Bruce's Journal

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce,

Thanks for letting us know what you have been up to.

Since my Beautiful Gal and I never had any kids, I won't comment on how to raise yours. I think what the others said makes a lot of sense.

You have had a good bit of bad luck with batteries being ornery. Do you normally have this much trouble when the temperature gets cold like that? Are there additives for batteries that help them hold charges better in cold weather? Do you put the batteries on trickle charge overnight? I really hate that you had all those problems and am wondering if that is normal when it gets really cold or if it is unusual. I would hate to think of having to get out in 0°F with windchills well below that to work on batteries. Brrrr!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I guess neither of us has enough backbone to tell her to shape up or ship out. She did keep up with the help around the house ... for a while. I guess I just don't want to deal with riding her.

STA, I don't have particular problems with batteries. They don't last forever! With ICE vehicles up here in the cold you find out your battery is weak when the first real cold night hits and the next morning it goes "RRRRRR, RRRRrrrrr, RRrrrr, rrrrrr, nothing". It might start the same afternoon when the temp has risen to well above freezing. Since the Prius 12V doesn't have to turn the engine over you don't get that "hint".

The reason I've changed so many Prius batteries is because we've had 6 of them including my current car. And we keep them for a long time (or until someone hits me and totals my car )
I replaced the one in my 2004 probably around 2010, it was totalled in 2012. I don't remember when I replaced the 12V in the 2009 that replaced it, bought used. I replaced the original 12V in DW's car at some point, it is now 14 years old with nearly 250K miles on it. I replaced the 12V in DD1's 2010, it was given to her by DW's parents early in 2018 when they bought a new one.

I don't know the history on DD2's car since she bought it used. I replaced the 12V couple of years ago. I'm sure DD2's battery was damaged by the car not being driven. There are still drains on it like the clock and the flashing engine immobilizer light. There is no other explanation as to why it isn't holding a charge other than maybe it was killed once too often in the past 9 months.

Not sure what happened with DW's Prius last Saturday. I should probably check the voltage tomorrow or Friday just to see but it started and ran fine when DD2 took it to work on Sunday. I did notice that it beeped when I opened the door after I charged it on Saturday, DD2 has said in the past that her car does that. DW said she figured out (the hard way) that it does that if it didn't shut down correctly. So maybe that happened the last time she drove it?? I went back out to her car, started it, then shut it down, opened the door and no beep.

The only time any of mine have done that is when I get out of the car without shutting it down. But then I KNEW I hadn't turned it off since I would just be gone a minute, delivering eggs usually. AND, as I recall, it doesn't beep when I open the door to get out but when I shut it.

 

[Bruce]

We are supposed to get @B&B Happy goats kind of weather tomorrow, rain and almost 60°F. That will make the "forest trail" an unusable mess until it gets cold enough to freeze the ground again. So I went out today to see about pulling in some of that big blow over, it is about 16" in diameter and straight as can be. I marked 8' lengths, 4 of them to the root ball. Not sure how tall it was before the neighbor cut it off after it apparently fell on his fence who knows when. Must have easily been 60' given the diameter. I put the chain on the first one before I cut it, easier when it is up in the air Never got to the other ones as it took 2 hours to get it pulled to the "trail".

I can't get close to it due to some drop offs in the land. I need to replace my 50' low stretch line with a 200' one so I can pull a distance before having to reset things. I ended up using the 50' line, a 30' and a 40' towing strap plus a length of the WAY too stretchy 200' 1/2" anchor line. That line got REALLY tight when I tried to use just that but the log barely moved. And of course the log got stuck several times up against other trees and a "rise". Had to stuff some other wood under it to get over that. Add a not great "trail" and a couple of turns the tractor had to go around so lots of stops, backing up and resetting.

My Kingdom for a logging winch!!!!!! Boy wouldn't that be nice. But I don't cut enough trees to justify the cost.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Gosh, Mr. @Bruce!

I wish I could come help you with the tree logs. I have fun like that sometimes whenever I try to remove fallen trees in the woods. So together perhaps we could get it out more easily. But then, you may get tired of telling me, "No, STA, you put the chain around the log to pull it, not around a tree that's in the way! "

I saw a comment on one of the videos on the YouTube channel "Sawing with Sandy" where he was removing some fallen trees using a winch on his four wheeler. Sandy kept having trouble with the logs getting caught on trees, other logs, and rises in the ground where the pulled log was moving. The commenter mentioned that he used an old car hood placed under the log so the log would not get hung up. Maybe you can use something like that (from a totaled Prius ?) to help you.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Baymule]

Haha! a car hood for a log skidder! Genius!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce, sir!

Would you kindly take some pictures of your trail from the field into the woods and then of the fallen tree? I would like to see just what it is that you are dealing with.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

He's a lot tougher than I am!

Wet/soggy or not I wouldn't dare take my tractor in there! Way too many drop offs and such, similar to what I have to work with. But sometimes he's doing it like I did, pull with the machine. I thought about maybe getting an UTV winch to put on the tractor but the info I found says SLOW SLOW SLOW for logging purposes. Still, it might be better than all the resetting while pulling a relatively short distance with the tractor, backing up, resetting and doing it again, and again, and again.

Would you kindly take some pictures of your trail from the field into the woods and then of the fallen tree? I would like to see just what it is that you are dealing with.

I can maybe do that tomorrow, but I can only show you the root end of the tree. My "logging wench" (*) and I went back out a couple of days ago to get the rest of the tree. On the way out I saw my neighbor going up the road with his winch on the back of his tractor. I stopped him and asked if he was taking it for one last nostalgic trip and was ready to sell it to me for a reasonable price. Sadly that was not the case.

We cut the rest of the tree into 32" lengths plus the 16" at the root end. That was a bit bigger in diameter than my saw. Each piece was pulled/pushed up to the tractor on the plastic sled. I pulled, she pushed.


I ratchet strapped them to the fork frame then took them up to the "bucking area" by the barn and went back to the edge of the field for the 8' piece I brought out the prior day.



Since the garden tractor isn't currently functional I had to bring the wood to the splitter at the little barn today.



If you look carefully you can see the drying/storage rack behind the rounds on the pallet. One side was already about 2/3 full of wood from another log I pulled a month or 2 back. When both sides of a rack are full it is a run, ie 1/3 cord. We filled up the rest of that rack and have maybe enough for 1/4 of one side of the next one. The sad part about all this is that the entire log wasn't even a run and that is probably the biggest diameter log I've ever dealt with I can't imagine how many logs people that cut 10 cords have to pull out.

* Logging wench, ie sister-in-law. She's most helpful!!

 

[thistlebloom]

I laughed at your wench reference. 😄
Poor dh sometimes gets vowels in similar words mixed up. 🤭

He was talking about getting a new "wench" for his Jeep recently and made Kid#2 and I laugh.
"What - I'm not good enough for you anymore?"

 

[Bruce]

The "logging wench" thing is from BYC. A lady there from MO and her husband cut a LOT of wood so I said I assumed they had a logging winch. She said no, she was the logging wench .... though she meant to type winch. So now I call her my favorite logging wench, she does an amazing amount of stuff with serious health issues, never complains on the forum, just occasionally mentions them slowing her down. Since my SIL is helping I guess I have TWO favorite logging wenches now.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce,

Thanks for the pictures. That was a humorous story about your sister-in-law and about your other favorite wench on BYC.

On the way out I saw my neighbor going up the road with his winch on the back of his tractor. I stopped him and asked if he was taking it for one last nostalgic trip and was ready to sell it to me for a reasonable price. Sadly that was not the case.

What kind of a neighbor is that! The ingrate!

Still, it might be better than all the resetting while pulling a relatively short distance with the tractor, backing up, resetting and doing it again, and again, and again.

Have you considered using a longer rope or cable and a snatch block or two so you can pull longer distances? By using a snatch block or two, you can drive forward along the trail and pull the log up to the trail. You probably have seen this YouTube video before, but at around 9:40 or so, Mike used a snatch block to be able to pull a log up a hill without it running into trees in the way. Even though he was using a winch, I think it would work with a long cable or rope tied to your tractor's drawbar.

Senile Texas Aggie