Today's Job...

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Here's a tip I got from a local boar hunter that I now use in the bush. The hunter had one of his dogs get a bad cut so the bloke pulled a small container of dental floss (sterile thread) out of his pocket. He had a curved needle inside the container. He threaded the needle with the dental floss and knitted up his dog. The dog just stood there without a whimper.

I've used the dental floss trick to repair pack harnesses, darn torn clothing, but thankfully I've not had to stitch myself up in the bush. - a neat item that doesn't take up any room and you can always floss your teeth anytime you want.
 
Never heard that about the floss, good idea. I have used fishing line, works great. Super glue believe it or not, and recommended by vet's. For bad severe bleeding, Celox coagulating powder, made from natural enzyme's that the body produce's, should be in everyone's first aid kit. Developed for the military on the battefield. It even works for arterial wounds. Glad I've never had to use it though.
 
Pig hunters around here use large dogs (pig dogs) mastiff, great Dane, wolf hound, etc. they bread in what they need more speed, muscle etc

There are large boars 180kg plus (400 lbs) no guns only dog and a knife :)

Vet supplies will sell staple guns online so thats what most pig hunters up here use
 
We use the staples, when we can. We hunt the steep mountain country, and get some big boars, and they are all runner's. Just carry a pistol or two for back up. Havent used it in quite awhile.
 
I ended up phoning the main manager today in regard to this excavator practice. It's not the fact that there is an excavator invoved, but the fact that the guy doing the cutting really has no idea of the proper techniques involved when doing tow or push over felling. The position he is placing his cuts is actually quite dangerous and he's lucky to have not had a tree come over on the excavator yet. In saying that though the excavator is probably getting over 3 times the trees that I am yet would be costing 5 times as much (at least).

I also met up with Peter (fatkoala) today. He reads AS a lot but I don't think has ever posted. Really nice guy and he bought my 5100-S off me plus had a play with my other saws - they were the first lot of modded saws he'd used - I think he enjoyed them and know he liked the little Dolmar. What I didn't realise is that he's a climbing arborist with his own business and only an hour and a half away. We don't have any climbers here so I said I'd keep him in mind for some tree jobs in the area. If the local guys can't fell it at ground level safely or get their high lift trucks in there they won't touch it. Oh and Peter also agreed with my above statement about improper cutting techniques with this excavator scenario.

Well good looking job so far! Looks like a few I had, but mine were smaleer, but man that brush pile's up fast! Excavtor's aren't cheap, but in the right hand's should make quick work of that brush for you. My first though was man, gonna be alot of brush to drag LOL! Surprised me though thought aussie's always wore short's LOL! You guy's have my respect, a very tough breed. About my biggesst passion in life is running my boar dog's. When I saw how you guy's do it Bull Arab's, short's, and a knife. Big boars. Respect is due for sure! You guy's also do some monster tree cutting. Have some big Eucalyptus in spot's here, and that take's a tough cat as well! Good thread, nice picture's Like to see more NORM...............

Thanks mate. I actually put a tree over the fence today into the neighbour's property :D Wayne (gmax) got it on video but I had everything setup and was trying to fell it into a pretty stiff headwind. Got a sudden large gust from the South which tore off the hinge and over she went, the wrong way :) I wear shorts maybe 9 months of the year but when working with these trees I've found I get the absolute crap scratched out of me so wear long pants and long sleeve shirts now. I've got some really good scars on my legs from dead sticks - they dig in pretty deep when dry.
I'd rather sit back and shoot pigs, although no gutless wimp, there is no way in hell I'm going to run in on a wild boar and stick it with a knife, no matter how good my dogs are! In fact doggers are causing a few issues in our region as guys are getting into national parks as they can hunt quietly but illegally. Some are also losing their dogs. Next time they see them they're attacking local farmer's sheep.
I'll continue to keep this thread updated :cheers:

hey matt,
i carry a hammer too but I've been looking at hatchets a lot lately. Gransors Bruks makes some incredibly nice hatchets... the wildlife hatchet or mini forest axe would probably be a go'er. Downside (and upside?) is that they can me made sharp enough to shave with. About $180 too, but so nice to use. I used a friends wildlife hatchet a couple times and it was very tempting to just not return it.

More sensible would probably be one of the smaller fiskars hatchets. Just as much weight in the head but a lighter handle, and you wont cry when it gets all ugly. The metal isn't as good as the gransfors, seems a bit soft to me actually.... but they can be made sharp. They're sharp enough(and blunt enough not to cut you) off the shelf to go good for wedge purposes.

I think I'll have to buy all 3


Shaun

Yeah Shaun. I was at the Sunraysia Agricultural Field Days the other week and the local Stihl dealer had a Swedish guy in their tent selling hand forged and genuinely shaving sharp axes. Beautiful pieces of work but a tiny little hatchet was $70. Their full size axes and log splitters were $290. I was tempted, REALLY tempted. The Swedish guy worked for the company that makes them - nice guy and we had a good chat.
They had genuine American Hickory handles but unlike any I've ever seen. They were really pale, very light, and quite flexible. He said that the typical Hickory axe handles you see are crappy grades of wood - they only use the best grade of Hickory on their tools.
I already have a good Swedish made full size axe but if I was back at that Field Day again tomorrow I'd buy one of these for sure...

Oh and it looks like one of the trees I felled did a bit of subterranian irrigation damage :D They had to whack a joiner in. This was where a pretty big tree got dropped and I wouldn't be surprised if this pipe was actually speared by a branch that snapped and dug in a bit too deep.

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I was with Matt today watching him at work he dropped about 30 trees, all went well apart from one the wind caught, I'll upload some video tomorrow night.
Then we went back to matt's place & gave some of my old saws a run, next time I'll wear my ear muffs before I run my whitehead logger, I couldn't hear my GPS on the way back to the caravan park :msp_biggrin:

Thanks Matt it was a good day, just having a few bourbons before I head home tomorrow.
 
I was with Matt today watching him at work he dropped about 30 trees, all went well apart from one the wind caught, I'll upload some video tomorrow night.
Then we went back to matt's place & gave some of my old saws a run, next time I'll wear my ear muffs before I run my whitehead logger, I couldn't hear my GPS on the way back to the caravan park :msp_biggrin:

Thanks Matt it was a good day, just having a few bourbons before I head home tomorrow.

My pleasure once again Wayne. I have no dramas with you uploading a video of a failed felling attempt - sh*t happens and you sometimes can't help wind gusts like that :D

That Whitehead is insane - no wonder you're partially deaf. It was actually really hurting my ears, even 30 foot away. Good job on restoring it but if any guys in the old days used that thing without hearing protection they must be stone deaf by now...
 
Here's a video of Matt at work yesterday, I'll upload some more later.

<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ERiSr8eCYlM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
was up mennindee yesty for look about and noticed all the casurinas that have been planted on blocks and boundaries. they all under 6" at the butt and now that we have water im sure they will grow fast. at least untill the south aussies throw a tantrum and we have to give em all our water
 
Here's a video of Matt at work yesterday, I'll upload some more later.

<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ERiSr8eCYlM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hah hah. Take that neighbour's fence...

Basically I tried to tip a tree into a strong headwind when it was already pushing into the neighbouring tree. Then I ran too many wedges too close to the hinge and just as she was about to go where I wanted that side gust came along.
Always pays not to "overwedge" a tree in tricky conditions, it puts too much stress on the hinge. If I showed a photo of the stump it looked perfect but with all the wedges instead of tipping the tree it actually tried lifting it instead :( Bye bye hinge integrity...
The wind finished it off but could have been avoided on my part.

That sucked. Good to see you put the old Chinese 365 and BB kit having a run at the end though :)
 
was up mennindee yesty for look about and noticed all the casurinas that have been planted on blocks and boundaries. they all under 6" at the butt and now that we have water im sure they will grow fast. at least untill the south aussies throw a tantrum and we have to give em all our water

They'll pay later for planting those bloody trees!

Menindee Lakes are actually under Murray Darling Basin Commission control now it's cracked 610 odd gigalitres so NSW can't touch it :)

Water, what water? Queenslanders flog it all...
 
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They'll pay later for planting those bloody trees!

Menindee Lakes are actually under Murray Darling Basin Commission control now it's cracked 640 odd gigalitres so NSW can't touch it :)

Water, what water? Queenslanders flog it all...

funniest one i heard was someone whacker in sa parliment wanted us to pump water from our res back into the darling as our res was over flowing then the same whacker wanted us to store more water to stop flooding, but i reckon all these trees and new owners of tandou orchards will take care of any spare water
 
funniest one i heard was someone whacker in sa parliment wanted us to pump water from our res back into the darling as our res was over flowing then the same whacker wanted us to store more water to stop flooding, but i reckon all these trees and new owners of tandou orchards will take care of any spare water

Mate there are nutjob knowalls everywhere when it comes to the Murray Darling system. The guys in the lower lakes blame us in upper South Australia, we blame Victoria, they blame NSW etc etc when in all honesty everyone has a finger in it, some more than others. Evaporation is the biggest water user in the whole system by absolute miles. I've been to countless conferences and was an accredited government funded drought counsellor a few years ago with my previous job. Pain in the arse. Even worse with Penny "What Went" Wong in parliament...
 
You should have seen some of the humungous dams that were holding water for the cotton fields outside of Bourke. If anyone in South Australia was wondering where the water in the Murray Darling system was, it wouldn't have taken a detective to figure it out.
 
Anyway a quick video of my new 40 tonne log splitter that I assembled and got going this morning. The wood I was splitting is some of the nastiest hardest gear I've seen. As you can see when it finally splits it's like a gunshot going off. It burns brilliantly though. I also don't like tapping the hydraulic lever like I was but I wasn't game to lay into it in case a piece flew off and killed my dad in the background :)


<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Oyoy3J4XshQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You should have seen some of the humungous dams that were holding water for the cotton fields outside of Bourke. If anyone in South Australia was wondering where the water in the Murray Darling system was, it wouldn't have taken a detective to figure it out.

Yeah Terry. There was some full on immoral crap going on up north. Biggest issue was that most of the water usage was only regulated on the outfeed side. No limit on storage capacity and evaporation and leaching wasn't monitored.

Another good one was the non irrigated tree plantations for pulp/chips. Timbercorp etc stated that because they weren't irrigated they had no impact on the Murray Darling basin. What was found out later is that they were stopping up to 2 megalitres a hectare of rain run off from entering the system.
 
Anyway a quick video of my new 40 tonne log splitter that I assembled and got going this morning. The wood I was splitting is some of the nastiest hardest gear I've seen. As you can see when it finally splits it's like a gunshot going off. It burns brilliantly though. I also don't like tapping the hydraulic lever like I was but I wasn't game to lay into it in case a piece flew off and killed my dad in the background :)


<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Oyoy3J4XshQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That is definitely some hard wood! Sorry to see the splitter a bit worse for wear. I think the chinese slightly under engineered it... Looks like it may need a bit more steel lol. I wonder what the sellers response will be.
 
Some more video from yesterday, that's bad luck about the splitter ,I wonder how accurate the 40 tonne rating is :msp_unsure:

<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/86otcnEhP0M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Good stuff Matt. sorry about the bad luck on that tree. That stuff has happened to us all once or twice. As all of us know, it's not alway's a perfect scenario, with tree work. Nice spliiter. It pisses me off when I hear about irresponsible hunter's, well not even hunter's-poacher's. They give responsible one's like us a bad name too. The make people gun shy of all. I especially dislike the one's that have no regard for there dog's, and treat them like they are disposable, make's me sick. I know I love my dog's. That saw on the bottom, the 3120 like to see a pic or two of that in some big wood. Last year was the first time I really got into Eucalyptus. It make's a man out of you. What is the toughest you guy's have? I believe the one's here are the bluegum. Seen some iron bark here. Not sure, but is that cider gum? The iron bark? I know the bluegum is tough. Burned real good though. Be safe with that wind man, take care Norm...........
 
Some more video from yesterday, that's bad luck about the splitter ,I wonder how accurate the 40 tonne rating is :msp_unsure:

<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/86otcnEhP0M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

More footage of Chinese saws Wayne! First my 365 and BB kit then your 070 "copy" with 090 top end. Beastly...

Good stuff Matt. sorry about the bad luck on that tree. That stuff has happened to us all once or twice. As all of us know, it's not alway's a perfect scenario, with tree work. Nice spliiter. It pisses me off when I hear about irresponsible hunter's, well not even hunter's-poacher's. They give responsible one's like us a bad name too. The make people gun shy of all. I especially dislike the one's that have no regard for there dog's, and treat them like they are disposable, make's me sick. I know I love my dog's. That saw on the bottom, the 3120 like to see a pic or two of that in some big wood. Last year was the first time I really got into Eucalyptus. It make's a man out of you. What is the toughest you guy's have? I believe the one's here are the bluegum. Seen some iron bark here. Not sure, but is that cider gum? The iron bark? I know the bluegum is tough. Burned real good though. Be safe with that wind man, take care Norm...........

Hi Norm.
Yeah I hate guys too that treat their dogs as disposable tools - I know a few that do.
Yeah I've had that happen a few times with these trees as I'm generally cutting in all conditions - things like that aren't a big problem out where I generally cut but in a domestic situation 110% care is taken.
The toughest wood here is generally the Mallee species or Box species. This varies on the area they are grown though as well and the rainfall in that area.
Bluegum is tough stuff and as you said, excellent firewood.
I've got a few pics and vids of my 3120 and 60" bar earlier in this thread which has gotten quite long now :)
 

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