Windfall Whips and Widowmakers, the Hazard's of Working in the Woods.

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Okie said:
Life is hard. It's even harder if you are stupid and dumb.
by John Wayne.

and another by Forest Gump.
Stupid is as Stupid does.

Keep a heads up when in the woods doing anything. If the leaves are dry carry a roll of toilet paper along with your PPE stuff.
If the leaves are green you can forget the toilet paper but do not try to use a pine cone.
Click to expand...
Or Poison Ivy!
 
It isn't all falling, except for falling on one's butt.

This is wonderful advice. While going off to pick out and mark tail trees, heard the hooktender tell one of the crew to keep on doing what they were doing, but if he had any questions about something, Don't Do It--wait till he returned. This is the same guy who talked about how one must embrace the weather as we hiked up to the top of a ridge, again to pick out tail trees, on a dark and stormy day. Very stormy.

Why were we hiking uphill for tail trees? It was a unit with downhill yarding, everybody's favorite thing to do.
 
As a kid the 'S.A.S. Survival Handbook' was sort of my bible. I devoured that stuff. As I live in a very densely populated part of this world, I don't get to enjoy the (real) great outdoors much, but still, reading that stuff taught me a valuable lesson or two!
 
Not so much in the woods here as I do a lot of windrow / fence row clearing and management for many of the local farms. Most of what I cut is trash trees that get bettered by the wind and thus, entangled, broken, etc, and leaves a lot to chance. I don't often film, but for whatever reason felt inclined to on this day back in March '22. These were toothpick trees thankfully. Once then get greater than 12" across and tangle up this way its a different story.

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="9C0Niol"><a href="">View post on imgur.com</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="SRFaj6F"><a href="">View post on imgur.com</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Basswood, hackberry, mulberry, and silver maple primarily. All fast growers, relatively weak, easily damaged by wind, and love to intertwine together as they grow.

Sometimes I luck out and get windrows full of large cherry, oak, hickory, hard maples, and walnut like the attached photo. I thoroughly enjoy those jobs. Kept my personal mill busy for nearly a year milling every chance I got.


*Edit, videos didn't work due to size so loaded them to an eternal host*
 

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CaptainMauw said:
Not so much in the woods here as I do a lot of windrow / fence row clearing and management for many of the local farms. Most of what I cut is trash trees that get bettered by the wind and thus, entangled, broken, etc, and leaves a lot to chance. I don't often film, but for whatever reason felt inclined to on this day back in March '22. These were toothpick trees thankfully. Once then get greater than 12" across and tangle up this way its a different story.

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="9C0Niol"><a href="">View post on imgur.com</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="SRFaj6F"><a href="">View post on imgur.com</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Basswood, hackberry, mulberry, and silver maple primarily. All fast growers, relatively weak, easily damaged by wind, and love to intertwine together as they grow.

Sometimes I luck out and get windrows full of large cherry, oak, hickory, hard maples, and walnut like the attached photo. I thoroughly enjoy those jobs. Kept my personal mill busy for nearly a year milling every chance I got.


*Edit, videos didn't work due to size so loaded them to an eternal host*
Click to expand...

A tree six inches across and thirty feet tall can kill anybody just as dead as a tree six foot across and 300 foot tall. Dead is dead! No such thing as half dead or three quarters dead. IMOP, many take small timber to lightly and that's usually when a guy gets bit by one! 👍 Nice videos and way to clear away from the stump! The PPE, all of it. Thanks for setting a good example fir all of us!

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!👍
 
slowp said:
It isn't all falling, except for falling on one's butt.

This is wonderful advice. While going off to pick out and mark tail trees, heard the hooktender tell one of the crew to keep on doing what they were doing, but if he had any questions about something, Don't Do It--wait till he returned. This is the same guy who talked about how one must embrace the weather as we hiked up to the top of a ridge, again to pick out tail trees, on a dark and stormy day. Very stormy.

Why were we hiking uphill for tail trees? It was a unit with downhill yarding, everybody's favorite thing to do.
Click to expand...
Yarding down the slope. 👍 Joy! Just a joy that always is! I really can't think of a better way to spend my time than sling'n rigg'n, pulling haywire or choke'n turns on a downhaul yarding side! Good stuff!
Go ahead on'er! Now, everybody on the landing. Run god dam it! Run!!! ☠️
Man, am I glad I'm not a logger! 🤣😉
 
Kodiak Kid said:
Yarding down the slope. 👍 Joy! Just a joy that always is! I really can't think of a better way to spend my time than sling'n rigg'n, pulling haywire or choke'n turns on a downhaul yarding side! Good stuff!
Go ahead on'er! Now, everybody on the landing. Run god dam it! Run!!! ☠️
Man, am I glad I'm not a logger! 🤣😉
Click to expand...
One needs to have a good yarder engineer and enough flat for a safe landing. Logs mustn't come down out of control and bash the yarder or people.
happylanding0001.JPG
 
Dead trees in the woods. Rope and tackle is my friend, even a live tree can shoot a branch pretty far if hit hard enough by the tree you are felling.
Spend the time to sight where to land the tree, change up if no clear path, never assume it will fall where u want if anything is near that path.
I try to be far away when the tree starts moving, not standing there watching.
Spend time to clear brush in every direction you can, tripping on a vine is the last thing you want.
 
slowp said:
Nope. Their first motorized carriage, I think. It was 1988. I could be wrong but I seem to recall that there was a bit of excitement about the new carriage.
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Oh, ok roger. Right on man! 👍I worked under the rigg'n over 20 years ago down in South East for a short time as as a choker dog. Didn't do it fir vei long. The rigg'n just wasn't fir me. I went back to cut'n right away. A lot to be said about a good rigg'n crew that enjoy doing it, and hook tenders are some of the toughest men I've seen in the woods!👍 Shovel loggers and skidder loggers really have no clue what Yarding is all about when it comes to sweat, blood, and hard dangerous work. I thought the Rigg'n rats were nuts myself! One day a Hook told me. "Id never want to fo your job" I asked "whys that?" he said "because its way to dangerous!" I said "this all coming from a guy that tops and rigs spars, then sits on top of it and eats a sandwich when hes done! No, I'll take the snags on the steep and other hazards affiliated with tip'n trees vs. your crazy climbing and block hanging any day!" Ha ha ha!
 
This was at a time when the yarder was having some mechanical problems so they had a session on Twisters. There was also a problem finding good stumps for tailholds. The old growth stumps are getting to be too rotten to use.

Twisters are used to reinforce the strength of the tailhold and help keep it from pulling out. Twisters can also break bones if care is not taken with them.
twisters.JPG
 
slowp said:
This was at a time when the yarder was having some mechanical problems so they had a session on Twisters. There was also a problem finding good stumps for tailholds. The old growth stumps are getting to be too rotten to use.

Twisters are used to reinforce the strength of the tailhold and help keep it from pulling out. Twisters can also break bones if care is not taken with them.
View attachment 1049851
Click to expand...
Yeah, it looks like a guy better be sure of what he's doing rigg'n something like that! Great picture! 👍
 

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