On the scrounge 2022

[EbS-P]

Well I walked my wheelbarrow down the street. Someone cut the big stuff up but some of it is over 22”. I hauled 3 pieces home. Got hot. Didn’t feel like going back for the rest. Maybe tomorrow. Big one was 100#. Lift with your legs I kept telling myself.

 

[bigealta]

Well I walked my wheelbarrow down the street. Someone cut the big stuff up but some of it is over 22”. I hauled 3 pieces home. Got hot. Didn’t feel like going back for the rest. Maybe tomorrow. Big one was 100#. Lift with your legs I kept telling myself.

Why not bring your maul down there and split it into 5-6 pieces or even fully split it on site? Load up wheelbarrow then straight offload to the stack. Saves time and more importantly, bending over a second time to pick up split pieces at your house. Straight off load from wheelbarrow height is easy.

 

[EbS-P]

Why not bring your maul down there and split it into 5-6 pieces or even fully split it on site? Load up wheelbarrow then straight offload to the stack. Saves time and more importantly, bending over a second time to pick up split pieces at your house. Straight off load from wheelbarrow height is easy.

Time. I’ll get it split some time in the next week. Maybe. It never get more densely pack than in the round.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Im taking a break and will get back to wood in October.. Im going to wrap my 3 kilns this weekend ... its just to f...ing hot now.. its time to fish and hit the range..

 

[EbS-P]

Raining this morning if I didn’t work when it’s hot I’d have only December and January to get work done. Temps are relative. Heat index of 105 and I’ll stop swinging and just stack.

 

[Ashful]

Raining this morning if I didn’t work when it’s hot I’d have only December and January to get work done. Temps are relative. Heat index of 105 and I’ll stop swinging and just stack.

Folks seem to learn to pace themselves in the south. Slow and steady gets the jobs done, when heat and humidity regularly feel over 100F.

Personally, I can't stand that sort of weather, but I'm always impressed with the way Southerners have just learned to deal with it, especially before the very recent ubiquity of air conditioning.

 

[bigealta]

The older i get, the less i like the heat. I used to love it but now not so much. Heat stroke is always on my mind in summer, it's just not worth the risk when it's too hot out.

 

[Ashful]

The older i get, the less i like the heat. I used to love it but now not so much. Heat stroke is always on my mind in summer, it's just not worth the risk when it's too hot out.

I hear more old folks around me say the same words about the cold, here. Our yearly lows and highs are within 5°F of the range 0° to 100°F, nothing too extreme here, but I know a lot more old folks relocating from here to Florida than Maine.

 

[EbS-P]

Folks seem to learn to pace themselves in the south. Slow and steady gets the jobs done, when heat and humidity regularly feel over 100F.

Personally, I can't stand that sort of weather, but I'm always impressed with the way Southerners have just learned to deal with it, especially before the very recent ubiquity of air conditioning.

Grew up a farm on the KS/CO border. No humidity to speak of but summer temps in the 100s were normal. Hated the days when I got stuck on the oldest tractor without AC. Had one of the first power shift transmissions. Just meant that you got to straddle a giant hunk of iron that was 150 degrees. When the tractor was new ish. Mid 70s. It has a swamp cooler on the top but all it did was make mud and give snakes a home. So the stories go.

God bless AC. My grandfather had an umbrella for the caterpillar with no cab. I think that would have been better. Are we getting soft or just have more opportunities?

 

[Bobbob]

Grew up a farm on the KS/CO border. No humidity to speak of but summer temps in the 100s were normal. Hated the days when I got stuck on the oldest tractor without AC. Had one of the first power shift transmissions. Just meant that you got to straddle a giant hunk of iron that was 150 degrees. When the tractor was new ish. Mid 70s. It has a swamp cooler on the top but all it did was make mud and give snakes a home. So the stories go.

God bless AC. My grandfather had an umbrella for the caterpillar with no cab. I think that would have been better. Are we getting soft or just have more opportunities?

I think more oppertunities have made us soft! The more progressive we become, the farther we are from hard work and community dependence. Something we were made for...

 

[bigealta]

Yeah we are getting soft for sure. But A fiend of mine (tough guy) had a Son (Young tough guy) doing Dock work in the summer NJ heat and humidity. He refused to take off his carhart work gear. He was a big strong guy that overheated and Died of heat stroke. He was in his 20's. So be careful. No one is immune.

 

[Ashful]

Grew up a farm on the KS/CO border. No humidity to speak of but summer temps in the 100s were normal. Hated the days when I got stuck on the oldest tractor without AC. Had one of the first power shift transmissions. Just meant that you got to straddle a giant hunk of iron that was 150 degrees. When the tractor was new ish. Mid 70s. It has a swamp cooler on the top but all it did was make mud and give snakes a home. So the stories go.

God bless AC. My grandfather had an umbrella for the caterpillar with no cab. I think that would have been better. Are we getting soft or just have more opportunities?

It's funny, my new Tier 4 tractor is the hottest damn machine I've ever owned. My 35 year old Deere 855 ran cool as a clam, but the 2019 Deere 3033R throws a miserable amount of heat off the hood, thanks to the DPF. I pray on hot days it won't want to regen.

I don't think we are "getting" soft. Back then, the soft ones just died, leaving only the hard behind. We are confounding Darwin with climate control.

 

[Bobbob]

Yeah we are getting soft for sure. But A fiend of mine (tough guy) had a Son (Young tough guy) doing Dock work in the summer NJ heat and humidity. He refused to take off his carhart work gear. He was a big strong guy that overheated and Died of heat stroke. He was in his 20's. So be careful. No one is immune.

Thats a shame. Guess we all need to know our limitations and not feel afraid to ask for help when we need to. Something I'm trying to teach my Dad abd Father en law. Neither which are willing to ask for help without much proding

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I know in general most people are softer.. especially the young generation, those guys are weak. I am less tolerant of the heat now only because i work in it 50+ hours a week in it and im not as interested in pushing myself constantly. I could do it, but why. Theres plenty of time in the fall and winter to cut and split. It was 95 today with 70% humidity.. I worked a 9 hour day in it and still came home and cut the grass, it takes me an hour with my walk behind.

 

[Ashful]

Just came in from the woods. Making a berm and swale to redirect some water, and dug in and buried a culvert pipe to carry it across a trail. It was as hot and sticky humid as a rain forest, but you gotta move when the ground is dry enough.

My favorite (among many) podcast is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. He has an episode pondering on how folks today would fare in a war against their great-grandparents. I believe the name of the episode was "Old-School Toughness", or something like that. I believe it may still be available for free today, he tends to always keep the last half dozen up for download, and it is definitely worth a listen.