Woods fun over the weekend

[Nuzzy]

Was warmer than I'd like for cutting, but I packed up the gear and headed out anyways.

Sure was nice though! I've been thinning our woods; lots of bent, curvy, crazy trees fighting for light. Makes the woods happy, and sure is convenient being in the back yard.

I do have to fight hang ups though. Most everything is limb-locked in one way or another. Sometimes I get lucky and have a clear fall line, but usually not Lately in situations where I'm predicting trouble, I've been doing narrow(er) humbolts to pop the hinge earlier and help the butt slide quicker which has helped somewhat; often times though I still get to carefully whittle down hang ups in 4-5ft sections. All felling cuts are done at comfortable level and then stumps are cut off near ground level. Saves me having to navigate around them later!

Also finally got to try something I've been meaning to for a while but never had good reason. This was a small pine which needed to go to make an easier fell for the oak behind it. It was a heavy back lean and I chose to cut the backcut first. As soon as I could, I slid in a wedge and then finished up to the hinge before cutting the face. A couple hits of the wedge and over it went in the intended direction. Certainly was a useful technique in this particular tree. (BTW, I know the face looks horrible. I was a bit nervous and preoccupied looking up to see how the tree was behaving)

Sure am liking my v2.0 log arch!

Vic was checking me out as I came out of the woods. He's a good boy, always keeping an eye on things.

My day was ended early with a shredded, dislocated hydro drive belt. I'm thinking a stick hazard in the woods... Oh well, at least all the trees are down and cut to log length so I can pull them out some night after work this week.

Every day spent in the woods is a good day!

 

[HD-tech-NH]

cool setup! love the pics thanks!

 

[Nuzzy]

Got back at it today since that belt left me stranded last weekend. Figured I'd have a productive day to make up for it. That thought ended quickly... :bang:


Got out to the first log and found that somewhere along the trip, the winch had turned itself on and was spooling. No input from the remote, kicking it didn't help. Lovely. Harbor Freight, what do you expect... So back to the garage I went. Tore into the control box and it was fubar'd, but I knew the winch motor still worked, so I hatched a plan based on what I had around. HF wires these things with standard automotive 30amp relays as a DPDT type setup. Well, I had some on-off-on toggles laying around, prolly 15amps, and thought, what the hell. So made a quick bracket, wired my batt leads in, and then criss crossed the wires coming off the top and bottom; both switches up sent power to (1) and ground to (2), both switches down sent power to (2) and ground to (1) on the winch effectively reversing polarity. Is it safe not using momentary toggles, NOPE. But it sure as hell works and is fun having both hands free to maneuver logs while winching them into place! If I fry the toggles, oh well.

Sure was a nice day and great temp to be in the woods!

The guineas were unsure what to make of me as I passed what apparently they thought was their deck...

 

[Nuzzy]

It ain't always pretty, but it works.

As a side note, why the heck did I wait so long to get AM/FM/MP3 hearing protectors!! These things made my day so much more enjoyable without the constant ringing in my ears.

Hey, Mr. Nighttime, you can't defeat me. I have lights on this here tractor

Hard to see, but when all was said and done I got quite a bit of wood out. There's a couple of rows and some stackage.

Tomorrow I get to wake up and do it all again!

 

[NeoTree]

Awesome man! Working in the woods is the best, that's where I'll be tomarro too.

 

[sunfish]

Cool pics, man!

 

[Iska3]

Great Pics! Spent last weekend clearing shooting lanes and this weekend will be putting up a third deer stand. The best part is we always pull out a trailer load of wood on the way out. The next project will be a log arch. I think the larger tires is the answer.

I use the same head set when it's just me cutting. Makes for an enjoyable day.

 

[makomakoman]

Hey Nuzzy, where was your propane Jeep?

 

[Nuzzy]

Hey Nuzzy, where was your propane Jeep?

Sold it over the summer to some guy in Minnesota. No where to go in Michigan that was challenging enough for fun and we just haven't had the time or scheduling for long road trips in recent years. So instead, my wife and I hatched a plan to get entirely out of debt in 2 years; sold the jeep to pay some old debt down, truck is on the chopping block next since I don't need an almost $500 a month firewood hauler when a beater will do just fine.

I'm sure I'll build another rig down the road, but now just isn't the right time

 

[beerman6]

My HF winch quit on me last weekend (it wouldnt turn on though) and I replaced the remote with one of these http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/TELECTRON-3-Button-Control-Station-6X891?Pid=search and used the relays that came with the winch.

I found a bit of moisture on the circuit board and after I dried it out it worked fine,but I didnt want anymore issues with it so I wired those buttons in.

3 wires and it was done.