Thought I knew how to cut firewood but I was schooled today

[H 2 H]

I pulled into the speedway (were I've been cutting the last few days) and here was 3 trucks and 7 guys; 3 were high schoold kids 1 was my age 50 something and the other 2 were in there 70's.

We bs'ed for about and hour before we started one guy my age had a backhoe with a nice piece of chain so he ran backhoe and one guy brought his splitter and another had a two ton truck with a lowboy trailer with sides about 3 foot tall; backhoe pulled the logs to a clearing and then held the logs up with the chain when I buck them up the three high school kids did the splitting with the splitter and loaded the two ton truck and the lowboy and the two 70 year olds sat in lawn chairs and watched us for 4 hours

Nothing like a view like this

 

[Fred Wright]

With a view of the mountains like that, I'd wanna sit in a lawn chair too.

Reminds me of a firewood gig the old man (my father-in-law) found, years ago. Dad rounded up a couple of his wood cutter contacts and they rounded up the younger boys, mostly early teens.

Dad knew the old gal who owned the woodlot. We used to pick on him about the women he knew. Heck, he knew everyone up in them mountains. We didn't go up there without him sitting in the shotgun seat. Off paved roads in the mountains of Rappahannock and Madison, you were in moonshine country.

Dad did a bit of wheeling and dealing. Called in some old IOUs, I guess. She let 'em cut there one summer. Lots of red oak and hickory with some tulip poplar for good measure.

Dad and his buddies rustled up a skid loader with cat tracks, a lowboy trailer, couple of splitters and a 5-ton dump body truck. Don't ask me how they managed it. Those old boys could get anything ~ and all the help they needed.

The sawyers felled and limbed. The boys bucked and the skid steer driver collected rounds in the bucket. He drove down to the lowboy and dumped. Two boys running splitters busted rounds and threw the splits on the truck. The dump body driver took the splits to a depot. Everyone took a smoke break until the dump body returned. It was a slick operation.

Of course, once things were going well, Dad and his buddies sat back in folding chairs, sipped beer and watched. Dad always said he was retired and he wasn't done settin' down yet. Y'all better hurry up before she changes her mind.

 

[Iska3]

Wow!! I envy anyone who has a view like that. Sometimes we take things for granted but that wouldn’t be one of them. I’d like to be in a chair next to those guys. That's a great picture..

 

[Landsinn]

Must of been really nice to be in a place cutting and also having a great view!!!!

 

[HorseFaller]

I pulled into the speedway (were I've been cutting the last few days) and here was 3 trucks and 7 guys; 3 were high schoold kids 1 was my age 50 something and the other 2 were in there 70's.

We bs'ed for about and hour before we started one guy my age had a backhoe with a nice piece of chain so he ran backhoe and one guy brought his splitter and another had a two ton truck with a lowboy trailer with sides about 3 foot tall; backhoe pulled the logs to a clearing and then held the logs up with the chain when I buck them up the three high school kids did the splitting with the splitter and loaded the two ton truck and the lowboy and the two 70 year olds sat in lawn chairs and watched us for 4 hours

Nothing like a view like this

Hey that looks really familiar. Did they have a bunch blow down this winter.

 

[H 2 H]

Hey that looks really familiar. Did they have a bunch blow down this winter.

I kinda thought you would know were I was

And yes they had alot

There are still about 30 more trees to get; one Maple is about 4 foot at the but I can touch that dont have a big enough saw

 

[Guido Salvage]

Off paved roads in the mountains of Rappahannock and Madison, you were in moonshine country.

Actually, the major moonshining in Virginia was done much farther south in the area of Franklin and Floyd counties. While there may have been some isolated stills in Madison, Greene and Albemarle counties, it was never a major enterprise. I suspect that far more bear and deer were poached (or run out) of the Park than illegal whiskey was made.

 

[Fred Wright]

Actually, the major moonshining in Virginia was done much farther south in the area of Franklin and Floyd counties. While may have been some isolated stills in Madison, Greene and Albemarle counties, it was never a major enterprise. I suspect that far more bear and deer were poached (or run out) of the Park than illegal whiskey was made.

True, them boys in Madison and Rappahannock were Snuffy Smiths. Dad used to warn us about driving up in there if they didn't know you.

 

[HorseFaller]

I kinda thought you would know were I was

And yes they had alot

There are still about 30 more trees to get; one Maple is about 4 foot at the but I can touch that dont have a big enough saw

Let me know when your headed up again. I got a 32" that can almost get there. Been doing other job on the weekends. But mostly Monday thru Friday I'm open. Making a Woods run Monday.

 

[Circle B MN]

No pics of the wood.....?:msp_sad:

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I almost forgot what snow looked like!

 

[H 2 H]

I took 7 pictures of the mountains then I started cutting all I did was gas and oil the 261 and change the chain twice and then ate after we finished in Acme; those older timers in the lawn chair were slave drivers each time we would stop you could hear them

I could not cut like that full time I had a saw in my hands since Monday (atleast 4 hours a day) and today Im wooped

Next weekend is the first event at the track (playday) then it starts every Friday night; I'll be taking 500 to 800 pictures every night then spending two days going thru those pictures

I have two Maples that blew over at my Aunts place to cut up this week but by the sounds of the weather man I don't know if that will happen

And I still have that rebuild to do on the MS 310

By the way here is a brand new Honda 120 powered 4 stroker JR Minisprint testing we had to replace the coil on it and that tach I got last week sure came in hande setting it up last week

This is what I do for a living when its race season