RANDOM CHAT THREAD - Chat about anything or just hang out - ALL are welcome.

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i didn't get to dig in that dump i had to leave and it was back in the woods and my Grandmother did not really know were it was i did detect around the house there. i will get pics uploaded tomorrow
 

Next time gold boy ..... those treasures are still there
 

why is the rum gone :drunken_smilie:
 

AARC,

Good eye.....to much rum will do that to you first you stop shaving....then you stop shaving your legs. Blak Bart is getting a bit sloppy time to ease up on the rum....lol.

Regards + HH

Bill


AARC said:
In that first picture... I notice there is someone laying on the floor...

Is that one of the "official rum tasters" ?

If so...

I will have one of what he is having.


Errrr... or is that a hairy legged "she" ?... If so apologize for me and take away the rum :P

:)
Click to expand...
 

Blak bart said:
View attachment 1589384 the crotch pattern wood grain
Click to expand...

Back when I was still in the Army one of my ranch hands had called me and said that some guy from Japan had approached him and a few other ranches in the area asking about Burl wood and if we had any we would sell. He said that normally he would not waste my time with some stuff like that but he had been talking to other ranchers and they had been letting him go through their lands and hauling off big rig trailers full of the stuff and paying big money.

I asked him what burl was, he said the best he knows is that it is just a spot of a tree where it balls up. I said fine, sell whatever you can just make sure he knows my pecans and fruit trees are all off limits and the one giant cedar we have. Told him any other tree feel free to cut away.

3 weeks later my hand calls me with the monthly report, he brought up the normal stuff of operations, sick cattle, well maintenance, cuts made and how bales; normal stuff and then went into all the bills and then went on about how much was made. He said we got 34K from those burls, and said that hiss check even cleared the bank; also said that the man did not at all want the rest of the tree so they would start turning that stuff into lumber.

Man this was back in 2000, I was shocked, my hand had said that out of the ranches in the area we had the cleanest property.

Later around 2007 I was harvesting firewood in the forest in Germany where we where living. I had always seen these trees with these big balls in the center of them but did not think much about it; but we had just had this massive wind storm that knocked down all these trees in the forest and the forest service had been calling everyone who had a license to harvest wood and selling land tracks really cheap. Like I got 10 acres of track for 200 Euro on fallen trees.

So money was on my mind, I was thinking man those boys that sell firewood for a living are going to flood the market so bad it will kill the prices. I walked by this cherry and saw that ball and had thought to my self I wonder if that is a burl. So later that evening I had gone on and checked the internet and sure as heck it was. I called my ranch hand up and asked him if he had contact details for that fella still and if he could reach out, see if he was interested and to call me.

Maybe a month later that fella was still doing that for a job and had called me up, he asked for pictures. I spent a day just going around taking pictures of cherry, pear, birch and oak. Some where only 4 feet around but some where twice that size. Sent that man those pictures and he called me right away telling me how much he would give me. Again shocked about the price, so much so that I went over to a few folks houses that we only knew each other from the forest, knew where we all lived but really did not have much to say to one another. Told them that if they have this sort of stuff then to get it cut down right away and I would bring by some person this Jap fella was sending over to buy mine.

Everyone of them grumpy fellas said they would do it, since it had the potential to cover the cost of their time and track. I called that Jap and let him know I put the word and a few other track owners would be doing the same thing. Now keep in mind not one of these had fallen, so we really had no right to grab it, but we all owned tractors, so cutting it down and then pulling the stump out it looked like all the other wind damaged trees.

This one guy I went to had migrated out of Romania, generally speaking it is safe to say that the ones who migrate to the EU can squeeze 100 bucks from a stone some how and likely they do not own that stone. LOL I had a pretty good haul and got paid very well; naturally I got mine before I took that man to the other fellas houses. LOL Everyone had about the same, all the same types of trees and between everyone an average of about 22 burls each. But we get to the Romanians place and this guy has like 100 burls.

I said dude how many tracks do you own, he said just his old one and the new one he purchased. I said no way you had this many burls on your land, he said thats right, he only had 3 between his two tracks, but he looked on the internet and saw some pretty good prices, so he grabbed four saws, tractor, trailer and his sons. He said common man, where Romanian, where not going to pass up a pay day. The guy that was buying was very interested in his shady way of doing things, and gave him his number and said if he happens to keep finding more, since he clearly has a place out of sight to store them then he should give him a call about every four months. LOL

Last year when I had finally left Germany, I had some garden items that I did not need and was not going to take down to our house in Italy that we would keep. So I called the Romanian and told him I was moving back State side, selling out house here and had some stuff I did not need, nor was I going to sell it or transport it down to Italy and asked if he wanted any of it.

So he came by and said he would take it all; he asked if I would take my truck back to the US. I said I was trying to sell it just have not gotten around to putting it on the net yet. It was a Euro spec Ford 4X4 F350 crew cab sitting on 37s and had like 400,000 kilometers on it. He says how much do you want for it, I said to him that he did not want it, that we beat the hell out of it when we go mining. He says would you take 3K cash in hand, I was dude, sold heck yes I will.

We load the truck up with the first round of stuff he was taking get to his house, his wife is already finding spots in the yard for this stuff. Went for the next trip with the truck and came back and was looking at the table and chair set and going off in her language. I said man she seems pissed, what is she on about man. He said that your table and chair set cost like 15K. I was like dude it is used and not new, he says no she is pissed I purchased your old truck because he had been telling her for years that one day he will own my truck and now she is threatening to sell the table and chair set to some stupid white European to cover the cost of the truck. LOL I said man I forgot I still have 2 sets of tires and rims for that truck that are slightly used. We went back for those and he had me pull around to his barn to store the tires in there.

Fella opens his barn and he has like 20 burls sitting there; I said man are you still doing this, he said retired out early, he was only like 55. Says what Eastern European does not dream of having something dirty they can do only a couple days a months way under anyones radar that pays a full years wage in those couple days. LOL

Anyway, thats about all the dealings i have had with wood, growing up it was just a resource we used to build new stuff or repair stuff on the ranch. But after that one sale in Europe I later found a cherry and had it slabbed out for cutting board. Some nice stuff.
 

:occasion14::coffee2::occasion14:
 

RTR said:
lol Did you see the license plate ? :)
Click to expand...

Heh... I have seen one of these farm vehicles before ... it is for plowing a field right ?

OR...

For planting potatoes ?... due to low door you can just reach down and plant as you go.

Errr... OR is this used for herding livestock ?
 

Bah what am I thinking...

That thing could never be used for "herding livestock"... looks very slow... would never be able to keep up with a goat.

:P

:)
 

Always liked small cars, even own two before, one was a 50s Fiat 500 and the other was an Alpine Sunbeam. Both in perfect shape, but I never fit in them and never got to drive them. The 500 I sold after the 500s came out, that car went from being worth 1000 bucks in mint shape to being worth 20K in mint shape with a demand for it. The Alpine still sits in my living-room apartment in Luxembourg.

Small cars are cool, but small cars with big engines are even better.
 

AARC said:
Bah what am I thinking...

That thing could never be used for "herding livestock"... looks very slow... would never be able to keep up with a goat.

:P

:)
Click to expand...

Funny you mention goats.Thats what 2 GTOs thought also :)
 

Loved that story about the burls oddjob. I have about 6 of them now. 2 of them are very nice and are from endangered willow bustic trees. Still hunting the ambergris too oddjob !! Mahogany, burls , and ambergris. Gosh I love treasure hunting.......seems everyone has forgotten the value of the burls down here. I haven't sold any yet but im stacking them up right now. I was only able to save a tiny fraction of the mahogany ,hundreds of thousands of tons went to the chipper after hurricane irma. Was able to save some real gems though. I have cut 2 logs so far that are incredible. Both these logs have yeilded slabs that are 4-5 times the value of most of the rest of the lumber. IMG_7606.JPGIMG_7607.JPG
When you can see grain patterns like this when its rough sawn,......you no you've hit a home run. The gutiar makers will fight each other in a bidding war for this type of material. I call it fire wood because it actually looks like flames in the grain. I will keep some back from these special logs for our own furniture making. Those gutiar guys take all the spectacular stuff and leave the vanilla or more average pieces for the furniture makers. Rarely do you see furniture from the gutiar quality wood !! Im not gonna quit my day job yet, but wow the side money has been great !!
 

RTR said:
Funny you mention goats.Thats what 2 GTOs thought also :)
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Well that must of been easy, what did you do, park your car and walk. Never seen a fast GTO, but met many people who had that very low opinion on what fast was. 190+ is fast, 160-170, is cruising speed. But now back in the US driving slow is the culture, so much that when people see someone coming up at a high rate of speed they are dumb enough to cut them off and then have the balls to get angry at you for it. Heck in the DC area on a bicycle if you pass a car they grow monster nuts and catch up to you and run that mouth, but then when you get to a light and knock on their window they do not see you or even hear you.

Odd right, they do not just see a six foot six man nearly 300 pounds shoot past them on a road bike, it offends them; but at a light you are in invisible mode and they sit there holding with both hands whilst making the face like a dog who crapped in the den. In Europe I could get a person out of the car either by showing my ID or kicking off their mirror, they would at least get out to get folded up. In the US, I am certain that in the nearly 20 years I was gone Cowardism became a mandatory course with drivers education, where fifty percent of the population failed and the other fifty got Magna Cum Lada. Nothing between, either chilled and relaxed drivers or super cowards.
 

Blak bart said:
Loved that story about the burls oddjob. I have about 6 of them now. 2 of them are very nice and are from endangered willow bustic trees. Still hunting the ambergris too oddjob !! Mahogany, burls , and ambergris. Gosh I love treasure hunting.......seems everyone has forgotten the value of the burls down here. I haven't sold any yet but im stacking them up right now. I was only able to save a tiny fraction of the mahogany ,hundreds of thousands of tons went to the chipper after hurricane irma. Was able to save some real gems though. I have cut 2 logs so far that are incredible. Both these logs have yeilded slabs that are 4-5 times the value of most of the rest of the lumber. View attachment 1589518View attachment 1589519
When you can see grain patterns like this when its rough sawn,......you no you've hit a home run. The gutiar makers will fight each other in a bidding war for this type of material. I call it fire wood because it actually looks like flames in the grain. I will keep some back from these special logs for our own furniture making. Those gutiar guys take all the spectacular stuff and leave the vanilla or more average pieces for the furniture makers. Rarely do you see furniture from the gutiar quality wood !! Im not gonna quit my day job yet, but wow the side money has been great !!
Click to expand...

I will speak with my ranch hand at the end of the month like always, I will have him give me the contact details of that Jap fella and pass them along to you. For all I know I was getting screwed at 300 bucks a foot (around, no linear) but you know wood and maybe would want to reach out to him just to get a feel for the water. If he was screwing me, I wouldnt know because I left happy; lol but that just means he was screwing many others too so he could work with you on your stuff.

Yeah that Ambergris is just one of those things you have to keep an eye for; I only knew of one place that I saw for my self where you could set out to go find it and actually find some. That was in Norway, but the man who took me said that there is an island near Iceland that has just as much and normally larger pieces.

On this piece of wood, the way it looks you would not be able to claim that as rough cut if you did not see the one small spot the band jumped; well not in a picture of course. The old band mill we have is from the 70s at the ranch, that pig jumped from day one and likely due to operator error on our behalf, but it is only used for timber, planks and other lumber. Back when that burl was sold I had given the ranch hand the choice to invest that into another and better band saw, but he said it only gets used about two days every two years and then there is enough stock to last a while.

Then he said, and he does not want to learn how to use a new one. LOL Said he would rather clean and service 100 oil pumps than make lumber. Great worker, heck his grand father started on that ranch, hiss father was born there, he was born there and his son was born there, hard working family, but I guess he hates making lumber.

One thing is for sure, he loves saving money and making money, but that comes from being born there I guess.
 

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