Battery-powered chainsaws...

[Pico Rico]

whatever you do with it after you cut it. moving it to a pile, etc.

[Terry Coombs]

Really , they should have stovepipes at least 3/4 of the way to your knees .

[Terry Coombs]

My Stihl 025 was a gift ... the bottom front rubbermount had given up , guy ran it anyway until he rubbed a couple of holes in the oil tank with the handle . Carb was all gummed up , bar was toast , and all 3 chains were totally worn out . I machined a new mount part from aluminum , patched the holes with JBWeld , replaced the oil pump , cleaned the carb and got 2 chains and a new bar for it . Total outlay was around 70 bucks , but that saw will go thru a 16" oak log in about 20 seconds . I bought professional logger chains , came with warnings all over that they WILL kick back . Average consumer chains ain't worth the Chinese steel they make 'em out of . -- Snag I'll never own another Poulan .

[J Burns]

The DOT says old timers used kerosene in a hip flask, and that's still a good choice if the EPA doesn't catch you.

[Danny D.]

Oren wrote, on Mon, 01 Sep 2014 14:40:41 -0700:

Interestingly, today I was working on the pool equipment, and, I was startled by the rattle and a hiss, and he snapped at me, but only a warning snap.

I was in bare feet and shorts, so, it would not have been fun. He was an adult, for sure, and about an inch in thickness. It was no doubt a rattler, but I stepped back and didn't get a chance to even *think* about snapping a picture.

I did get a nice mommy black widow spider, with a baby sac though, if you want a picture of that!

[Danny D.]

Oren wrote, on Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:21:07 -0700:

Hi Oren, I must admit, this was the *closest* I have been to being bitten, other than when I captured the baby rattler and I hadn't realized how nasty they are. They're cute, but verrrrry nasty.

This guy almost got me because I never saw him. I was bending over, to remove the cap of the filter pump, so as to clean it out, and I hadn't realized he was sunning himself right next to it.

I think, given his length and girth, he could *easily* have gotten me, so, I suspect he was just warning me. It all happened quickly, but, I'm pretty sure I heard the rattle and hiss within the same split second, first the rattle for about a half second, and then the hiss added to the rattle for the rest of the second, and I was jumping away within the end of that second or maybe a half second later.

He then slithered away, and it was really only at that point that I could clearly see his size, length, girth, coloring, and the all important head shape. So, I have no doubt this was a rattler. The only doubt I have was whether he was trying to bite me, or not. Certainly he rattled. Certainly he lunged. But, had he wanted to, it seems he could have gotten me easily.

Anyway, it scared me enough that I was more careful today around the pool equipment, but I haven't seen him since even though I look now as I walk down to the pool pad.

[Danny D.]

Oren wrote, on Wed, 03 Sep 2014 14:02:46 -0700:

You remember well. Those foot-long deer "mice" in the heater must be tasty to a rattler!

[Danny D.]

Oren wrote, on Wed, 03 Sep 2014 14:26:09 -0700:

We have plenty of red-tail hawks circling about us all the time. Lot's of Stellar Jays (they *look* much like blue jays). Noisy woodpeckers that peck at steel chimneys! And, just today, I had *this* little guy stuck in the house!

The little bird brain was dashing himself crazy against the window. I had to hold a wide broom for him to sit on the wood, when he was tired, and then I opened the door to let him fly out.

I did catch this little widow mommy, which I will relocate outside along with a cottony ball of hundreds of baby spiders in the making:

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Wed, 03 Sep 2014 18:34:49 -0400:

Here is the spider I just caught!

She has a baby sac, which I put in there with her. I've watched what happens in the past.

HUNDREDS of little black widow spiders start crawling out. I give them to the woods, away from the house.

:)

[J Burns]

It seems to me that rattlers would have to be binocular, like baseball hitters, if they used eyesight to strike.

With practice, rattlers can become quite accurate striking warm spots, but his warm-spot image may have been gibberish in the sun.

More than 20% of rattler bites on humans are dry. Maybe that doesn't mean 20% of rattlers are more genteel than the rest. I wonder if in sunlight they often fail to bite a human accurately enough to inject venom.

[Stormin Mormon]

We don't have those in western NY, but I'd be tempted to execute them by fire. I don't much like spiders.

[Danny D.]

J Burns wrote, on Wed, 03 Sep 2014 23:15:38 -0400:

I don't know, but, the weird thing was the primeval feeling of "fear" that the noise gave me, and then the multiplication of that basal fear when I saw him as I was moving backward (all of which happened in a second or two at most).

I've seen plenty of rattlers, but, none have been that close to me, unsuspectingly attacking. All the rattlers I've seen I've had fair warning, so, the fear was different. It was respect.

But, when I heard that rattle (and maybe hiss), and saw some movement that was all-too-close to my face, I felt fear. Real fear. First time ever have I been *that* fearful of a rattler. It was like the rattler tapped some hidden cave-man spot in my head that *registered* pure danger.

In reality, a rattler wouldn't likely have killed me, but, still, I wasn't making any of those rational calculations in the split-second that I recognized it was so close to my face (about a foot, or maybe 18 inches at the most).

The weird thing, when I reconstruct it, is I'm not sure if I heard a hiss or not. I heard the rattle and saw the movement out of the corner of my eye almost at the same time, and then, it seems, but I'm not really sure, that there was a hiss at the tail end of the rattle.

Do rattlesnakes hiss?

[J Burns]

No, snakes don't piss! They don't even have a leg to lift against a fire hydrant!

Oh, hiss... never mind...

A youtube video shows a rattlesnake hissing by inhaling and getting all puffed up. He's not rattling. I guess rattling can carry a hissing sound.

In Vietnam training, I got corrected for stepping over a log on a trail without first looking for a booby trap. I realized I should have known. I remembered being taught in the Boy Scouts not to step over a log without looking for rattlesnakes.

I guess my hair would stand on end if I stepped over a log and saw a copperhead by my foot, in spite of knowing copperheads are docile if you don't step on them.

A neighbor who was plagued with mice called me when she encountered a rat snake by her door. I told her they went where they smelled mice, and they were as harmless as kittens. I told her she was right to be afraid of stepping on one because she could injure it, and the bite might hurt a little. She was very uneasy and began watching where she stepped. I told her that habit could keep her from getting hurt if somebody left a rake in the grass. In a couple of weeks, the snake accomplished what the exterminator hadn't accomplished in years.