More than one way to skin a spruce.....

[FarmingSawyer]

I brought home  a trailer load of 8' spruce logs yesterday with the idea of sawing up some 3x8's for decking for a new ramp I'm building on my rental barn. The only problem is the mill is in the barn, with no side access, so big logs have to come in over the end...... Here's my solution....worked good as the rain is making everything slick....

The cobbed together ramp with a piece of plywood over the top to help extend it to 8ft.


 
Some spruce 4x8s as a framework, resting on a sill block and attached into the barn sill.


 
I carried out all the cedar shorts and sawed them up first. Now for my ramp lumber....


 
A couple of pine 3x6's as skids


 
Standing on the mill and using the choker to pull the suckers on worked pretty good and saved my back a ton.


 
Looking to be a nice ramp for some free spruce and a bit of time......


 

[Magicman]

Looks like you met a bear and your innovation conquered.   

[beenthere]

Now for end loading your mill, think of something that has wheels...  will move much easier, especially as you find bigger logs.

A jr. logrite arch comes to mind.

[FarmingSawyer]

Beenthere, I've been thinking about some of the big wheelie arches I've seen for end loading mills here on FF..... I'd have to make it hitch to my truck or something because the elevation between the ground and the floor of the barn is 14"....it would be a bear to try to wheel a 2200lb log up and in......

Fortunately for big stuff I can roll the mill out of the barn and load conventionally....it just takes setting up the mill again, so I'd only do it if I had a whack of logs to mill up. A neighbor will be bringing some 6' pines over for me to mill. We'll try to use his tractor to put them on the mill from the end.

[Peter Drouin]

Why not make a door on the side of the barn so you can load easier.

[beenthere]

I'd have to make it hitch to my truck or something because the elevation between the ground and the floor of the barn is 14"..

But looked pretty flat from the trailer bed to the mill bed...  ;) ;)

Many ways to skin that cat.. (old saying)


But you will get it worked out to save the back, one way or t'other.

[Sixacresand]

"where there is a will, there is a way". Good job, FarmingSawyer.

[FarmingSawyer]

Why not make a door on the side of the barn so you can load easier.

It's a bank barn....one one side is the house, and the other side is 8ft in the air......and it's a rental. I would never own a dive like this and would have put up a proper saw shed long ago if it were mine.

[beenthere]

and it's a rental. I would never own a dive like this and would have put up a proper saw shed long ago if it were mine.

What is the future plan then..?  keep adapting to it as it is, or have something better in mind?

[FarmingSawyer]

Heck, the future plan is to saw my way to a nicer property of my own..... I keep looking but nothing was affordable last summer. I moved the mill into the barn for the winter to have it nice and easy to get out on days when I have mobile sawing jobs. While it's in there I decided I could saw small jobs and lighter logs which would be brought in over the end. For big stuff I can move out in to the driveway and if I get enough work for a log deck worth of wood, then I'll set up in the field which comes as part of this farm...which is where I've had the mill all summer.

I really pushed to be out of here before this winter. I don't like how close the house and barn are to the road, and I think the rent is too expensive....but, it comes with access to 50 acres of field and an acre garden and the huge barn. It's also centrally located and about 20 min at the most from most places I usually go.
I own a 40 acre wood lot 30 min from here, but the town it's located in is a backwater where nothing much goes on and no one ever goes. I had the mill set up there for a year and before that across the road on the farm I lost to my ex. At least I got to keep the mill  ;D

There are a lot of mills around here, and I even see some out and about on the road. That being said, many of the small, fixed custom mills have closed down and the feedback I'm getting is it's hard to find a sawyer, let alone one who answers questions and replies to emails and phone calls.