Druidic Dabblings and General Twaddle !!

[Mark]

Last year during lockdown I managed to split enough to keep the house going 2 or 3 years. At one point it was the only thing keeping me sane I like how your splitter is mounted with the table thing mine might need modified

 

[V8Druid]

“swept up with a coke shovel tonight Angus”
Was thinking more of the Huff House guys with their dustpan and brush and that truck racked out with nuts and bolts etc. Are yo doing just the heavy lifting or the assembly as well?

I'd forgotten the dustpan
apparently i'm on the trucks slinging ... steep site and the trucks are gonna be parked on quite a slope, so'll be a challenge getting 'em upright, without 'em sliding off/escaping before they're supposed to ... got their own banksman landing them ... will save a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and climbing on/off the trucks/scaffold ..... assuming anyone turns up tomorrow to ready the site for a Tuesday kick off

 

[V8Druid]

Last year during lockdown I managed to split enough to keep the house going 2 or 3 years. At one point it was the only thing keeping me sane I like how your splitter is mounted with the table thing mine might need modified View attachment 26021

my last cut/splitting session was - according to me timber fella - 3 years ago ...... and he was right when I looked

when the bag lifter got made

has lasted us (and Vicki) three years, so not done bad .. got half a basket/black cage left,

and we did burn a fair bit this year ... Sparty, my co-pilot, loved to lie in front of the Morso, so kept it lit a fair bit more than we really needed to, for him.

with the new weapon on the back of the zetor, I shall be going for it and creating a serious stock pile now I don't have to split 'em with the maul
Would never split this lot by hand .... way too gnarly ..... if I can't split it it gets 'the treatment' and is massacred into submission

would not want any digits in the way of that blade
wood shed got a trailer load this morning ....

and I prepped a n other load this afternoon .... rain could've held off for an hour or two though ... been a bit damp ..

cleared all I'd 'trimmed' to Morso fit yesterday afternoon ....
time for the 'Drema to take a hand in handling some of these lumps so's I can get the bigger lumps on the splitter table and Charlie at 'em, for a trim, tomorrow after me hamster juice in the morning ...

..... if it ain't peeing down
see there's nowt on't box tonight 'cept bloody football

 

[Mark]

my last cut/splitting session was - according to me timber fella - 3 years ago ...... and he was right when I looked
View attachment 26023
when the bag lifter got made
View attachment 26024
has lasted us (and Vicki) three years, so not done bad .. got half a basket/black cage left,
View attachment 26030
and we did burn a fair bit this year ... Sparty, my co-pilot, loved to lie in front of the Morso, so kept it lit a fair bit more than we really needed to, for him.

with the new weapon on the back of the zetor, I shall be going for it and creating a serious stock pile now I don't have to split 'em with the maul
Would never split this lot by hand .... way too gnarly ..... if I can't split it it gets 'the treatment' and is massacred into submission
View attachment 26025


View attachment 26026
would not want any digits in the way of that blade
wood shed got a trailer load this morning ....

View attachment 26027

and I prepped a n other load this afternoon .... rain could've held off for an hour or two though ... been a bit damp ..
View attachment 26028
cleared all I'd 'trimmed' to Morso fit yesterday afternoon ....
time for the 'Drema to take a hand in handling some of these lumps so's I can get the bigger lumps on the splitter table and Charlie at 'em, for a trim, tomorrow after me hamster juice in the morning ...
View attachment 26029
..... if it ain't peeing down
see there's nowt on't box tonight 'cept bloody football

There’s something therapeutic about just working away yourself splitting some wood.

Just need to watch out with knotted wood, my splitter sits at waist hight had a few of the logs ping when split and hit me in the nuts .

Never knew there was any football on tonight who’s playing

 

[bobthebuilder]

There’s something therapeutic about just working away yourself splitting some wood.

Just need to watch out with knotted wood, my splitter sits at waist hight had a few of the logs ping when split and hit me in the nuts .

Never knew there was any football on tonight who’s playing

really dry twisted grain sycamore are the boys for exploding apart ,must be carefull

 

[V8Druid]

There’s something therapeutic about just working away yourself splitting some wood.

Just need to watch out with knotted wood, my splitter sits at waist hight had a few of the logs ping when split and hit me in the nuts .

Never knew there was any football on tonight who’s playing

absolutely ... and a nice pile to show for your efforts .... can't beat laying in the winter stock

have had a few 'go off' but in light of some of the stuff i've been 'giving the treatment' to it's hardly surprising ... cross chopping it also tends to make it ping

some team called England apparently ... went to sleep at half time ..... and forgot to wake up, according to Pam --- like bloody zombies

 

[Lancs Lad]

absolutely ... and a nice pile to show for your efforts .... can't beat laying in the winter stock

have had a few 'go off' but in light of some of the stuff i've been 'giving the treatment' to it's hardly surprising ... cross chopping it also tends to make it ping

some team called England apparently ... went to sleep at half time ..... and forgot to wake up, according to Pam --- like bloody zombies

Good night for cheap eBay auctions

 

[V8Druid]

well for the first time ever tonight .. the 'Drema wouldn't start been using her all day and always starts at the first flick ... I've never heard it crank over before ... Bollaux ... just packing up for tea and it does that to me no smoke so decided on the stop solenoid ... pulled the plug off it - bit of a wiggle and re-fitted .... away it went after a little cough ..... hope that's the last of the issue ... will give it some contact cleaner, before I use it again, but got everything squared away, wrapped down and parked up, just in time for the bell... should've given her a quick flick, but didn't want to be pissed off eating me tea if it didn't burst into life as usual.
yet another day on the blocks .. after this

.... was at it by eleven
last nights filling sesh is filling it up quietly

with the 'Drema's assistance and the Cranab doing its stuff we had a few big uns on the table today

this is two of them lumps after a bit of 'processing'

this makes life so much easier

especially when they'm this sort o' size

doesn't take many of them to fill this

had one lump this afternoon that was just wood spaghetti ... had to massacre the bloody thing any way | could .. even had to pick the revs up on the Zetor ..... took some Morso-ing ... wasn't pretty, but it'll burn

getting through it quietly

would've had another hour after tea, but rain stopped play ... like seeeeeeeeeerious rain
early night for me tonight .... been a busy couple of days and a half five start's gonna be a shock to the system in the morning ... gotta be at Russ's place for 6.45 for a 'saddle up', to head out to the 'Huff' house job - an' he's a good 40 min.s away from me (30 on a good day, but i always like to cater for delays)

 

[V8Druid]

it's a year ago tomorrow that Reo turned up to start the wall

..... and I had a frantic morning sorting gear for him ........

... before we dashed off down to the..........

in Usk .... and ppl moan about a 30 limit ......

Clara put us over by one ...... but they turned a blind eye

aside from this .... it's been a strange old year +

 

[Cyberprog]

Feel free to bring a trailerfull when you come to claim your axles

 

[V8Druid]

Feel free to bring a trailerfull when you come to claim your axles

came home to this tonight ....

... out with Russ last couple of days ... call from Clive, me timber fella, mid morning ... could he send his 'bloke' up with a couple of loads ... "Aye - Pam's there, I'm out"
couldn't reverse a trailer to save his life apparently ... so it got dropped wherever he managed to get it to .... will sort it in the morning - bit late tonight at seven, when i got back .... been a busy day - - no trucks tomorrow, so I'll be on the splitter 'til the next floor level arrives, Friday

my view yesterday morning for a magical mystery tour around the Forest of Dean, from Russ's place

to get to this

bloody steep old nightmare access

got balls going in there ... not many'd even consider it

can see why they're building here ......

that's the Severn and Lydney below, with Berkley power station t'other side of the river

first job was relocate this

12 tons of floor panels arriving ..

followed by " you gotta be kidding if you think I'm reversing this lot back down that hill !! " from the driver ..... well we got him half way down - sort of .. PITA to off load at 20-ish degrees

but off they came and in they went...

 

[Cyberprog]

That's a hell of a side slope there! Lucky it didn't fall over being top heavy!

 

[V8Druid]

followed by some wall panels .... 15" thick ...

Russ had a job booked for nine this morning that couldn't be put off ... has had a road closure booked for weeks, so he had to pull off site last night, which was even more challenging than getting in ....

usual story .... crap an' tish dumped everywhere ... and always in the way ... being a day late starting on this 'cos of the scaffolders, other wise we'd have been a lot further ahead
so this morning was -- a bit tight

if the bloke hadn't had the garage dug into the face, no way would've there been the room to half rig .... will do just over a tonne half rigged flat boom

up up and away

and in ... customers well happy
lovely spot

wrapped up and the guy next door comes wandering down ...... " any chance of doing the same for me sometime please? " walked up and looked at it .. no garage - no way José ..... the crane fills the road with no where to put the riggers
Had to walk half a mile backwards, with a two way radio, 'steering' Russ back down to where we could turn around ...
job did ... back to Lydney

got back in in exactly the same spot - the one rigger is jammed in a corner and amanged to get the pad in its exact footprint from yesterday ... cab with a view ... waiting for a lorry load ... having some breccy

this gives a better idea of how steep that access is

finished off the walls on the 'ground' floor ..

 

[pettsy]

How are crane jobs like these priced, is it like an hourly rate?

 

[V8Druid]

and dropped in the balcony deck sections ....

all three in and first floor beams dropped on them together with the 2.2t of wayrock deck boards, ready for them to build the floor tomorrow ... plus all the other sundry bits an' bobs ......
no truck tomorrow, despite Russ being booked for the day so we're both getting a paid day -- at home .... back Friday for the next instalment .... left the crane rigged on site and came home in his van ... hence taking it in the first place ... just that the best laid plans of mice and men are generally a **** up if there's a transport manager involved ... who couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery
so ..... a paid day on the splitter for me

Apart from returning to 'wood chaos' this evening I also spotted this as I arrived

and a " WTF have you bought now? "

hell of a packing job Matt

 

[Cyberprog]

Boiler parts?

 

[V8Druid]

How are crane jobs like these priced, is it like an hourly rate?

hourly rate, with a minimum daily hire, plus me -- it's a bit of a cross between straight hire and a contract lift ... just happened that we had to burger off to the hot tub, 'cos it'd been booked in for weeks, with a road closure involved .. everyone'd had notice that there would be restricted access for the morning.
we were in and out in an hour .. we're a well practised, smooth, efficient team, who both know exactly what we're about

 

[Cyberprog]

hourly rate, with a minimum daily hire, plus me -- it's a bit of a cross between straight hire and a contract lift ... just happened that we had to burger off to the hot tub, 'cos it'd been booked in for weeks, with a road closure involved .. everyone'd had notice that there would be restricted access for the morning.
we were in and out in an hour .. we're a well practised, smooth, efficient team, who both know exactly what we're about

That's cos you've been doing it for donkies!

 

[V8Druid]

That's a hell of a side slope there! Lucky it didn't fall over being top heavy!

following Russ in the Forest is an OMG experience ... I'll swear he had daylight under the off side back wheels occasionally on some of the horrific cambers .. it's a very top heavy tool .... std Scania truck chassis ... with Liebherr's crane deck, riggers, etc bolted on (and Russ has uprated the springing all round).... only two in the country and a few much bigger 45 tonners on 8 legs .... it is so compact though, will get in where a traditional 20 tonner'd struggle and with the swing out rigger, instead of 'square on' tele outs, it has a phenomenal footprint and all the weight sat on the pads .. TBH it is a superb tool and can see just why Russ imported it from Germany
would be more popular if they weren't so expensive

 

[Cyberprog]

Clearly earns him the bread tho!