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00:00Previously, on The Last Woodsman,
00:14Jared and the Cypress Cree crew log full tilt in a whole new territory.
00:24Hell yeah!
00:26But with the first $100,000 royalty due,
00:30if I come up short, that could be the end of Cypress Cree clogging.
00:33Untimely issues set them back.
00:36We don't have enough bags of wood to fill the big barge.
00:38And Jared must face a tough reality.
00:41I'm looking at about a quarter of what we need.
01:00I'm on the way.
01:05John Muhammad.
01:17We came up a little short on the last barge for royalties.
01:23I'm scared he's going to freak out at me or take my stuff.
01:26It's definitely the conversations I don't like having.
01:30I feel like a bag of for letting them down.
01:34Stressful.
01:36Jared's forever claim operation is a month in.
01:40But the first barge royalty under his risky deal was a full $50,000 light.
01:46A shortcoming that can have dire consequences.
01:49I put myself in a really, really hard spot.
01:53I wish I could just offer to cover $50,000 for my profits at float camp.
01:57But John is a timber broker.
01:59He wants timber.
02:01Best case scenario, John gives me a good tongue lashing and lets me make up for it on the next log barge.
02:06Worst case scenario, he takes float camp.
02:10As his deal hangs in the balance, so does Jared's hope of a $2 million buyout at the end of his season.
02:18He has just seven days to barge a whopping $150,000 worth of timber royalties at the forever claim.
02:26And with two days before the float camp logging lease is up, he has spread thin as ever.
02:32It's going to be tough, but I need float camp to get every last stick of timber onto one more barge.
02:38Meanwhile, I need to accelerate my operation up here.
02:41One critical hole that I need to fill is another fat truck.
02:46All right, you ready for this?
02:47A little bit.
02:48To increase output by four truckloads per day and close the royalty gap, Jared takes a big swing.
02:56Training up one of his trusted long-haul drivers to take on the tricky mountain roads.
03:01I think I took my highway truck for granted.
03:05Three shots.
03:05One fat truckload of logs can be upwards of $70,000.
03:12So today I'm going to be training Alicia.
03:15She's driven the smaller highway trucks that we own for quite some time now.
03:20She's great.
03:21Fat truck's kind of the next step for her.
03:23I need to get wood in the water right now, so we're going to give her a shot.
03:29You holding onto anything yet?
03:31You're probably thinking, great, she's giving me attitude already.
03:37Ho, ho.
03:38I've been a truck driver for eight years, and I do really love it, but learning to drive
03:45fat truck is definitely a step up in a person's career, so I'm really excited to try something new.
03:52I'm going to do what it takes to get the job done for Jared.
03:55It's so different compared to a highway truck.
03:57It is.
03:57Driving a fat truck is extremely difficult compared to driving any other rig.
04:03I've had Alicia work for me for quite some time now.
04:05She hasn't let me down yet, but she doesn't know the magnitude of these trucks.
04:09So I need to make sure that Alicia knows what she's doing, and that is the bottom line.
04:14If she can't make it, I have to cut this off quickly.
04:17This is as fast as it'll go.
04:20But you're probably going a lot faster than you think you are, because you're so big.
04:25Just use all that boot that you got.
04:28Don't let pure common sense hold you back.
04:30Being a woman in the industry, I definitely get a lot of funny looks.
04:35But my personality definitely goes very well with being a truck driver.
04:42I don't like being stuck in an office.
04:44I tried it, and I got a lot of complaints about my language.
04:47But you just got to not give a sometimes.
04:50Okay, let's go get a little luck.
04:52That's the real test.
05:01I'm guessing that's the turnout there.
05:03All right.
05:06Not much of one.
05:10Don't back it over the bank.
05:17The 100 point turn that we have here.
05:21Pretty much.
05:24Just nice and easy.
05:31Now we'll hit the brakes.
05:34Stop.
05:35We're going gas.
05:38There you go.
05:42Holy .
05:43My arms are burning.
05:48Trailer comes off.
05:49Pull in.
05:52You're good to go.
05:52Now you'll hit it hard.
05:57Okay.
06:00Truck pin in.
06:02There you go.
06:05Now this buck spins.
06:08We're ready to load logs.
06:0980 miles away at float camp.
06:15At float camp.
06:25It's the final 48 hours of the logging lease.
06:30And a mad dash to move wood to water.
06:32But to wrangle all that timber, the crew needs a working boom boat.
06:43Boom boats are absolutely crucial to these operations.
06:47Because as soon as you put loads of wood in the water, you need a small agile boat with spikes on it that
06:53can maneuver these big bundles of wood around and corral them into a staging area for the barge to come and grab them.
07:01Every piece of equipment out here is as important as the next, but these boom boats, you can't do it without them.
07:06But there's a problem.
07:08The only boat left of the float camp claim went down.
07:11Which means mechanic Adrian will have to identify and solve the issue quickly.
07:17If I can't make this happen, like the boat could be down for days, if not weeks.
07:20And Jerry can't afford that.
07:22There's a whole pen full of wood we got to sort out and get ready for the for the log tow in two days.
07:36And I'm going to go ahead and get ready for the car.
07:49This is our over-center clutch.
07:51And as you can see, that slide collar is foobard.
07:55So I got to replace it and it's it's going to be maybe a pesky job.
08:01Without a working slide collar, it's impossible to engage the boat's clutch for forward momentum.
08:11To fix it, Adrian will remove the entire assembly,
08:17swap in a new collar, then piece the whole thing back together.
08:25A time-consuming job with little to no time.
08:29Thrash, bash, rock and roll, you just got to get her done.
08:31Oh, you .
08:41Well, now I've got a big nut that I got to pull off.
08:44A bunch of heavy sandwich together.
08:47Basically, the key here is to get torque on this nut and how much torque is it going to require to get off of there.
08:52So hammering with a punch, I was hoping I'd get it off, freed up a little bit and the nut would be
08:57loose and free and it would just spin off of there.
08:59Not the case at all.
09:01What did I get myself into?
09:10Jared's got a few more for us to take care of.
09:21Yeah.
09:22Oh, let's get her done.
09:23High on the mountain, Fallers Jim Gardner and Rob Winger scout a new untouched reach of end-of-life cycle giants.
09:32We should go look at this cedar up here.
09:35Clear and sound lumber on this side.
09:42It's got some rot right here.
09:43It's nice and solid over here though.
09:48There's tons of holding wood right here, which is good to help pull it down the hill.
09:58Yeah, that's money.
10:01Look at that hang up though.
10:08What do you see?
10:09Well, it's hung up.
10:12It's right tight into a bunch of really bushy green school marms.
10:18It's not coming out of there any time soon.
10:20It's stuck in there and it's a lot more dangerous to fall.
10:24Where you want it to go, do you see that other cedar coming out or going with it?
10:29I don't know.
10:31But if this thing stays here and rips those school marms off, it's going right in there.
10:36Yeah, it's possible.
10:38I'm not even going to cut that leaner up.
10:40I'm just going to cut this thing up, put an undercut in it, put the back cut in it,
10:45and we'll see what happens.
10:47Just got to hope for the best.
10:55To keep this cedar intact, Rob will aim his undercut 90 degrees across the side hill,
11:01hoping its sheer mass is enough to take the hung up tree with it.
11:06But if he's wrong, that tree could rip straight through the canopy,
11:10sending massive limbs and itself straight down on Rob.
11:17The only way to figure out what's going to happen is to cut it down.
11:22So let's get started.
11:30There's going to be a few problems with this thing having this overhead hanging above us.
11:35If this big tree dislodges the smaller one, Rob's not going to be able to see that
11:39until it's actually coming down on him.
11:40So that's what I'm here for.
11:43I'm his eyes and ears.
11:44I've got his back.
11:45So he knows that trees are leaning in the wrong directions.
11:48They're leaning against each other.
11:49And on top of that, the front tree is rotten.
11:51So pretty much anything can happen.
11:52Just to the left of that small sapling, Jim, that's kind of, I want to take more of the low side,
12:10but there's that rotten spot.
12:12I'm going to reduce my holding wood and it'll break off and go up there.
12:16I think this is what we got.
12:18We're going to have to work with what we got.
12:20Okay, here she goes.
12:29All right, last little bit.
12:40All right, buddy.
12:47She's going.
12:57She's going.
13:26Honey shot, Rob.
13:27Yeah.
13:29Yeah, nice, nice.
13:30Good job, bud.
13:31Oh, .
13:37Minimal carnage.
13:39Well, this thing's a beautiful piece of wood.
13:41Didn't split at all.
13:42It stayed together.
13:43So it's high-grade, high-grade lumber.
13:46There's some minor chingle on the butt, but the rest of it's high-grade lumber.
13:51Couldn't have gone better, really.
13:52With Jim and Rob promising a strong finish to the float camp lease,
13:58the ability to barge all that timber falls squarely on Adrian fixing the boom boat.
14:03The clutch has to come apart from the bell housing, and I would have figured it would have loosened
14:15up by now, but it's tight all the way.
14:17So I'm going to try it with heat.
14:26Without these boom boats, you can't move the wood from the bullpen over to where the barge grabs it,
14:31or the log tow, so you just can't do this without them.
14:34And once again, under pressure of time.
14:37Technical term, mechanical .
14:40I'm heating the hub up, and it'll expand away from the shaft a little bit,
14:43and it should make it easier to slip off.
14:45Yeah, baby!
14:55Wrong socket, right job, pal.
14:59Heat is your bestest of friends.
15:03And this is definitely a can of worms.
15:08I don't have a puller to get the clutch off, so I've got to go build one,
15:11and this is killing our timeline.
15:14So I've got to get boogieing.
15:17A puller is used to put pressure on a shaft and pull on a hub that may be sitting on that shaft.
15:23So you can kind of make a central shaft that'll push on the main shaft, and off it comes.
15:30So it's a bit of welding, but I mean, the good part is too that this puller will be useful
15:35forever moving forward.
15:37That's like good enough for me, dude.
15:40Welcome to the bush league.
15:42The more time you put into making something like a puller like this,
15:44the better the product's going to be.
15:46It's kind of a fine line because we're dancing with time right now,
15:49but on a regular basis, I have to work smarter, not harder.
15:52I'm not a big, strong, bulky guy, and I have to be creative and never give up.
15:58And you just kind of keep moving forward.
15:59You know, you poke the thing with a stick long enough,
16:01you're going to figure something out.
16:03And that is my camp quality puller.
16:20Moment of truth.
16:22Okay, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good.
16:35Look at that guy.
16:36This is our big issue.
16:37So that guy is loose.
16:38You know, it has the potential of blowing through the sidewall,
16:41and then you lose your ability to engage and disengage a clutch.
16:44I've got to get that slide collar out of there and get another one coming ASAP.
16:56Back at the forever claim.
16:57All right, we'll throw a quick load on.
17:05It's time for the next important test in new fat truck driver Alicia's crash course of timber hauling.
17:16Alicia's done really well so far.
17:19We're not out of the woods yet, but so far, so good.
17:23All right.
17:24We're just going to leave you on your own and I'll fall behind in a pickup.
17:28Sounds good.
17:28All right.
17:28Get the wrappers out and wrap her up and let's get going.
17:34Always make sure your cinches are done up so no logs can roll off the top, right?
17:41You're going to need a little height adjustment, I think.
17:44I need some stilts.
17:46I'm probably five foot nothing and my height makes a lot of challenges for me,
17:53but it's something that's also never stopped me either.
17:57There's a lot of things that I have to do differently and sometimes you have to get really creative,
18:02but my job is to get the logs to the beach, so if that's what it takes to get the job done,
18:07you just got to do it.
18:10All right, you're on your own now, kid.
18:13All right, we'll try not to get fired on the first day.
18:16Good luck.
18:23Can't say that I'm not nervous.
18:25She's been driving truck a long time, but this is a whole hell of a lot more truck.
18:30That's the real deal right there.
18:32We're just going to take it nice and slow, first gear.
18:37Try my best.
18:39Stinker swim time.
18:40Coming around that switchback by herself.
18:44I'm worried that, you know, I'm not in the cab with her and she might panic or something like that,
18:49but, you know, how else do you make sailors? You send them out to sea, right?
18:58Okay, God help me.
19:08That was great. She did it like the boss. Let's go. Let's get some money made.
19:24Really get thrown in there starting out with all of that weight right at the switchback,
19:33but I think I did okay.
19:35Are you on here, Amisha?
19:38Good.
19:38Great job on that switchback. That was textbook.
19:54Good job.
19:54Good job.
19:55Good job.
20:00Now we got to do the tripping of the load.
20:02This is very, very dangerous is we have to unlatch this right here and you have to reach above this.
20:10Some guys will pull this and as they're pulling this, the weight of the steak will break this open and it's been known to break people's wrists.
20:20I do see a vertical challenge here.
20:22A little bit.
20:23All right, let me go look for something you can stand on.
20:29Aha!
20:31A milk crate.
20:32Here's your new stepping stool.
20:38The Alicia Bilt Crate Hanger, custom built on the Pacific truck.
20:42Yep. I'll paint it pink so nobody steals it.
20:45That's how you do.
20:56Now we stand back and he'll push the load off.
21:11Nicely done.
21:12When you go home to your husband tonight, you tell him to pass the salt and pepper.
21:18You're a fat truck driver now.
21:20Good job.
21:21I see a fat truck driver in her.
21:23100%.
21:24Flying colors she passed.
21:25Having her on my team is going to be definitely worth it.
21:29And if she can be productive and get the trucks hauling, you can get these trees, get them to the water and turn the trees into dollars.
21:37It's kind of rotting around the base, but it looks like there could be a lot of value.
21:44There's a mess here, isn't there?
21:47I think we're going to have to blow it.
21:48I think we're going to have to do it.
21:49Ready?
21:50Three, two, one.
21:52It's the final day of the float camp lease, and the log barge is set to arrive tomorrow.
22:07But bush mechanic Adrian still struggles to get the boom boat operational.
22:12And now faces the final challenge, reassembling the entire clutch system.
22:20At the final analysis, the slide collar was worn out as well as the push plate.
22:26So it over-centers and engages our clutch.
22:30I absolutely love this industry.
22:31I fell in love with it when I was in high school.
22:33Being a bush mechanic was my dream and my goal back then, and I'm definitely deep in it now.
22:39Fortunately, we had all the parts we needed, and it's taking a little longer than I was expecting,
22:44but we're looking pretty good.
22:46Logging around here is kind of an 80s time capsule, and you meet a lot of old guys from that era.
22:53The same kind of era that is the music I like, and these guys are total rockers, man.
22:58Like, some guys got wicked mullets, and I've seen a few mustaches and handlebars.
23:03It's a total time capsule, as well as the equipment.
23:06It's a, it's, we're working in almost a museum at this point.
23:10Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, beautiful right there.
23:14I need to see that disengage, so I know that I'm not f***ing myself here.
23:22Why is that so tight?
23:23Pressure plate that I just installed is tight on the shaft.
23:34That needs to be not tight on the shaft, because now it's going to grab all the time.
23:41What in the f*** is the problem?
23:51What do we got here?
24:022,000 feet up the mountain, Jim and Rob have just enough time for one last harvest.
24:08A pair of dead standing trees, also known as snags, that together could be worth at least 20 grand.
24:23It looks like that one's coming up this way, so we'll probably have to get that one out of there first.
24:28Oh, look at that.
24:30Oh, the hosers.
24:33It's split all the way up and twisted.
24:37That's just slabs on the outside.
24:39I don't know if it's how much, how far in the rot carries, but if there's no water getting into the inside,
24:46we got sound wood on the inside.
24:47So you've still got to be worried about this shell coming off before the rest of it.
24:53And these little saplings could potentially be holding the tree up.
24:58I don't know.
25:00You want to cut it, Jim?
25:01You want to cut it wrong?
25:02No, I'll cut it, sure.
25:11To get the first snag on the ground, Rob will have to keep it from crashing into its neighbor.
25:16To do it, he'll start by aiming his undercut further down the hillside,
25:21then clear the smaller trees before hitting his main target with one final back cut.
25:30Okay, let's do this, Jim.
25:32There's a couple smaller trees going into the top of this, which could be holding it up,
25:49could be pulling it down.
25:51We don't know what's going to happen.
25:52If this thing loses any kind of control, it's going to be anyone's guess.
26:02So those two hemlocks fell out.
26:31So it's free, and that one that's just free swinging is on its own now?
26:35Yeah.
26:36Bye.
26:38Bye.
26:38Bye.
26:43Bye.
26:55Bye.
26:57I think it's going.
27:18That's a good sound.
27:22Oh, that's so close!
27:27Holy f**k, nice shot.
27:40You missed that other double snag.
27:43Nice piece of wood.
27:44I didn't think it was going to be that solid.
27:50Well, let's finish the double snag here and get the other one.
27:53Okay, buddy.
27:57All right, let's see.
28:05Oh, this one's spongy.
28:07That sounds very spongy.
28:09My axe just is plunging deeper and deeper into it.
28:13Oh, I can feel that over here.
28:15Not hitting any solid wood here.
28:16Way more rotten.
28:18You're dislodging all the outsides over here, too.
28:21Am I?
28:21Yeah, it's kind of rotten around the base, but it looks like there could be a lot of value up in the top of it, and we're going to see if we can't control this thing and bring it down in one piece.
28:30Well, I can see a problem right now.
28:33You've got no escape trail, and you're not bucking this s**t out of the way.
28:39There's a mess here, isn't there?
28:41Because there's so much wood up against it, because it's leaning up the hill so hard, because it is so rotten, number one, we can't keep control of it, probably.
28:49And number two, we can't get away from it, probably.
28:51Those are two probabilities we can't deal with.
28:53Well, it's too dangerous.
28:55I think we're going to have to blow it.
28:57I think we're going to have to blow it.
28:58There's too many variables to say you're going to make it out of there safely with that pile of logs there.
29:05So our only other option to get rid of that thing is with explosives.
29:11High above float cam.
29:30Here comes the bomb, man.
29:35Hey boys, Jared Seekers said you guys need a blaster.
29:38Yeah, we've got that first nag right there.
29:40Oh yeah, that's a good one.
29:44How much money is going to come of this stick of wood is kind of up in the air.
29:47So as far as saving this thing out, we're trying to do our best to save it out as much as we can.
29:52I think best plan of action, we can cut a bit of a window in the side there so we can access, get the powder into the tree.
30:01Okay.
30:01And then, uh, yeah, that shouldn't be a problem, should be able to cut something in here somewheres.
30:07To preserve this snag as best they can, Jim will carve an opening or window into its base, then pack it with 50 pounds of explosives, hoping to blow it clean off its stump.
30:27You think that's good, man?
30:48Oh yeah.
30:49Oh yeah, that'll fit a bag perfect.
30:51Well, let's go grab some powder.
30:52We're just going to gingerly throw this into the hole.
31:08Here we go.
31:09Oh yeah, baby.
31:11We'll pull that back a couple feet and yeah, we're good to go.
31:15All right, let's blow this thing up.
31:22Give her.
31:29Ready?
31:30Three, two, one.
31:32All right, let's go see what we did.
31:55Oh, look at that, that's a beautiful sight.
31:58That is a beautiful sight.
32:00Later right out, almost like you knew what you were doing.
32:04It is finally nice to have this double snag completed on the ground, safe and sound, and we have actually quite a bit of good wood sitting there for us to buck up and have for Jared to be truck ready.
32:15Together, these snags bring a combined $17,000 worth of wood.
32:22Cool.
32:27Back at float camp.
32:29These are the moments when if somebody ever came and asked what's taking so long, somebody's face would get bit off.
32:35The boom boat is due to start corralling logs first thing in the morning, but Adrian is running behind schedule.
32:42I should be able to engage this freely.
32:49What in the is causing that?
32:53Most mechanics die at the age of 55 from frustration, pure rage and frustration.
32:58Oh my God, just give me a, line me up, you ****.
33:09Yeah, that's good now.
33:11This is why I curse so much, boys.
33:13Like, straight up, you can't do it without.
33:15Like, things don't go together without a couple of **** and ****.
33:26There!
33:28Good, that's locked in.
33:40Now, can we line up a shaft through a seal into a needle bearing and a clutch into the splines all at the same time?
33:48I think it's going to cooperate, hopefully.
33:50Nobody move.
33:52Nobody fart.
33:55Oh, yeah, babe.
33:56Just like that.
33:57Oh, there it is.
34:00Oh!
34:02Feel the love.
34:05Oh!
34:06Feel it installing.
34:10Look at that.
34:13Thing of beauty.
34:15As per usual, putting the clutch back on the engine gave me a little bit of a fight, but it's finally on.
34:19It's bolted up.
34:20The drive shaft's on.
34:21I'm excited to get this thing finished up and take it out for a C-trial.
34:24It works.
34:28It engages.
34:45It runs.
34:47It floats.
34:49It floats.
34:49It propels.
34:50I don't think it's slipping.
34:57C-c-c-c-c-cool beans, bro.
35:00That's a win.
35:01I got this boat done, and it's a huge win for this place.
35:05The last couple loads are in the water, and we've got to get them organized, troweled up, ready for market, and we can get out of here.
35:10After months of logging, and more than 70,000 tons of timber barge, the lease at float camp is finally up, and Jared races back from the Forever Claim to see off his last haul.
35:35I got to get this barge fully loaded.
35:41My pessimistic nature thinks that it's not, because something always happens in logging.
35:50Oh, there she is.
35:52What a beautiful sight.
35:56Our crew has worked super hard to get this barge out.
36:00Are you out of here, Dave?
36:03How's it going there, Jared?
36:04How's everything looking?
36:08How are the bundles?
36:09Do you think we're going to get a full march today?
36:11My job title is head cook for the float camp.
36:31We have 55 rooms, so cooking for that many people.
36:35I get up at around 3 a.m., do breakfast, make the sandwiches for the lunch table, do all the baking, prep for dinner and desserts, just making some turnovers for the lunch table.
36:4790% of that is from scratch.
36:49The loggers are so special.
36:51They're just a great group of guys, you know, just out doing a job, away from home, away from their families.
36:57It's the most important thing to me, to make the guys happy, and to make them comfortable.
37:02Can't beat Sue, she night.
37:05Sue made it.
37:08You know, I try not to miss anybody's birthday.
37:11If they're here, they get a cake, even if they don't want it.
37:14You go right ahead.
37:15It's really important to me, to make these loggers feel like this is their home away from home.
37:21Mmm, every time.
37:39We're going to get a full march today.
37:45Should be a full one, buddy.
37:52It won't be done until midnight, but it'll be pretty cool.
37:55They're nice, big, fat bundles.
37:57Good job.
38:02477 bundles delivers $236,000 of pure profit.
38:08Profit from this barge needs to go into Peggy Bank for the pot at the end of this rainbow to buy
38:14the Forever Claim.
38:18Frank goes out tomorrow.
38:20Yeah.
38:23One thing left to do is have a tough conversation with John.
38:27I still owe him a royalty at the Forever Claim.
38:31John.
38:57John.
38:58How you doing?
38:59Jared.
38:59Jared.
38:59How are things?
39:02Do you know why I'm here?
39:05Yeah.
39:06Why were you short on the last barge?
39:08$50,000.
39:12What happened?
39:13Ah, lots of operational issues.
39:15We had weather setbacks, mechanical setbacks, things happen in logging.
39:19You know that.
39:20You knew the risk you were taking on, taking this deal on.
39:22I know.
39:23The last thing I want to do is get a tug in here and hook onto your float camp and take
39:26it.
39:27I don't want to do that, but if I have to, I'm going to do it.
39:31Business is business, Jared.
39:32I understand you're upset, and I get it.
39:35Yeah.
39:36I just wanted to get the next barge out and give you that money that I owed you, so I was...
39:41Yeah, what gives me the confidence the next barge is going to make up for that.
39:44We're about to hook onto float camp and take it to Forever Claim, which is going to boost
39:48up our production.
39:49You're going to get your money.
39:57All right, and you're going to make up the $50,000, so $150,000?
40:03$150,000.
40:04No problem.
40:05Okay, because dominoes fall here, Jared.
40:07No more excuses.
40:08$150,000 on that next barge.
40:11I give you my word.
40:12All right, Jared.
40:13Let's get this done.
40:14Thanks.
40:15John has every right to be angry with me.
40:30He has customers relying on this wood, but I'm going to get at it.
40:35me.
40:37I'm all in on this game.
40:40We're moving float camp to the Forever Claim.
40:46My production is going to double, and that is exactly what we need.
40:53There's just one big thing that could set me back, so we need to move.
41:00Next time.
41:01Fire season is knocking at our front door.
41:04I got my extinguisher on the ready here, Jim.
41:07Just start yourself on fire.
41:09Oh, look at that.
41:11When you're dealing with fires, you don't have a lot of time.
41:14It's dead.
41:17Got to get the wood to the guard before John Muhammad takes my .
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