Total of our experience-Logging and working in the woods

[clww]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

[danabg]

I just discovered this forum,find it very interesting.Started going to the woods with my father when I was 4 or 5 I think,could run a skidder at 12,started piling pulpwood at 14 in the summers and days off of school.Finally allowed to run my own saw at 16 and at age 17 quit school and went to the woods fulltime.Started running a forwarder at 18,the same time we got our first harvester.I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger but sure have learned a lot since then.Have run many different types of forwarders,harvesters skidders and a buncher and worked on all of them.Worked with some great guys over the years,we did a lot of work but we had some fun too.I'm 42 now so I guess I have 25 years or more in.

[IcePick]

Just started cutting hardwoods last year.  Been a tree climber for 15+.  I sub-contract for a guy in Wisconsin who runs a forwarder-hand cutting operation.  With all the experience I've had dropping trees and running a saw, trying to make money falling hardwoods is quite difficult and quite different work from tree work.  It will take time for me to find a rhythm.  With all the struggles I've had so far, I enjoy it immensely.

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, IcePick.   8)

[Pine Ridge]

New member here,Hi everybody! Been cutting firewood since 10 years old, started cutting sawlogs about 17 years old,been cutting both off and on since then. I am now 45, and cut sawlogs on weekends.I work monday thru thursday, 10 hours a day for a county road department,that gives me friday and saturday to cut and skid. I don't get in a hurry, and I enjoy every minute of my woods time! First post here,I also enjoy reading about and seeing what everyone else is doing in the log woods,equipment and methods used by different loggers.

[cutbank]

new poster here , i registered on this forum quite a while ago . Great forum heres my bio I am a foresty tech grad (88) from Lakehead University. I have worked in the forest industry for 20 years as a forestry tech then as a logging contractor  , I left the forest ind in 2003 and now work as a millwright. I own a 200 acre Jackpine plantation . My toys are a 664c line skidder and a 24000 hood slasher.

[lamimartin]

There is no ZERO on this poll, so I voted 1 for 1st year seriously using a chainsaw, 1st year using a tractor and logging winch, simply because 1st year I own a maple bush with a few pines and spruce.

I pruned and removed quite a few trees that were incompatible with residential setup in the past 40 years, but nothing compared to what I am doing now. I'm sort of returning to my family roots, logging, but with modern tools that are far safer and efficient than axes, handsaws and horses.

[thecfarm]

Taking care of a forest is alot of fun. Enjoy it. I do hope you are wearing the proper safety gear. There is alot to being safe in the woods. I have a hard hat and when my wife comes in the woods to see me,she wears one too.  Have fun.

[lopet]

I think I can contribute 40 more years.  Been working in the woods with my Dad since being ten years old.  Cut my first tree at 14.  Now I am 54 and still loving it, but sometimes think I am not quite right in my head , when I am wrestling  with a winch cable. ;D

Too bad , a lot of members on this thread aren't posting anymore. :(   

[Stroover]

I'm a newbie. Though I've cut firewood for my dad when I was a teenager, I've never done it "professionally" until now. I've started working in the woods this month for a friend of mine who was short on woodsmen, so I told him I'd work weekends for him (my days off). He's paying me $45/cord, so instead of going to the gym, I get a MUCH better workout, PLUS I'm getting paid to do it instead of paying for a gym membership!   8) I was using a friend's chainsaw, but just bought my own Stihl MS 261 yesterday after conversing with some of the woodsmen on site, plus after browsing on this site.  Looking forward to making some "she" money (She doesn't need to know about it).

[dtody]

Started on this site back in 2002 while recovering from by-pass surgery.  Have 40 acres and son now has 80 acres.  Had  woods, a chainsaw and a Oscar 18 from Hud-Son. Cut top dead trees from the woods and about 2500 board feet of lumber. Did a bit of a career change from teacher to administrator so additional classes were needed = time off from woods and water/fishing.  Then another by-pass, and then in 2012 a heart transplant.  Mostly recovered, so son upgraded to Oscar330Pro last month and we're planning on going as well as we can.  I do some wood turning now, selling bowls and stuff, half an old log for $100.  Getting bowl blanks ready for sale and will continue to cut boards at a log or three per day.  I see many of the familiar names still on the site, looking good and hope to gain more info.

[wyorancher]

Cut oak firewood in high school. After .graduation went to the woods and started as a choker setter behind D6 parking cats, hooked yarder and finally got a seat on the parkin cats. Always wanted to be a feller, an opening came up, and took the task. During spring break they put me on cat or the new rubber tired machines. fell large ponderosa in the Black Hills and over to the Rockies for a stench felling spruce, fir, lodge pole, sugar pine and ponderosa. Cut logs under the high lead and did some "in for your money and out for your life" (hookin for the high lead) Very steep grades at my age and the forest economy forced a change. Now back to Cutting and skidding on the ranch at my own leisure using 064 Stihls (24" bar) and me ole 664B and happy as a lark. Loggin is a life to me and not a occupation. Wonder if I'll get to loggers heaven?

[wyorancher]

Originally put down 35 years didn't count the years of fire woodin.

[vinc5d]

I chose 5 because I have helped my dad over the last few years but, this is my first year cutting. and hopefully my first year processing on my own !

[350 cummins]

as far back as i can remember we hauled firewood, skidding trees out with a team of percherons to build dads log house, an old P.A. foundry circular mill powered by our 4020 JD, then a C5D treefarmer and a lumbermate band mill, and now my youngest son (4 years old) stacks firewood until i am tired of cutting it.
three generations that are still enjoying working with wood

[350 cummins]

ok

[so il logger]

I put 10 years. I think its going on 12 years as my sole employment. My dad logged all his life from 16 up til his health failed. He still helps on a daily basis just cant run a saw. I started out skidding for him and when he was hospitalized I picked up a saw. I have been the primary feller for 9 or 10 years. theres nothing like it. Once sawdust gets in your blood I think your hooked. 

[jdeere540a]

 i put 15 years i got my first saw when i was 11. it was a used mccoulloch i cut cordwood ever since and bought my first skidder the year after high school 2006.  it was a very wore out timberjack 230d.

[reubenT]

I put in 30 because that's about when I started actually harvesting timber,   but started using my dads chainsaw about 5 years before that to cut firewood and whatever I wanted to cut.  A Mac 10-10.    First big tree I cut was a widermaker,   I didn't know it as such at the time but I did recognize the danger.   I did it very cautiously,  making sure not to let it move before I was outa the way.    It was in free space.   I won't touch one with dead branches that has interference with other trees unless I'm inside a steel cage,  Like a dozer cab.   When I got serious about sawin trees down I got me a new sacks dolmar,   wore it out. Then went through several used steels and huskys,  I liked the old 051 I had,  it was getting pretty worn and then swollowed a steel nut which finished it off.   finally got an almost new steel.

[Straightgrain]

I selected 10 years; not counting the years I "logged" (and cut steel and moved earth) with explosives.... ;D

Abatis: a rampart made of felled trees placed so that their bent or sharpened branches face out toward the enemy.

[tmbrcruiser]

Started working in the woods topping log when I was fifteen. When I turned sixteen and started driving I was able to get out of school at 11:00 to go logging. There was an agriculture teacher who would check up on the guys that got out of school early to work. That was in 1973.

[Logger003]

My dad had a sawmill when I was growing up I decided on thirty years cause I was 16 when I actually started working in the bush falling timber I ran power saw for 5 years then started running skidder and took over the logging part of the business when I was 25. I didn't have much to do with the sawmill part of the business. Sure wish I would have learned that part now I'm teaching myself that part

[jrose1970]

Hey,   I put five years. I've cut firewood and cleaned brush all my life. I've never not lived on a farm.
Very little of that has been with logging or sawmill, but i just thought my experience with a chainsaw would give me about five years.

[Scott Garrett]

I put 20 years. I would carry saws and gas for my dad and brother back in 1980. After I got out of the military I worked as an free lance diver for 16 years and when I was not diving I was cutting right of way or pulling timber. Just got some new stihl 660's and old timberjack 230. My dad passed 8 years ago and when I'm in the woods I feel he is there with me.

[62oliver]

I put 5 years, have never been a "logger", but have cut my own firewood for several years, cut trails on my land, I got my husqvarna 266 in 1984, and just got a 240 TJ to make life a little easier.   8) 8) 8)