Starting new work area

zackman1801 · April 18, 2008, 04:43:26 PM

headed into the woods for the first real time this year to do some serious firewood cutting.

on a side note, my forestry class went down to a real logging job today. we went and saw a big operation run by Chadborn tree farms out bethel maine , the job was in waterford maine. they are running 2 JD 540b grapple skidders, 2 cut to length harvester, 2 feller bunchers, a Rotne forwarder, and they have hired out a local guy who is running an old ( but still great) Tree farmer C5, hes doing all of the cutting of the large pines in there. They are mostly running a tree chipping operation. they are removing all of the small hardwoods, spruce, and fir trees to make room for the seed trees, they are also cutting select pines, in the hour or 2 we were there the guy had unloaded and reloaded the full forwarder.

Maineloggerkid · April 18, 2008, 05:02:49 PM

Today in my forestry class, I was cutting Pine that were about 3 feet on the butt. Since the beginning of February, all I have been cutting is Pine over 24" diameter. I also got a job offer today driving truck and running equipment in Millinocket.

Also, I send in my CLP test the week after next, because this next week is vacation.

beenthere · April 18, 2008, 05:15:54 PM

Who do you have for CLP instructors?

Maineloggerkid · April 18, 2008, 09:00:02 PM

They are usually retired loggers and foresters.

zackman1801 · April 18, 2008, 09:53:38 PM

for me (oxford hills, region 11.) i have AL Schaefer, and Brian Bean.

SwampDonkey · April 18, 2008, 10:13:11 PM

I never heard of forestry courses taught in grade school here in the east. The only schools I heard of doing it were in Manitoba. Most don't even enter ranger school here until they have some years experience before hand. I don't think experience is a requirement to enter the college now, used to be 2 years experience before hand. But, it's good to see some schools getting some people interested in the industry at an early age. A lot of schools here have declining enrollment in the discipline because of industry woes, and in the case of forestry graduates, low pay and no distinguishment from forest technicians taking fast paced cram courses.

thecfarm · April 18, 2008, 10:18:30 PM

I drove by MT Blue High School today.They have a forestry class there and there was some logs by the road.Was on a curve and a car was coming the other way so I could not really look.Should of stopped. ;D

bg372 · April 19, 2008, 10:10:16 AM

Quote from: thecfarm on April 18, 2008, 10:18:30 PM
I drove by MT Blue High School today.They have a forestry class there and there was some logs by the road.Was on a curve and a car was coming the other way so I could not really look.Should of stopped. ;D

i took that class at foster tech last year. we cleared a few acres behind the high school and then cut some beech across the road. i took the test and got my clp apprentice it was petty easy but cost 50 bucks

thecfarm · April 19, 2008, 02:30:19 PM

Was this the forwarder you used?

It's good you took the class.

bg372 · April 19, 2008, 11:54:37 PM

yup that would be when we were cutting the firewood. we used it to load a dump truck to deliver the wood then we cut the wood up at there house. i only used it once its kind of crap. wont run when its cold and the hydrolics suck. its very tippy when empty and lifting wood. it was help full on the landing though to help sort wood. they didn't even use it this year. we also have a clark 666 i think grapple/cable and a 440 jd.

Maineloggerkid · April 20, 2008, 05:37:27 AM

Ya, Ive used you guy's equipment at the spring competition before. The 440D was a nice machine...well kept.

bg372 · April 20, 2008, 02:24:31 PM

ya i like that 440. i never got a chance to run the clark but i did run the jd for a few weeks nice machine

timberfaller390 · April 20, 2008, 09:46:39 PM

Hey yall listen to this, the land owner at the cedar job called to help me out while he's gone he says I can still cut I'll just have to walk in (it's only about a half mile) but I still can't get any equipment in or wood out! this guy must be loco. I'm a little tired of this guy spazzing about his yard and wanting me to cut this oak or this pine for him or anything that is leaning and buck it up so he can carry it ,if I didn't already have wood on the landing I'd probably say to heck with it. Thanks for letting me blow a little steam.

zackman1801 · April 20, 2008, 09:52:42 PM

i would really try to emphasize to him that its really impossible to get the wood cut and hauled out without the equiptment. if he cant understand that then maybe he really dosent want the job done that bad. is there any possible way to get around his yard with the equipment or is it totally impossible?

timberfaller390 · April 22, 2008, 12:53:28 AM

It would be totaly impossible because there is only two ways into the woods one is through a shed that isn't tall enough and the other is through the front yard. I could come in off the public road but he doesn't want any of the trees or underbrush cut in front of the house because it blocks sight of a carpet mill. I'm skidding with my jeep on this job cause of the equipment issues which works okay. I think I'll try to talk him into leting me go in through the yard, if that doesn't work I'll get what I have on the ground out and call it quits cause if I can't get the wood out somewhat easy then theres no point in cutting any more trees. You may be right Zack he may not want the job done that bad, but what really chaps me is he keeps saying he is going to hire a dozer to come in and clean up the slash, ultimately he wants only hardwoods in this stand and wants to be able to bushhog it, which will take more equipment than I want to bring in.

SwampDonkey · April 22, 2008, 06:11:06 AM

Oh well, the woodlot owner is the boss. If I couldn't follow his wishes I wouldn't be in there to begin with. ;)

timberfaller390 · April 22, 2008, 06:52:23 PM

Quote from: SwampDonkey on April 22, 2008, 06:11:06 AM
Oh well, the woodlot owner is the boss. If I couldn't follow his wishes I wouldn't be in there to begin with. ;)

thats true but he didn't start all this crappola until I had already agreed to do the job

SwampDonkey · April 22, 2008, 07:11:20 PM

Was there no contract? Might be time to bail. Trouble is an irate land owner, if it comes to that, can spread a lot of words around the local watering trough.

I really don't follow the logic behind a landowner wanting logging done without using equipment or at least a horse. Does he want you to use a horse?

I work for one woodlot owner on occasion doing some thinning and he's always looking for freebies, only he doesn't get them from me. He doesn't pay a cent for silviculture and tries to scheme for little extras. I just tell him up, I don't work for free. And if push came to shove I would take my crew and work on another lot, there are all kinds of woods.

Kevin · April 22, 2008, 07:34:41 PM

Can you use a yarder? ;D

zackman1801 · April 22, 2008, 08:10:42 PM

not going to see much of that on the east coast.

SwampDonkey · April 23, 2008, 05:29:56 AM

They used a couple towers out in Clearwater I have heard, where there are a lot of small pointy mountains. The wood was nothing special, I don't think it was profitable. All they did was skin those mountain peaks that are now growing in shrubs and white birch and fir that can never be effectively managed with silviculture unless you want to hang on with ropes.

timberfaller390 · April 23, 2008, 02:39:52 PM

Quote from: SwampDonkey on April 22, 2008, 07:11:20 PM
Was there no contract? Might be time to bail. Trouble is an irate land owner, if it comes to that, can spread a lot of words around the local watering trough. I really don't follow the logic behind a landowner wanting logging done without using equipment or at least a horse. Does he want you to use a horse?

I work for one woodlot owner on occasion doing some thinning and he's always looking for freebies, only he doesn't get them from me. He doesn't pay a cent for silviculture and tries to scheme for little extras. I just tell him up, I don't work for free. And if push came to shove I would take my crew and work on another lot, there are all kinds of woods.

It's not that he doesn't want me use equipment it's that he doesn't want me to drive it across his yard

SwampDonkey · April 23, 2008, 02:46:26 PM

Build a road.

beenthere · April 23, 2008, 02:53:04 PM

timberfaller390
A little confusing to follow what the dilema really is here.

If you've done some work already, then sounds like you should ask for your pay and leave the job.

Don't know what equipment you would "walk in" with, or what equipment you would need to "drive in" with that doesn't fit through the garage doors.

But sounds like you don't need the frustration, nor does the landowner.

You indicate you have moved some logs to the "landing", which implies some heavy equipment was once moved in to the logging site. Did you leave with that equipment and now have to get it back in there? Yet you indicate that the landowner wants to move his own downed trees (buck it up and he can carry it).
But, I hope you can resolve the issues, or at least recover your investment in time, labor, and materials to date.

Like SD asked, was there no contract?

timberfaller390 · April 23, 2008, 09:34:37 PM

Beenthere the problem is he doesn't want any heavy equipment going across his yard
His road that he normally acesses the area with goes through a shed that is only about 6' tall so my tractor won't fit. I have pulled the couple of turns that I had on the ground with my jeep which would fit through the shed. This is not a bad arrangement but I don't see why he is going to allow a hired dozer in there to clean up the slash but won't let me bring my tractor through his yard which is the same way the dozer would have to go. as for moving his own downed trees the cedar is the only thing I'm taking out but if I see any other species that are leaning he wants me to cut and buck them so he can use them for fire wood. There is no contract or pay to draw except what the logs will bring at the mill. This didn't really start as a logging job I was just going to cut some of the smaller ones for fence posts for myself but he said to just cut all the cedar so I agreed to do the job. cedar is up in this area right now so I would've done okay without charging him any thing but with all the add ons I'm not so sure now. Sorry I didn't really intend to make these posts into such lengthy conversations but thanks for listening.