2023 North East Tennessee MAC Report
Beautiful day today in North East Tennessee.
I haven't reported in a while due to the lack of MAC action. Not that we haven't been busy, just MAC deprived.
Brian and I together with another fellow with the Firewood Ministry spent the morning fabricating some log bunks for the deuce which took much longer than expected. Brian and I made to the woods around 1:00 after a hearty meatloaf lunch.
We have had a lot of rain that left the ground too soft for pickups and trailers, but almost perfect for the old army truck. Top of our agenda was bucking and loading a large red oak that we skid out in the drizzling rain last week. It was one heavy beast. The red oak - 55' to the first limb.
Brian with his 805 cutting a 12' section off the little end.
The tractor just barely lifted it high enough to load - around 2300#.
Brian cutting the next section with his 805.
It proved too heavy so Brian whacked 32" off of it.
We then cut a shorter section that just reached the two bunks. It proved a real dangerous challenge loading so we quit while we were ahead. We will have to cut the remaining 25+' in shorter pieces and either trailer it out or remove the bunks from the truck. We took the truck down the hill and topped it off with some lighter dead red oak, white oak and ash that we bucked - Brian using the 805 and me using his 1010S.
As I said the red oak was heavy. We used a D7H to pull it out. The first attempt was a failure. We had the choker double hooked to spread the load. One of the hooks spread instead - just as well as the chain was almost severed. Fortunately, I had enough sense not to hook to the 1/2" quick link. BTW that was once a grab hook though it now looks like a stretched slip hook.
We made it on the second attempt but tweaked a 3/4" shackle in the process. The D7H.
Be safe,
Ron
