couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[78NHTFY]

Have been itching to get out with my new-to-me skidder and twitch first sticks this Winter 8).  Despite weeks of cold weather, the ground is only frozen an inch or two deep.   Went out to cut with the ATV and everything seemed solid.  But a 10 ton machine got things pretty muddy in a spot or two pulling this load of maple blowdown.  Can't imagine how folks doing this for a living are managing in the mud.  All the best, Rob.


 

 

[mike_belben]

Sure looks fast with that red spoiler on the back!  

;D

[BargeMonkey]

 The folks trying to cut wood in the mud are about starving to death 😂 Buyer for Wagner stopped on my job today wanting to buy wood, it's going to be survival of the fittest here soon, things aren't good. I've never had 4ft ruts before, top 1ft is frozen, dragging the pans but close enough to being done I just dont care, big dozer / excavator can fix it come spring. Finch wants 150 ton + a week, they are going to get it. 😂 


 

[mike_belben]

Go getm tiger.

[BargeMonkey]

Go getm tiger.

😂  I appreciate it Mike. I've got 7-8ld sitting by the delimber to come out tomorrow, this is going to happen if it likes it or not 😂  My log buyer took a nice local job from Wagner and I need to start Dec 26th, their forester went and marked it prior to the sale and told my competion to be ready to show up and we took it out from under them, I'm been smiling the last 2wks. 😂 

[teakwood]

But you will still make a good profit although you undercutted the competition?  

[mike_belben]

When the competition quits you make all the profit.

[nativewolf]

While we've been waiting on mud to freeze or dry out and for mechanics to fix sabotaged equipment we took a little clearing job.  1.5 acres, 40k bdft of oak & yellow poplar.  

Lot is only 200 or so feet wide and very long with a house in back third, a powerline on one side, county park on the other.  What a tight tight squeeze.  We only had 100' for the landing.  Dead end street so we loaded trucks right on the pavement, no complaints yet.  Many of the oaks are very large scarlet oaks, 100+ feet tall and 1 had almost 2k bdft in the one tree, could have been more but we broke the top out a bit.  



 

 

This is sort of scarlet oak that is driving up volumes,  24" bar was crushed on a prior tree so we were bucking 30" 2nd logs with a 20" bar ....in the dark.  Gotta get it done, felling a bit like eric.  Oh do I wish these were white oak logs.  Sigh.

Mill had to take it all and since this is being cut right down on the beltline in DC the first mill could not get a driver to go to the site.  So, a day later another mill and I have a dedicated trucker making 2-3 trips a day getting logs out.  Not sure what will happen to the 3-4 loads of pulp/firewood logs.  

[mike_belben]

Man those are way nicer than our scarlet oaks here.. Its hard to get one without a stovepipe or ant hole at one end or the other of every log.  

Sorry to hear about the equipment. Its not the new forwarder is it?  40k bd feet seems like a buttload for 1.5 acre.  Hopefully that eases the bills for a week or two.

How much is a cord in greater DC bringing?  Id think pretty high.

[nativewolf]

Yeah Mike these were awfully nice SO.  There were some YP with almost no heart, you can see one on the landing area- wonderful veneer wood. 

I don't have any trucking so I'm begging for trucking...literally; that's why I am not sure what happens to the firewood/pulp.  I need to be off this site because I just rented a telehandler and got a week demo on a Kubuota SVL 95 for my equipment.  Used the telehandler as a giant iron wedge and got trees to fall anywhere we needed.  I guess I am going to buy the skidsteer.  Kubota is financing at 0% and though I hate a monthly payment it has been so very useful, ended up loaded all the trucks with it instead of the telehandler.  At worst I will give firewood away to someone I partner with on big mulching projects but I'll have to ferry it all to the landing once logs are gone (no space to do both).  If I had trucking I could drive it 2 hours west and get $38+ per ton from several mulch/chip/pulp plants.  But no dadgum trucking.  

Firewood goes for $300+ a cord in the neighborhood where we are cutting.  Some guys take a truck and bags and bundle off the back off a pickup, $8-10/bag just park on a ritzy area and sold out by 1.  Like Eric has been saying it is not heat but a fun night and that's all good.  I hear they make over $700/cord like that.  

[mike_belben]

Sounds like you need to start studying your air brake and general knowledge there bub.  Dont wait, theyre only gonna make it harder with time. 

[dustintheblood]

It was a good day and bad day.

Bad day was that it busted as I was lifting an empty firewood tote bag (about 2 lbs) while inside the warehouse and only about 15 feet from the welding shop.

Good day was that I wasn't in the woods and wasn't underneath it with a 20' oak log swinging on the grapple.


Funny thing was early this week I was contemplating getting back into the wood & lumber business.  After this breakdown I remember how much headache the business can be.   I think I'll keep to tinkering along for myself.   :D :D 



 

[dustintheblood]

Here's some pics from northern Quebec where I do work with the big mills. 





 

 

 

[78NHTFY]

Sure looks fast with that red spoiler on the back!  

;D

Sure is, compared to my L 2250 Kubota with winch!! :D :D  ....and that's no spoiler: it's a genuine bee stinger, as in  "Fly like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee". ;D.  Those poor trees don't know what hit 'em when they go down!! 8) 8).  We having any fun yet?  All the best, Rob.

[g_man]

Sure looks fast with that red spoiler on the back!  

;D

Sure is, compared to my L 2250 Kubota with winch!! :D :D  ....and that's no spoiler: it's a genuine bee stinger, as in  "Fly like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee". ;D.  Those poor trees don't know what hit 'em when they go down!! 8) 8).  We having any fun yet?  All the best, Rob.

Sure sounds like you learned to like that new skidder in a hurry Rob. Good for you !!!
gg

[BargeMonkey]

Every last ounce of daylight, then you skid with the lights on. 😂 


 
 Feeding the pulp monster. Going to cut this big ash job for the sawmill and going back to part time logging, got offered a cushy chief engineers job with good benefits and done beating my head against the wall with the weather, go CTL 2wks a month 😂 


 

[mike_belben]

Heck is all that white stuff?  pollen or something?

[chevytaHOE5674]

Got spoiled running processor the last few years with an unlimited supply of firewood. Now that I'm not doing that I had to break out the farmi winch and start cutting and skidding my own wood. Got a bunch of ash on the farm that is on its way out so it's perfect timing.

[barbender]

It's not quite the same, is it Chevy?😊

[chevytaHOE5674]

This way is a lot of hard labor. That stack of wood took me all day, with the processor it would have taken an hour and it would have been bucked to stove length in my pickup or trailer :D.

Been running processor for a friend of mine just enough to keep in practice, but don't think I'm in a position to start getting firewood. Lol

[barbender]

Haha yeah you want to know where your relationship is at before you start leaving the job with truckloads of stove wood😁

[mike_belben]

On the bright side, your keeper trees will thank you for dragging the culls home. 

[g_man]

One thing about working at the top of the ridge is that it's all down hill to the landing.



 

gg

[Puffergas]

Heck is all that white stuff?  pollen or something?

Mike, it must be those white fuzzy balls that some kind of popular trees release is the spring. Dang climate change! 

[78NHTFY]

g_man:  yes, am enjoying it, like a kid in a candy store!  BTW, nice twitch of fir/spruce.  Too bad about all that butt rot!  Gonna  be slippery after 2 days of rain starting tonight....be careful.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL.  And let's not forget all our FF friends who've gone through tough times this year.....All the best, Robl