thanks for the humboldt

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What part of WV are you cutting in? That looks like some narrow hollers.
 
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A little handiwork..... These stems would have broken using an open face.

And....
Where's SLowP??? That was my second thought after "What the #### is that?" Its a littel slump that blocked our access into our current unit adding about 1000' to our walk in. No, we had not logged above this slip.

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Now that is somthing that I have never seen around our neck of the woods,

a mini land slide, my boss would sware that some did it to keep him from working..
 
I agree with Tramp. The fiber will usually keep bending until the face closes. I think a snipe on the stump helps, it moves the pivot ahead of the hinge and gives a little bit of sheering action on the holding wood as the tree moves forward off the stump.
Green poplar is soft but holds fairly well but will split very easy. It hold a way better than incense ceder ever dreamed of.
I have never cut tan oak or madrone but the eastern read oaks cut just like California black oak. Some black oak is more like post oak or bois d'ark. White oak , hickory and locust all hold the stump better than than any western tree I cut. Southern yellow pine cuts just about like western yellow pine and virginia pine (southern spruce) cuts very similar to white fir, maybe it holds a little better. But most piss fir that i cut was long dead and scary unless it had a bone in the middle. Still scary though.
Maybe some day I will make it up to the PNW and SE Alaska. I Hope the industry recovers before I get to old!
 
heres a sample of 2 stems I had the other day. Notice the gas line in the creek bottom. DO NOT break that. And no brush in the creek. And try not to not be able to cut any stem within the cutting specs.

The first, across the creek, is an ash, about 22" dbh. This stem would have snapped mid span if I'd used an open face. 2nd is its stump.

3 rd shot is a poplar. I usually open face a side hill stem, well, it depends. An open face here would have sort of violently popped the butt off the stump and tossed it down onto the gas line. With a humboldt I was able to get the butt to drop straight off the cliff to land between the cliff and the gas line. The top landed where I intended behind a 10" or so stem that was supposed to hold the top of the stem on the hill. Unfortunately, the stem didn't hold and the top , my tree rootwadded it and road it down the hill - its the broken stem between the poplar and the gas line. Fortunately, it was slow, and the gas line was actually on the creek bed here, so no damage. The root wads in the background are natural. The butt offs and stuff are some merch and some unmerch material fromm up the hill on the other side.



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Looks wide open, just like you said. Hope you boys are enjoying it. :cheers:

You seem to have no slash problem this time of year, that's good. Never thought of that. We have needles all year long.
 
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Good work and pics! Your type of fellin is a little closer to home for me, then the big western softies. I've worked some ground around here that looks a lot like that. Is that a full wrap on that saw, not a 3/4? Could be the angle. Looks like some fun and challenging ground to work with, with some real hazards to boot! Always makes it more interesting.


I'm sure its old, but its amazing they can run those gas lines right along the creek like that.

Thats the type of stuff where guys who say, its just cutting trees down or its not rocket science have no idea of what they are talking about.
 
We WAAYYY prefer cutting when the leaves are off. Crowns are not as heavy, the sap is down -something is was thinking about when after we talked about your frozen wood- our sap goes down in the dormant season so while wood freezes way up nort, ours doesn't in our more temperate climate.

Yes, aftermarket full wrap, heavy but stout. 32" bar, for reference. We're definately in large diameter timber, big ass red oaks, hard maple, but the soft hardwood prevail in the very bottom of the hollers. go about 100' uphill and you get into the big hard hardwoods.

Gas line? Yeah, like farmers with cows standing in the creek. Bad forestry, bad..... do not touch the creek unless you are a gas line or you are a four legged poop machine, then have at it!

Its been fun, but its about 1000 vertical feet down to the creek from the parking spot, long hike in and out but I love it down there, beautiful. We run strips up to the top so its not always packing in and out that deep.
 
We WAAYYY prefer cutting when the leaves are off. Crowns are not as heavy, the sap is down -something is was thinking about when after we talked about your frozen wood- our sap goes down in the dormant season so while wood freezes way up nort, ours doesn't in our more temperate climate.

Yes, aftermarket full wrap, heavy but stout. 32" bar, for reference. We're definately in large diameter timber, big ass red oaks, hard maple, but the soft hardwood prevail in the very bottom of the hollers. go about 100' uphill and you get into the big hard hardwoods.

Gas line? Yeah, like farmers with cows standing in the creek. Bad forestry, bad..... do not touch the creek unless you are a gas line or you are a four legged poop machine, then have at it!

Its been fun, but its about 1000 vertical feet down to the creek from the parking spot, long hike in and out but I love it down there, beautiful. We run strips up to the top so its not always packing in and out that deep.

Yeah its A LOT easier to find the holes in tight standing timber with no leaves on em. Same here, the good hardwoods are on the top, ash and other water suckers are on the bottom. Good early deer hunting is on top too, when the acorns drop. 1000 ft. is a little more than I'm used too but we've got some good hills and drops. They call them kettles and moraines. Big holes and big hills or ridges left by the glaciers. Out west near the Mississippi river it starts to get really broken up. I know there has got to be some good wood left over there. I don't really know who or if anyone is going after it. I should find out. Good pics man! I've got to get me a camera to bring along with me.
 
heres a sample of 2 stems I had the other day. Notice the gas line in the creek bottom. DO NOT break that. And no brush in the creek. And try not to not be able to cut any stem within the cutting specs.

The first, across the creek, is an ash, about 22" dbh. This stem would have snapped mid span if I'd used an open face. 2nd is its stump.

3 rd shot is a poplar. I usually open face a side hill stem, well, it depends. An open face here would have sort of violently popped the butt off the stump and tossed it down onto the gas line. With a humboldt I was able to get the butt to drop straight off the cliff to land between the cliff and the gas line. The top landed where I intended behind a 10" or so stem that was supposed to hold the top of the stem on the hill. Unfortunately, the stem didn't hold and the top , my tree rootwadded it and road it down the hill - its the broken stem between the poplar and the gas line. Fortunately, it was slow, and the gas line was actually on the creek bed here, so no damage. The root wads in the background are natural. The butt offs and stuff are some merch and some unmerch material fromm up the hill on the other side.

looks good. like a good place to work.
 
Really good pics Hammer!!

..So once you get up out a the crik you need to side hill them ??? Does the slope stay pretty constant to the top of the unit or is the ground real broken up ???? Sometimes I put in even steeper Humbolt faces ..But in ground like that , if you need to set a driver in ahead of time you want a saginaw face with a good 2-4 " of stump shot ..... It is amazing to see such open country that is timbered ... It,s kindof like the ground between Palmer and Sutton, Alaska ....... Really like your pics !!!!! I bet your legs give you a talking to at night ..... Your work looks very nice ....
 
The ground is a little broken up.... sometimes not so much. If flagging a road, occasionally its more like imagining a break in the slope, a little shelf, than there actually is one-- but thats the place to put a bench if you have to.
That creek bottom is the steepest, too steep to stand much. Above that bottom 70' it moderated some and pretty consistent up from there. 60% slopes are normal. Some places are more broken than others. Theres a lip below the ridge where the last 150' top the top is what we call flat ground, 15-30% slope or so, making broader ridge tops-- gravy ground.
 
The ground is a little broken up.... sometimes not so much. If flagging a road, occasionally its more like imagining a break in the slope, a little shelf, than there actually is one-- but thats the place to put a bench if you have to.
That creek bottom is the steepest, too steep to stand much. Above that bottom 70' it moderated some and pretty consistent up from there. 60% slopes are normal. Some places are more broken than others. Theres a lip below the ridge where the last 150' top the top is what we call flat ground, 15-30% slope or so, making broader ridge tops-- gravy ground.
.

. The ground in the pics is nice ground ! .. Definatly #2 Redowwd corks type ground . But nice easy to get around on ground ... Not saying walking up hill all day is easy and I know you are earning every penny you make .........There is just NO BRUSH THERE . and you can see the ground ..........
 
hey tramp its my tomorrow now I'm cutting today, can you smell the bacon and coffee?

No brush? Its a jungle, but you'll have to wait for summer for pics that show that. Of course, its probably not as thick as SE AK- and I bet that stuff really holds the water/dew and keeps you soaked all day. BTW, how do you all deal with the mosquitos in SE? I worked on a boat one summer down by Valdeez and if we ever took the skiff to shore on a day off it was insanity....

We all LOVE winter time conditions because all the leaves are off.
 
hey tramp its my tomorrow now I'm cutting today, can you smell the bacon and coffee?

No brush? Its a jungle, but you'll have to wait for summer for pics that show that. Of course, its probably not as thick as SE AK- and I bet that stuff really holds the water/dew and keeps you soaked all day. BTW, how do you all deal with the mosquitos in SE? I worked on a boat one summer down by Valdeez and if we ever took the skiff to shore on a day off it was insanity....

We all LOVE winter time conditions because all the leaves are off.

LOL...The first time I went to SE I wondered why everybody carried guns. I found out soon enough. They were for shooting mosquitos. :)
 

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