Winter has been slow coming in our area . Still very little snow and not very cold until the last few days .
We have been at our winter logging camp for the past week . We have 200 logs cut and piled in the woods .
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not a big run of logs but will be ok as we mostly saw 2x4 and 2x6 anyway .
The ice bridge was thick enough to cross by snowmobile for the first time yesterday . Only 4 1/2" yet so not going to be hauling logs right away .
Hoping , if the ice holds to haul home at least 100 of these . Depending on the conditions the majority may get piled by the shoreline and we will tow them with the boat in the spring .
Hoping to get back to cutting after the weekend is over . Some snow in the forecast so that should help .
Winter logging , love it
Quebecnewf
Going to be cold here too. It will make ice. ;) But only for a couple days, then above freezing for a week.
Thanks for the pictures. Good luck on your winter logging and hope you can find some bigger trees. Hope the ice thickens up for you.
It's so good to see you back and being able to bunch some logs. 8)
Glad to see your up and running . Temps here are supposed to be in the -40s the next couple days . Just wondering what you use to clean the resin off your gear. Was reading in Atlantic Forestry of a gal from Newfoundland who uses butter, here baby oil has been the go to. Thanks for taking the time to post some pics. :)
I use a product ( just recently tried ) called Super Clean from Canadian Tire . Comes in a purple spray bottle and you can by 4 four litre refills .
This seems to work real well for chain saw clean up . Spray on leave for a bit and wipe of . Does a real good job . Sap from balsam fir is not to bad when it's cold but when it's mild weather that stuff will stick to everything and everywhere .
A lot of people don't realize how it can gum up the cooling fins on your saw over time resulting in a hotter running saw . Not good for the saw .
Give it a try . It impressed me ,
Quebecnewf
Merci beaucoup ... I will certainly check it out. Pine and fir did not do well dancing with Fiona and have had to deal with a lot of them in the cleanup phase . :)
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I know it don't show much but we are getting a few logs home to the mill . Good hauling conditions on the ice now .
Quebecnewf
Looks like the wind and snow are trying to bury your haul!
The days are getting longer, by two minutes per day. Each day gives you a bit of extra light and time to pick your way along the ice bridge.
Well done, and good luck Quebecnewf!
Always enjoy seeing your pictures. How long does it take for Fir to get to that size there?
Quote from: Southside on February 13, 2023, 10:28:40 PM
Always enjoy seeing your pictures. How long does it take for Fir to get to that size there?
Funny you should ask that.. a few days ago I cut a fair sized fir. This would be considered a ( pasture tree) in that it was in a clearing pretty much where years ago trees had been cut . It measured 14 inches at the butt and I counted the rings . I gave it an age of 45 years . This is not to say that all the fir that size are only 45 years old .. In our area in the regular woods I would say a fir is about 50 years old when it will be big enough to give 2x6 lumber . I don't think many live longer in this area than say 125 years .now remember I'm a not a forester .
On the snow this year we have very little so . If you look closely at the last pic there are bare rock sections with just a dusting of snow on top .
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in the woods we have not had to use our snowshoes at all this year .
Using the winch to load the sleighs from the piles . Slower but easier on the older bodies .
Quebecnewf
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Logs are starting to pile up . Taking advantage of the good hauling conditions . We have 250 logs home to the mill now .
Sadly it looks like some very bad weather coming in on Sun and Mon. Will make sure to place our snowmobiles ashore on the mainland before this strikes . Just in case we lose the ice bridge . Calls for rain, snow and high wind. Sadly we don't have enough snow to tolerate any rain . Outlook not good .
Quebecnewf
Wish you well during and after this storm. Look forward to hearing back how you fair too.
Hello Quebecnewf, glad to see you are getting a few logs home to the harbour. We have had more snow here on the east coast than usual this year but no real cold weather, nothing froze. I only yesterday got the old VK out of the shed. Stay safe!
Well the storm went through on Mon. High winds and a high tide . We lost some of the ice bridge but very little .
The storm did not last long so that helped .we got very little snow out of it . Which we needed . The high tides made travel on the Route Blanc ( our snowmobile trail) very tricky in some areas . It closed completely now . People are still travelling and it's all marked but still not officially open . May not open at all if we don't get some snow .
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We are still cutting . It's actually perfect for cutting .
Cut a few bigger one this week . Snowmobile hauling conditions are good so we have over 300 home to the mill now . Extreme cold weather here for the next week at least . I'm not complaining .
Quebecnewf
Thank You for the update. :)
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Moving the logs now that we cut ,stacked and covered last fall . Pile them here at the landing and splash them sometime this coming spring.
Going good
Quebecnewf
Sounds good!!
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Well our winter looks to be over . Hard to believe this is March at the mill yesterday . We had very little snow all winter . We have now had a stretch of warmer weather and what little snow we had had melted . The ice is still ok to travel on but traveling over the land is just about finished . Anyone who thinks global warming is not real should come live in the North .
We have started sawing now . Can't do any more logging this season .
Quebecnewf
Good to see your log yard. Let the sawing begin.
I've no doubt that there is a trend to winters that are not as cold as we experienced in the 50's and 60's. That was back when the hype was that the glaciers were moving south again and the alarm that it would mean colder and colder winters.
Now the trend has reversed somewhat. The fallacy for me is the thought that we were controlling the trend, or somehow could control it.
We are just along for the ride and will have to adapt to the global trend, IMO.
Great project planning and implementation during varied conditions.
I've noticed the lack of winter here too.
But it could go back to the old way too.
It's as cold here now as December was, actually snowed Sunday and going to be below freezing at night all week when "normally" it would be warming here quickly now.
Yes February was quite warm this year, I think mother nature is bi-polar is all.
Warmer winters are a big topic of discussion . Here in the North we see it big time . In my time and I'm not real old ( at least that's what I tell myself ) I have seen big big changes . For the last 15 years at least our winters are a month ( or more ) shorter than they used to be . Some years we get a bit more snow ( or less) . Overall the winters are shorter ( never longer) .
Global warming is a fact . What causes it or if it will last or is man made will that is a big debate .
Quebecnewf .
Our winter hasn't been excessively cold, a few decent cold snaps but we've gotten a lot of snow, and the season is running long. The weather looks like it will hold until the end of March for logging.
I just pushed in a swamp road the other day, I'm hoping to get some tamarack out yet.
We got 3-4" of snow today. We're all sick of snow here I think. It isn't Lake Tahoe by any means but dang it won't quit😊 I had to fire up my sawmill today after not using it for a couple of weeks, I didn't realize there was over a foot of snow accumulated around it🤦 Plowing and cleaning that up added a couple of hours to the day.
I follow Nain Labrador (way up at the peak) whenever a news article appears. It's disturbing how the temperature has impacted the area in the last few years. A ice river crossing in the past was open from early Fall to mid Spring, and the last few years the ice crossing season was half as long.
I can read old newspapers back 150 years. Where there was not enough ice to harvest around here some years. :P
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View from the hill looking at the " ice bridge" . The white paths going across the blue ice are the paths most people used over the winter. There all that's left pretty much . They crossed this the day before the pic was taken . A bit of a daredevil move but hey some guys like the thrill
Quebecnewf
Like the winter "ice bridge" from St. Ignace to Mackinaw Island, a travel adventure.