Got some wood cut

Too bad I can't take it home! This is some of Friday's work. We had a spot along a road that had a bunch of dead ash hanging over it. We have a small crew, but we plug away across the county trying to remove the dead and dangerous trees along the roads, while also trying to keep the normal right of ways cut back. This whole job was about a quarter mile long, and this might not look like much wood, but this pile alone is about 150' long and the wood is piled about 2-3' deep in places. We cut most of the pieces about 30" long so if someone was to pick them up, it would be a little easier for them. We aren't in the business of cutting firewood though, although we like it when people pick it up so we can mow the roadsides back a little easier. We ran the tops and anything up to about 8" through the chipper, except stuff that had so much poison ivy in it we don't dare touch it. I currently have poison ivy in 5 different spots from 3 separate days of cutting in areas with a lot of poison ivy. While we were there we trimmed any limbs hanging below 16' that stuck out past our tree line, just to keep that stuff back too. Only machinery involved was a pickup and chipper, chainsaws and gas powered pole saws. Hopefully this wood will disappear soon! Then I went home and cut a pickup load of wood for my shop, but my wrist is bugging, so it was time to hang it up for the day.

Ross
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I thought by now we would've been seeing pics from you plowing snow, but guess you don't have any now.

What's wrong with you coming back with your own vehicle on your own time and gathering a load, especially if there's such a surplus that you wonder if it will all go?

I don't leave home with tecnu in truck. Only thing that works for me.

That?s some nice burning wood ,I?m like the others.if someone else can have it for free I?d be inclined to comdider inquiring about doing the same on your own time unless that may be frowned on and not worth the risk?

That is good that you are accomplishing something. I believe that in the winter our town crew just sits waiting for it to snow. They work long hours during storms so they have to rest up after.

I would think they would want someone to come and get it so they could mow it next summer.

RBoots, Good job! We have been cutting brush back as well. I would rather do that than have the branches slapping my mirrors and cab. We picked up a boom mower off of Auctions International as well as 2 Mack's. The truck we just bought is an 05 and the one I was driving was a 95. After one of the last storms we had a few trees in the road so I had the guys load it in the truck because I didn't want to leave it on the side bank of the road. Brought it back in time to hear the phone ringing and a resident asking why we are in the firewood business. LOL I glad they didn't stop by.

Kcm, you're right, negative on the snow
in MI. They have gotten some north of us,
and some south of us, but here in the
center we have been missed. We have had 2
or 3 different snowfalls, I think the
biggest was about 3 inches, so we did
have to go knock that off the road, but
the others have only been an inch or so,
and just require a bit of sand for
traction at the curves and stop signs.
Not only that, it's been so warm here
that what does fall either melts off the
road from the ground heat, or by rain
later on in the same day. We have had so
much rain that if it was snow, we'd have
4 feet by now probably. And mud. The
ground just finally froze here a couple
days ago, so now I'm able to go out in
the woods and along the fields to cut my
own wood without getting stuck.

George, we had some of that at our main garage, but I don't work out of there anymore, I work out of a satellite shop now. We made sure the guys from the main shop brought us down a box of the Technu wipes from the main garage when they met up with us to cut. Very handy indeed.

Showcrop, we have a real good crew, MOST
of us like staying busy instead of doing
nothing. We all appreciate being outside
in the fresh air as well, and getting
some exercise. The other option is being
stuck in a truck all day, and we have to
do enough of that when we're plowing snow
or scraping gravel roads or such.

Neks, that's our hope is that it's all gone so it can be mowed, but of course no one mows their own property like that it seems. We are usually the only ones that mow the roadsides to keep stuff back. Sure is handier without a bunch of wood and deadfalls laying around.

Greg, those Macks should make very good trucks for you! Most of that series were pretty well built trucks. They probably run at least, lol. I think we finally got our one new Peterbilt back, but I don't know for sure, haven't been up to the main garage in a while. We had a brand new Peterbilt delivered this summer. Some days it would start, some days it wouldn't. It has made 8 or 10 trips back to the dealer, until they declare it's finally fixed, and then we go over to get it an hour and a half away and it won't start. Or we bring it home and it won't start the next day. I know they've changed a lot of stuff on it, sensors, ecm, wiring, fuel stuff, each time declaring it's fixed. No check engine light or codes though. Well allegedly it's fixed now, they said there was a crack in the stainless steel fuel/hydraulic tank behind the cab, that was allowing hydraulic oil to enter the fuel. I don't know, but I'm not buying that, I'd think it would maybe have some blue smoke when running, but that it would still start. When it ran, it ran great. Who knows though, with all this crazy electronics on new stuff? Now I guess the dealer is involved in a lawsuit with the scraper truck builder, see who can blame who for all the trouble.

In your case with the wood, the public is the worst. They see us as lazy entitled workers. I'm gonna guess most aren't on call 24/7/365, and have never had to go cut trees off roads in the middle of the night in a rainstorm, or plow a path with a V plow down a narrow drifted road in the dark with high winds so an ambulance can get to someone who needs them. The public is funny, they assume because I'm stopped and backed into a farm drive I'm being lazy, I like to call that taking my lunch, but when they take a picture of me on their phone and put it on Facebook, I'm not eating my lunch, I'm "a lazy county worker, sitting in my truck doing nothing". Well, you know how it is sometimes...

I carry a tube in car, truck, Kaw mule, even in house. First hint of an ivy burn, I don't wait. Best thing I found.

RBoots, Thank you for the reply! And AMEN to what you said! I have only been hired a year and 3 months and I have learned quickly to do the best I can and let all the frivolous stuff slide. Have the 3-53 Detroit out of the roller trying to get that fixed and our 2001 IH truck with the DT530 died. We had to put a new cam in last year after a tappet keeper broke in half and ruined a lobe. Not sure what the problem is for sure excessive smoke and maybe cracked head. Another IH just had the studs break that hold the fan assembly and luckily didn't end up in the radiator. When we cleaned ditches last summer it was 107 in the cab of the truck at least I didn't need my long johns! I figure I need to get used to the heat for when I die! lol

Bob, there's always a surplus of wood laying around when we're cutting in the winter. Sometimes we cut hundreds of trees a day. Not always dead trees, but a lot of them are nonetheless. Just a few years ago, people would follow us around and pick up the wood we cut, a lot of them didn't have much else to do. But it seems now, since they raised all the amounts of assistance for home heating and etc, a few years back, the wood just lays there a lot of the time. I guess why go out in the cold and pick up wood if your heat is mostly paid for? Anyway, I suppose if the wood belonged to someone you know well, you could go pick it up after work, but there's too many busybodies with nothing else to do but complain about something that they don't know the whole story on, so our management would prefer we didn't make a habit of it, or just don't do it at all. They don't want the phone calls and social media attention from someone thinking we are cutting wood for ourselves just so we can go pick it up after work.

Philip, it's just not worth the risk. There's always eyes watching, ready to accuse you of something. A few years back, a tree service that was doing work for MDot was dumping the wood at some of the employees houses to get rid of it. They didn't sell it, so they would just give it to whoever would take it, and who was closest. Well, some of the employees were pretty close, so they dumped it at their houses. Someone complained, a couple people got fired, another reprimanded, and a forced retirement were the results. It was viewed as a gift or bribery by the company to get the work from MDot, although they were just trying yo get rid of the wood. The closer it is, the easier and cheaper it was. Just didn't work out that way.

(quoted from post at 06:58:17 01/13/19) RBoots, Good job! We have been cutting brush back as well. I would rather do that than have the branches slapping my mirrors and cab. We picked up a boom mower off of Auctions International as well as 2 Mack's. The truck we just bought is an 05 and the one I was driving was a 95. After one of the last storms we had a few trees in the road so I had the guys load it in the truck because I didn't want to leave it on the side bank of the road. Brought it back in time to hear the phone ringing and a resident asking why we are in the firewood business. LOL I glad they didn't stop by.
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Greg, everyone thinks that they own up to the pavement, LOL. I get ticked when people fill in the ditch in front of their house, or even put a berm up to keep that nasty road water off their lawn, and the town or state supervisor lets them get away with it.