I don't know how you guys down South do it.

[esshup]

Cut wood in this heat that is. It's 75°F at sunrise with humidity in the high 80% range and supposed to hit the triple digit mark in the afternoons for the rest of the week, then the long range forcast says highs in the low 80's to mid 90's.

A property that I manage the ponds on was hit in the storms this past weekend and the owner wants me to clean up the place. Remove all the trees that are on the roads, drop all leaning trees and remove all the widowmakers that are hanging. He wants me to cut all the trees that got blown over so the stumps flop back and fill in the holes. 95% of the trees are Red/White Oak and Sugar Maple, with the rest a mixture of Sassafrass, River Birch and Big Tooth Aspen. Luckily I have the use of a JD4720 4/wd tractor with enclosed cab (a/c) and grapple bucket.

But, I can't sit in the A/C all day long. I figure that it'll take at least 4 weeks to do the clean up - there's well over 100 trees that got the tops blown out, snapped off or blown over, and there's another 20-25 dead Oaks around the ponds that he wants dropped and cleaned up too. The trees in the woods I can leave, just get the rootballs cut off. (ain't looking forward to that) I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth with all the free wood (and get paid to clean it up), but I just wish that it would have happened when it was cooler out. Most of the trees are 12"-30" DBH. They're calling it straight line winds, but there's a path thru the woods in 2 places where trees are dropped/tops ripped off/uprooted and the trees fell anywhere from 9:00 to Noon to 3:00 if you were to describe how they fell by using the face of a clock.

Just 2 weekends ago I brought home 8 loads of River Birch that I cleared out this Spring and now this. (40' long, 40,000# rated pintle hook trailer behind a KW 7 yd dump truck). Still have to cut that up and split it too before it rots........

I figure start at 5 a.m. and quit by noon. Any tips for cutting in the heat?

 

[rwoods]

Drink lots of water. Take a few cool down breaks. Ron

 

[forestryworks]

Drink lots of water. Take frequent cool down breaks.

Fixed it.

 

[turnkey4099]

I freeze a couple bottles of water and leave early. By the time the temps are edging 80s I leave and have a couple bottles of half frozen water - pure ambrosia to sip on the way home.

BTW thanks for the reminder - that is the last thing I needed to do to be ready for leaving in the morning - put some bottles in the freezer.

Where you are and the conditions I would seriously consider working a modified 'hoot owl' shift Start about 6 or 7 pm and work until dark. Start again about 4am and go until about 9. But then I am retired and only sleep 3 or 4 hours at a shot anyhow.

Harry K

 

[Truck4]

While our humidiity is not as bad as yours, our heat is usually in the upper 90's to the low 100's, we have hit 108 twice this yr:msp_scared:, I usually try to get out as early as possible and go till ~noon by then its hitting the 90's, then again late evening. ditto on drinking lots of water (and gateraid for me). I did have to go and load ~140 65# bales the other day when it was 102, few hours later and about 3 gallons of water I was done:msp_wink:

Roy

 

[ShaneLogs]

While our humidiity is not as bad as yours, our heat is usually in the upper 90's to the low 100's, we have hit 108 twice this yr:msp_scared:, I usually try to get out as early as possible and go till ~noon by then its hitting the 90's, then again late evening. ditto on drinking lots of water (and gateraid for me). I did have to go and load ~140 65# bales the other day when it was 102, few hours later and about 3 gallons of water I was done:msp_wink:

Roy

Ah! The pure joys of loading hay in the heat I have done it for many years now.

 

[zogger]

If you are jumping back and forth from an Ac cab to ground work...it'll hit ya a lot harder. Try to just get most of the ground work done before doing tractor work. and like the guys said above, go real dang early, and quit when it gets too hot.

The only way I can work in the heat is we have zero AC, not in our cabin, not in the rides or the tractor. I get adapted to the hot season better than most guys around here I have found. Plus I know enough to just slow the heck down the hotter it gets. try to work as hard as you do at like 50 degrees and you'll croak. I mean it, it gets real hot, just slow....down.

I only did a little cutting today, felled two dead oaks threatening one of the farmer's trailers, but had to stop from a fast moving T storm that came through. I'll buck them out tomorrow and haul them back..sometime.

Did cool things off a little, even though not much rain.

 

[McCulloch1-52]

I heard put your arm in cold water.

 

[esshup]

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll move some bottles from the fridge to the freezer. The basic plan is to start at first light, getting a lot cut before I jump into the tractor. I have an 19 yr. old that'll be working with me and that will help out a lot. He's not expecting it, but I bought a set of chaps for him and it's "no running the saw without them on, steel toes, leather gloves, ear and eye protection". I've got an extra hard hat too. :wink2:

He can work on the easy stuff, nothing under compression/tension, and nothing standing or leaning. There's one River Birch that is about 10"-12" in diameter that has a 30" DBH Oak on it's top, bringing the whole tree to the ground. The Birch trunk goes about 5' in the air, then does a 90° turn, then about 45° to the ground. The trunk is whole, not one splinter or crack. That one is way up on the pucker factor list.

No reason to push it, better be safe and a little bit slow than fast and sitting in the ER. With the humidity here, working in the evenings is about impossible. It's 6:20 p.m. and the temp is still 97° with 49% humidity...............

I just told the landowner that we probably wouldn't get much done this week with the temps and he was perfectly O.K. with that. He, his wife and I walked the property on Monday with the temps in the low 90's fom 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. and he looked like he just got out of the shower so he understands the heat.

Here's a pic of the Birch logs that I brought home. While it doesn't look it, the majority of them are at least 30' long. The pile is about 10' tall, and a lot is hidden under the tree branches. (the left side of the pile is resting on the 2 trees in the picture.) The logs on the other side of the trees are mostly Oak/Maple with some Birch as well. Those logs are 12' long.

 

[spidermonkey17]

come on down to Virginia its been like a sauna down here for the last couple of weeks. Does not make for fun days when doing storm work cleanup. I know a couple of things have been said but remember to hydrate not just when you are out there but pre- loading yourself the night before and also try to drink at least 16oz to 32oz a hour and try to rotate between straight water and then Gatorade or something similar. I know we try to get all the hard tree work and chipping done in the morning and then take it easy with cleanup and other things when its hot. Good luck to you and try to stay cool. One last thing make sure you know the warning signs for Heat exhaustion and heat stroke, make sure the both of you know those signs and watch out for one another.

 

[forestryworks]

come on down to Virginia its been like a sauna down here for the last couple of weeks. Does not make for fun days when doing storm work cleanup. I know a couple of things have been said but remember to hydrate not just when you are out there but pre- loading yourself the night before and also try to drink at least 16oz to 32oz a hour and try to rotate between straight water and then Gatorade or something similar. I know we try to get all the hard tree work and chipping done in the morning and then take it easy with cleanup and other things when its hot. Good luck to you and try to stay cool. One last thing make sure you know the warning signs for Heat exhaustion and heat stroke, make sure the both of you know those signs and watch out for one another.

Gatorade is good. So long as it's G2, the sugar free stuff.

All that sugar in the regular Gatorade will dehydrate you even faster.

 

[spidermonkey17]

Gatorade is good. So long as it's G2, the sugar free stuff.

All that sugar in the regular Gatorade will dehydrate you even faster.

i agree with you i do the normal stuff, but i drink so much water during the day that i need a little sugar to keep me going. Something else to think about is you feel a lot better if you eat something, something light even a protein bar or a peaunut butter and jelly sandwich. You will be amazed how much better you feel eating something while taking a break.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

One thing I like to do is to mix a little Gatorade in water. Gives it a bit of taste without all of the sugar. 1/4 Gatorade - 3/4 water.

Is there any chance you can work at night with lights? Will the noise bother anyone?

 

[fearofpavement]

What I have found to be important in working hard in high temps is to know when to quit. You can't necessarily be goal oriented such as "I'll just buck up these last three logs" or "As soon as that pile gets loaded, I'm quitting" I have sometimes just stopped abruptly when my body says "you better quit". When you are working in heat, just being in it is fatiguing and your likelihood of an accident goes up. So work at it until you need to stop and then go do something else for the rest of the day. I was soaking wet today and all I was doing was rebuilding a carb for my old Falcon. The heat will really take it out of you so have low expectations for your amount of accomplishment.

 

[jdc123]

Pace yourself, drink lots of water, take a lot of breaks. The early morning and late afternoon just before dark is the best time to work. Also think about shade, like if you have a certain tree to buck up, plan to cut it up when it's in the shade if you can. No doubt, it's a hot job in the summer however you slice it.

 

[redheadwoodshed]

Do what you have too early in the morning and later in the evening.If you have to work through the middle of the day, try to be in the shade and stop and drink before you feel thirsty.Take it easy, heat exhaustion will slip up on you before you know it.

 

[forestryworks]

and drink before you feel thirsty.

Well said.

Thirst is an indicator of early stages of dehydration.

 

[avalancher]

I can cut wood all day long in the heat, aint nothing around here to be out cutting in mid nineties. But what I just cant bring myself to do is cut in the cold! It gets much below mid 30's, and I just wanna drop the saw in the truck and head to the house. I do all my wood cutting this time of year,come October I am done.

How you guys up north cut in zero degree temps I will never know.

 

[Patrick62]

How you guys up north cut in zero degree temps I will never know.

Ya get used to it. I suppose if I was "down south" long enough I would get used to the heat and humidity.
I think I would prefer not to. One thing to bear in mind... I can dress for the cold. is the reverse true :wink2:

 

[Ash_403]

Ya get used to it. I suppose if I was "down south" long enough I would get used to the heat and humidity.
I think I would prefer not to. One thing to bear in mind... I can dress for the cold. is the reverse true :wink2:

Not if you want to wear chaps (PPE). :msp_wink:

I prefer cutting in the winter/cold to cutting and sweating. Below freezing cutting never bothers me. Although I have never cut at temperatures below 10 *F.



Good info on the G2 drink.