Kicking You While Your Down

Discuss non-crawler related issues here (keep it sane, please)
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CuttingEdge
2010 crawler
2010 crawler
Posts: 534
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:13 pm
Location: Maine

Kicking You While Your Down

Post by CuttingEdge » Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:31 pm

I really have not been on here much lately. Cancer has really gotten me down the last few months, and slowed me up. I quit logging back in January, sold my John Deere 350D to someone who wanted it pretty bad, sent Katie back to work (she is a banker), and got a logger to come in and clear the wood I was trying to clear.

It was 70 acres, and ended up being 72 tractor trailer loads of wood hauled, logs, round wood pulp and a few loads of chips. He was pretty good at first, paying me about $1500, but then his feller-buncher broke down and he needed money to fix it. I loaned him $2000 and he went at it again, managing to finish up the woodlot, but no more money. I got the $2000 back, but only $1100 for about $11,000-$15,000 worth of wood.

Then the excuses started, so I call up the Maine Forest Service and they were not too interested...

So I started checking into some stuff, keeping in mind that I have cut wood all my life and know how the system works here in Maine. The Landowner name matched the paper work, and the my timber harvest number matched the paperwork, but nothing else did. The logger was zone-jumping. So I call the local scale houses and inform them that I had nothing to do with any zone-jumping. The head scaler was adamant...call the Forest Service back and let them know. They said they would be out the next day to start an investigation.

I also got an attorney, and while I will get paid eventually, it will take another year to go through the court system, then a few more years to get restitution after that. It is hard to know what the exact amount I am owed is because I do not have the scale slips to say what the logs scaled up nor the pulpwood weighed, but it is between $11,000 and $15,000. The Maine Forest Service will have to get that information eventually and work with my attorney, and the Maine Attorney General's Office to get it all straight. Still it is enough to make a person mad that is for sure. All I want is fair market value for the wood that was cut. I think that is fair.

...
So now that I am officially retired and not even cutting wood, I have been messing with my welder making homemade equipment. I always wanted a feller-buncher so I build a homemade one, total cost was $35.00.

Then the loggers left a mess in one of my fields (not their fault as they used it for a wood yard) so I built a Rock and Stick Rake to roll the sticks into windows so I can push it out of the field. It covers probably a 1 acre area...far too much for me to clean up by hand in the condition I am in. Total cost for that build was $10.50...for some thin cut off wheels for my grinder.

Now that my feller-buncher is done, I am going to build a firewood chunker so that I can produce firewood by 100% mechanization. Yes it is on a micro-scale, but I have waited 43 years to heat with wood without having to get a workout in doing so. That one will be an expensive build because I have to buy bearings and gears for it, but hopefully it will be chunking out firewood by fall.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!

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amos
1010 crawler
1010 crawler
Posts: 360
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2016 7:29 am
Location: Piney Woods of east Texas

Re: Kicking You While Your Down

Post by amos » Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:08 am

What a terrible story. I'm late 50's and was taught that a man's word is his worth. If your word is no good then you're worthless as a man. Has served me well in life. But it seems that last decade or two more and more people are only out for the money and could care less about lying,cheating,and stealing to get it.
I've been screwed over now and again over the years and sometimes there is hell to pay and sometimes it just isn't worth the effort. The oil dumping I'm dealing with will be something that I will follow through on: first the remediation and then I'll go after the company. Their next bid on a road contract for my town will be contested by me during the city council review process which is televised and covered by the local paper.This I will do on every project they bid on.Still have a leash on my law dog but soon I'll let him loose and let him do his thing.
Your cancer should be all that you have on your mind my friend. When I helped my ex-wife beat her brain cancer my part of keeping her well nourished and less stressed I think helped her beat it. Docs said it was terminal and after 6.5 years her MRI's show her to be cancer free.
Best wishes to you.
Amos
Pushin hard or diggin deep life is good.
What's ahead is what matters. What's behind is already done.
A fool of a man is he who doesn't ask questions...
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

B Town
350 crawler
350 crawler
Posts: 752
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2015 7:04 pm
Location: Western Iowa

Re: Kicking You While Your Down

Post by B Town » Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:31 am

I had noticed your absence and was curious. I am a private type person and was giving you your privacy. I'm glad you checked back in the forum. We all have a back story, challenges that we have gone through, are going through and some yet to come. As I age, I have realized life is quite different that what I had thought it would be, I have learned we are carrying a load. I wish you the very best and am thankful you have an awesome partner. Take care, keep fighting, Bruce

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