SORE today!!!! Feeling OLD!! LOL

A good friend of mine called me earlier last week to see if I would come and help him clear some trees along his lane/road. He got a new school bus driver and the new one complained to the school about turning around in his drive. She said she could not see down the road far enough to safely turn around. I would agree that the view backing out was not the best butttttttt IT IS A dead end road!!!! There is ZERO traffic past his lane as there is a guardrail barricade two hundred feet past his lane/driveway. His lane is 3/4 of a mile past the next driveway. Well common sense falls prey to PC. LOL

So the county had to send out the driveway inspector??? Yes, a driveway inspector, his job is to inspect and certify all drive way entrances that are being installed/updated. You have to have a permit in Dubuque County to put in a driveway. HE wrote my friend a "PLAN" so the school would send the bus back the road. Without the "approved" plan he would have had to take his kids to the end of the road every day to meet the bus.

Here is the plan. He has to clear the brush and trees 40 feet back from the road right of way 300 FEET each way from his driveway entrance. WHAT THE HECK!!!! He pointed out to the "inspector" that the road ended 200 feet to the north. It made no difference you have to be able to see 300 feet.

Well the reason the road ends is there was a bridge right there that washed out fifty years ago or so. So it is a good sized creek. There are HUGE cottonwoods along the road there. Then south of his drive there were huge water maples. There were trees three feet across in the area they wanted clear.

So I get out the "big" saw, a Stihl 066 magnum. I put the larger bar, 48 inch, on it as the smaller 36 inch one would not reach on some of the trees. I had not used the big saw much with the big bar for 3-4 years. I am remembering why today!!! LOL

I cut down 18 BIG trees and three times that many smaller ones. I would fall them and then he would hook the whole tree to his tractor and pull them back his lane. That way we could cut them up out of the right of way. The falling took most of the morning. Then we started trimming and cutting any logs out of the whole trees. We did not get done until right at dark. His oldest son has a skid steer loader with a grapple bucket. He made short work of the limbs and brush.

He ended up with some pretty good maple logs and real nice cottonwood logs. There is a fellow that is supposed to buy even the cottonwood coming out this week.

SO we got the trees out of the way now he just has to clear the stumps and brush with his crawler. He has to be done in two weeks so it can be inspected in time for school to start.

I can tell you I am one sore puppy this morning !!! Thank the man above for some good pain meds or I would be crying. I can't move real well but I am getting by. Chores this morning were real fun. The loader tractor seemed much taller today for some reason. LOL

Here is the funny part. My friend is fifty and I am older, LOL, We where running the saws and such while his 20 year old son ran the cab skid steer with AC. Something wrong with that picture????

Since, at various times, both my wife and her father drove school busses, I can vouch for the fact that when it comes to school busses, there is virtually no wiggle room on regulations. My father-in-law once failed a driver's test because he shifted gears while crossing a railroad track, after having stopped properly. He stopped appropriately, then when the bus was crossing the tracks, out of habit, he shifted gears at the right engine rpm instead of staying in the same gear until the bus was clear of the tracks. That was a BIG no-no.

When the lives of children are at stake, they simply don't take chances. And rightfully so. In your situation, there is always the POTENTIAL for some bonehead to come barreling down the road anyway.

On cutting up the trees, I can feel your pain. A week ago, a high wind took down two trees adjacent to my house. Fortunately, neither hit the house. But, just cutting the two up enough to get the pieces off the lawn on a 98 degree afternoon was enough to wipe me out for a day or so.

I continue to be amazed by your regulations out there. I never would have suspected Iowa was worse than NY. The county road I live on has evolved from a path. Some places there is no shoulder. Some places there's enough shoulder to park a car on. Some years back the county got the bright idea to paint lines down the middle of the road. This road is so narrow, and crowned, that two loaded trucks meeting is not fun. With some of our more and more common, recent flooding, the county's effort is to place orange cones, or barrels!

My rural county is being overtaken by those types of government nit pickers, too. They don't care about helping anyone, which govt was supposed to do, now they pour over the regulations looking for a way to screw it to a person.

Clearing 300 feet of a 200 foot road makes no sense. Its a person with a pen and a million check boxes, and just wants to make check marks on pieces of paper. It is a sign of a blight on our society.

I'm a little tuckered out from 400 bales of straw in the heat yesterday; I think you accomplished a lot more but I was a solitary worker, gets to be a long day when it is me myself and I on a tiring job in a hot humid day.

Paul

Goose I agree to a point. The real issue is that "new" driver is fighting going down the road as she can't back the bus very well. The old driver picked the kids up and then pulled passed the drive an BACKED into the drive to turned around. That way he could easily see both ways with the current view. This "driver" has already knocked down 3-4 mail boxes at other places she turns around at. She has had to "practice the route three times and still can't finish it in the time allowed with zero kids being picked up. Mainly a POOR driver blaming everything and any one for her short comings. This is not women bus driver bashing either. The driver that picks up my Grand kids could thread a needle with a bus or semi. I see her hauling corn during the day between bus duties. It all is the skill level of the driver.

She is backing out?
Maybe ought to be learning to drive?

That was my thoughts,
I must of replied when you did!

JDseller,
At least you'll feel better in a day or so. That's the way it was with me, until one day the pain wouldn't go away. I'm stiff and sore every day now. Whether I do any work or not. Thank God for opioids.

The company I drive for requires us to BACK in after loading, then drive out---thus, visibility would be less restricted.

Ben

Exactly.

I would give my county commissioner a call or go to the commissioners meeting. Some one in your district was elected by you folks and you are paying him. They should have on there books the width of the road way and if trees are inside that width the county can be made to take them out. If trees are off roadway width I would be heading to school to discuss the driving ability of the bus driver.

They must be desperate for drivers if they had to hire someone that incompetent! I got my bus license when I was sixteen, and one requirement of the driving test was that we pull past and BACK into the drive when turning around. North Carolina used student drivers until about 1990 and I believe it was the feds that put a stop to it then. Some of the most conscientious and safest drivers you could find.

CJinMI She wants to pull in and pick the kids up then back out. She is doing it the hard way to me. We have little say in the matter as the local bus superintendent backs the drivers 100% and the board just goes along. The boards big solution was to have the kids be picked up at the end of the road at the state Highway.

When I got my bus driving license I had to do what was called a back dock. Cones were set up the width of a country road and a driveway was marked. We had to pull past the drive, back into it without touching any cones on the road or driveway, and stop with one back corner (of the examiner's choice) directly above a one foot square. At no time could the bus come to a stop once the direction was started. Stopping for any reason is an automatic fail. By golly I could do it with my eyes closed.

After that my farm class A was a piece of cake. That kind of training was excellent for backing hay wagons and trailers, too, since you really have to "become one" with the vehicle to know how it will respond.

That driver needs to be whacked on the big toe with every mailbox she hits.

I haven't drive bus in about three years. I miss it, actually. They are a fascinating vehicle to drive.

You needed this saw to do the cross cuts. I estimate the bar to be 10 to 12 feet long judging by the other pictures of it being made.