blowdowns

[stihl460]

logging in michigan has been very very slow lately, i know i don't have to tell those that live and work in this state that it has been one of the wettest springs in a long time.. (im not sure about the surrounding areas but im sure its been the same story)

Most sawmills (in southwest MI anyways) have plenty of timber bought but its all too wet to work in. its been really tough to find timber that's workable for a smaller crew such as mine.

but in tough times it seems the Lord has his ways of taking care of us (as bad as it sounds) there was a bad storm that passed through the area our skidder is in and laid down basically the entire woods. What started out as "get my ash cut before it rots but dont touch any of the other species" (a two week job as it's quite spread out) turned into "salvage as much as you can, cut whatever is blown down because my woods is now horizontal" which will most likely keep us busy for the forseeable future! (plenty of time to let our jobs dry up)

i understand it's sad to see your woods get trashed by a storm, but the landowner understands that there's really nothing you can do when three tornadoes and a straight line wind as powerful as this was comes through. in fact we've had calls from basically every neighbor for miles in either direction wanting us to do the same..

 

[Joe46]

Glad your work is looking up. Be careful in that stuff!

 

[ChrisF]

Good to see you'll be kicking ass and working a lot. That's no given these days.

If possible, post some pics of you guys workin' that area, always fun to see different people's operations.

 

[nw axe man]

Sorry to hear about all that blowdown but glad to hear it's put you in the work mode. Watch those windfalls. Pretty easy to get a cleft lip.

 

[stihl460]

yes, thinks are looking up work wise and that's hard to come by lately, not taking it for granted that's for sure. im thankful everyday i get to work and i try to do the best of my abilities because of it.

and of course, always we are careful! too many loggers in my area get busted up, i see them everyday and its a reminder to look up, be aware of your surroundings and wear your ppe!

i'll be sure to snap as many pictures as possible, just got a different skidder tho im not quite used to yet, i learned on a cable skidder and im still getting used to the grapple (only used it for a day so far)

 

[stihl460]

Pictures

came to the woods this morning, nothing but trees covering the driveway as far as the eye could see... jumped out of the truck to get the skidder so that i could push the tops out of the trails so we could get the truck to the landing and i found a tree on my skidder.. of all the trees in that woods. i parked the skidder in the middle of the field and i still managed to park it right where a tree fell... not that it hurt it any but it made it much more difficult to get iin lol..

but i promised some pictures and so here they are. sorry i didnt snap one when i burried the skidder in the muck but i was more worried about getting it out cuz it was in there!

 

[ChrisF]

Cool pictures, thanks for sharing!