couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[BargeMonkey]

Go from this, 

 
To this, 

 
To this, all in about 8 hrs. 

 
Big thanks to MaineLogger for giving me his parts guys info, the winch band works great, got 4 drags in this afternoon without a problem.

[Straightgrain]

Salute emoticon!

That's a good way for a Barge Monkey to keep his "land-legs" in good shape.

I was accustomed to 16-20 hour days when in my prime; I cannot imagine being able to maintain your OPTEMPO now.

[Straightgrain]

Almost done with this year's selective harvest. These two were along a public road with powerlines, so I had to ladder-up and use a cable n winch for safety. These 30" logs reveal the limits of my equipment.



 



 

[BargeMonkey]

Looks good, what you guys call average is pretty big for us out here.

[David-L]

Never seen it this dry here in mass. blowing the air cleaner out daily on this small hardwood job. Gonna take the dying Hemlock this winter.




 

[Straightgrain]

Nice pic, do those skidding-beasts have on-board compressors or do you have to use a service and support truck?

[g_man]

These 30" logs reveal the limits of my equipment.



 



 

Nice wood there StraightGrain. Moving those logs must be a workout for your 28 hp tractor.

gg

[timberlinetree]

Bm your like the weather in NE. From this to that to this all in the same day. Must keep you on your toes and sleeping well at nite. Nice job straight grain and it has been real dry here in Western mass making it good skidding conditions. I'm cutting pine.

 

[Straightgrain]

Thanks for the compliments everyone; words of encouragement.

Nice hinge and nice stack Timberlinetree; harvesting some trees on semi-level ground; a luxury eh?

[Straightgrain]

Sending in a load of 13s, 21s and 37s.



 



 

Just in time, starting to rain..

[OntarioAl]

Timberlinetree
A text book example of notching and felling.
Glad to see the job is coming to a successful end.
I hope this garners you some more sweet jobs in the future.
All the best
Al

[Straightgrain]

Last tree for my 2015 selective Harvest; this tree was also along a public road with power lines so I ladder-up to 24' and ran the cable.  The base was 31" (inside the bark) and it came down perfectly.



 

Got two 21s and two 13s; heavy tree.

I have enough for a full load so it's time to organize the deck and clean up the wood lot.

Looking from the winch towards the stump



 

No way for me to accomplish this project without the support of professionals; the local logging supply store, one of our sponsors (Chainsawr), the log buyer, the mill, the self loader, and the guys in this forum, thanks!

[JLeBouton]

Deere 753J with Skidmore CF-20 in red pine.

 

[BargeMonkey]

 

 
Winch is working now, alot of fw and some decent ash. 

 
Left the fork on for fw, the drag caught it and popped this one right down thru. 

 
Not bad for a day, 20 min hitches getting 5-6 everytime helps. 

 
Started filling the woodshed sunday night before i came back, the wife does a nice job stacking firewood. 

 
I saw this and figured you guys would laugh at it, we all know someone this should apply too.

[so il logger]

What do you do with the crooked stuff? Must be by the ton stuff, I still haven't figured out how it works for some of you guy's. Around here I can only sell saw logs

[BargeMonkey]

What do you do with the crooked stuff? Must be by the ton stuff, I still haven't figured out how it works for some of you guy's. Around here I can only sell saw logs

:D  i lay down with my Timbco but tend to hand trim and slash tops, the stuff on this job is long and loaded with nice firewood. That small stuff is like gold here come wintertime, i can sell every stick i can lay my hands on. Have to keep Obama's children warm this winter, we do the HEAP program for 4 counties, stuff about 8-16" and decent my processor will do almost 2 cord per hr.

[so il logger]

Makes sense, I appreciate the explanation. I was having trouble wrapping my head around cutting and pulling firewood to the landing. If it pays it pays And sounds like you are moving production so it all work's.  8)

[BargeMonkey]

Makes sense, I appreciate the explanation. I was having trouble wrapping my head around cutting and pulling firewood to the landing. If it pays it pays And sounds like you are moving production so it all work's.  8)

I dont cut alot of high dollar fancy wood, if i get 1-2 sticks of veneer at the mill a load im doing pretty good. Your not going to get rich cutting firewood but its winter money, and demand keeps on growing every year. I take the tops down to 4" or less, if i can salvage a 6-7' piece that stays attached it goes out. Most of our woodlots have been highgraded, the timber is coming back, but there is alot of junk and most guys wont cut it, i pull hitch after hitch of ugly beech and lowgrade, very rare i see a log check over 2500. A cord of seasoned wood local is about 225ish right now, you get over towards the ski slopes and 5-6-700 a cord isnt unheard of, if you can deal with the city people. Up north our tax dollars are hard at work keeping those who dont want to work warm all winter, about 25-50% of the people actually deserve it, the rest are just a leech on the system, last winter they averaged about 1200 per person in free firewood. Recent article in our paper figured if you got welfare, medical, heap and housing it was equal to working a 43k a yr job, why bother working.

[so il logger]

We got plenty of that type here as well. It is sad when there is work all around here via oilfield or factory work, and sometimes logging but if it all get's paid for why work? I should check into selling firewood myself, we generally leave nice sized top's in the wood's. I can see where a percentage of what would be left behind could be profit, especially in the winter

[BargeMonkey]

 The only smaller loggers your going to see here soon are the family "father and son" or just 1 guy operations soon who dig deep and go 100% mechanical. Recently saw 5-6 other local loggers who said the same thing, the work is there but good luck finding the help. My Timbco hasnt moved out of a 10 mile radius in 4 yrs, i figure 1mmbft to cut locally right now we just wont deal with the hassles of keeping help in the woods, and NY wonders why things are going the way they are.

[so il logger]

I go off of doyle scale but try to stay around 1.5 mil board ft yearly. Have had better year's than that and some worse  :D Seems like I am always moving from job to job. P.M me bargemonkey I think we are cluttering up the thread  :D

[jwilly3879]

Firewood (8') is at a premium right now. It pays operating expenses, like BM said high grading was the standard around here for years and our forester marks a lot of firewood (pulp) to open up the crop trees. All our hardwood pulp goes for firewood.

[treeslayer2003]

bargemonkey you must have a processor right? i know there is money in it but i can't cut much by hand and log to..........struggled with the thought of a machine a long time.
problem is there is alot of timber i cut that is not oak.

[BargeMonkey]

 We have an older Brute / builtrite that we have kept upgrading over the years, about 40mins a cord in the truck. I went to a "Firewood seminar" a few weeks ago for a TLC credit and wasnt impressed, 1/2 the people where dreamers, and the other 1/2 where established guys i knew, everyone kind of has their own little territory up here which is fine with me. The smaller machines they had running are ok if your doing 14" straight wood, i routinely trim knobs and bells off stuff and jam 22" ugly thru my machine without issue. I will say, a 2040 multitek is the way i want to go in a few yrs, yeah its expensive but they make the best processor hands down.
My last job i had 3 people stop in one afternoon, 1 woman was taping a note  on my log pile looking for log length, you could sell a load a day for cash around here and never keep up, but we basically refuse because people want it behind the house, over the fence and under the wires and the risk is to great, let the guy down the road do it.
The processor dealers kept telling the "new" guys, "with this machine you can build a business selling 5-10k cord a yr" which sounds great but the logistics arent there, unless you want to give it away once you crack 5-600 cord the profit goes the other way and the headaches multiply by 10X. There are 8+ processors within 40 miles of me, only takes a few guys to raise the price on logs and set the price on fw and these guys are selling their new multitek next season for whats owed.

[BargeMonkey]

bargemonkey you must have a processor right? i know there is money in it but i can't cut much by hand and log to..........struggled with the thought of a machine a long time.
problem is there is alot of timber i cut that is not oak.

I have about 90 cord of red oak right now and personally i dont want it, we sit on top of the MT and let out piles air dry for 6-8-12 months and the oak still sometimes isnt ready. I have a spare set of wedges standing by, the red oak and bitternut hickory do a number on a machine, HM, SM and Ash dry quickest and go the best. The federal rules changed May 15th for indoor and outdoor stoves that wont meet emmisions, no more tractor supply stoves, your going to see more gasification systems and the demand for kiln dryed wood will come around, but its another way for the Gov to keep the thumb on you because the hand writing is on the wall for fw to include a bill of lading.