Today....

Do you get massage therapy?

Seems that when little things cause an acute issue, sometimes underlying muscle tension (affecting joints and nerves) and knots have had that last straw added to the strong camel's back.

Supple, limber and hydrated muscles are very resilient. I've been fighting some knots since a trip to Chicago and some other car traveling. I can feel one in my back, right now. Car and plane rides are not the best time for optimal hydration, not knowing when you can offload.



Doing lots of hard work needs its own maintenance.



A laying on a gentle decline on a board is a great traction for the spine and gentle stretch, if it's not going to exacerbate the existing condition.

Hope it resolves as quickly as possible.
 
Check out neurodynamic breathwork. It's more geared towards altered states and psychological processing, but I found it deeply relaxing and had some long standing muscle tension release from a single session- lasting for over a month

Free intro month, nice guided process. It's couched in pretty hippie woowoo language- if that's not an huge barrier I'd highly recommend it. Very interesting experience if nothing else

Edit- can't remember if back injury is a contraindication but they detail all that stuff before you get into it
 
Just finished unloading by spotlights. A magnetic Milwaukee m12 work light on the loader is nice. Rain from 11am until 530 or so. Dry, after dark is a taunt. Took a break mid until late afternoon.




More than a third of the millable 6' cedar and 8' doug-fir logs from the last two haul-off removal jobs before the change in the weather.

Should be an adventure in milling this winter. Looking forward to getting some concrete poured for the mill to sit on, and then a mill shed built (in all my spare time).





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Sunday's pumpkin carving.




I got some interesting shaped butt cuts that can be Alaskan milled into table- tops.
 
Over the years I've done just about everything for my back pain: x-rays, MRI, acupuncture, chiro, massage, pain killers, etc. The hard par is that it is so infrequent (1-2 years apart) that it's almost impossible to say what works, what doesn't, and what is worth doing consistently to prevent it. Do I spend $50+ a week in chiro or massage when I don't know if it works? No idea, but I am seeing a chiro tomorrow.... Luckily I only ever have pain on these occasions when it 'goes out' and am otherwise good...

Still training/supervising my employee on how to climb, new tires on the service truck (KO2s) which are a big improvement with all my off-road driving compared to the more street focused tires I had, and bucked and moved what I think will be the rest of the wood rounds (well, my employee did most of the work) I need to stay warm this winter.... old house, rural living....

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Went by a house down the street and cut some fallen trees off the wooden fence. While I had a saw running, I cut maybe 200 of the English ivy vines taking over the trees, which didn't even make a good dent. Did a little chainsaw hedge pruning as well.

The house has been untouched for a few years. It's a nice 2500 sq ft house in a desirable area. One neighbor said they heard the person living there committed suicide. I can't figure out why it's been sitting for so long though, unless things are moving through probate at a snail's pace. Whatever the case, it's obvious they can use a little help.

I went by yesterday and blew off the driveway, front walk and curb and whacked down a good portion of the hundreds of pine sprouts. Blew leaves off the 2 cars in the driveway and aired up the flat tires.

I may go back with an extension ladder to clean the front gutters, which have trees growing in them. That will get things looking not so abandoned.
 
Doing some light work now, still haven't climbed in a month, but dropped my first tree in about that long, a big nasty multi-top dead fir. Then to my friends log yard to make a load of chips from his mill off-cuts and trunk wood too small for his firewood processor, but perfect for feeding into the chipper.

Oh yah, also fired the contractor that was supposed to build my shop, since they did nothing but take my deposit, and are about to be sued by their other client...

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I checked out a tree service removing 3 trees for a neighbor today. They had some nice looking equipment - big grapple truck, bucket truck, 2 minis - but I was not impressed. Absolutely no safety equipment. No hard hats or helmets, including the groundies working below the bucket. No eye protection, no hearing protection, no gloves, no saw pants or chaps, no comms. I need to go back and see if they were successful with hand pulling a 12" DBH white oak with a fair lean towards the house and a wooden fence. Myself, I'm not relying on hand pulling with no MA or progress capture on anything but lightweight trees.
 
I checked out a tree service removing 3 trees for a neighbor today. They had some nice looking equipment - big grapple truck, bucket truck, 2 minis - but I was not impressed. Absolutely no safety equipment. No hard hats or helmets, including the groundies working below the bucket. No eye protection, no hearing protection, no gloves, no saw pants or chaps, no comms. I need to go back and see if they were successful with hand pulling a 12" DBH white oak with a fair lean towards the house and a wooden fence. Myself, I'm not relying on hand pulling with no MA or progress capture on anything but lightweight trees.
If the guys were wearing straw hats instead of hardhats, I would think that you were out in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, what you described is very common for this area. They also probably don’t carry insurance, or at least they don’t have workers comp on their employees.
 
If the guys were wearing straw hats instead of hardhats, I would think that you were out in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, what you described is very common for this area. They also probably don’t carry insurance, or at least they don’t have workers comp on their employees.
Dan and I are both in Alabama. Work comp is not required here until 5 or more employees are employed at a business. We are one of 3 in a city with 112 tree services listed. I bet theres less than two dozen in our whole state with comp. We don't legally have to have it but we have comp for doing the commercial work. We also want our guys taken care of if they would ever get hurt.

About 1/3 of our local tree services dont have General Liability insurance from various things we have heard. Several have been sued for damages. Many more have run off.
 
Dan and I are both in Alabama. Work comp is not required here until 5 or more employees are employed at a business. We are one of 3 in a city with 112 tree services listed. I bet theres less than two dozen in our whole state with comp. We don't legally have to have it but we have comp for doing the commercial work. We also want our guys taken care of if they would ever get hurt.

About 1/3 of our local tree services dont have General Liability insurance from various things we have heard. Several have been sued for damages. Many more have run off.
That’s interesting. In PA, Work. Comp. is required if you have any employees, but most companies call their workers contractors and just do without, even the larger companies. One that especially annoys me has been around for quite some time, is fairly large, and carries workers comp for the secretary in the office just so they can say they have it. Operating legally is expensive, I understand that, but if we would all do it, the industry prices would reflect it and people would deal with it. Plus, they would know when they hire a company that they were actually operating legally, not just claiming to. Kudos to you for doing things the right way, even if it’s not legally required. I hope that it works for you and you are able to still make some money.
 

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