One Man Crew?

[sledge&wedge]

Hey all,

Just had some questions due to genuine curiosity in the logging industry and figured I would use it as a chance to make my first (and probably only) thread on the logging board. My neighbor is having an 85 acre patch selectively cut for lumber and veneer and I noticed they started cutting late last week. I have full permission to do what I want when I want over there, so I took a walk yesterday afternoon to look around and see how things are coming along. I eventually stumbled across the crew having dinner in the woods. One dude. Just one. He is probably 70% done with the patch already and he is working completely alone. Is that normal or is this guy a real manly man? I guess I expected at least 3-4 guys based on the 2 massive 40' x 16' x 12' piles of logs he already had stacked and ready to ship out in only 4 days of working. Like I said, just curious. I realize 85 acres isn't a huge job compared to big time operations, but I am still impressed that he's going it alone and appears to be making great time.

Thanks and happy cutting.

 

[Gypo Logger]

Lumberjack dude working alone sounds like a real Paul Bunyan because 85 acres soulds like at least 400 trees or 175,000 ft. So this lone logger is making real good time being in there only 4 days.
Did you notice what saw he is using?

 

[chucker]

? no mention of equipment, so he must be a "manly-man" to move all that material in 4 day's alone within 85 acres. ? what species of logging is he selectively cutting, diameter at knee high & breast for more info...

 

[sledge&wedge]

Lumberjack dude working alone sounds like a real Paul Bunyan because 85 acres soulds like at least 400 trees or 175,000 ft. So this lone logger is making real good time being in there only 4 days.
Did you notice what saw he is using?

It was a Stihl saw but honestly didn't look close enough to see which model. I would guess it was around a 70cc saw and a 36" bar roughly. He had a smaller saw he was using to top and limb the tree out with, also of the orange variety. He did mention he was working sunrise to sunset, so I'm sure that helps quite a bit. I can verify the length of his work day; last night at 8:30 I heard him still dropping trees, and at 6:15 this morning I heard the skidder moving around.

? no mention of equipment, so he must be a "manly-man" to move all that material in 4 day's alone within 85 acres. ? what species of logging is he selectively cutting, diameter at knee high & breast for more info...

Best I could tell he had two skidders there. One appeared to be his go-to machine, and was about the same size I see at every smaller operation around here. The other was quite a bit larger, but didn't look nearly as well used as the smaller one. He had another machine there, don't know the common name for it. Big sled with racks on one end, a boom arm with grapple, and a powered saw to cut logs to length. Probably 30' long total. It's all flat ground so that may be helping his time. He also has access from 3 sides of the wood lot. I should clarify by "70% done" I meant he is 70% done with bringing logs to the landing. He had a hell of a pile of tree length logs laying there yet to be cut to size, probably 30-40 logs. It doesn't appear to be species specific cutting. Some red oak, some white oak, beech, shagbark hickory, walnut, poplar and a few random ash trees in the pile. All of them looked to be in the 24-30" range from what I could tell, definintely a few monster trees here and there maybe pushing 4' diameter. I was just impressed overall. I don't see logging first hand very often so I am new to the full process.

 

[Marshy]

No logger on the east coast would use a 70cc power head and a 30"+ bar. Most loggers I know use a 24" bar max on 70cc saws. Most jump to a 390XP or 394Xp and use a 24-30" bar. I don't know anyone stupid enough to cut 100% by themselves. They at least have 1 other guy in the field with them, maybe running the skidder or at the landing.

 

[sledge&wedge]

No logger on the east coast would use a 70cc power head and a 30"+ bar. Most loggers I know use a 24" bar max on 70cc saws. Most jump to a 390XP or 394Xp and use a 24-30" bar. I don't know anyone stupid enough to cut 100% by themselves. They at least have 1 other guy in the field with them, maybe running the skidder or at the landing.

I could be off on my guesses a bit. I didn't get to see him drop any trees or do any cutting of any kind. Just glanced at his saws in the box mounted on the skidder. Could have been a bigger head or a shorter bar (or both), just eyeballing from ~50 yards away. Like I said I am 100% green on cutting timber other than seeing the total carnage left behind by a bad crew/cleanup job on some of the ground I hunt on all across Southern Indiana. I am 100% in agreement with you on being surprised that he was alone. That is exactly what made me write up a post and ask somebody who knows what they are talking about. I expected to see at least one guy cutting and one guy skidding, and maybe another guy at the landing cutting logs to length.

 

[chucker]

one man doing the work of three! a real "go getter" getting it done...

 

[bitzer]

I must be pretty stupid then. I work alone. Help can be more trouble then it's worth. Sounds like he's getting a little better than a semi load a day. Maybe load and a half. In that size wood I would do at least that to maybe two loads a day. I typically work 8-10 hour days. Sounds like he's skidding tree length and using a slasher to buck on the landing. I buck all mine in the woods. 90cc saw and 32" bar all the time. The thing about working alone is you go at your own pace. No one to push you but yourself. Contrary to what others are going to post about me after this post, I do this every day. I know many owner/ operators that cut alone for some of the reasons I've stated. The guys I know who have been killed or hurt around here were not working alone. They were on crews that expected production every day.


I just realized you had 4 piles of that size in 4 days. Is this tightly stacked bucked wood? The 40x12x16? Theres no way he's getting that all alone.

 

[sledge&wedge]

I must be pretty stupid then. I work alone. Help can be more trouble then it's worth. Sounds like he's getting a little better than a semi load a day. Maybe load and a half. In that size wood I would do at least that to maybe two loads a day. I typically work 8-10 hour days. Sounds like he's skidding tree length and using a slasher to buck on the landing. I buck all mine in the woods. 90cc saw and 32" bar all the time. The thing about working alone is you go at your own pace. No one to push you but yourself. Contrary to what others are going to post about me after this post, I do this every day. I know many owner/ operators that cut alone for some of the reasons I've stated. The guys I know who have been killed or hurt around here were not working alone. They were on crews that expected production every day.


I just realized you had 4 piles of that size in 4 days. Is this tightly stacked bucked wood? The 40x12x16? Theres no way he's getting that all alone.

Actually you caught a typo, sorry. 2 piles that size + 30-40 tree length logs yet to be bucked. I edited the original post to reflect that. I don't think he's stupid for doing it alone at all; just surprised one man is handling it. Like I mentioned above I don't see this stuff up close often, and never right outside my back door. I would say the stacks are as tight as practical given he is probably in a hurry and isn't trying to win a beauty contest. Again, guessing the numbers as far as dimensions, but I know about how big an F150 long bed single cab is and his was parked right in front of the pile to give me a reference. He is skidding unbucked for sure. I googled "timber slasher" and the pictures tell me you are correct. However, his has an actual chainsaw style bar, not a circular blade. I saw pics showing both. Thanks for all the info guys I am just a lowly firewood buzzard when it comes to chainsaws and timber.

Edit: Thinking back, not every log in the stacks were 16' long. Looked like the lower portion was longer logs, 12-16' maybe, and the upper portion were all in the 8-12' range. Guessing he needed the longer logs for a sturdy base to stack on, or he has orders for some longer lumber possibly.

 

[KiwiBro]

I don't know anyone stupid enough to cut 100% by themselves

stooped and proud of it.

 

[bitzer]

That sounds a little more realistic. Probably around 50-60 thousand feet is what he has out. In the right wood with the right set up a guy could do 12000+ board feet per day. I've done 10-12 mbf in soft maple swamps where I bucked everything in the woods and decked it with a forwarder. Big timber. My best week (5 days) was pushing 60 mbf. The funny thing about log piles is they look a lot bigger than they really are. You feel like you really stacked the wood up until the truck starts pulling logs out. A typical 85 acre sale here ( select cut) would yield 90-150 mbf depending on how hard it was being cut, type of timber, etc, etc. I've heard that trees are taller down there on average compared to here though.

 

[northmanlogging]

No logger on the east coast would use a 70cc power head and a 30"+ bar. Most loggers I know use a 24" bar max on 70cc saws. Most jump to a 390XP or 394Xp and use a 24-30" bar. I don't know anyone stupid enough to cut 100% by themselves. They at least have 1 other guy in the field with them, maybe running the skidder or at the landing.

Guess I'm dumb too.

Sounds like hes got 4-6 loads, which is shittin and gettin out here solo, but I have a lot more limbs to deal with then the east coast guys, tends to slow a guys production down. Dude is also using a slasher to process, less work for him, and higher production. So it sounds about right.

I've done a couple cotton timber jobs where I could have easily gotten 2 loads a day, if there wasn't targets to avoid etc... So yeah having 85 acres of open ground, nothing to avoid hitting, and a machine to do the hard work, easy money.

I'm going to avoid the whole long bar short bar ****...

Sometimes I'm the only human within 6 miles of where I'm cutting, and sometimes I don't even have cell service. A guy just has to slow down and plan out every move, every escape route, watch every top, and be ready to run when needed. Its not safe, and I know it, but it needs done and hiring someone is out of the question, largely because L+I has become simply too expensive. To sum up, I don't usually get a load a day purely because I'm cautious. I work alone, and I know my limits, I have nothing to prove to anyone but me and the wifey/war dept.

If this job was safe I'm fairly sure half of us would find some other occupation, like deep sea fishing, shaft mining, lineman, bullet proof armor testing, test pilot, astronaut... actually astronaut does sound kinda bad ass...

 

[chucker]

northy! I like your clear head on taking care of #1 ! plain, simple get it done on your terms... 8 cord a day makes for a fair easy living to wake tomorrow.

 

[sledge&wedge]

Thanks for all the info guys. I heard him again this morning at 6:15AM already dragging a tree back to the landing. I'll be surprised if he isn't done dropping trees soon. When I took my walk to look around Monday evening I didn't see very many blue dots left.

The biggest surprise I've heard so far is that more than one of you guys consider Southern IN the East Coast . Thanks for all the info and happy cutting. I'll back over to my normal home and stop bothering you now.

 

[Gologit]

I don't know anyone stupid enough to cut 100% by themselves.

Oh come on now Marshy, I'll bet you do.

 

[bitzer]

East coast is anything east of the Rocky's. I'm in Wisconsin and would consider my type of Logging east coast. All hardwood timber pretty much. I run a west coast saw with west coast style though!

 

[northmanlogging]

I grew up in Wyoming, so anything east of the mississippi or missouri, anything in between the dakota mtns and the mississippi, and south of the platte is just corn and doesn't count.

 

[SliverPicker]

I work entirely alone too. 90% of the time I have no cell service. I often don't see or even hear anyone else for five or more days at a time. On one job two years ago I once went a month without seeing a single person.

blah blah blah

 

[northmanlogging]

I might be able to get used to not seeing people for a month or 2, well self loader jockey every other day or so...

Spent most of today either on the road to/from parts stores or hiding from the sun behind a hemlock yacking on the phone with various other parts/boots/loggers/mills/and a few calls I don't honestly remember...

 

[bitzer]

I work entirely alone too. 90% of the time I have no cell service. I often don't see or even hear anyone else for five or more days at a time. On one job two years ago I once went a month without seeing a single person.

blah blah blah

That sounds like me except I usually have cell service. Well, i will see the truckers on the landing occasionally and the forester might stop out once every 4-8 weeks.