Call the Boy Scouts
Friday, September 9th, 2022 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioMy sister loves to preach about asking for help when you're in trouble. She's used that on me several times in the past... after a crisis is over. "You shouldn't be afraid to ask for help! We were raised to think we shouldn't ask for help, but you need to get over that and ask for help!"
Like it's a character flaw and She's doing me a big favor by pointing it out*.
But then I went on Facebook yesterday to let all the family and friends know this tree fell down and insurance refused to do anything about it, and I'm broke because my job is in limbo through no fault of my own, and I don't know what to do.
And the silence was deafening.
After a day, one crazy aunt from Florida told me to call the boy scouts.
My brother in DeKalb said only, "looks like a job for your chain saw." He lives 35 minutes away and has two sons in their twenties.
And I have some friends from my old job who I know have chain saws and actually have wood burning stoves to burn firewood but... just like my preachy sister... they've stayed faaaar away from the radio-active post.
The fact is, asking for help is the easiest way to clear a room, and guarantee that every relative or friend who had the bad luck to hear your plea will ghost you for about eight more months.
--<>--
As for the job... yes, it's still in limbo, on this Friday evening. And Allstate did officially, flatly refuse today to do anything about the tree.
Out of desperation I called Wells Fargo.
I have a line of credit with them, which had been used a few years back to replace the gutters on the house. I paid it off in early 2021. So the full $4000.00 of credit is available to be used again... but only with specific contractors who have partnered with WF.
And it turns out... none of them do tree work or tree removal. So even that was a no go.
I let the neighbor know what was going on and told him he should go through his own insurance company, and gave him our information, but he said his deductible is $1600.00, which is more than the fence repairs would cost. But luckily, he's not being a dick about it.
--<>--
So, today, with nine dollars in the bank, no job, and no other choice, I busted out my DeWalt 20V chainsaw and got to work.
It's a good little chain saw, with a fairly new chain. And if I use one of the 10AH batteries that came with my Dewalt lawn mower, it's got a lot of kick!
But the blade is only a foot long!.. But the trunk of this tree is better than two feet in diameter, so... I dunno how I'm gonna deal with the main trunk, but I had to get started on the smaller branches.
--<>--
The outlook for this week said that it was going down to 72F on Wednesday, and staying in the low 70sF all week but... it was 83F and sunny out there as I started cutting today, with that sun beating down on me.
The job is going to be extensive, and will likely take me two months or more.
After just 30 minutes of cutting off branches, I was drenched in sweat.
After cooling off for a while, I got out a pair of branch clippers and started dismantling all the big branches I'd cut down... snipping them into smaller and smaller peices.
When all that's done, I'll go back with hand clippers and snip all the twigs... then start three piles of small, bigger, and biggest single sticks of wood.
The smallest will have to be raked into a pile. The bigger and biggest will have to be cut up into small sections to fit in my tiny backyard fireplace, and stacked somewhere.
When the area is cleared and the piles have been started, I'll start cutting off more branches from the tree, and go through the same process over and over again, until all the lesser branches are down, dismantled, and organized.
Then it will be time for the bigger limbs... the ones that ARE, up to a foot in diameter!
And some of those are sticking straight in the air as high as small trees themselves!.. and have all kinds of their own lesser branches to process!
--<>--
Slowly... slowly... grinding away, week after week... I'll get it down to the main trunk.
By that time I'll have huge piles of firewood I can never hope to burn, because we have no indoor fireplace or woodburning stove. And another huge pile of sticks and twigs that'll just have to rot over the next 20 years.
Since I can't cut directly through the trunk, I'm gonna have to hack through, one chunk at a time, to divide that trunk up into, say, six sections that can be rolled back inside the boundaries of our property, and I'm sure that by then, there will be snow falling.
Six hulking sections of trunk will sit there all winter, and I'll have to try and cut them up next March and April, before it gets too hot.
--<>--
Now, my existing chain is gonna get too dull, at some point, and I'll need a replacement (or proably three). And they're not expensive, but... like I said, I've only gone $9.00 in the bank for the rest of my life.
So HOPEFULLY the HR department of my employer will actually do their job and get me out of limbo, so I can earn some money... like... BEFORE November?... but that's probably too much to hope for.
--<>--
I'll start posting photos of my progress on this insane project... if Photobucket ever starts working again!
The universe is really out to fuck me, because I tried to be a happy little hermit back in june reading audio books. I was supposed to be miserable back then.
The universe is mad that I tricked it into giving me the cats I wanted, because it thought it was giving me them at the worst possible time... until I got a job in a day. So the universe threw a tantrum and, fucked my job, sent my Dad to the hospital, and knocked over a tree just for added, extra spite.
Photobucket... just sucks ass on it's own, normally.
°¦}
*Preaching to people who've been through a crisis that they should learn to ask for help is a form of victim blaming, and a disingenuous way to make yourself feel superior for having done nothing.
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
Like it's a character flaw and She's doing me a big favor by pointing it out*.
But then I went on Facebook yesterday to let all the family and friends know this tree fell down and insurance refused to do anything about it, and I'm broke because my job is in limbo through no fault of my own, and I don't know what to do.
And the silence was deafening.
After a day, one crazy aunt from Florida told me to call the boy scouts.
My brother in DeKalb said only, "looks like a job for your chain saw." He lives 35 minutes away and has two sons in their twenties.
And I have some friends from my old job who I know have chain saws and actually have wood burning stoves to burn firewood but... just like my preachy sister... they've stayed faaaar away from the radio-active post.
The fact is, asking for help is the easiest way to clear a room, and guarantee that every relative or friend who had the bad luck to hear your plea will ghost you for about eight more months.
As for the job... yes, it's still in limbo, on this Friday evening. And Allstate did officially, flatly refuse today to do anything about the tree.
Out of desperation I called Wells Fargo.
I have a line of credit with them, which had been used a few years back to replace the gutters on the house. I paid it off in early 2021. So the full $4000.00 of credit is available to be used again... but only with specific contractors who have partnered with WF.
And it turns out... none of them do tree work or tree removal. So even that was a no go.
I let the neighbor know what was going on and told him he should go through his own insurance company, and gave him our information, but he said his deductible is $1600.00, which is more than the fence repairs would cost. But luckily, he's not being a dick about it.
So, today, with nine dollars in the bank, no job, and no other choice, I busted out my DeWalt 20V chainsaw and got to work.
It's a good little chain saw, with a fairly new chain. And if I use one of the 10AH batteries that came with my Dewalt lawn mower, it's got a lot of kick!
But the blade is only a foot long!.. But the trunk of this tree is better than two feet in diameter, so... I dunno how I'm gonna deal with the main trunk, but I had to get started on the smaller branches.
The outlook for this week said that it was going down to 72F on Wednesday, and staying in the low 70sF all week but... it was 83F and sunny out there as I started cutting today, with that sun beating down on me.
The job is going to be extensive, and will likely take me two months or more.
After just 30 minutes of cutting off branches, I was drenched in sweat.
After cooling off for a while, I got out a pair of branch clippers and started dismantling all the big branches I'd cut down... snipping them into smaller and smaller peices.
When all that's done, I'll go back with hand clippers and snip all the twigs... then start three piles of small, bigger, and biggest single sticks of wood.
The smallest will have to be raked into a pile. The bigger and biggest will have to be cut up into small sections to fit in my tiny backyard fireplace, and stacked somewhere.
When the area is cleared and the piles have been started, I'll start cutting off more branches from the tree, and go through the same process over and over again, until all the lesser branches are down, dismantled, and organized.
Then it will be time for the bigger limbs... the ones that ARE, up to a foot in diameter!
And some of those are sticking straight in the air as high as small trees themselves!.. and have all kinds of their own lesser branches to process!
Slowly... slowly... grinding away, week after week... I'll get it down to the main trunk.
By that time I'll have huge piles of firewood I can never hope to burn, because we have no indoor fireplace or woodburning stove. And another huge pile of sticks and twigs that'll just have to rot over the next 20 years.
Since I can't cut directly through the trunk, I'm gonna have to hack through, one chunk at a time, to divide that trunk up into, say, six sections that can be rolled back inside the boundaries of our property, and I'm sure that by then, there will be snow falling.
Six hulking sections of trunk will sit there all winter, and I'll have to try and cut them up next March and April, before it gets too hot.
Now, my existing chain is gonna get too dull, at some point, and I'll need a replacement (or proably three). And they're not expensive, but... like I said, I've only gone $9.00 in the bank for the rest of my life.
So HOPEFULLY the HR department of my employer will actually do their job and get me out of limbo, so I can earn some money... like... BEFORE November?... but that's probably too much to hope for.
I'll start posting photos of my progress on this insane project... if Photobucket ever starts working again!
The universe is really out to fuck me, because I tried to be a happy little hermit back in june reading audio books. I was supposed to be miserable back then.
The universe is mad that I tricked it into giving me the cats I wanted, because it thought it was giving me them at the worst possible time... until I got a job in a day. So the universe threw a tantrum and, fucked my job, sent my Dad to the hospital, and knocked over a tree just for added, extra spite.
Photobucket... just sucks ass on it's own, normally.
°¦}
*Preaching to people who've been through a crisis that they should learn to ask for help is a form of victim blaming, and a disingenuous way to make yourself feel superior for having done nothing.
