile to get them home. I stop filling the bed when the rubber stops above the rear springs are just about to touch the frame.

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+10 My way through the woods and to the woodshed/splitter is perhaps 1/4 mile......LOTS uphill..........Mainly I carry rounds to the splitter; but often, if I have several trees to work on, I take the splitter and carry the splits............
For the big ones, I use the loader on the tractor to pick them up and to use as an auxillary off-fall table while splitting them.......Usually my splitter is in the horizontal mode as the vertical is wayyyyy hard on my back. This happens on those HUGE rounds that are probably above 36" or so........Then though I go back to horizontal. For me, it's just easier to use the tractor for holding, loading, and lifting........God bless....Dennis

Hey woodcutters, your post sparked memories of the days when Dad and I cut wood, but mainly of the ingenuity of my Dad. Shortly after I got married (1983) he replaced my absence by accessorizing his home-made 3-point hitch wood splitter with a swiveling gin-pole and an electric winch with log tongs attached to the winch cable. The winch had a fairly lengthy wired remote control enabling him to stretch the cable and remote control out to the trunk pieces that were often 30 inches in diameter, connect the tong and drag then lift the trunk pieces onto the splitter table all with the push of a toggle switch.

It's amazing what happens after long-time help is lost. That's when I noticed an increase in Dad's ingenuity. The man could and did build almost anything.

The ole wood splitter still resides at the ole farm that is now owned by my two sisters and me. Had to walk around that splitter a few times last Saturday further bringing back many memories.

So, consider this ingenuity to assist in your wood splitting.

God Bless,

Philip

Dads... awesome .

when your old and a mess like me you find any way to make life easier.Thats why I picked up the ol David Brown for them big guys. I used to tilt the splitter for them big rounds but it was still a 2 man operation and a lot of back breaking work positionion them to split.Not I use the tractor to move them around and a big set of log tongs to grab them beasts and have a hook welded on the mucket so i can lift them monsters on the splitter.Ive only owned the tractor since last oct abd just finally got it 99 percent running.Only a few minor electrical issues to iron out like the temp gauge and fuel gauge but the short time ive had it it has paid for itself 2 times already in the work it has saved me.I dont know how I did without the ol boy so long.

Absolutely great job Mark. That is a nice tractor you have brought back to working order. collie

bakerg said:

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Thank you for reminding me! I could have gotten into big trouble...

Disappointed in my RTV 900:
After dumping the last of some limbs from two big trees cut down in my back yard, I drove down to the mailbox to get the mail. Slithering away from the mailbox across the pavement was a 4' timber rattlesnake headed to a ravine with a little creek. It's been very dry here in the WNC area.
I had no tools in the RTV so I decided to run over the rattlesnake. I did it 3 times, and every time I could hear it rattle, but it didn't seem to hurt it. I have the worksite tires with 20psi and they're apparently too soft to kill one. It finally made it to the edge of the road and down into the ravine. Of course it's illegal to kill snakes, so it for the best.
I've been known to bring back black snakes and let them go around the house.

Right there with ya Bud.......Save those good snakes.....Those timber snakes are some hard critters to kill...........Last year, came across one on our road/drive and had to use the .22 that I keep in the rack there behind and above the seat..............First shot severed the head but it was still on with scraps of skin and meat.........THE THING KEPT GOING AND RATTLIN..........A couple more rounds from perhaps 2" away in the head and still moving...........Then 10 minutes later at picture time, with wife holding the snake, it was still swaying it's body around. Tough critters for sure.
Haven't seen any this year; but for the past few years we are averaging maybe 3 per year. Spooky, as we get them right where we ride the mules and our grand babies play a lot. One of our pyr LGD got bit a couple of years ago right on her face. Her face swolled up like a watermelon; but after LOTS of meds and care she made it through it.
Just recently though, she lost the ability to make tears in that eye and we had to remove it...........
Watch out Vandal hordes. That one eyed watch dog can still outrun you once she hears and smells you .............God bless.........Dennis

Last spring my wife ran over with our Ford F 150 a huge timber rattlesnake on the paved highway not far from home. She came home and we drove to the spot but could not find it. Yet she felt it bump under both front and rear tires and saw it writhing on the road. We went back within five minutes, so it's unlikely that another critter (buzzard, coon, coyote) got to it. A couple of days before I disintegrated with a shotgun the head of a much smaller one that was between the house and the shop. That same spring I was hunting for turkeys hiding in a brushy copse in the middle of my pasture (they usually came from the forest around the pasture early in the morning) and reached down from my stool to pick up the box call on top of my possibles bag. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a really big cottonmouth coiled at about a yard from my hand. I slowly retracted my hand, got up and tickled its muzzle with my walking stick He was too sluggish because the night had been rather chilly and he was just warming up in the early morning sun, so he just uncoiled slowly and slithered away. I was surprised to find him there because the pond and swamp is about 150 yards from that spot, in the forest. But snakes are unpredictable. I did not shoot it because I didn't want to scare the turkeys away, but they did not show up that morning anyway.
The gentleman who keeps the cows on my pasture last fall saw a huge timber rattler at the edge of the forest that surrounds the pasture while he was checking the electric fence. But he did not have a gun and couldn't find a stick long enough to dispatch the snake safely. What bothers me is that I had been shooting doves right in that area only a week before, and my retriever had been crawling in that same brushy spot where the snake was to retrieve fallen birds. I have tried to snakeproof her with the electric collar and that rattler I shot, but I am not sure that only one lesson has been enough.

We've got a 13 y/o dog, blue healer/terrier mix, about 50#, and she cornered a timber rattler last year until I came out and shot. It was in my wife's flower garden about 100 feet from the house. She's always been an outside dog, seen her tree mother bears and cubs, and just a couple of days ago run into the same flower garden, with us standing 20 feet away, and grab a garter snake and kill it. Somehow she knew not to tackle that rattlesnake and barked at it for 30 minutes before I came out. Any barking more than 10-15 minutes is something other than a squirrel.
I've attached a few trail cam pictures on an area about 40 yards from the house. I remember the afternoon that bear came through, didn't see it, but could tell by the dog's bear bark. She knows not to mess with the bigger males. She is always in the trail cam pictures checking out that area. When in season we put out melon rinds and other discarded fruits and vegetables to bait the animals.

BTW, the trail cam time clock is 12 hour off.

Man, that's a beautiful Tom turkey!
When I lived in Kodiak I had to put up with the really BIG bears. I had a few encounters and one was of the very close kind. My duck blind was at the edge of a brackish lagoon and in the morning, in pitch-black darkness, I had to trudge through a swamp for almost 30 minutes, loaded with decoys, shells, gun, food, water, etc. to reach the blind. The place was heavily frequented by bears, which fed on the dead and dying salmon in the creeks that fed into the lake. I always carried my 12 ga. auto in my hands, loaded with three, three-inch Brenneke (ball) shells. I counted on my dog to bark and warn me if we were approaching a bear. The lakeshore between the blind and the forest was a bear highway. They had worn a path in the mud going back and forth. Now and then, in the blind, my dog would start growling, and I knew she'd sensed a bear walking behind us.

RTV is a magnet

My helpers are sleeping on the job... No matter where I park it, this happens. and... in the first picture, they hear it crank and here they come... I never call them... collie

Thunderdome, finally at last the pictures of the tractors you asked about.

Those are new tractors since we visited a few years ago! I love the color!!!!

pepr said:

Those are new tractors since we visited a few years ago! I love the color!!!!

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Haha Pepr. You don't forget anything. The 7420 was parked at the back when you were here but the 6125 is less than a year old. I have been cleaning them both up and spent 2 hours on the inside of the 7420 this afternoon. Whew!!! That cow feed gets everywhere ! The 7210 which you saw then is hooked to the feed wagon in the back of the picture and will get a cleaning up soon. The headliner is wanting to give way so am going to put some of those pins in it ..(the ones that are black) A new headliner is almost a grand !!! ha !! Nooo way! those pins are just fine.. maybe even may tan them with a bit of paint before installing.... hummmm... collie

And therefore, my 6410 has no headliner. Several years ago the 6410 headline began drooping. At that time the cost was $325 for a replacement headliner. The 6410 has operated flawlessly without the headliner.

The Lord has truly blessed us this year with rain. Raining again today and they are calling for more for most of the week. Went and mowed my folks yard yesterday while I had the chance and well get ours as soon as I can. Farmers are having a tough time getting the corn in the ground though, but in the end this rain well pay big dividends.