The hookaroon looks useful though, might have to make one of those. is it specially made or could i just take a torch to a pickaxe and make my own?
I suppose you could do that, but you might run the risk of the steel losing its temper and strength, and having it break more easily. There are others here with a lot more metal knowledge though.
Here's my rig for lifting big logs off the ground:
It's just an old bumper jack I grabbed at the dump some years back. I welded an old railway track plate to the bottom to give it a nice wide base for stability. It definitely made it a lot heavier to lug around the bush, but it's no worse than the 090 w/ mill attached! I plan on mofifying the "lip" of the jack to make it a lot stronger and easier to lift with.
Just a closer view of how I lift the logs. I have a link of #120 roller chain that I secure to the end of the log with 4" X 1/2" lag bolts. This is really sturdy, and gives a nice concave lip for the jack to grab. It works the best if it is put above center on the log, otherwise I run the risk of it becoming top-heavy and wanting to roll off the jack :censored:. I just used this rig yesterday to lift a 10-foot 28" Douglas Fir log up onto bedding logs so I could mill it, and it worked like a charm. I don't know how heavy it was, but I could barely roll the log with a 5-foot prypbar, so...
And if something's REALLY heavy, I have this:
It's a 15-ton mechanical railway jack that was originally used to lift the big rail sections into place. It was here up in the shop when i bought the place, along with a special rail lifting prybar, and both have come in really handy a few times. Dad and I used that jack to lift the entire 10X30' addition on his house to level it last summer. The great thing is that you can put as long of a handle as you want into the 2" square handle mount - with a good 6-foot handle or that prybar I mentioned earlier, a five-year-old could lift anything that jack is capable of. The other bonus is that you can lift from that bottom toe which is only about 3" off the ground, and once it's up high enough you can jack up twice as high from the top of the jack post. The DOWNSIDE is that it probably weighs about 75 pounds or more, and I don't even like carrying it short distances.
I also carry a hand boat winch and an old idler pulley setup sometimes. I lag bolt the hand winch to a tree quite low to the ground and some distance away, and then I lag bolt the idler pulley as high as I can to a tree near the piece I want to move. I have an assortment of eye bolts etc. that I rig onto the log to hook the winch line too. I have also done this with the winch on my quad, but being that my quad is much lighter than some of the pieces of wood I move, it has its limitations until the wood is on wheels. If you wanted to flip a short block over, I'd try attaching the winch on the bottom far side of the block, and blocking/pegging the near side of the block so it can't slide. This way the winch is pulling up and back and the piece will want to flip instead of slide or roll. Of course this assumes a very nearby tree or a tripod setup, so it is useless in some situations. And in case you can't tell - I agree with Madsaw, I pack my cordless Li-Ion drill and impact driver every time I go to get wood. The batteries on those things last forever and I've never had them die on me on a job. They were pricey, but worth every penny. Beats using a brace & bit out in the bush.
