the Midas touch

Good Lord! Humco is the drugstore variety (of old), and has always been pricey.

A 50lb bag from the local growers' co-op costs $63. (was $19 up 'til about five years ago, then took a giant leap).

LLoyd

Or, go eBay:

Y'think?

I keep hearing horror stories about underground root systems burning down houses, barns, and other outbuildings, trees, forests... Me no burn roots.

I'd zimply -love- a backhoe but can't spare a year's wages for one.

-- Age is always advancing, and I'm pretty sure it's up to no good. --Harry Dresden

I was astonished that the stuff was still available at all. Thanks for the info!

--Winston

I prefer the dainty Mr. Transplant Spade for this task since my rotator cuffs ain't what they used to be.

I want someone to bring Mr. Climber, Mr. Rope, and Mr. Chainsaw and their friends, Mr. Chipper, Mr. Loader, and Mr. Insured Feller for this game. I want him to pay me for the privilege if possible, but lumber prices are dirt low and nobody local mills redwood, so it's nearly unsalable. Go figure.

I thought so. It won't do nearly the work of a 9500# Warn ($1k), but it outperforms me tenfold, at minimum. It was a fun project.

-- Age is always advancing, and I'm pretty sure it's up to no good. --Harry Dresden

That's a ridiculous price, Winnie. Try

I love the Com-Pleet (glyphosate) from Green Light. It's less than 1/4 the cost of Roundup. A quart of 41% is $15 to a quart of 18% Roundup for $22. The only downside is that Roundup can work at a slightly lower application temperature. (A guy who runs a local Ace Hardware clued me into that. He hears all the testimony from farmers.) Anyway, I trust the brand. T'won't take a stump out, tho.

Saltpeter also goes for less if it's not being sold as a hoodoo charm chemical:

StumpNot says 16 oz for a 12" trunk. I've never used the stuff.

-- Age is always advancing, and I'm pretty sure it's up to no good. --Harry Dresden

About the time everyone decided they could profit from 9/11, huh?

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

Thought provoking, that.

(...)

Something is Rotten in Denmark, then.

My local wood monger wants (are you sitting down?) $5.50 *a foot* for 1 x 6 clear heart redwood fence boards. $27.50 a board!

I went to my local big box store and picked up a bunch of construction grade for ~4.00 per board. Extortionate but not as bad as the pros.

Time to weld up a sawmill, Larry!

--Winston

Yup. I was just marveling that the stuff was available at all. As you see, Karl cited a couple prices that are much more in keeping with my frugal nature.

Printed. Thank you sir.

--Winston

Wow, that really puts a new price on the redwood sandbox I made 20 years ago. It wasn't all clear, but it was 7' square, with diagonally planked seats all around the outside and two full-length toy boxes, 22" high. I started with 300 board feet of redwood my dad had bought 20 years before

I also have a stash of 70-year-old Honduras mahogany....(heh, heh...)

(...)

You're gonna need a webcam to keep an eye on that $3300 sandbox!

Not a poor man's hobby, methinks.

--Winston

I broke it up and got rid of it around 10 years ago. The redwood was so old that it was rotting. But it held up really well until the end.

I hand-planed every square inch of those planks with my 80-year-old, maple-bodied jointer plane. It was a beauty. My wife found a plan in a magazine and said "like this, only about a foot or two longer on a side." Sheesh, that tripled the amount of work. I'll have to look around for a photo of it.

BTW, it was fastened 100% with silicon bronze boat screws. My uncle built boats as a hobby, and I inherited around 50 pounds of the things.

Eh, I thought it would be worth more than that by now. It's nicely figured, but I have only around 40 board feet left. My uncle used to make furniture, too, and he was a school shop teacher, so he got great deals.

(...)

"It shouldn't take you long. It's pretty *straightforward*."

Music to my ears. :)

Please.

Not 20 - millisecond smacks from a nail gun then?

(Mahogany price quote)

Does the price go down when you are the seller?

My wood monger would probably quote > $150 a board foot for that mahogany, without so much as a grin.

--Winston

I rectum so, huh?

One problem is that the bitch behind me built a horse arena (IE: scraped it flat and tossed sand on top) so I no longer have the OK to drop the trees there, as she promised last year. Grrrrr...

Another problem is how to get 8' lengths of redwood down off the tree and how to move them around after they're down.

Another problem is not having any place to dry it.

Another problem is not having any money after Uncle Sam got through with me this year. I'd have built a small shop otherwise.

Then there's the problem of 6k pounds of branches. I wonder what size chippers they rent. (I could use the chips after removing my lawn.)

Decisions, decisions...

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

But the stumps have to be dead first. That rules my yard out.

Jewelcome.

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

I thought so. Truckers say "It'll cost an arm and a leg to drive to NorCal to sell it to a mill." Plus the tree is split. It grew two parallel peaks with flats in the middle. That's the main reason I want it down.

It's not available in So Oregon.

-- Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman

OMG! That is so COOL! I love the knuckle boom!

The lumberjacks in 1800 didn't have Google. I'm just saying.

Guy down the street has a back lot. He would be Very Happy to dry a tree's worth of redwood if he could keep say 10%.

The essence of engineering is getting what we want from what we have. Or words to that effect.

--Winston

(...)

Notice how much the prices change when you ask at the 'sales' window? No market, my hiney.

I notice there is no local market for metal scrap in my area. Folks are still stealing funeral urns electrical cable and manhole covers though.

It is a puzzlement.

Must be a weird-looking redwood, with no straight sections over 5' long. (Huge Grin)

No more coal in Newcastle then?

--Winston

I jumped into the shower today and found out that the pilot light on the water heater went out yesterday. Brrr. I'm in the buff, my clothes are in the washer.

Yesterday, I spent an hour trying to get a machine at work limping along when I really needed to spend 30 minutes getting parts coming in for today that are 4 days away.

So today, I started fabbing a part figuring my limp along would fail and it sure did. I was making a nylon bushing to replace an improperly spec 'd part that failed and I blew looking up a dimension. 36mm OD instead of 32 mm OD.

So I run out to the machine after I finish the 20.1 mm id (2" deep) and learn about the 32 mm housing. No problem, I'll turn half of the bushing and turn it around. .100" from being finished, a production line down, the spindle winds down. I lost control power.

I open control panel, check overloads, bump the spindle motor starter and chuck spins. Check control panel door safety switch, seems okay. Call over another tech, hey, when I tell you push in this relay. Turn off last .100" and reach to un-chuck part. Moment of worry sets in, look at tech, show me your hands, I don't want you to touch anything while I have the chuck key in. Get part out, noting possible industrial accident avoided and get machine running.

Order different parts to re-engineer an engineers failed effort coming in tomorrow.

Outside of the water heater, it was a pretty good day for me.

Wes