working until dark every night

[Tom King]

The guy who normally runs a string trimmer almost full time for me has diabetic nerve damage in his legs, and has cut way back on both hours, and what he can do.  The point down in front of the house has about gotten away from me on the edges.  It's too steep for a tractor, or riding mower, and in spite of other efforts, I can't get anyone else to do it, so I've been running one tank of gas an hour before dark.  I can get about 150 feet a night, since it's so tall.

I started Saturday evening.  Evidently, these lake people don't see people actually doing work often, so a gallery grew.   There were a couple of pontoon boats, and various others just sitting in the cove, watching me work.  I thought maybe they were hoping for entertainment if I ran up a snake.

When the tank ran out, I pulled my earplugs out, and headed back to the truck.  One little girl, in one of the pontoon boats, yelled to ask if I was a robot.  I told her no, that I was breathing, had a heartbeat, and was perspiring heavily.

The past few nights, everyone else has gone home for the week, so I haven't had a gallery of spectators.  I thought it was too dark to take a picture the other nights, but tonight I decided to try it anyway.  I was surprised how good the iphone was in low light.

I might be doing this every night until my 69th Birthday, in about three weeks. 

It's the light green part on the land.  The weed in the water was planted by the Wildlife Commission to "prevent erosion".  It seems to be retreating in that cove, for some odd reason.   I'll try to think to carry the good camera another night.

 

[pkinneb]

Yeah that looks like a lot of work! I was thinking about trimming around the signs and telco boxes in the ditch in front of our house last night and thought that was to much work...LOL would have taken about 20 min. Now I just feel guilty I'll have to knock it out tomorrow.

[Pondhockey]

And now I feel inadequate for having stopped at dinner time!!

You set a high bar, Tom.  Wish I'd been there (with an IPA) to watch you.

[Coop]

Tom, there has got to be plenty of other folks with weed trimmers. If not, there will be shortly. You’ve earned the right. That’s what I tell myself! 

[Just Bob]

3 hours ago, Tom King said:

I can't get anyone else to do it,

I have been laid up for over a year now, and I am just now getting back to working my property.  A portion of it has been taken over by blackberries.  The patch I am dealing with now is 10' deep and about 100 yards long.  It borders a  creek with a steep bank and I can't use the brush hog on my tracker.  I decided to called a couple of local landscaping/mower companies and the lowest quote was $7k.  So it is 1 hour a day, with my stihl and a brush blade until it is done, 20 yrs ago it would have been done in a few hours. The lack of people willing to work these days is disgusting. 

[Tom King]

I just spray BlackBerry vines, if I can’t get to them with a bushog, but I guess you don't want to do that by a stream.  It takes a couple of years for them to rot after they’re dead.  A long handled hedge trimmer cuts them better than a clearing saw.  If you were closer, I'd let you borrow one.

 

The trouble with the thick stuff is it takes a big trimmer. A blade in the clearing saw doesn’t throw it out of the way, and it just balls up around the head.  It”s more for brush and all trees.

The string trimmer I’m using is a four stroke Stihl FS 110 with handle bars. For this job, I’m using a fixed length head with .130 line.  The line lasts through a tank of fuel if I don’t hit a rock.

I have to do it the last hour before dark, or it’s too hit.  It throws pieces big enough to hurt, so long sleeves, long pants, and face shield are required.  That’s why I’m doing it so late.

After I get it cut back, a normal trimmer will be able to keep it trimmed.  It’s about three feet high now.

[Just Bob]

I found a herbicide that works, but it is only effective in the fall.  My stihl has no problems, even with the large vines, it's the operator that poos out. 

[Tpt life]

You are so savvy Tom, I’d encourage you to engineer a deck that could handle that area. Most walk behind decks are limiting due to wheel size and style. Extend the front axle out and put larger cart wheels on a deck, and it looks as though you could walk that behind a mower faster than you could swing a line cutter. If you could get a deck to satisfy you, it could be cut more frequently with far less effort potentially. 

[Tom King]

It's too rough, and irregular in line.  The shoreline has rip rap all along it, and it's nothing like straight where it meets the grass.  It's also fairly steep about a step and a half up from the rip rap.  I just cut it farther up the hill this time because there are a lot of sticks on the ground that I didn't want to run the riding mower over.  We had all the Pine trees taken down a little over a year ago, and there was a mess made on the ground from all the laps.   The hardwoods have really done a lot of spreading out already.

 We were too tied up doing paying work, and I didn't get to it in time.  I had thought I could just run the bushog over the laps, but they didn't rot as fast as I was hoping for.   It just got away from us this Spring to the point that is was too tall, and thick for an ordinary string trimmer, and I couldn't see into it good enough to want to run the bushog into it.

I've had all the sticks picked up in the area that I've been over, so the riding mower can cut that now.  The rest will be done the same.  It just got away from us this Spring to the point that is was too tall, and thick for an ordinary string trimmer.

There is no trouble finding people to run regular trimmers, but they're all busy doing lawns, and no one who wants to work has extra time to want to run this big one.

[Coop]

If you pull up to a red light here in Houston, you’ll see more trailers with weed trimmers and lawnmowers than SUV’s and pickups. Post your zip and I’ll send some your way. 

[Chestnut]

Been on site for water main rehabilitation these guys work sun up to sundown. They replaced 2500 feet of main in 3 weeks. So your not alone Tom.

They weld hdpe pipe fittings on the mainwhich results in stronger connections than the ductile iron equivalent.