Instant Storage

It's been awhile The Fuzz admits, but he did finally show up again.

And so, here we go!

So what is going on here anyway?

Well The Fuzz's Sweetie wanted a place to keep her art supplies, cloth stash etc. that was a bit handier than the Old Place in town…

About a 25 mi. round trip!

The Fuzz helped get the place ready for it, but was a bit concerned about getting the thing in there.

He figured they'd bring it on a roll-back truck and have to back it in somehow.

It did come on a roll-back trailer, but it was not necessary to back it in!

The guy dropped it off right out on the road.

Then he picked up one end with his "Mule"…

And placed some wheels under it…

Picked up the other end and just pulled it all in like a Little Red Wagon.

(Or maybe a Big Red Wagon)

After that it was just a ride down the driveway…

And into position.

At this point there was a bit of discusion regarding exactly how high to mount it on the blocks.

Once that was settled the thing was jacked up, wheels removed…

And everything arranged just right.

Here you can get a better look at his remarkable little "Mule".

So now all that remains is for her to get the inside put together how she wants.

More Snowy Morn

Here's another shot

from one of those recent snowy mornings.

But The fuzz is glad to see things warming up a bit now.

Yet…

It is still a long ways till Spring!

Going to the Tree Bank

Not long ago The Fuzz went into the woods for some firewood.

It's not all gone yet... But with all this winter we've been having lately, it was going up in smoke fast.

So it was time for another round of woodcutting.

While The Fuzz is kinda susceptible to that P-Factor, he was ready for this one.

With all the snow & ice the ground would be much too soggy to take his vehicle into the woods.  So it was time to make a withdrawal from the Tree Bank.

The Tree Bank is when The Fuzz finds a dead or dying tree and marks it for later.

The ones closest to the trailer are saved for when he needs wood in a hurry and close to home.

This seemed  like the right time for this one.

It came down pretty easily- no hangups in the other trees, which is not only a pain in the ass, but a bit dangerous.

Now all that was left was to cut the sucker up.

The Fuzz started at the top since those pieces wouldn't have to be split.  Then he worked his way down from there until he ran out of gas.  That was when he realized there was no more chain oil.

Oh well.

Well, he and His Sweetie had been cooped up since the snow had started, so they were ready for a ride into town anyway.  It was a chance to take care of some errands and a tasty Thai dinner.

The next day The Fuzz got back on the job.

What was left was the main trunk.  In this area it was straddling this depression.

The Fuzz was hoping to be able to cut this thing up without having to roll it around.*  So he drove a couple of smaller pieces up under it so that  when he cut it in half, it would still be off the ground-

And it worked!

Now it was time to fire up the old log splitter.

This guy can be a bit unhappy about getting going in cold weather.  I suppose that is a hint that one should cut one's wood ahead of time!

But Our Fuzz has a few tricks up his sleeve.  It this case his trusty can of ether.**

The splitting was a lot of work, but went okay.

He switched to vertical mode for the last few-and largest- pieces. 

So now there is once again, a respectable woodpile.  The Fuzz is hoping it'll last through the rest of the winter.

*In these situations one does not want to let one's chain cut into the ground.  It kinda messes things up.

**He used this stuff for years to get his old truck crunk in the morning to get in to work.

Out of the Woods & and Split

It was about a week ago that The Fuzz finally got around to cutting that tree he had been putting off.

It may be remembered that he had left the wood down there at the time.

But it was not due to that P-Factor this time.

He did have some concern over the state of the "road" going in there.

The intention was to somehow get the wood transported to the vicinity of the Log Splitter.

Some of the smaller pieces had already been moved "old school" with a wheelbarrow, but this would not do for the big stuff.

But not having a nice 4x4 truck* available, the only option (other than that wheelbarrow) was to pull in there with his trailer.

And this had to be pulled with a Honda Accord-

Not exactly a stump jumper!

Actually, the road/trail was not all that bad;

But there was a wet spot that had him concerned.

And it would be uphill on the way out- loaded.

But the weather had promised to stay relatively dry for a few days, so he was hoping to give some time for it to dry out just a bit more.

But now, with rain on the way, this was the day.

He made it in OK.

As can be seen, it's not exactly the Freeway.

But there was plenty of room to turn around.

He got the first load on.

It will be noticed that there was still a bit of the trunk remaining uncut.  To be honest about it, The Absent Minded Fuzz had kinda forgotten about it.  But no problem, he'd just bring the saw back when he came for the next load-

Assuming he made it out with the first one!

But there were no problems with that load, or the next.

And all the wood made it safely up to the splitter.

It was a perfect opportunity to continue the job.  But that required a trip out of the woods for some gas, and a new spark plug.

After a "Wine & Cheese" break** with His Sweetie, The Fuzz went to work, and by the evening there was a nice pile of spit wood.

Now the rain has set back in.

There were still a few of the larger blocks he didn't have time to get to.

But he'll get to that soon enough.

Some of those guys are a bit bigger- 18" diameter.

So he'll probably tip the splitter into the vertical mode so as not to have to lift them suckers.

But all in all, the operation was a success, and The Fuzz and His Sweetie should be able to stay warm over the rest of the Holidays.

*Actually, The Fuzz does have a truck.  But the thing laid down on him once too many times.  It sits in the Driveway at the old place waiting for him to either fix the piece of crap- or junk it!

**The Fuzz realizes that operating power equipment after drinking wine is not recommended- Yeah.  Ok.

On the Ground

Both of our loyal readers will remember how The Fuzz and His Sweetie rely on the old woodstove to stay toasty this time of year.

Well that "P-Factor" is a factor here as well.

One of the neighbors out here in the woods had given Our Fuzz a dead oak tree.

But the thing was, it was down in the woods-

and still standing.

And this is where that "P-Factor" came into play again.

There were a few smaller ones nearby, but The Fuzz had already gotten to them.  He would finally have to face the big one.

He still doesn't know why he had put this off like this.  Really, he has handled bigger ones before- some really big!

Maybe he's just getting old-

But then...

It's probably just Laziness- and that "P-Factor".

But not even The Fuzz wants to spend the winter freezing his tush off.

It was one of those trees where the saw won't quite reach all the way through.  But that doesn't have to be a problem for an experienced wood cutter like Our Fuzz.

It turned out that the tree fell right where it was planned.

There is a sort of a road down into these woods.

But there is one kinda wet spot.

These blocks are bigger than they look in these pix and will have to be split up of course.  And the best way to handle this is naturally with power tools*.  But there is no way The Fuzz wants to pull that heavy splitter down here with that little Accord.

At this point the plan is to wait a couple more days, and hope that the "road" dries out enough to get in-

and out-

with the trailer.

The splitting will be done at his own woodlot-

with Power Tools.

*The Fuzz actually took a shot at splitting this stuff Old School with a maul.  It wasn't going all that well.  And besides- that's why they make power tools anyway.

Getting Back to "Normal"

Getting Back to "Normal"

And just what is this "normal" stuff anyway?

I believe it was Junie B. Jones☺︎ who once said-

"Nobody in my family is normal."

Be that as it may, with the bathroom fully functional, it is time for The Fuzz to move on to other things.

And of course there is no shortage of other things.

Today, it seems that indoor things would be appropriate.

Even the Kitties agree.

The Fuzz's Sweetie saw an idea for mounting various bits of art on the wall and The Fuzz thought it was something he could handle.

In fact he had already done something like this-

although on a smaller scale.

To do it right, he would want to use the table saw of course.

But now there appeared to be a problem.

Whilst he was cutting a few chunks of firewood into smaller boards the other day, the saw quit.

(Well actually, it wouldn't start back up after he had shut it off)

It would just buzz and act like it wasn't getting enough power.
And there was that disquieting bit of smoke.

The Fuzz quickly determined that there was nothing wrong with the blade and bearings.

The trouble was the motor.

Bummer.

So it was time to take the thing apart.

In this first shot, the motor has already been removed.

But of course even that turned into a bit of a project.

In order to do this the drive pulley needed to be removed.

So he backed off on the set screw.

Unfortunately, the pulley still did not want to slip off of the shaft.

Step 2

So he got a rubber mallet and tried tapping on the shaft to loosen it.

Step 3

Tapping while while prying on the pulley.

(Which didn't work either)

Step 4

It was time to get out the gear puller.

Or what was left of it.

The Fuzz has this tendency to pick up cheap tools at- for example, Big Lots.

Sometimes this works out...

And sometimes not.

And...

The Fuzz has a tendency to push these cheap tools just a little too hard.

And that was what had happened to the gear puller.

If one closely examines this pix, one will see that the shaft of this precision tool is just a little bent!

This does make it a bit more difficult to use.

 But in this case ti did the trick-

The pulley was pulled-

And the motor is at the Electric Motor Doctor's.

The Fuzz should probably be using this time to clean up the mess in the shop.

But instead he is playing around here on the computer!

Well, there'll be time enough for that later.

Not So Lazy Day

It was another nice Spring day here in the woods.

But there was work to do.

All that wood still had to be split!

The Fuzz had considered splitting it before hauling it out of the woods.

It would have been easier to move that way.

But he did make the right choice in bringing it out first.

Because of this guy!

It was a bit hard to get cranked, but eventually it fired up.

The thing's not too fond of cold mornings, and we still have them, kinda.

That wood was pretty tough, and it would have been an ordeal splitting it in the old school manner.

There's nothing like Power Equipment in a situation like that.

The Fuzz and His Sweetie also took advantage of the nice weather to clean out the wood stove and smoke pipe.

That should take care of these things till they're not needed anymore.

Spring is here and Summer is on the way.

Saw Situations

Well, the winter weather has seriously moved into the woods.

So that means a fire,

Which means.

Firewood.

The Fuzz was working on this the other day when his cheap chainsaw finally tanked on him.

This thing has been aggravating off and on over the years, but he had always managed to patch it together somehow.

The Fuzz suspected the carburetor this time.

But after he took it apart and cleaned it, there was no improvement.

At this point he suspected the fuel pick-up in the tank.  Perhaps it was clogged.

So he got a piece of wire and fished the thing out of the tank.

Something was missing here!

He managed to get the filter thing out finally.

But there seemed to be no problem, other than it had become detached.

So...

He put it all back together.

But the thing still refused to do more than spit a few times before it quit again.

A new spark plug didn't help either.

And so The Long Suffering Fuzz finally gave in.

It was time to "bite the bullet" as it were, and get a new chainsaw.

This time he decided to go for quality over economy, and went to the Local Stihl Dealer.

He did get to break it in on a couple of large trees over at a neighbor's place.

And it cut good!

Well, they say you get what you pay for.

Let's hope they're right in this case.

Power Tools

It is sort of a long term project, But The Fuzz is still working on getting his shop together.

One of the things on his wish list was a Drill Press.

Not having a lot of room in there, or a lot of money to spend, he had decided to go with a bench top model.

Having come onto a bit of cash, Our Fuzz decided now was as good of time as any.

So after checking around a bit on line, he headed over to the brand new Harbor Freight Store.

I guy could spend a lot of time in there, just looking and lusting after guy stuff.

Well, here's what he came home with.

Step 1 was to unpack it all.

Actually it was not all that difficult for The Experienced Fuzz to assemble this brand new piece of equipment.

There was a bit of a complication in mounting the thing.

Amazingly enough, in his whole collection of bits of everything, there were not any bolts suitable for mounting it to the small work bench.

But he was able to improvise something for the time being.

He will have to do this properly in the future.

But for now, here it is!

Table Saw

Moving along here with this Shed Project, The Fuzz took the trailer into town to get his Table Saw.  Of course this puppy is a hefty little puppy.  So the only way for The Fuzz with his questionable back to handle this, was to disassemble it.  While this was time consuming, The Fuzz and his hand truck were able to handle the components in this manner.  The collection was safely transported back to the woods for reassembly.

He also took this opportunity to install some casters under the stand.  This will enable him, or His Sweetie, to reposition this massive piece of equipment easily when necessary in these close quarters.  And that will be necessary from time to time especially when it is needed to rip longer boards.

As can be seen, there is still a lot of work to do here.  But as they say,"One foot up, and one foot down..."

Back In Business

You may remember a while back, when The Fuzz had a bit of bad luck with his chainsaw.  Realizing that the simplest, and least expensive course was to replace the broke stuff, rather than the entire chainsaw, he ordered the necessary replacements from Sears-Online.  Well, the other day, Fed Ex snuck into the yard, and left them on the porch.

Here you can see the old, and new, together.

That Industrious Fuzz went right to work, and here is the brand new sprocket, installed.  That was easy enough.

Since he was ordering the sprocket anyway, The Fuzz picked up a new adjuster for the chain as well.  The old one had torn up a couple years ago, forcing Our Fuzz to improvise, using a large screwdriver as a leaver.  Here's a look at that handy little thing (at the arrow) also installed. 

Well, it had to be tested of course.  So we have a pix of the saw, the wood, and a bunch of sawdust.

Equipment Failure

With the cooler (and damper) weather, it was time to fire up the old Woodstove.

Of course one of the necessities for a nice warm fire is Firewood.  While there was a bit on hand, left from last winter, Our Fuzz figured it was time to fire up the old Chainsaw.

Things were going well for a bit.  But The Fuzz was noticing a bit of "jerkiness" with the chain. And then, the chain jumped the sprocket entirely.  Now The Fuzz has had to deal with this sort of thing on occasion (possibly due to the fact that he buys cheap equipment when possible) and it's usually a simple matter of opening it up, putting things back together- and, tightening the chain.

But when he opened things up he found this situation.

You will note, at the arrows, what appears to be some damage to the drive sprocket.  This sprocket had not been in the best condition as it was.  But this time, The Fuzz was dealing with serious Equipment Failure.


This was not a situation that could be dealt with with Duct Tape, or even J&B Weld!

New parts are on the way.  And things are OK for now, at least.

Lawn Care Continued

In our last post, we mentioned a problem The Fuzz was having with some obstacles in his attempts at yard work.
He decided to make another foray into this field. This time he would use his trusty Weedwacker to clear things out. This thing was made for this sort of work.

After driving into town, he fired it up, only to discover that a key piece of this machine was missing.
You can see that the little knob that holds the spool on, is simply not there!
You will also see the fine dependable device that Our Fuzz finally used to accomplish his purpose.

Sometimes Old School is the best school.

Lawn Care

The Fuzz has been having a string of bad luck lately with his equipment.
If you look closely at the pix to the right, you may see one of his problems*.

And here is a closer look.
This was in an area, formerly used as a garden The pipes helped support some timbers used for terracing on the hill. Our Fuzz was over at the Old Place, trying to get this area under control, when his trusty lawnmower found this pipe.
Of course things came to an abrupt stop.

Alas, the shaft was bent. Not one to give up easily, Our Determined Fuzz decided that he could still use this machine until it died completely.
This happened sooner than he expected. This last pix is the soccer ball that was waiting in ambush. This time the Key in the flywheel apparently sheered throwing everything out of time.
It seems The Fuzz is in the market for some new lawn equipment.

*There are more to come!