couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[ehp]

Barge , its happening everywhere not just where you are , guys that cut trees by hand are very hard to find these days and the ones that do are getting quite old as not much young people wanting to get into a business you work your butt off and not a huge amount of reward as far as coin goes for doing it

[mudfarmer]

I would not want to try to be a full time logger here, there is just not much good dry ground near me for mud seasons. Some decent pockets of sand, they get run through hard by the big dogs. The folks that will haul a $mil in machinery 2.5hrs to clearcut 20acres of plantation pine that never got thinned and end up chipping half of it. Guys out there working for the same outfit for 15 years making $18/hr running harvester 12hrs a day eating a sandwich with one hand and running joystick with the other. Consider myself extremely lucky to have a terrible day job that pays ok to be able to play logger on the weekends.

Cutting for the state, I like their rules on this job and that is why I wanted it. No smash and grab, do the best we can for the woods. I pay taxes on it so I'm part land owner?? Would like to keep "my" land and my land nice for a long time. They are almost as strict as the rules for working on my land :D No skidding April1-July1, most likely no skidding mid September -> Jan1, leaves half the year for other pursuits and secondary processing to bump the $$ a few pennies.

Cut and brought out handful of maples last night, pouring rain today so that means done there until July1 except getting the rest of the firewood and last 2mbf of low grade saw logs off the landing. Don't post pics of piles in case it gives barbender night terrors but this is the firewood pile since the last time the landing got cleaned out. About half done with the job, sold some nice saw logs, kept some nice and some junk saw logs, still not enough firewood



 

 

Hang in there, keep at it, remember why you're in the woods

[Firewoodjoe]

Stop talking about bad markets lol im spending money like I won the lottery.

 Maybe someday I'll be a cool logger and have a mobile shop🤦‍♂️


Maybe itll be ready for some more big trees. To hard on it!

[chevytaHOE5674]

Joe, welding up the head is pretty standard affair on most/all CTL machines eating a diet of hardwood. The low-ish hour H8 Ergo I run has its share of welds on the head already.

[barbender]

Welding on a head is about as routine as brushing your teeth. No big deal, until the cracks all start to meet each other😁 Hardwood is mean to heads, I remember when one of my friends started out in I think the second Ponsse in MN and Ponsse thought he was whacked in the brain for cutting hardwood with it😊 The North American market has definitely forced the Euro ctl manufacturers to reinforce their products!

[chevytaHOE5674]

When the cracks all meet up you gouge them out again, weld them up, grind them flat, then weld a fish plate over top. Lol

When you fill the bar oil up during the day give all the pin pivot ears a once over checking for cracks. Haha

[Firewoodjoe]

Oh yeah they take a beating. But that is actually supposed to be weld from the factory. It's a terrible design. Basically a large bolt with the weld being the nut. It's a new pin in a old hole. So I V'd and welded both sides. No more movement 😁  and I shove a 18" head on 24" trees. Not bad really. First time that's broke in 18 months of abuse. 

[Skeans1]

Start looking at the back of the head I'd bet the two pins that hold the roller arms in are getting loose and will start breaking the 3/4" bolts here soon too.

[Firewoodjoe]

These? They have been replaced once. Some day I'd like to do the 22" two roller conversion and get them line bored when I do.

[mudfarmer]

Your mobile shop looks OK from here! Maybe slap on some side boards for a little height and an old cap for a roof? Stylin' ;D

[Firewoodjoe]

Better post something about cutting in this thread 😆 last tree. Big ugly black oak. Left it for the chainsaw. It was only 18 this morning so a good dad to get some walking in with the saw. 

 Now I'm sitting here pinched in a big limb🤦‍♂️ To much seat time I guess has me rusty. I know the bar and chain was rusty lol

[Firewoodjoe]

This sale turned out really nice. Trying to promote natural pine regen. Took 35-40 cord per acre out.

[chevytaHOE5674]

Wheres all your snow Joe? Ha

[Firewoodjoe]

North facing slopes lol  been a very low snow winter. But it seems like when we do get the moisture it's 34 outside and it's rain. Then teens in the morning with ice. I'm not complaining two winters in a row I never chained up. But never did freez hard to cut winter ground. I'm sure you guys are way down also. 

[barbender]

I bet we still have almost 3' in the woods, and it is DENSE from lots of wet snow in the first place, and then thawing and freezing many times. The first storm we got this yearn about 12-14", was the wettest snow I've ever seen. It actually had a blue color to it, because the moisture content was so high. I think if it would've been a fraction of a degree warmer it would've came down as rain.

[Firewoodjoe]

Yeah. Our storms all went around us. 

[chevytaHOE5674]

We are actually above average around here. Our average is something like 160 inches right here by the lake, we are over 200" as of now. 

Could still be cutting winter ground but road restrictions forced everybody out. Snow is so firm from some freeze/thaws that in the morning the tracks will stay on top of 3-4 feet of snow. 

[Firewoodjoe]

It's been crazy here. Some county's south didn't even put restrictions on and two county's south of my job a few of them are coming off first if next week.  That's only three weeks! We're normally 4-6 weeks. 

[Firewoodjoe]

We got it but I accumulated then melted then accumulated and melted. All winter. I live and work in all the orange and red. And if it stays like this we will be kicking dust in a couple days. 59 on my landing right now. I think the truck is a little off but I just have a button down shirt on.

[barbender]

 I did some night skidding last night, got out of the cab at 3 am and the sky was on fire-



 

 

[barbender]

 I got to run one of the company's newest forwarders a '21 model I think. It is equipped with the "Active crane" which is a sensor and computer controlled crane movement system. 

 I've been aware of these systems for a while, I think John Deere has had their forwarders equipped with them for almost 10 years. At any rate, I was skeptical of them, I figured it would be fighting you all of the time. Actually, I'm very impressed with it! Basically, it makes it where you never need to manually run your extension on the crane. It makes it really easy to run the crane smoothly with a lot less concentration. 

 The only spot where I had a hard time getting used to it or considered turning it off was when piling wood. It is typical to tap the protruding sticks with your grapple to straighten the pile, this thing makes the crane movement so smooth its hard to get your grapple swinging😊

[Southside]

Haven't see the lights in a long time, thanks BB.  I hear you on the snow, we got all of ours this year a week ago Sunday.  Was coming down for a good 15 minutes before it changed over back to rain.  Shut things down for two days.   :D  Many years we get most of our snow in March actually, won't stick around but for a few days then more will come.  Had 3' that way one year, each week we got a foot and it was gone before the next one fell.  

[rdobb13]

 

 

[nativewolf]

rdobb13...nice load!  what do you do with the tops and smaller logs?

[thecfarm]

Now that's a light show!!!!