The Descriptive Process

[rwoods]

A tragic event some sole losing their Father and words are no conselation at all.


However How Randy put it is exactly right and it maybe should serve as a wake up call to everyone connected to falling and the like ........The stick is not the only thing that a faller must watch and be aware of. I guess it been said a zillion times but it is worth saying a zillion more.

A few years back an old logger checking up on his son who was logging our property was killed in similar fashion.

Despite the flack I get, these tragic events are the very reason I cut alone. Even that has risks beyond your own person as people are curious and will walk in on you, or as I recently experienced, having a hung tree fall within minutes of leaving it for help after thirty minutes of babysitting it while it cracked and moaned. I have yet to cut a tree that would stop its fall on my command.

Ron

 

[rwoods]

Lest all this talk of older folks leads us to think cutting wood, hard work and usefulness are just for the young, let me tell you about one of the oldest members (mid to late 70s) of our firewood volunteers. He cuts more firewood than most of the young pups. Yeah they may cut more in twenty minutes than he and his tiny Stihl does in an hour but they usually poop out in 45 minutes never to show again and he keeps going hour after hour, Saturday after Saturday. Like most productive people, he recognizes his limitations. I recruited him to buck in a tornado patch a few months back. After a while, he told me he had better return to the hard level ground of the wood lot as he is no longer agile enough for rough ground. He doesn’t quit. He doesn’t whine. He’s not out to prove anything to anyone. He just works hard to help others. Though I may know more about cutting and saws than he, there is much more I can learn from him.

The same can be said for the older guys that run the splitters hour after hour.

Ron

 

[jrcat]

My mentor of log trucking is the same way slow and steady. He could load 20 ton of pulpwood in 20 minutes or so. and haul 5 to 6 loads a day. I tried to beat him one day...never happened. He was never hard on the loader or the truck just steady. I swear he could pick a sheet of paper off the hood of a car without batting an eye.

 

[bustedup]

A few years back an old logger checking up on his son who was logging our property was killed in similar fashion.

Despite the flack I get, these tragic events are the very reason I cut alone. Even that has risks beyond your own person as people are curious and will walk in on you, or as I recently experienced, having a hung tree fall within minutes of leaving it for help after thirty minutes of babysitting it while it cracked and moaned. I have yet to cut a tree that would stop its fall on my command.

Ron

I get ya there bout cutting alone and the reasons behind it.


How many folks that have falled timber have had the same or similar experiences??? What is the huge fasination that folks seem to have with falling trees??? I just don't get it. Ya put signs up tape out etc etc etc and still people walk in. It increases the stress levels that for sure as if things go wrong and those folk get hurt the finger always gets pointed at the fallers/rigging crew/loaders in short the folks that are meant to be there!!! not the ones that aren't.


Hang ups I when I cut have hung sticks up intentionally as it was the only way I could get them out (lack of skill on my part more than likely) but the unpredictability of doing that is always (for me anyhow) a pucker up moment. Ya think things are settled ya relax slightly and bam it comes down all on it's own. Oh how I guess we all would wish for the gift of being able to stop a stick after it moving. But that gift is as yet not in the mortal domain.


Good post in the quote maybe that should be shown on TV rather than the things they do???

 

[jrcat]

Rain ...more rain annnnnddddd more rain. inside work and chasing down parts and looking at more jobs for a few days .

 

[northmanlogging]

packed up the missus and sent her down the road today, tomorrow I start killing some trees whole sale style... all these back yard trees and tree service stuff just makes me want to dump a few pumpkins all the more. None of this climbing everyone and sticking a line in it crud, just face it, back it up, tap a wedge, shut the saw off and wait for the echo...

 

[jrcat]

packed up the missus and sent her down the road today, tomorrow I start killing some trees whole sale style... all these back yard trees and tree service stuff just makes me want to dump a few pumpkins all the more. None of this climbing everyone and sticking a line in it crud, just face it, back it up, tap a wedge, shut the saw off and wait for the echo...

There is nothing like being in the woods and that echo. I didnt get on to well with tree service work, part of the reason I did not return to my old job. Dragging brush to a chipper and being oh so careful about the yuppies lawns ....not me give me my dozer or a skidder and a saw and cut me loose.

 

[northmanlogging]

I don't mind the tree service end of things too much, keeps me cutting a bit, its just tedious, and stressful. Plus I really hate being in the city. I don't climb much at all anymore so I'm stuck being the groundy for the most part, I get to take down the big uns though so that helps.

 

[northmanlogging]

Lost the lid to my gas can, punched a hole in my bar oil jug, ran out of water way faster then I thought, discovered I'm allot fatter than I remember being. Its not quite 3 pm, and I'm allready home... I got a quarter load down and yarded of dog hair hemlock, and cleaned up the next landing a bit. Last year this would have taken me 2 weeks with the gypo yarder... not to mention set up.

Also found out the current HO wants to clear a whole bunch more than I had originally planned on roughly double, combined with the neighbor... this could be a good year of logging for my part time butt.

All in all a pretty good day:smile2:

 

[bustedup]

Lost the lid to my gas can, punched a hole in my bar oil jug, ran out of water way faster then I thought, discovered I'm allot fatter than I remember being. Its not quite 3 pm, and I'm allready home... I got a quarter load down and yarded of dog hair hemlock, and cleaned up the next landing a bit. Last year this would have taken me 2 weeks with the gypo yarder... not to mention set up.

Also found out the current HO wants to clear a whole bunch more than I had originally planned on roughly double, combined with the neighbor... this could be a good year of logging for my part time butt.

All in all a pretty good day:smile2:

Hope it is a good one for ya......Things do come to those who wait ......or so they say.....mind ya doing good work does kinda help too and does lead to better things

 

[jrcat]

Lost the lid to my gas can, punched a hole in my bar oil jug, ran out of water way faster then I thought, discovered I'm allot fatter than I remember being. Its not quite 3 pm, and I'm allready home... I got a quarter load down and yarded of dog hair hemlock, and cleaned up the next landing a bit. Last year this would have taken me 2 weeks with the gypo yarder... not to mention set up.

Also found out the current HO wants to clear a whole bunch more than I had originally planned on roughly double, combined with the neighbor... this could be a good year of logging for my part time butt.

All in all a pretty good day:smile2:

Are you skidding with the missus? and what is a gypo yarder? lol But its good you've got more than you thought there. kinda along the same lines as the job I am now now ... the guy wants more taken out and now I have a mess of upcoming dozer work looks like a busy summer.

 

[bustedup]

Are you skidding with the missus? and what is a gypo yarder? lol But its good you've got more than you thought there. kinda along the same lines as the job I am now now ... the guy wants more taken out and now I have a mess of upcoming dozer work looks like a busy summer.

Well we called anything that was kinda made up outta different pieces to get a working thing either gypo'd or Magyvered lol so maybe that

 

[northmanlogging]

For the gypo yarder see my photo album, graphic photo evidence... its just a couple of pto winches. and a 10 horse tecumseh engine, match it to a spar tree and now yer logging. Its fing slow though, a bigger engine would do wonders, or buy a skidder, I bought a skidder.

And yes the Missus is working again, seems to like it...

 

[jrcat]

For the gypo yarder see my photo album, graphic photo evidence... its just a couple of pto winches. and a 10 horse tecumseh engine, match it to a spar tree and now yer logging. Its fing slow though, a bigger engine would do wonders, or buy a skidder, I bought a skidder.

And yes the Missus is working again, seems to like it...

Is that you in the tree in "graphic photo evidence"? That is a cool little yarder. I would have a 3 or 4 cyl kubota engine on it that would give it more snot at least. Can you get some pics of the missus on the landing?

 

[treeslayer2003]

that reminds me of the homade skidders used to be around. dad called um "short dog"
he still had one when I was a small kid

 

[northmanlogging]

Is that you in the tree in "graphic photo evidence"? That is a cool little yarder. I would have a 3 or 4 cyl kubota engine on it that would give it more snot at least. Can you get some pics of the missus on the landing?

That would be my partner, he does more of the tree climbing arborist stuff, I fall em and take em to the mill, gimpy leg keeps me from being real happy with gaffs on.

I've been keeping my eye open for a little 20-30 hp diesel, everyone wants too much for em. or a small real wheel drive car with a manual tranny, be pretty easy to convert it over, then it would have the speed and the power to maybe get something done.

 

[treeslayer2003]

That would be my partner, he does more of the tree climbing arborist stuff, I fall em and take em to the mill, gimpy leg keeps me from being real happy with gaffs on.

I've been keeping my eye open for a little 20-30 hp diesel, everyone wants too much for em. or a small real wheel drive car with a manual tranny, be pretty easy to convert it over, then it would have the speed and the power to maybe get something done.

reefer trailer unit is about 40hp some are Mercedes I think

 

[jrcat]

reefer trailer unit is about 40hp some are Mercedes I think

Thermo king reefers are actually thermo king engines I believe at least they have "thermo king" casted in the block. Mercedes engines are really good engines and they run forever.

 

[northmanlogging]

There is a guy selling em on C list for a reasonable price, his where Isuzu? I would like to have a clutch on there of some sort, now its just a V-belt with a tension arm, works ok, when the load isn't real big... start pulling heavy turns and ya start burning up belts one every other day or so... I went through 4 last year in 3 monthes of part time work, can be a bit frustrating...

With the skidder, now I'm not real sure what I'm going to do with it, it works, needs a new muffler... but like I said its slow... I could pick up a christy or an old skagit for around 30k or sometimes less (found one awhile back for 5000 old skagit bu30 flat head ford v8 powered super cool...). But really what I should look into getting is an excavator with log loading rig on it. Then I could hire any old log truck instead of relying on self loaders, and I could sort and stack on a smaller landing, and maybe throw a couple pullmasters on there and have a Yoder... among many other things.

I'll try and get some pictures of the missus working next week, I was running solo today, kinda hard to hop out, take a few snap shots and then haul my gimpy ass back in before driving into a swamp or over me...

 

[treeslayer2003]

ya got swamps over there? thought it was all mountains