This weekend's pile

[jwilly3879]

Here's a couple of pictures from this weekend. 5 hours Saturday and 5 hours Sunday. Plowed the woods road and landing for 3 hours Thursday, a lot of banging the plow off the small rocks in the road.



 



 

A mixed bag, pine logs and pulp, some firewood and a couple of aspen. About 9000bf pine and 8 cords of pulp. There is much less red rot in this section and the forester came and marked more wood before he heads to Florida for a month.

Waiting for the trucker to call.   

[SquareG]

that doesnt look like 9000 ft + 8 cord.  More like 3000 ft.  Either way, you get more done per hour than I do.

[jwilly3879]

There's 2+ loads of logs, mostly 16's and 12's, last load to the mill was 3960. Yesterday they brought out 4 trees that scaled over 1000bf each.

[SquareG]

sorry, they're bigger than the photos give them credit for.  Sounds like a good place to work.  I need to find better timber.

[jwilly3879]

Well the trucker just called. He wrecked his sled yesterday and went to the hospital to get checked out. Bruised ribs and kidneys and sore all over. He is my age and I find it takes longer to bounce back from this kind of stuff than it did 20 years ago. After a few days rest he will see if he can get in and out of the truck, if he can drive I'll put the chains on and off and load and unload at the mill.

[SquareG]

sled?

[Dave Shepard]

Snowmobile. Expensive toy that turns to fiberglass and aluminum vapor when you hit a tree. :D

[SquareG]

I see.  I wouldn't have known.  Not as much snow here typically.  I was thinking lay on your belly, go downhill. :D

[thecfarm]

I have no idea about the trials,snowmoible trails in NY,but in Maine a few weeks back had a lot of ice on the. Some guy in Mexico,ME wrecked his sled due to ice,broke his leg,than crawled 3 miles to a friends house.

[lumberjack48]

Thats right on the money, 3 turns an-hour, 30 to 35 cds, most guys can't pull that in a week. It makes all the difference in the world when yo don't have to sort it. In that kind of timber i could pull 100 plus cds a week working alone. I liked it -10 to -20, no limbing, nice pole skidding temp.

I owned many selds, i liked to run a 100 mph. I recked a few, their fun to ride but can be very dangerous, somebody killed just a bout every weekend up in the tri-state area.

[Offthebeatenpath]

Well, I'm certainly not putting up those kinds of numbers, but I'm also working on family land where we are cutting selectively and spending a bit of time thinning beech saplings and limbing some trees aren't being cut.  Here's a picture from this morning.  Just about two loads of sawlogs and well over a load of pulp.  The hardwood I twitched out for firewood isn't shown.  A little under two days of work.  I know I won't set the world on fire with that kind of productivity, but production isn't the only goal...



 

[jwilly3879]

Pine adds up pretty quick, especially when they are nice size and the skid is downhill.

Saturday my son was cutting and skidding and on Sunday my grandson did the cutting and his dad was skidding. I could just about get them cut up and stacked when the next hitch came in.

The grandson is getting better ever weekend. He has a good teacher in his father, he has been doing it for 20 years. The boy gets a little frustrated when things don't go as planned but his dad shows him where he went wrong or tells him that sometimes it just doesn't go the way you want. If in doubt come back to the tree later and look at it again, maybe we will just have to take it by the top or cut it in half and take it from the middle to not mark up the leave trees. It's not a big deal.

[Corley5]

Nice pile of wood for a weekend's work  8) 8) 8)

100 cords a week working alone? with a chainsaw and cable machine?

[SwampDonkey]

Nice little harvest. ;D

Dad and a guy would cut 10 cord of large mature aspen and load it onto the straight truck with a tractor and peavey, every day in Jan-February '84. And then hull the load that night to Houltan, Maine. Dad did all the hand felling and limbing. It was 100" bolts the skidder guy cut on the yard. They cut 300 cord from that area. But dad cut a lot of big hardwood too in different years for something other than pulp wood. This was ash and at times hard maple. They were big trees, as most hardwoods left around here is rarely bigger than 10" after most people have clearcut when they cut. Dad never clear cut and he never left the junk, the junk in the hardwood was for firewood. If there was junk aspen, it fell down for the worms to eat anyway. A scraggly old aspen don't last long and a rotten fir will snap off in the next wind. The worms have to eat and the salamanders need deadfalls to live in. We had to have a mountain of firewood for two houses and potato sheds. The sheds just needed heat mostly around the doors. Spuds make their own heat. Anyway, a long time to get 10" again in hard maple up in the north, darn long time. That aspen area is now just getting to reach 10" after 30 years. There's still old aspen stumps there because many were well over 25 inches, pretty mushy though. I won't be touching it until it's at east 20", and I may decide not to cut a stick due to the way prices are. Not worth the effort so some union dude keeps his job and I starve. There is better money elsewhere if your going to work. ;D We cut wood all the time, only the most memorable moments stick in your mind. In 1984 we did a lot of things with that wood money, that's why I say in 2014 terms cutting that same amount of wood don't get you much.  :-\

I'm waiting to hear about the new forestry plan for NB. Not expecting it to benefit many of us.

[lumberjack48]

Nice pile of wood for a weekend's work  8) 8) 8)

100 cords a week working alone? with a chainsaw and cable machine?

Corey5, its no big feat for one man to cut and skid a 100 cds a week. Thats a little over 16 cds a day, i've cut Aspen where i pulled 20 plus cords a day, day after day, week after week, its all in method. You have to have good timber, good ground and a sharp saw and be able to keep it sharp very turn. My goal was 20 turns a day, 5 turns and take a break, 4 times a day. If i hadn't pulled a 100 cds a week i sure wouldn't say i did. My father told me you aren't bragging if you can back it up, if you want ph numbers pm me.

[Corley5]

Working alone with a chainsaw and a cable skidder cutting 100 cords a week is, well lets say I dispute your claim.

[coxy]

Nice pile of wood for a weekend's work  8) 8) 8)

100 cords a week working alone? with a chainsaw and cable machine?

Corey5, its no big feat for one man to cut and skid a 100 cds a week. Thats a little over 16 cds a day, i've cut Aspen where i pulled 20 plus cords a day, day after day, week after week, its all in method. You have to have good timber, good ground and a sharp saw and be able to keep it sharp very turn. My goal was 20 turns a day, 5 turns and take a break, 4 times a day. If i hadn't pulled a 100 cds a week i sure wouldn't say i did. My father told me you aren't bragging if you can back it up, if you want ph numbers pm me.

LJ what is ph numbers ;D never heard that term before

[jwilly3879]

There's a local logger who is an absolute machine, he cuts and skids and bucks 3 trailer loads of 8' pulp every other day which is real close to LJ48's numbers. The outfit my son works with had a feller buncher, limbing by hand, grapple skidder and couldn't keep up with him. But like I said he is an animal, full speed all the time.

[isawlogs]

LJ, what did you have  for à skidder, how many chockers did run with   ???   How long of a skid, that is a lot of wood in a day, let alone a week!
I'll throw some numbers out for you to contemplate.....  20 turn a day at half hour each, makes for a ten hour day, y'a haven't dropped a tree yet. One needs to take some Time out to eat and drop trees.
Just saying, I want to understand what you did and how, many have missed something or may have been lost in translation.  :Dj

[mad murdock]

In good wood in the great lakes region, I can see putting up good numbers like LJ48 is saying.  I could do 30 cds aday in aspen, limbing and pulling my own chokers, picking up behind a JD450C with a Morbark shear on it. It wasnt a balls out pace, just a good steady working pace. I would pile up 4-6 cds tree lenght on the landing, then buck the pile, my brother would sort with the forwarder.  Not quite the same as LJ48', but even with just a cable machine in good wood, and good ground, I can believe it.

[lumberjack48]

Working alone with a chainsaw and a cable skidder cutting 100 cords a week is, well lets say I dispute your claim.
[/quote

Corley5 i feel really sorry for you, that you have no more respect and have issues with me, sad day for us loggers.
Here i go again, in good timber i could fell a 80 to a 100 trees an-hour

A C4, C5-D, S8 IH, I could do the same with any one of them, never over 1/2 forty, 100 yds most of the time, i made rode as i logged it. I ran 6 chokers, anymore i found myself spending to much time untangling them and to much time unhooking. I timed myself all the time, every turn i made i checked how long, i wanted 3 turns an-hour. And if i'd fell ahead i'd make 4. This is backing up to limb and running over the pile most of the time, no decking, everything was done running, it was the way i worked. Lunch break was filing and gassing up.

I put up swamp spruce with two skidders, one landing man, one feller, we made 60 to 80 turns a day, depended on the skid, we limbed each others drag. The wife ran the S8, i ran the C5, now this is what i called hook-en an book-en.

[Corley5]

You feel sorry for me?  A phone call to listen to someone I don't know won't make any difference in my opinion.  I've been in the forest products industry on and off for almost thirty years both full and part time for my self and working for others.  My family has logged in N. Michigan since 1883 when they homesteaded here.  I know something about logging too.  One hundred cords a week working alone isn't sustainable.  Eighty to 100 trees an hour?  Do the math on that.

[Maine logger88]

That's some good numbers LJ48! I see no reason why that couldn't be done especially in aspen ,with me running skidder and bucking up in the yard and the guy who works for me felling and limbing we have been averaging about 15 to 18 cord a day in hemlock and aspen with our best week being 95 cord for a 6 day week! I have never before this past month had these kinds of numbers before and I certainly don't expect to get them year round but it is definitely possible

[Corley5]

That's with two guys Maine Logger.  Not a one man show.  Twenty cord days with two guys.  Not a problem in good timber, terrain and weather.

[duckslayingpro]

It is very possible to cut 100 cords in a weeks time. Im sorry that you may not be able to do it. But i know many loggers that can and do every week and that is working a 5 day week. LJ48 your numbers are very accurate some guys just cant do it i guess.

[Corley5]

You doing it Duck ???

[Corley5]

80-100 trees an hour that's one tree hitting the ground every .6 -.75 seconds.

[Firewoodjoe]

Well I run saw everyday. Triming and cutting a few grade logs for a slasher cutting 100-120 cord a day. I've cut from stump to truck by hand many times and 20 cord a day is no small feet. Not saying it can't be done but your a heck of a man or in monster wood. We're cutting yellow poplar that's 50 cord to the acre right now and I wouldn't bet my check i could cut 20 cord a day. It's 12 sticks tall! And for the record I'm a lean strapping young 26 year old! Lol or my wife says so anyways

[beenthere]

80-100 trees an hour that's one tree hitting the ground every .6 -.75 seconds.

One every .6  - .75 minutes.  ;)

Just less than 2 per minute.  One per minute would be 60 per hour.

[Corley5]

Thanks for checking my math Beenthere  8) 8)

[isawlogs]

 I must of been slow, I could never cut a tree that fast.  :-\

[Ken]

Although I think that maintaining that pace would be questionable I do not think that 100 cords in a week with one man is totally out of the question.  Remember that the timber harvested 25-35 years ago was considerably better than we work with today.  High volume stands with trees averaging 5 or 6 to a cord adds up fast.  Combine that with a short yard, high density stands with few limbs and a motivated youngster it could happen.  Again that pace could not be maintained for a lifetime as a persons body will only do so much long term.  I have a 51 year old employee that has on many occasions put up 20 cords in a day by himself and my old 225. 

[poor farmer/logger]

I used to do 70-80 cords a week without working to hard. Been out of the bush for a couple of years now aside from some clean up work so I suspect this year my pace will be off for a few days. Kind of out of shape now.lol..

Ryan

[lumberjack48]

 Aspen as thick as the hair on a dogs back, 5/6 trees to a cd,  no problem to tip 80 to a 100 trees an hour or fall and skid 20 cords a day. I never said i bucked it up, this is tree length.

I know what i did, thats all i need to know.

Thats just like strip cutting in the 60's. A logger was looking for two guys to cut and pile 10 cds of Aspen a day for him. I looked him up, told him i'd take the job. He said i couldn't do it, i told him, give me two days head start and you'll never see my tail lites. This was up on the Flowing Well Trail by Mizpa, Mn. I cut for him until i bought my new C4, 1968. 

[SwampDonkey]

Doesn't really matter man. I won't feel any less of ya if you didn't cut your 100 cords. There's nothing to prove. 60 cords, 120 cords, it's all hard work when done manual. Only a little easier to take inside a cab on a machine, other than they expect way higher numbers. They being the forest companies that hire the loggers and push..push...push for bigger numbers.  Brow beaters we call them. ;)

[1270d]

LJ, keep up the stories.  I believe you, and know for fact what you speak of is possible.  Im a modern mechanical logger and i like to hear about others best days and averages with different kind of setups.    I just wish i could have a whack at timber like you had, in the harvester :D  maybe try to set a personal best :laugh:

[Corley5]

100 cords a week, alright, whatever.  In a tree length jam pile, sure, that's do able.  Logging operations aren't races.  The faster we try to go the greater the chances of an accident in an already dangerous business.  An old saying I like is "There are old loggers and bold loggers but no old bold loggers".  That pretty much sums this situation up.  I'll say no more. 

[craigc]

Glad to have you back LJ. I have a guy by are mill that cut out west in the 60's and 70's he has great stories that you can learn a lot from.  If your not open to hearing how other people have done it, then your not going to learn.  Someone always is doing it better than how you do it always look how you can make your work better.

[lumberjack48]

100 cords a week, alright, whatever.  In a tree length jam pile, sure, that's do able.  Logging operations aren't races.  The faster we try to go the greater the chances of an accident in an already dangerous business.  An old saying I like is "There are old loggers and bold loggers but no old bold loggers".  That pretty much sums this situation up.  I'll say no more. 

I want you to know that my logging accident had nothing to with my pace in the woods. Corley5 i don't think you'll ever get to log Aspen like i did in the late 60's and in the 70's. I knew a Fin from up at International Fall, he was the one that introduced me to the skidder. He had a TJ gas job, he was logging by Ash river with two other guys, they were pulling 1000 cds a month with that little Jack. This was back in 1965. When i bought my TF in 68 i hired his father to fall for me. Nobody thought much of my skidder including my father, that quickly changed.

[Corley5]

I wasn't going to say anymore but you called me on it.  I would argue that it was your pace.  According to your own story about your accident you broke more than one rule of common sense logging.  You were cutting on a day with wind gusts of 35mph and a wind chill of -57.  You turned your back on a tree that was cut off and hung in another even if only for a second and I would say that at 5 PM on day like that you were fatigued and should have quit before you did but should have stayed home to begin with.  Here's the link to your story

   https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,65375.msg978159.html#msg978159

I'm gonna tell you how I feel it is.  I feel you should be the poster child for what not to do in the woods and shouldn't be counseling others on how to do the job while extolling your own accomplishments.  Your practices put you where you are today.  If anything you should be telling others what not to do.  This is a dangerous business and setting a pace like you did is deadly.  Just because you can put down a 100 trees per hour doesn't mean you should.  Did any of your elders or peers tell you to slow down before you got hurt or killed?   

[Mark K]

I cant imagine cutting 100 trees an hour. How many times do ya fuel up? I get between 7-9 trees out of a tank of fuel on my 385 husqvarna.  But the job im on now the timber is averaging 600 bf to the tree. Some trees are pushing the 1000 ft mark. Lucky if I pull 25 trees a day. Skid is 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile. I work alone. Cant fathom cutting and skidding that many trees.

[jwilly3879]

How about another thread just for bashing each other. This is starting to sound like a bar full of loggers where everyone has bigger wood, faster saw and a skidder that can pull 3 cord every hitch up hill and all the logs are veneer quality. Come on guys!

[Mark K]

Jwilly-how far north are u? Looks like your cutting decent sized wood. Im cutting on the south slope of the tug. Just above taberg. All hardwood, little bit of hemlock.

[jwilly3879]

Brant Lake area. Mostly pine, some hemlock, popple and junk hardwood.

[Timbercruiser]

Well, I'm certainly not putting up those kinds of numbers, but I'm also working on family land where we are cutting selectively and spending a bit of time thinning beech saplings and limbing some trees aren't being cut.  Here's a picture from this morning.  Just about two loads of sawlogs and well over a load of pulp.  The hardwood I twitched out for firewood isn't shown.  A little under two days of work.  I know I won't set the world on fire with that kind of productivity, but production isn't the only goal...
Nice job very nice pics 


 

[Mark K]

I mainly contract for a mill in Boonville.  My 405 is on one of there hardwood jobs now. I landed the job in taberg last year. My TF is on that.  Cut alot of the garbage soft maple, bass and ash, held out on cutting the cherry till the price climbed this year. Best move I ever made. Selling the hemlock to canada. Pain in the butt running two jobs with one guy.

[jwilly3879]

We tried the hemlock log deal but a lot of these are shaky, the truckers don't like the access for the trailers and it takes too long to load. So we pulp it, finch is paying a bonus for hemlock and we are getting $68/cord on the landing from our trucker and have no hassles. The pine logs go to a local mill and he takes everything down to 8", only deductions are for red rot and black knots. The pine on this lot varies from on area to the next, some is red rot in the butt log, some is clear for 2 nice logs and then the third log goes bad. Last load we sent looked perfect on both ends and then when they opened it up on the mill there was red rot. Weird.

Had an idea the pine might run like that so we didn't do a lump sum contract, it's as delivered to the mill. We are getting a lot of pine pulp which is basically worthless. Some of the nice 16' butts that have some rot are going to a friend on mine with a bandmill, the mill can't market that kind of wood but it makes great siding so it's not going to waste.

[Mark K]

Theres a little local mill that payed me $220 a thou. for hemlock. They come with a tri axle to get it. But he only will take a load a week. Canada pays the same price but ya have to load there trailers. I dont have a landing loader yet so the mill I contract for plans it out to pick uphardwood the same day the Canadians pick up. It works out. No real home for pine around here. Last bunch of white pine I sold was a year ago. Had a heck of a time getting rid of It. The mill I cut for marks softwood to which is for us to do whatever we want with.

[loggah]

We used to sell a bunch of hemlock to Finch when they had a yard in Tamworth N.H., good to deal with.

[lumberjack48]

I wasn't going to say anymore but you called me on it.  I would argue that it was your pace.  According to your own story about your accident you broke more than one rule of common sense logging.  You were cutting on a day with wind gusts of 35mph and a wind chill of -57.  You turned your back on a tree that was cut off and hung in another even if only for a second and I would say that at 5 PM on day like that you were fatigued and should have quit before you did but should have stayed home to begin with.  Here's the link to your story

   https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,65375.msg978159.html#msg978159

I'm gonna tell you how I feel it is.  I feel you should be the poster child for what not to do in the woods and shouldn't be counseling others on how to do the job while extolling your own accomplishments.  Your practices put you where you are today.  If anything you should be telling others what not to do.  This is a dangerous business and setting a pace like you did is deadly.  Just because you can put down a 100 trees per hour doesn't mean you should.  Did any of your elders or peers tell you to slow down before you got hurt or killed?   

My pace that day or fatigue had nothing to do with me getting hurt. The -57 or the 35 mile an hour wind didn't get me hurt.
What put me in this bed is when i walked away from the precut tree. At the time i did it i knew i was breaking one of my rules i preached to everybody else. But for some reason i did it, everyone on here will catch them self breaking one of there rules one time or another, for some reason its human nature. I certainly wasn't fatigued, I'd only fell 140 Balsam trees 

All my elders, peers and loggers heard that a logger got hurt. When they heard that it was me, they said it was the last name they expected to here because of my logging history and experience.

  Heres a picture of the wife and me, we loved logging, its all i did. The wife was a nurse for awhile but logging called her away from it. She's taken care of me for 25 yrs, plus running a cleaning business. Heres a lady that knows how to run a power shift, she loves the smell of diesel and screaming Detroit.