mike newman Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 .....the rocks are never ending .....recently loaded all the big ones on to the Caterrpillar for a five mile run up through the river bed to place then in two groynes very close to the Station Head Quarters...as always despite having endless big rock, the several hundred tons ,placed, will prove totally inadequate...when the next 50 year flood turns up....We had one two yrs ago , so its due anytime.... Also had to pick up the numerous willow trees that the most recent flood had ripped out....and lay them back into the now naked river bank,...set them in the river bed and lay them 45 degrees to the bank ..not the easiest of tasks...hence you won't see any pictures of those efforts...( )..however, they are in place...but the big bonus for me personally was the fact of about ten 300 yr old New Zealand Silver beech trees , scattered about in one area.....Now, the idiots that run this country will let you 'firewood'' a downed native timber tree..but without a permit and screeds of paper work , this tree cannot be milled ...However..to be fair, we left the ones that were partially immersed in sand and gravel...and took out the ones that looked quite clean of imbedded stones..in fact had no issue with cutting these to length to fit on a Mate's 6x4 Isuzu for the trip home ...to the mill .... Three loads ...a hanging offence ..mind you the loads were kept below water level.....Safety first !!!...and hard to notice after dark.....It was completed on a Sunday....Beautiful timber for interior panel work... Then with that task completed, the Excavator was shifted a few miles south, on the Kenworth...and I had to place more rock over that cloth you can see in second last picture, cloth that was uncovered after a big flood....Had to dig the toe out, place specific size rock therein...and smaller rock to the top ground level..This at the Military Exercise base waaay up the Wairau River Valley on the Rainbow Station.... Mike 17 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledgehammer Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Love to see the pics Mike. Sounds like there is about 3 lifetimes of rock there that could be moved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazy WP Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Thanks for sharing Mike!! I always love your pictures and stories. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfred54 Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Some beautiful country there.😀 Snow on the mountain tops?? What's the temperature at your work location? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
from H to 80 Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Question, how do you turn with that trailer hauling the excavator? Those four axles have a very long spacing,are they steerable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorenzo Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 I will be passing overhead in the AM, i will wave at you. Great pictures. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel Doctor Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 I thought we had Sex Stones - Just another freaking rock? But, your area is the King of Rock. Appears you have work beyond retirement. I love the: "When the next 50 year flood turns up....We had one two yrs ago , so its due anytime...." There is way to much truth in that statement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acem Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 We don't have 50 year floods. We have 100 year floods. They average every 20 years... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudfly Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 @mike newman Maybe I missed it, but have you provided a review of the Hyundai excavator after a season of work? I don't understand how salvaging timber for lumber that would otherwise rot and cause (gasp) carbon emissions; is a bad thing in the eyes of those theoretically in-charge. However none of that makes sense to me. I have been in the room when different branch of the Dept of Natural Resources (minerals, timber, wildlife, etc) have been arguing with each other over what is "best practice". I had to sit back and chuckle as that is when you fully understand that they don't really have a clue either and most of the BS rules are made up; or at a minimum poorly thought out and nearly impossible to implement (e.g placing your trees back at 45 degrees to the bank). 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawleigh99 Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 It is hard to stop Mother Nature! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike newman Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 On 9/8/2023 at 1:29 AM, Mudfly said: @mike newman Maybe I missed it, but have you provided a review of the Hyundai excavator after a season of work? I don't understand how salvaging timber for lumber that would otherwise rot and cause (gasp) carbon emissions; is a bad thing in the eyes of those theoretically in-charge. However none of that makes sense to me. I have been in the room when different branch of the Dept of Natural Resources (minerals, timber, wildlife, etc) have been arguing with each other over what is "best practice". I had to sit back and chuckle as that is when you fully understand that they don't really have a clue either and most of the BS rules are made up; or at a minimum poorly thought out and nearly impossible to implement (e.g placing your trees back at 45 degrees to the bank). in respect of your 'timber' comment.......it is difficult to see from where the idiots are coming on this matter......given the milled timber will live for ever in a house...well you know what I am saying......I have had a female ''Officer'' from the Forestry Dept that oversees private sawmills...however humble....fossicking around the slab heap at our mill... She was, of course, looking for native slab wood.......but the hillbillys after milling any Native Timber, illegally...just make sure the slab heap is covered with Pinus Radiata or macrocarpa or eucalyptus or whatever.....Rather obvious what is required....to protect one's self from those meddling pricks.........which of course shows how out of touch with reality these muppets are.... In respect , @Mudfly, of the new Hyundai Excavator.....having been with Excavators since 1971....this one is without any doubt, the best I have had to operate...I had my own Hitachi EX200 very near new (from deceased estate...)...and later I operated a new PC 200 Komatsu.....I have never been on really big excavators ...a 45 ton Caterpillar was the biggest ...but I have been on a variety of different marques , over the years....and this Hyundai has evolved along with best , I believe.... The cab is an absolute delight , in which to check out what is happening at the business end of things....A place for everything....even for my old American , Tennessee made steel thermos....place for sunglass's / proper cup / lunch bag / 'phone or six inch crescent (!!) / bum fodder cupboard / tape measure and more...and the heater -de- mister is brilliant.....it will ''de-fog' the complete glass all around the operator in a couple of minutes.. Some of the older machines would fog up when one cleared one's throat....and never really clear the main screen...never mind the whole outfit....Oh yes......and heated seat base and back !! The hydraulics are almost to powerful for the 22 ton weight.....This morning I was stripping topsoil for a new (internal ) road.....using a six foot wide tilt bucket etc...It was sort of raining early on , but once it settled in the machine just slides all round.....as you would expect to a degree ...but it will pull itself up to one of those thousands of big stones I have windrowed of late...if the stone is reluctant to leave its home.... 409 cubic inch Cummins.....constant 13 point 6 liters per hour feul consumption....500 hour service interval (yeah ?? )....stronger top roller pedestals than the preceding model Hyundai.... and so on... Bloody good machine ... Mike 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike newman Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 On 9/7/2023 at 11:46 PM, mrfred54 said: Some beautiful country there.😀 Snow on the mountain tops?? What's the temperature at your work location? ...very little snow this winter.....Good frosts in the A.M. ..but I am always careful about regaling you blokes re 'cold ' temperatures that we might have...!! Given what happens in North America, winter temperature wise...you blokes would be running around in jock straps and sun glasses no doubt, if you came over here in our winter ,,, Mike 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike newman Posted September 11 Author Share Posted September 11 On 9/8/2023 at 12:40 AM, from H to 80 said: Question, how do you turn with that trailer hauling the excavator? Those four axles have a very long spacing,are they steerable. No worries there.....and no steerable axles.... Our ''Road User Charges " ( read road tax...). is so bloody cruel , but by adding a few axles here and there , it reduces the tax,,,a little.....And the capital cost of axles plus the extra tare weight makes it a difficult equation etc ...if making a dollar is the end game !! New Kenworth tractor unit about $300 thousand NZ D''s Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Dinan Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 Great pictures and even better stories, Mike!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel Doctor Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 On 9/7/2023 at 4:32 PM, Rawleigh99 said: It is hard to stop Mother Nature! The ability of politicians and other people in power to utilize the government to their advantage, refusing science and establishing programs for their own personal financial gain, all in the name of protecting the environment and stealing the hard earned taxes from the people. Not Political - Fact! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
560Dennis Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 Any salmon in that river ? Just curious , looks like picturesque to me to have , I don’t know ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
td9bcf180 Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 21 hours ago, mike newman said: in respect of your 'timber' comment.......it is difficult to see from where the idiots are coming on this matter......given the milled timber will live for ever in a house...well you know what I am saying......I have had a female ''Officer'' from the Forestry Dept that oversees private sawmills...however humble....fossicking around the slab heap at our mill... She was, of course, looking for native slab wood.......but the hillbillys after milling any Native Timber, illegally...just make sure the slab heap is covered with Pinus Radiata or macrocarpa or eucalyptus or whatever.....Rather obvious what is required....to protect one's self from those meddling pricks.........which of course shows how out of touch with reality these muppets are.... Mike Bingo. Muppets! 😂 Similar escapades here. Right on the money, Mike! 👍👍👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mader656 Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 River base looks alot like the rivers coming out of the mountains here (yellowstone, stillwater, rock creek, rodebud) nothing but rock... horrible stuff to try snd get a post into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike newman Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 On 9/11/2023 at 11:56 PM, 560Dennis said: Any salmon in that river ? Just curious , looks like picturesque to me to have , I don’t know ! Yes Dennis.....they swim 70 miles up the main river, then into the Rainbow River, then sort of disperse into various little creeks for spawning....then they die... I find it amazing how they disappear into the ocean but can find their way back up into the little creeks from whence they came...... I have had hunters from the US and Australia, (and NZ ...) who get lost crossing 300 yards of bush to the river flats....yet these fish find the way back up to the very place , where they originated... The local trout population love eating the eggs as they are secreted from the salmon... They are very hard to sneak up onto when alive....and sometimes , a bunch of black looking things in the dappled water looks like tree roots ....or similar...then when the fish spot the human...whooosh !!!! they are gone !! Then in a few days dead ones appear all over the show,....that brings the hawks and various ''sea'' birds that fly miles up river for a feed of carrion.. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike newman Posted September 13 Author Share Posted September 13 20 hours ago, mader656 said: River base looks alot like the rivers coming out of the mountains here (yellowstone, stillwater, rock creek, rodebud) nothing but rock... horrible stuff to try snd get a post into. Yes, mader..you can add these rivers here into that list !! I have made all sorts of contraptions to hold the big spike steady....as it does the 'pre hole '' crunching down past the rocks. The post driver is a regular , Kiwi made, full hydraulic etc .....and we have made a big heavy ring device which is fixed to the 'foot '' of the driver and holds the spike on a good line.... The spike is about four feet long and four inch's in diameter....thus it encounters all sorts on the way down.... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mader656 Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 4 hours ago, mike newman said: Yes, mader..you can add these rivers here into that list !! I have made all sorts of contraptions to hold the big spike steady....as it does the 'pre hole '' crunching down past the rocks. The post driver is a regular , Kiwi made, full hydraulic etc .....and we have made a big heavy ring device which is fixed to the 'foot '' of the driver and holds the spike on a good line.... The spike is about four feet long and four inch's in diameter....thus it encounters all sorts on the way down.... Mike Im familiar with the rock spike. Mine needs reworked... last project near wore my three inch new zealand made hardox rock auger out. I try to use pipe in those conditions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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