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Preparing for next teak thinning 2018 (Now Started)

Started by teakwood, September 21, 2017, 05:50:35 PM

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teakwood

Quote from: nativewolf on January 13, 2018, 12:11:31 PM
Seeing the spaghetti wire electrical wires reminds me of the tropics (Thailand to India)  for sure.  Just run another wire...no worries.  Fortunate that there is a market for the small stuff, Teak is a great great wood.

:D :D yeah, these countrys they just don't get it, electrical, phone, tv, internet, everything is in the air looking like a plate of spaghetti. One tree or branch falls and there we are without electricity, again!
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

mike_belben

Well sign me up for teak!  In oak thats about a $40 load laying on the ground for me. 
Praise The Lord

teakwood

yeah but i had to plant and maintain it over the last 13 years, i'm still in the red numbers but thats the first year a real nice amount  gets in as a return. Finally i'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thursday we loaded the first long wood container. The logs have to be: 7 meters in average length and 61+ cm circumference average in the middle of the log length, fairly straight.
101 logs in that load and the final amount was 3277$ for 23.8m3 volume



  

 

Not the ideal logloader but thats what i got   

    


  

 
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

mike_belben

Hey youre makin it happen with what you got.  god willin, thats what counts.
Praise The Lord

nativewolf

Quote from: teakwood on January 14, 2018, 08:46:09 AM
Quote from: nativewolf on January 13, 2018, 12:11:31 PM
Seeing the spaghetti wire electrical wires reminds me of the tropics (Thailand to India)  for sure.  Just run another wire...no worries.  Fortunate that there is a market for the small stuff, Teak is a great great wood.

:D :D yeah, these countrys they just don't get it, electrical, phone, tv, internet, everything is in the air looking like a plate of spaghetti. One tree or branch falls and there we are without electricity, again!

Yep, people haven't seen wiring til they get to India.
Liking Walnut

teakwood

First load of short wood. I payed the loading per contract because i didn't want to deal with so much short sticks.
180$ per load, so they came with 6 guys and lasted 4 hours for the 26.5m3, 660 logs :o


  

 

National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

nativewolf

Hate to ask but I have to...

What do you get for that short wood trailer.  For us backwards Americans he's loaded up over 7 cords of short teak logs.
Liking Walnut

teakwood

That's a valid question.

1950$ , so more or less around 2k. I'm pretty pleased with that price because these logs where all from smaller and/or not so straight trees.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

BargeMonkey

nice to see pictures that don't have snow. 😂 your going to get 3 cuts to a rotation or ? what's the ideal age ?

teakwood

Normally its around 18 years for the clearcut.  precommercial thinning at 5, first commercial at 9, second at 13 years and clearcut at 18.
i will make another thinning at 17/18 years and let the rest grow to 25, 30 or 40 years, then you talking serious money
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

teakwood

Rented a small bulldozer to renew some of my trails on the finca.

Look at that rig for that small Komatsu 41! :D


 

Very nice dozer, ideal for the work i needed done

 
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

mike_belben

Did you just drive it off the side of the lowbed?
Praise The Lord

teakwood

Yes, the operator did, but on the other side there is a small dirt hill, so no damage to the lowboy.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

nativewolf

Quote from: teakwood on January 18, 2018, 08:55:58 PM
That's a valid question.

1950$ , so more or less around 2k. I'm pretty pleased with that price because these logs where all from smaller and/or not so straight trees.

So turn green with envy NA hardwood guys.  He is getting $285/cord for pulpwood size thinnings.  Now since we know how much work went into it we all know it is not $285 profit but ....that's a very nice price for such small timber. 
Liking Walnut

teakwood

Quote from: mike_belben on January 20, 2018, 10:24:05 PM
Did you just drive it off the side of the lowbed?

You can't rent big equipment in Costa Rica and use it yourself. It's always from a company who does work with that machine and comes with his operator.
I specially insisted on this driver (Vidal is his name) and excepted a 2 week delay because he had holidays :D
He is without a doubt the best dozer driver i know. He makes one, at most two, passes and that trail is like new again. He lasted 12 hours for almost the whole finca (around 3-4 miles of trails, also cut some new ones which demands more time) and the hour rate is 53$.
After the work was done i told the owner that i will bring him the 636$ to his office. He told me: pay me 530$!! :o and he didn't charge the transport nether. 
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

teakwood

Quote from: nativewolf on January 21, 2018, 06:42:03 AM
Quote from: teakwood on January 18, 2018, 08:55:58 PM
That's a valid question.

1950$ , so more or less around 2k. I'm pretty pleased with that price because these logs where all from smaller and/or not so straight trees.

So turn green with envy NA hardwood guys.  He is getting $285/cord for pulpwood size thinnings.  Now since we know how much work went into it we all know it is not $285 profit but ....that's a very nice price for such small timber. 

and that is after just 13 years of growing. this thinning will bring around 30k, i hope, hard to guess before loading all the wood. tomorrow we load another long wood container. i have 130 long logs waiting cut to length already. I just need around 100 but better to be sure if some of them don't meet the specs.
I will definitely get into black numbers in the next thinning, in 4 years!  The long wood containers will just require 60-70 logs because of the bigger diameters and the same volume (24m3) will bring 4000-4500$ instead of 3200$.
"The pulpwood", how you guys like to call my shortwood  :D :D will always bring the same 2k.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

mike_belben

Soo ughhh.. Ya think that stuff'll grow in tennessee? 

:D
Praise The Lord

teakwood

 :D :D just inside the tropical belt and beneath 600m altitude. The best areas is one with a dryseason (here we have 3 month) where it's real hot and dry so the trees drop all there leaves and the wood can harden and get a beautiful dark color
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

thecfarm

I kinda said this before,but I really enjoy this thread, Shows a whole diffeant way to harvest wood. And a kind of wood that is diffeant to me. I also enjoy seeing the way you do things there. Loading a truck by hand stopped around here about 60 years ago.  :)
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

teakwood

Thanks thecfarm for the kind words.

I would surely love to have a small grapple and any type of machine, that would also simplify the sorting of the wood immensely, or loading the containers. But kinda hard to justify such a machine for 10 loads a year ???

At some day in the future i would love to have a euro type skidder with the crane in the back and double drum remote controlled winches. A dream.
I like the one lopet has! (i hope you don't mind that i posted your picture! ;D)


 
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

mike_belben

Praise The Lord

lopet

Heeh, what's that picture doing here.  :D :D

Well teakwood, this is NOT my dream solution. Don't get me wrong it's working for now if you compromise here  and compromise there.  My dream is to have two skidders, one just for cable skidding and one with a grapple boom and a clamp at the back for all the smaller stuff.
I think this probably would work the best for my operation, but I am afraid I am running out of time . ;D
As I probably mentioned before,  with the boom added later in the skidder's live, it's mounted on top of the winch and the visibility to the back is very poor, also the cab is way too small and too tight and I am 5' 8" 190 lbs.
The seat only turns 90 degree and all twelve loader functions run on one single joystick.

Okay, now you got me going again here, my dream is to replace the 5 speed tranny on my C5 with a clark torque converter and power shift of some mining equipment, ditch the funky cage and replace it with a tractor cab, have a hydraulic rotated seat with pedals for throttle and forward /reverse and two joysticks for all hydraulics and steering.
Also ditch the winch and the arch and mount " Junior's " grapple boom on the back  and  and and.....

What do you think , is that realistic or will it just be a dream ?  You started it  ;D

With all the hassle I went through with the import, I would definitely NOT do it again.
If I were you I would mount a new dual drum winch to the back of of a skidder and have room to mount a boom behind the cab. You're not doing much big stuff either, I mean really big diameter, that's why I think that would work for you.   

Make sure you know how to fall properly when you fall and as to not hurt anyone around you.
Also remember, it's not the fall what hurts, its the sudden stop. !!

coxy

lopet  does that turn in the middle or is it front wheel steer    I like to dream to some day ill have an unlimited flow of cash to buy all the new stuff before anyone else gets it would be nice to buy something with 0 hours in stead of things with 50,000 hours  :D

moodnacreek

Teakwood, very interesting operation you have. your photos of teak logs on the ground, ready for market really got my attention. In my neck of the woods it would be rare to see logs cut properly like that. On t.v. they show so called loggers destroying the butts of logs in felling. Doing it wrong is glorified here. Thanks for posting your operation.

lopet

coxy  it articulates like a skidder should and that's why the cab is  v shaped to the back.

That's my dilemma with a dream project like that, I still wanna do it but don't know if I get to use it much or is just going to be built for somebody else.
I have to get out of farming first so I can shake some money and time loose and that's not before another two years.
Make sure you know how to fall properly when you fall and as to not hurt anyone around you.
Also remember, it's not the fall what hurts, its the sudden stop. !!

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