The two dead limbs on the ash tree near out deck (and outside my office window) have been bugging me for years. But they’re too high to reach with my pole saw and I didn’t want to pay the tree guys to come in with their high-lift equipment. So I decided to try a gizmo called a rope saw.”
It’s like a chainsaw chain but with cutting teeth top and bottom. I finally got the thing over my limb but quickly got it stuck. It looked so easy in the videos but this might have been a case of operator error. I finally pulled a big rope over the limb, put the pickup in 4WD, and pulled the partially sawed limb down.
But it wasn’t pretty. I’m going to have another go at cleaning up the stub. To be continued.
Author Archives: Steve Mays
Hiking Trail Update: 6.26.23
I attempted a time-lapse video showing a couple of hours of this project but it was just too boring to post. Not boring for me, mind you, but the state of flow this induces for me doesn’t come across in a video.
Default Face
I recently watched an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee during which Sarah Silverman explains the concept of your “default face.” This is what your face looks like when it is without expression.
Ms. Silverman says you can “change your life” by simply changing your default face. I believe she is correct. I first noticed this about a month ago when I hung a small mirror from the windscreen in the Jeep (to watch the angry motorists forced to go slow behind me). I am also able to see my own face and I immediately saw my default face. Not pretty.
But when I smile… voila! I take five (ten?) years off my face. It will take a while for this to become my default face because it takes a) awareness and b) some extra facial muscles that don’t get used that often.
The Truth About Cruises
Ms. Madigan nicely sums up why you’ll never find me on a cruise ship.
UTV (utility task vehicle)
I moved some brush this morning using my neighbor’s UTV (utility task vehicles), also known as a SxS (side-by-side). He has repeatedly offered the use of this thing but I resisted. I don’t much like borrowing tools and I felt like I needed the exercise I get from dragging brush up and down our hill. But was pretty hot this morning and the hill gets steeper every time I climb it so I borrowed his UTV. I didn’t have all that much brush and I wasn’t moving it that far. I can see why people are fond of these things.
Pickup truck?
What makes a pickup truck… a pickup truck. What is its essence, if you will? A bed for “picking up” stuff? The Oxford Dictionary definition is: “a small truck with an enclosed cab and open back.” So, yeah, this is a pickup truck. But will it ever haul a load of cow manure or gravel or a greasy engine block? Will the owner ever climb into its luxurious cab in sweaty, dirty work clothes? Maybe.
But it just doesn’t say “pickup truck” to me. This is for towing and expensive Airstream travel trailer. I’m not a farmer or rancher or anyone that needs a pickup truck. So I have no standing for this kind of snobbery. But a truck like the one above can cost $68,000 dollars. And it seems to be more about a comfortable ride for the driver (and passengers) than getting work done. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld would say.
From my friend (and car aficionado) Phil: “nearly certain that’s a 2024 GMC 3500 Denali Ultimate. If so, $101-105,000 (with massaging seats!) if it’s just a regular Denali, it’s still a $95K+ truck… $68K might get you a used 2020, but not one of those.”
Another friend reports: “2015 GMC diesel/Denali still books at 50K!”
Rats
The Jeep makes me smile
MAGA Dress Code
“An untucked, oversize t-shirt in red, white and blue, a fanny pack, billowing cargo shorts, tube socks, a ball cap and at least one ace bandage. It’s a look that says comfort, gun ownership and I-whine-about-the economy-while-driving-a-brand-new-truck.”
— Paul Rudnick
2,100 consecutive days
