Sometimes it's not about the wood

[Old Greenhorn]

On Sunday's I like to do something different, fun, perhaps a waste of time, just to see if I can do it. There is an area in the woodlot where I would like to relocate my firewood cutting to (i daren't call it 'processing' because it is mostly manual). I have been cleaning the area of rotten dead stuff, stumps, etc in an effort to make a 'drive thru' lane to drop the logs and make handling easier.
 There is this one rock that sticks up too much that I can't safely drive over it. Of course i know if 8 inches is sticking up, then 30 inches must be down below. It was a bear and I had to hit it from both sides to get it to move but I got it out. Too heavy to flip and reset in the hole with the flat side up (first plan), so I got it out and dragged it between two trees. Final home for it to be determined at a later date. Then I had this huge hole to fill, so I got a bunch of other smaller rocks, 70 pounds and under, and filled it to ground level. Just taking a lunch break now. I am soaked with sweat. Will head back down and do some more cleanup because I am beginning to like the uncluttered look about this mixed hardwood stand. Hoping some new growth starts to show after I cleaned out 5 laying dead and rotting trees that used to be better that 70' tall. It was a mess.



Here is the subject rock, 1st pull attempt:


 

The first 4 yanks got it loose but it jammed up solid against another buried rock (imagine finding the there!), so I pulled out of here, went around and came it it from the other direction after using shale bars etc to try to leverage it. This thing is heavy! I managed to my surprise, to pop it out.


 

Once it was out, I dragged it to a temporary spot until I ponder where it 'belongs'.



 

Now I just have to flatten off that stump you see by the rear right tire in the first photo, and then a dozen more like it, and I will have a regular highway through there. OK, time to stop goofing off back to work. I don't know why I 'wasted' a morning working on a dang rock, but it gives me some satisfaction to make it look nice and be more usable. Also it's satisfying to see what I can do with that little Mule and some thought.

[lxskllr]

 I don't know why I 'wasted' a morning working on a dang rock, but it gives me some satisfaction to make it look nice and be more usable. Also it's satisfying to see what I can do with that little Mule and some thought.

Because it was an interesting problem, and interesting problems are fun. There's no such thing as wasted time if you're enjoying yourself, and that looks like it was a fun, satisfying project  :^)

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, end of the day and the 'highway' is open. I killed a chain good....TWICE.... cutting stumps off at ground level, but I like them that way. I can drive right over, don't trip on them, and they kind of disappear in a year or two. I took out 5 stumps. Dragged some more dead and down stuff to either make firewood, or throw over the back to finish rotting. This little Mule still amazes me.

This photo is after the big stone is gone and the hole is filled in. You can see some fresh rock in the hole smack dab in the middle of the photo, one of the stumps is about 15' past the hole.



 

And here it is after the stumps are gone. It's only about a 150' stretch, but there is another skid road that I can now get to (around where you can see a snow patch). SO this allows me a drive through loop. I'm happy, it was worth it.



 

I dragged out some more junk. It may not seem like much of a tree but you should have seen where I snuck in to pull it from and the stump is still on it. It[s about 30' red oak.



 

All in all, a good day.

[Don P]

 8) Good deal, it's always a good day when you beat a rock. The rock here won today but I'm gonna tomorrow. Michelle wants a drive around the high tunnel so I took the skidsteer down there and we scooped out a compost pile that was in the way first. Yup that made for greasy ground to try to move on then so I scooped a little deeper to hit some real dirt and bumped into a rock. I worried it for awhile with the bucket but it wasn't budging so I switched to the forks and began probing and trying to get under it. It budged but its a whopper. Went down and got the loader but needed to move some junk around first, squirrel :D. In the process a detent spring decided to let go but I couldn't figure out what was going on, I was checking solonoids and chasing wires and finally decided I was killing a good day so went down and sawed a log. Now I really needed the loader, so went back over and chased wires for a minute and then looked at the bellcrank and went AHA!, pulled it and got drive back. Went into the shop and found the old dishwasher door spring I had saved that seemed too good to throw away and found a place to hook it to, Boom, hitting like a big dog. And its dinner time. That rock is doomed tomorrow  .

[tree-farmer]

When I lived in Mass. back in 70's I heard large rocks refered to as "leverites", as in leave er right there, its to big to move  :D
Glad your did not fall in that category.  I envey such level land, mine tilts one way or another. (And has rocks to boot)

[thecfarm]

You guys in NY have got it made. Small rocks and no snow.  ;D  The only place I don't have rocks and snow is in my driveway. ;D I will be in the digging rocks mode here. In about 2 months. Every rock I dig out is one less I have to work around. I have a bog that all mine are going too. So they will never be in the way again. Kinda why I got a OWB. There would be a dead pine on the ground. One day I would move it to go through there. A month later I would be moving it again. Now I burn all those dead pine in my OWB. ;)  Hard to go over a dead tree that is a foot through with a tractor.  I try to cut all my trees low the first time. Saves me the bother of going back to cut them again. But when there is 2 feet of snow in the woods,like now,my stumps are high. Yes,it's hard on a chain to cut them low,but it's hard on equipment to drive over them. Chains are cheap,compared to equipment.
By the way a 40hp 4wh drive would of done that job a lot easier. ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

AH, you guys are killing me. First of all, all I have to work with are my hands, hand tools, and my Mule. No loaders, skidders, or tractors, or even a second set of hands. Second, I am working in this area because it is covered in hemlocks and has a lot less snow. I still can't work at the mill yet, but I can drive up to it now, and I got stuck in the snow down below this evening, still too deep. It is dropping pretty quick though, when I cut in here on Tuesday morning it was a foot deep., Third, we have lots of big rock ('leverites') that I just can't even attempt. (You know the ones the size of small cars that weigh as much as a large truck?) Most of those were left by the dozer that worked this patch 30 years ago. He could push neither. I am just trying to move the small ones that will allow my work to go easier. Lastly, nothing here is flat. This whole section you see is on a tilt and if you look at that photo of the Mule with the log, just 15 feet behind that log is a 40 drop that runs for more than half a mile. My skid hill is blasted out of that to allow access to the lower area. That's why its so steep and I can't navigate it when the snow is deep or there is ice. When I grabbed that log, I had to back up a 40 degree incline and had to keep one foot on the dash to keep my butt in the seat.
 I cut my trees fairly low, as low as I can, but I don't 'level them' until later. 8 Times out of ten when I level them, I hit a rock or at least dirt inside the tree and ruin the chain. That means a major re-filing job before I can clean up and buck the tree. I'd rather keep working, then come back and do a bunch of stumps until I kill the chain. Today was 'stump day' and I hit bluestone inside of two trees in a row, not fun.

[Don P]

I hear you on the big ones. We had a car sized rock behind the barn site when I had it leveled. The dozer couldn't budge it and it always pithed me off having it there. I stacked brush on it and burned then quenched the hot rock with water for about 20 years. I'd pound off what I could periodically then repeat. Finally broke it enough that a backhoe got it out when he was here. My friend Tom was running the equipment both times, he got a good laugh out of it when I had him get it out, "well I guess you finally beat it to death :D"

[Old Greenhorn]

If I did that I would have 50 fires going at the same time and then beat myself silly all day long! :D :D ;D Nope, I can't fight what nature put here, just trying to find a way to pick and thread my way through the 'rock field' that is our landscape. This particular one was something I could work with. Bluestone is a funny rock, it doesn't like high heat and will split and spalt, sometimes violently, but I just don't have the time or inclination for hardly any of these big stones. Our area was widely known for the bluestone that was mined here to build the roads and sidewalks on NYC, in fact there are 2 quarries on my road and at the turn of the century (the previous one), there were probably 8 quarries on my road. I live on 'Stone Rd." and it was given that name because they used this road to bring the stone down to the rail-yard and plank road to take down to the Hudson River and set on barges bound for NYC. Yes, we have some big stuff here. I have a logger friend at the end of my road who has learned how to quarry and cut his bluestone to make hearths and entry ways for his home. He is also  miller, seems to have the patience required, and the back for it.

[Ljohnsaw]

Yeah, I hear you about those little speed bumps.  I had this one that made driving my SkyTrac interesting.  Stuck up about 6" on the near side and dropped off a bit on the back.  Enough that if I had the SkyTrac tipped on the suspension, I could scrape my hydraulic and diesel tanks   My SkyTrac was down for some hydraulic work so I went at it with my little backhoe.


 
It just got bigger and bigger!


 
My Little Monster was no match to get this out of the hole.  Later in the week, the SkyTrac was functioning again.  Finally out of the hole and sitting in a cradle in another rock (Its new home for now).


 

[Old Greenhorn]

Wow, that's a big rock, but what really caught my eye was all the dirt you have! Man what I wouldn't give for a bunch of that stuff. I think I would have just graded the dirt up to allow for a nice ramp over the stone. But I know how it is when you keep driving over the same spot and just get sick of it and finally decide to do something about it. That is one heck of a hole you dug!

[Ljohnsaw]

but what really caught my eye was all the dirt you have!

Not really.  You only need to go 8" to 10" in any direction and you will find a football to basket ball sized rock :-\


 

[Ianab]

It's funny how if you have rocks, it's usually too many, and if you don't have any, you need them  :D

The farm I grew up on, and the last place I owned both had basically NO rocks or gravel, except way down in the river gorges.  Just volcanic ash and topsoil. 

You found some larger rocks from older eruptions if you dug deep enough on the family farm, but that was maybe 100+ ft, down by the river beds. The other property was further from the Mt, and had a thinner ash layer maybe only 3 - 6 ft, but under that was mudstone (called Papa Rock here), that was "hard", but basically just old compacted silt, and soon wore into slippery mud if exposed. 

Then you go around the other side of the Mt, where the last eruptions left huge lahar deposits, and they have car sized boulders sitting all over the place. 

But there is good money being made moving rocks around. Sucks to have to buy in gravel from miles away to form farm tracks, but without it, you simply have mud 90% of the year.