My Illinoiz Logging Excursion .....

[TexasTimbers]

I thought I would start a new thread on my portion of this Bois D' Arc logging saga since, as it turned out, I was there so long in kind of turned into a whole story all by itself.
The intial plan was to run up on Sunday, cut Monday and maybe Tuesday, and head South again on Tue or Wed.
Many of you kbnow what happened. Delay after delay. Totally out of our hands. It's all been catalogued on Kirk's "Free Trees" thread so I won't take up any more bytes with it.
The good news is, although my stay was much longer than planned, it's STILL too muddy for me to be finishing off the metal job I had started here before I left.
Here's one of the smaller root balls. If you didn't move fast you wouldn't get any pictures. We had time to snap a few pics between the operators offering our trees to us.


Here's Kirks new toy and Kirk at work with his new toy, on one of the lovely ladies.



And then there's me making yellow dust going after some .....






"I thought you said I needed a long bar!"


Big crotch. Bigtime bad technique. Newbies don't duplicate this form. Here's how NOT to cut a log .....


A small Whack of smaller logs ....


Following a 4WD in a 2WD....

Don't pay any attention to what some people say. I NEVER had to get pulled out. 

Those Illinoiz Highwat Dept. folks kept those scrapers going and the roads passable, but they could use a little help with their math ...




On the way back to Texas I tried to flag this fella down and tell him he was heading the wrong way to get my logs!



Here's a view to give a little scale of what we were dealing with ....



It was a learning experience in more ways than one. I sure was glad to get back home to the wife though. She said next time i take one of these 2 to 3 day trips I have to take her in case something like this ever happens again! It's a view from the back of my pickup about to head out from the hotel into the Illinoiz woods ....

[MULE_MAN]

Nice looking logs  & picture's kevjay,     Well at least you guys were having fun until the snow hit 

It seems like I do remember somebody saying something about you getting stuck in the snow   

[Furby]

Got a pic of your trailer load?

[IL Bull]

Don't pay any attention to what some people say. I NEVER had to get pulled out. 
Kevjay,  are you talking about me?
How many logs did you end up with?
Did you ever figure out how to say El-a-noy?  Or are you still using the silent "z"?
Joe

[TexasTimbers]

Furby I haven't dragged any back yet. This story may not be over.

Bull, I never said I didn't get stuck one time, just that I never had to get pulled out. Both are true.  I managed to get all the way from Charleston to Kirks farm without getting stuck, even though there were some close calls. Soon as I pulled into his drive I felt my left front drop off the rock into a low spot and that was that. Before he could get out to hook a tow rope to me I had located his snow shovel and removed enough of the white stuff to back, back up onto the harder drive. And although I think it is no small miracle, I never got stuck on going in and out of the field where the logs were. I tell ya, that was practically miraculous. 

When I was up in Ill-uh-noy I was able to pronounce it y'alls way most of the time. I was even able to call the yella stuff "Hedge" - for the most part. But once I crossed that Red River yesterday I fell back into my old ways of callin it bodark and Illunoiz. Old habits are hard to break. You can bet that when I go back to Illinoiz Illinois for the Bois D' Arc   Hedge that I'll lose the "z" and the Southern name for the wood again. 

P.S. No I was talking about MOI! I don't like to engage in gossip. 

[jerry-m]

Kevjay,  Glad you made it back safe and sound...

I have really been enjoying all you guys stories of your trails and tribulations

Jerry

[bitternut]

Well kevjay I can now understand how you could get a bar stuck. That looks like some dangerous cutting for sure. Glad to hear you guys survived it OK. I would guess you fellas will be telling tales about that experience for the rest of your lives. Could you fill in some more details about the sudden desire to own a pair of chaps? Thats quite a new saw Kirk's got there.

[Ax- man]

Those are some good size Osage Orange or Hedge trees you guys cutting on. What is going to happen to the wood, firewood or small saw logs, that Hedge is beautiful when it is milled. Nasty tree to work on, it teaches you how to keep a saw sharp, for sure.

We didn't get one flake of that snow up north. Lucked out on that one

Illinoiz--- 

[TexasTimbers]

Ax, flooring in my wifes new home that I plan to build a year after some Tuesday. 

Have you cut much of it? Circle? Bandsaw? Give us the facts man! The facts!!!

[Ax- man]

Have you cut much of it? Circle? Bandsaw? Give us the facts man! The facts!!!

I personally don't own any type of mill, but I have a good friend who is a full time sawyer with his own sawmill. I drop logs off at his yard if I don't have a use for them. I have helped him a little, that sawmill work is dangerous (sp) , more so than what I do.

As the owner of a tree service  I have cut I literally many miles of ( no BS either ) of those Osage Orange trees for townships, private landowners and on our own property. Some of this work has been entire removal of the whole tree(s) or flatsiding trees when the limbs are overhanging field edges or roads.  I have also taken out a few trees that were a little bigger than the one shown in the pic as single removals from old established farms in our area. You don't see many that size as a single stem specimen, most have been cut at on time or another for firewood or in an era gone by for fence posts. This past summer we cleared about  five acre patch of overgrown pasture of those nasty trees that had spread from the parent trees growing along the fence line.

I may not have a circle or band, but I do have a chipper, and plenty of chainsaws.  I won't chip  those trees unless the knives are sharp, if they aren't sharp  the machine has to work way harder than it should, I'm sure the same can be said for a circle blade or a band saw. If you don't have a sharp chain on your saw cutting Hedge you will burn a bar up quick and shorten the life of a chainsaw bigtime. Sharp=Productivity when cutting Hedge

When I do have Hedge in the wood pile to sell as firewood I will not mix it in with our regular wood, because of the high heat it throws, it has been know to burn stoves out, and some have told me it is possible to forge iron on it, I don't know about that one I'm not a blacksmith, and let's not forget the  sparks it throws when it stirred in the wood stove, heaven help the person who burns it in their fireplace with a carpet close by. If I do sell it as a firewood I sell straight with the buyer knowing exactly what he is getting and to mix it with other woods along with a disclaimer that I am not responsible once it leaves the yard.

I hope this is enough facts, it is the best I can do.

Forgot one, like this would really matter to anyone, trivia really.  Osage Orange and Mulberry are in the same family of trees, if you are ever on Jepordy it might come handy to know that one.

I am more of an arborist, tree type  guy than a  lumber maker . I am making plans to shift our business away from residential tree service removals and more toward conservation and forestry type work. I know this is an odd place for me to be but this site has some good information that has been helpful to me.
 
That Hedge is going to make a nice looking floor. You will have a nice conversation piece when company comes over to visit.

Larry 

[ronwood]

Ax -Man,

Welcome to the forum. I would not say this is a odd place for you. We all learn from each other . We have a number of arborist that are currenty members.

Ron

[Ianab]

Big crotch. Bigtime bad technique. Newbies don't duplicate this form. Here's how NOT to cut a log .....

Those look a bit like the big gnarley cypress trees we cut. You fall them and they are still 10ft off the ground   I've got a few picture of breaking them down that I'm NOT going to post  

Ian

[Ax- man]

Thanks for the welcome Ron , appreciate it much.

Larry

[Ianab]

To second what Ron said, you dont have to own a mill to fit in here.  All you need is an interest in trees or wood and the general good spirit to fit into a group of like minded people.

You may be planting trees, trimming trees, harvesting trees, trucking trees, sawing trees, drying trees, machining trees, building stuff out of trees, or maybe you just like wandering around looking at trees.

Either way, welcome.

Ian

[logger]

Hey kevjay, What chain are you running, round tooth (chipper) square tooth (chisel).  I was just wondering because I don't have any osage orange in PA.  What is it like cutting, sounds like the black locust aroud here.

[IL Bull]

Ax, flooring in my wifes new home that I plan to build a year after some Tuesday. 

Are you going to try and keep the flooring yellow.
I used a piece and made a dash for my Ford tractor.  It matched the cat yellow paint almost perfect.  Now a year down the road and the dash is now milk chocolate.  Does any one know how to keep this stuff yellow?  I used several coats of poly urethane.   It did not help.  The post I made for my saw shed did the same thing but I did not use any finish on them.  Now the south side is bleached out and is gray.   It is a dense, durable  and very hard wood and has the same half life of nuclear waste. 

[Kirk_Allen]

They make a UV polyurithane that is supposed to prevent the fading of the yellow.  I have turned pens and used it on them and they are still yellow years later. 

[IL Bull]

Is that clear?

[scsmith42]

Re the UV Polyurathane - no, it's not the same.  There is both clear and non-yellowing clear poly's.  You have to specifically purchase the "non yellowing" mix. 

I refloored my house a year and a half ago with antique heartpine reclaimed from 130 year old flooring timbers from an old textile mill.  The upstairs was done in regular poly; the downstairs in non-yellowing moisture cure. 

Here is the interesting part... the staircase is made from oak that was installed and sealed 15 years ago.  We stripped it and retreated it with the non-yellowing poly at the same time that we installed the new flooring.  WHAT A DIFFERENCE between the new non-yellowing and the 15 year old poly.  I'll always use the non-yellowing in any future interor work.

[Kirk_Allen]

The poly that has UV protection will be labeled as such.  I know they make it specific for flooring that is exposed to lots of sunlight.