The Greenhorn's initial sawing season 2019-20

[GullyBog]

Momentum goes a long way so I would not suggest slowing or stopping, never the less, you've come a long way.  Cut your self some slack.  You really only need a spot big enough for the mill and that should be ready by next season.  The rest will fall into place.  You've already put a lot of time into manicuring your original spot.  I would humbly suggest enjoying that as much as possible.  It's been great following this thread.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well there is not enough light when I get home from work to head down to the mill, so I just keep poking along up here at tha house a little at a time and I will keep pressing. The work helps me clear my thoughts and work on a good plan. Not having the equipment, I have to plan better. I am actually thinking I can move the mill up before the weather closes in for good. I will mill on the weekends and get what logs done that I can. During the week I will work on the new site getting it prepped. A little of this and a little of that and eventually it will get done.
 I lose this weekend completely because we have our annual visit to our cousins in southern Vermont to see the pretty foliage. ;D Sorry, that's a family joke. We leave the Catskills, where the place is swarming with leaf-peepers from NYC and NJ to drive to Vt where it is swarming with leaf-peepers from CT and MA. ;D :D But we avoid all that and just enjoy family. Maybe pick some apples and walk in the field checking things out. I need to go see how my young cousin's sugar shack has progressed since I last saw it. There is one good swapfest in town we usually hit when we drive through, I find some good stuff there once in a while.
 SO I lose a precious weekend, but it is worth it to relax and spend time with good family that are also good friends. None of us are getting any younger and this is where I spent I spent some of the best days and gained the best memories of my youth. SO yeah, there is that.

[donbj]

Ahh, hit the nail on the head!
 "I lose a precious weekend, but it is worth it to relax and spend time with good family that are also good friends. None of us are getting any younger and this is where I spent I spent some of the best days and gained the best memories of my youth. SO yeah, there is that."

You look like a hard working dude OG. I spent many many years hating my job. So many of us don't have the luxury of doing what we love at a particular time. Don't cram your life so full so that everything is stress. Doing an unloved job only adds to that as it is such a big part of life. Use your job to support what things you do love!

[Nebraska]

Your spot behind the shop looks pretty good in the pictures, that little mower trailer looks like a
Log moving machine to me. Ok it looks not lots bigger than one of mine and it has been pressed into firewood and log moving service. Looking  at the slope you have, seeing the way the trailer  leans, a dump truck of fill /sand would go quite a ways to getting you level enough to set the mill.  Looks like a good option.

[thecfarm]

I had about 2 feet of gravel hauled in to level my sawmill spot. I use those rounds pads,6 inches thick by 2 feet across? But I have a tractor with a loader to get my logs up that 2 foot high incline. I was at a circle mill and they loaded logs on a trailer,and the mill was at just about the same height. If you do this make the trailer higher than the mill,by a few inches. Easier to roll the logs "downhill"
I have also spent time doing things,or building something and find out I should not of done it that way 6 months later. Yes,a bother to redo,but more of a bother to deal with it day after day.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, I will just keep plugging at this. You never know what the ground is like until you drive a pick into it. I would like to get it as level as possible by hand without bringing in crushed stone (our cheap fill here. I don't like the stone chips getting stuck on the logs. Eventually you miss one. ;D
 It may not be so bad and there is only one way to find out. Keeping the bed close to the ground makes loading easier, but I could at some point anchor a couple of eye bolts in the shop wall to help with rolling bigger logs up. SO, lots of ideas to roll around in my empty head while I am driving back and forth to VT.
 Yeah, Nebraska, that trailer in the last photo hauled all my firewood this year. I have a slightly bigger one I have used for logs (lifting is an issue yet). My son dumped a turbo diesel engine on it back in June that really needs to get gone so I can put it back in use. I'll also fix up the clunker that was buried in the the grass in the first photo for lighter miscellaneous stuff.
 By the way, I forgot to ask: Are there any FF members in the Wilmington, Marlboro, Jacksonville, VT area? Maybe I could swing by for a very short visit. Not sure what our plans are until we get there.We drive over that way from Troy,NY. Rt 7 to RT 9, through Bennington, over to Wilmington, then south on 100. My cousin is recovering from knee surgery last week, so we may just hang around the farm on this visit. Just asking, you never know.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I spent a couple of hours with pick and shovel in the last 2 evenings, mostly pick trying to break up the high spots and move the rock around. I put the snow plow on the Mule to see if I could cheat a little (mixed results) last night. Did a little more hand work tonight and spread some of the stuff into the low spots. When I was shot I got  a beer and stood there and looked at it for a bit thinking on it.
 This is what I saw:


 
 The dark area is where I was working, there is a 5 inch hump there I flattened off.
 I know it would take me many hours spread out over many days to do this by hand and get it perfect before I began setting the mill bed. I don't have the back and the breath I had 20 years ago. I also know I would beat the heck out of myself doing it. I asked myself why I was putting time into this and was it worth it. I realized then I hadn't thought too much about what was needed for the mill so much as what I wanted. 

 I have been having a very rough time at work these last few months (actually years), and these last few weeks it has been getting worse. No details here, but just understand that every day the urge to tell the boss where he can stick his spreadsheets gets stronger and stronger. It's now at the point that I have had conversations with my wife to let her know that one day soon I may snap and just quit. I didn't want her to be surprised too much. I have been making inquiries with folks I know about any jobs that may be available that include health insurance. ANYTHING. I have worked in my trade for over 46 years and am one of the best guys you will find, but I am being treated like crap and I don't deserve it, nor do I have to take it and be used as a whipping boy. I would retire tomorrow, but I don't hit 65 until the spring. My boss is retiring in February, but I don't think I can take this much longer. I think he plans to make some changes before he leaves to 'add to his legacy' which is already pretty dang disgusting. Anyway, because of these issues, each night I have needed to come home and do some real work that accomplished something. Swinging a pick felt good. I beat the sweat out of me and slept better for at least half the night anyway. I think when I saw the grade on this ground wasn't right, I just grabbed a pick and went at it. Probably a dumb thing, but what ever. (rant over)

 So now it's Friday and I picked and shoveled some more and am trying to put that little weasel out of my head for a few days. I am thinking that maybe at this point, the ground is more than close enough. The current mill setup has nearly a 16" drop along it's length and 4-6" from left to right rails. Compared to that, this area is pool table flat with probably a 4" max variation. I'll set and level my blocks every 6' then run my 6x6's over the tops just as i have now down below and I should be fine. Dragging logs in should smooth off the walking area over time.

 Headed to VT in the morning. I will think some more on this over the weekend, but not a lot. ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

It's time to get some motivation back. I had to go back several pages here to figure out when the last time was that I cut something on the mill. It was August 29th. If I was of a certain faith I would have to declare this in the confessional tomorrow. ;D It's been too long I have been ditshing around with other stuff. Now that I have decided to move the mill I need to mill up the logs that are there. This is the weekend to see what kind of dent I can put in stack of logs by myself (unless a genie shows up). I had 40 minutes of daylight when I got home, but I went down to check things out, it's been a few weeks and we had some horrible wind and rain the last couple of days. There might have been damage control to do first, but everything looks ok. 
 One thing I had wanted to do and have put off too long is painting all the logs ends. I KNOW I should have done that sooner, but hey, no time like the present and I didn't want to do it after milling, so I had just enough time to do that tonight. Only one log had a bad split I can work with. A few had been done elsewhere prior, but now they are all done and should be dry by morning. This is most of them, I have 4 or 5 more out of the camera shot.


 

I think half the reason I did it was so that I could convince myself I was back to work down there and had a jump on tomorrow. Kind of to get my addled brain back in the groove. The weather is getting colder, first frost tonight, and it would be easy to sit in the house and drink coffee until the sun was high. But I need to get down there early and max out the day. The weather should be OK.
 So the first task tomorrow is to make lumber for the Ashokan center to use for an ongoing footbridge restoration project. 5 logs is the goal. The logs are at about 18% MC now. The final product has to match what they have, standard lumber size (2x6= 1-1/2 x 5-1/2). So I will cut oversize and after air drying for a year, they get planed and joined to final size. Then they are stored until needed to replace the bad parts as needed.

 So my question for anybody still reading along here is: What size should I mill them? I am of a thought that I should mill them 1/4" over in each dimension to allow for 1/8" removal on each face. If they were full green I might go bigger, but this tree was long time dead before I dropped it. I am pretty much giving them everything back. The slabs will be used for primitive benches and other stuff. Only the real junk goes over the bank or becomes firewood, and they don't need firewood, they have more than they can burn. :D I will back a trailer up to the mill and stack right on that. Delivery as soon as the milling is complete, then onto my own logs for winter work. I give myself a couple or 3 weekends for this work, then I need to begin the moving process.

[doc henderson]

if the mill is cutting smooth, at least and 1/8th over.  more if they need to be perfect smooth.  1/4 should be plenty.  looks like you are getting to work!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I kept my promise to myself. I was up at 5 to get a good start on the coffee. The grey light doesn't come until around 7am and I got out soon after that. I hooked up the trailer and headed down to the mill and had the trailer in position before the sun broke through the trees. I did manage to remove one of those pesky tail lights on a tree that got in the way. Good start, right? Got a log dragged up and on the mill for the first cut, started the coffee pot (no coffee, no workie) took my first cut and it was a lot of work. The blade wasn't holding height, not really diving, but drifting down a bit, the blade would slow down and cutting seemed hard. Maybe, I thought, I had forgotten how tough this ash can be when it's dry? The sawdust looked very fine. The log was very squiggly and I had no idea how to get any usable dimensional lumber out of it. I could wind up with 2 2x4's and not much else, so I slabbed it in 7/4 so they might make some benches. I got 6 slabs out of it. But the cutting was really tough. Halfway through I stopped and checked the blade, it was dull. OK, stop and change the blade. As I am tightening up the last nut finishing the blade change I see a chunk missing out of the drive belt. DanG! Well, I am all done with the change, so I tried it. No soap. Keeps stalling in the cut. Back it up and take it all apart again plus the drive pulley and put on a new belt (yes, I knew it was going last year and ordered one, just waiting until I needed it). 
This belt didn't owe me anything;


 


Got it all back together AGAIN and now it cuts pretty much like a dream (for ash). Nice straight flat boards. Finished off the first log and threw the live edged slabs on the trailer as is.
 I dragged up another log and got it set. Now it's noon. I haven't had breakfast yet. So I headed up to the house, emptied my sawdust buckets and made lunch. I laid on the couch for 'just a few minutes' to flatten out my back. Woke up and hour and a half later very groggy and headed back down. Now I had a good log up and milled a nice cant and got 5 2x6's and 5 2x4's out of it. Stickered and loaded that and I was pretty pooped.  It was 5pm. I cleaned the coffee pot out, finished the last cup, put the tools away, blew off the mill, tarped it all up and was back in the shop by 5:30. I have no plans to go out and mess around in the shop tonight. My goal now is to stay awake through dinner. ;D
 So a lot of mis-steps and fixes through the day, but I managed, in spite of it all to get something done. It sure doesn't look like much to me though:



 

It has been more than a couple of months since I spent the day wrangling logs an I think I am a little out of shape. Nothing hurts, but I am a little sore and really tired. I don't know if I can do the last 3 logs from their load tomorrow, but that is the goal. I think I will run out of steam early. BUT at least I am back to work making wood!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, yesterday was a hard fought day and assuming I wasn't too sore this morning (I wasn't) I should have been able to make some time and knock off the last 3 logs in that lot. Nope. There were more 'lessons' in store.
 So I threw up the 'tough' log, odd shape and thought about my approach for a bit then just made a choice and went for it. The first two sides came out OK, the third side was a challenge for me.



 
Now tell me if I'm wrong, but I thought I could take that hump off the top and still wind up with enough in the middle for the 2x6's needed. That was the plan anyway. So I took my first cut to get the hump off and the blade went for a ride toward the sky. It should not be dull at this point, but I checked it, and it was shot. Ticked off, but I put a new one one.
 First cut with the new blade and I must have hit the end a bit too hard (note how much log is hanging out in space). The log grabbed and snapped and rolled a little and popped the blade clean off. OK, reset the blade (this is now twice I had to take all the guards off), move the log a little for better clamping, and approach with caution. Cuts OK, then after about a foot or so, the blade goes for a ride uphill again! What the heck?!
 Now I take a closer look and found this:



 

 Two strands of barbed wire that had to be strung when this tree was about 4 inches in diameter. Now while you are clearing tears from your eyes, remember that I am new to this, I have never hit metal (until today), and I am not very bright. ;D (Dad always said I had to learn things the hard way. It still applies). So I grabbed the chainsaw and whacked 2' off the end of the log and put ANOTHER blade on. (now on the third iteration of pulling all the guards.) As if to drive the message home (maybe Dad is up there laughing at me), it now starts raining. I get the cant done and go up for lunch, then come back down, re-heat the coffee (still raining) and finish it (the log) off, but it is raining harder. I got 5 2x6's and 9 2x4's out out the log. Another full layer on the trailer load anyway.
 At this point I am thinking of bagging it. I took a break, had another hot cup of coffee and sat in the mill shed listening to the rain. I don't know a prettier sound than the rain filtering down through the trees, even if it is messing up my plans. A hot cup of coffee has an effect too.  ;D
 So I grabbed one more log and got it loaded and milled it into a cant before I was too wet, it was raining too hard and I was either soaked in sweat from the inside or rain from from the outside. So I finally bagged it. Cleaned out the coffee pot, put the tools away, and left the cant sitting on the bed. Wet and tired is not my favorite condition.
 I am not complaining, I got a bunch of stuff on the trailer and I picked up a new hard lesson or two. The first year, I guess, you get the hardest lessons, and then hopefully they get spaced out further, right?  :D Yesterday was beautiful today wasn't too bad, and I know worse weather is coming. When I move the mill I am really going to miss 'break time' down in the woods, it is so nice and quiet and there are critters from time to time.
 I came up, took a hot shower, and got on clean dry clothes. That felt pretty good too.

[Old Greenhorn]

Didn't get much done tonight, but I got something done. Went down and finished off that cant I left on the mill yesterday. Clear skies so I had light until 5:45. Got 4 more 2x6's on the trailer and ready for the next log. Then some deer, 4 does, moved in when I was putting stuff away, so I sat on a log an watched the, watching me. I figured they were back, most of the apples I left here and there are gone. ;D Then it was dark.
 
 I had ordered another ax scabbard from Grizzly Peak to fit the new ax I fitted up last week and while I was at it I ordered a good belt to go with it, I am tired of fighting with my old one. SO I took the time to put some neatsfoot oil on the belt (Seems like nobody oils their leather anymore?) and I fitted everything up on the belt. I like it, it all fits well and rides pretty good. I may add a set of braces at some point, lets see how it goes. For now I am happy with the rig. I try to get something done every day.


 

[Old Greenhorn]

Did a post last night but we had a power blip just as I was done and I lost it. You didn't miss much. ;D
 It was raining Tuesday night so I caught up on saw sharpening and cleaned out my sawbox in the mule which really need it. Too much junk collecting over the summer.
 Tonight the weather was great, but still when I get down into the mill area there is't much light. I though maybe at least I could get a log up on the mill and ready to get started. I only have about 40 minutes or so. I managed to get a log up and get it milled into a can't then take a handful of 5/4 boards off the top before I could not read the scale or see what I was doing. I shut down, pretty happy with that. If there is enough light, I might be able to finish it off tomorrow.
 Last log in the order:


 

While I was closing up I hear the gosh awful noise coming there the trees, way up about 30 feet. I could tell what it was, sounded like a drunk chopper pilot trying t salvage a landing. Turned out to be a turkey coming in to roost right near the mill. When he saw me he didn't like being so close and he found another spot about 30 yards away. It was interesting. Man they are NOT elegant when they roost. ;D
 At any rate, what I got down tonight means I can have the load done early Saturday morning at the latest, which was my 'hoped for goal'. I have a bunch of filtches to load on top, they can use those for benches or whatever. Then I have to bind it down and get it up the hill from the mill.  I might mill another log (my own) before I deliver it. 
 After unloading at the center I am hoping to get that big oak finally bucked up. Anybody ever hear of an 'axle cut'? I am dying to try that on this stem. It might be a safer way to part this off, and if it isn't, or doesn't work, I won't be any worse off.

[Old Greenhorn]

Short post here. Thursday/Friday I was sick, nt sire with what. Still not quite over it. Took it easy. Got my load all tied down and hauel it up early today. Brought it over to the center late morning. Nobody to help stack, so I did it myself. They did share a nice lunch with with me and I got the catch up with a music friend, Chris Eldredge. They invited me back for the concert tonight, and it was super, as I expected. Still not feeling 100%, but coming along.
 Free boards for them, a learning experience for me. WIN-win.


 

[Old Greenhorn]

Man, today was a total washout. It started raining just around midnight and rained all through the day and it still drizzling now. I guess it was just as well, I needed a day to just relax after whatever that was I had at the end of the week. I think it must have been a grazing shot from from the flu.
 I had focused on that load for the Ashokan center and now that this is done, it's time to move on to the next thing. I have about 6 to 8 logs down there to mill and one is a good one, a nice straight maple about 22 inches at the small end and at least 12' 6" long. The others are 'eh' ok and I am hoping to get some slabs out of them I can make benches out of. That would be winter work which is part of the goal, get some stock to work on.
 Right now i am trying to decide what to do with that nice log. I think I might just slab it to get it drying, but I am wondering if there is a better plan. I guess I will save that one for last. Most of them dictate what I can cut from them, so those are easy. But that one log is really nice.

[Old Greenhorn]

Today marks two full weeks since I have posted here. It is not that I haven't done anything, it's just that my work life is beyond stressful right now. I am working on the worst project of my career and it is all going wrong. I don't really want to get into it here, but basically i was handed a million dollar machine buy project and am supposed to make these machines work to make our parts. The main issue stems from the fact that I did not have anything to do with planning this project or spec'ing and ordering the tooling. That was all given to another guy who was slated to retire. He said 'everything was covered' in his plan. The week he retired, they dumped the project in my lap, 3 months before the machines were to be delivered. I had no experience with the product likes these machines affect. I didn't know which way was up, I had to trust the plan. Well, everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. The wrong tooling was ordered, and no tooling was ordered at all for one turret on each machine (4 axis CNC lathes x 2). The program conversion software is half baked and needs a LOT of work (and I am not a lather guy. Then to make it worse, my boss decides, just 1 week before delivery to change the plan for the second machine requiring a LOT more programming work and more new tooling to be ordered (to the tune of $10k or so). This is what happens when you put a guy in charge who can't read a print and has never had his hands on a machine. I have been working 12 hour days and barely sleeping at all each night. I am just sick over this whole thing because I have been in a lot of tough spots in the last 45 years, but this is the first time I can't seem to pull that rabbit out of a hat. And it ain't over yet by a long shot. I can't wait until I can retire in the spring. I am tired of suffering fools.

 So milling has not been first in my mind. The dark evenings keep me out of the woods and I have only been out in the shop once or twice in the evenings. It's been hanging in the 30's and lower at night. Mostly I have dinner, read the FF posts, and go to bed. Yesterday I had to cover the afternoon shift at work so I only had time to fix the neighbors hot tub (again) and bring a few boards up from the mill, then go to work. Dark when I got home. I didn't sleep well again last night. 
 Today I forced myself to make an effort. I got up on the roof and cleaned the chimney. Then I came in and cleaned the stove, it took longer than normal as every vacuum cleaner I have was used by someone else and had full bags or other problems to be fixed. I dropped off the neighbor's mail (we take in in for them when they are not here) and headed to the mill. We may have a real snow coming this week, so I needed to get the tarp down before the snow destroyed it. 24 x 48 takes a while to drop, fold, and roll working alone but I got it done in less than an hour. Then I put a load of lumber on the mule and ran it up the hill onto a temporary stack. I just want to get it up from the woods so I can get at it. Moving 8-12' boards with the 4' mule bed is problematic :D, another reason I need to move the mill. (see photo below) I had lunch then went back down, no mid-day break today, must keep moving. I loaded more lumber from the drying stack onto the mule. I grabbed the last (maple) log I had cut about 15 months ago and ran it up on the mill. I got 2 5/4 x 12' and 3 8/4 x 12' averaging 11" wide. I stacked them on the side for another run. I now have about 3 logs left before the move starts. When I was taking a break to catch my breath, I was sitting on a log and looking at the nice one. It dawned on me that I can get 2 6x8 posts I need for my loft extension in the shop. So I think that's a plan. I need 5 of those posts in total to support the floor. If I start making the pieces as I have opportunity I can keep that moving along also. This is a project I have not yet mentioned here, more to come in the future, but there is a lot of prep work to do before I can begin the build. I am just trying to make a little more room in my shop. A 12x12 loft gives me another 144 sq ft and I could use it. I remember the days when I would have done anything just to have a 144 sq ft shop.
 So I flat stacked those boards knowing they will be moved up to the house in a couple of weeks. I want to keep pecking away at moving the stuff on my drying skid and get the skid moved up to the house and leveled, then I can re-stack everything on it for the winter. I am milling slabs for tables, stock for legs, and focusing on that type stuff with the logs I have. Then get the mill moved up before the snow settles in. I might put the mill carriage in the shop and go over everything and bring it up to snuff before I set it on the bed.
 Speaking of the mill, I have to say that since my troubles of a few weeks ago where I hit some metal, had to replace the drive belt and a couple of other things, my mill has NEVER run this good! Flat boards, solid cutting, no blade stalling, much less shaking/vibration in wide cuts. I could not be happier with the way this machine is cutting. It makes me smile every time I run down the log. I am beginning to learn a lot more of the finer points and how they actually FEEL in your hands based on what I have learned here on the FF and what I have seen and done with my mill. My confidence grows. It has only been about 54 weeks since I took my first worrisome cut with this thing. Now I am finally feeling like I understand some of this.

To end off the day I started a fire in the wood stove. First fire always takes a while, but it's going and the temp just jumped up to 73 here at the desk. It feels good, just like the first beer after a long day.
 
Here is one of those short loads coming up the hill today:


 

 I have to get a better lumber handling plan. ;D

[thecfarm]

You have a trailer ball on there,I suppose no receiver?  I have see those on a truck,they go into the receiver and they extend out so many feet and have a square C on them,that goes up and down, to hold boards,pipe into. Should be able to make something like that.
Good luck on the job.
I had a Boss that would come up with a great idea. I was the go to man to get it done. I use to say Yes,dear each time. Finally he asked me why do I always say Yes dear. I told him,well you are just like my wife. She comes up with some great idea and if I don't make it work the way she sees it, there is H E double hockey sticks to pay. Boy he got mad. ;D  ;D  ;D  BUT it was and is true.  ;D

[doc henderson]

well i am havin one with you, goose island octoberfest!  I like the sayin, "we have done so much for so long with so little, we can now do anything with nothing".  prob. what your boss has come to expect.  enjoy>  cheers!     maybe try pulling another something outa somewhere else! :D :D :D like a miracle

[Old Greenhorn]

You have a trailer ball on there,I suppose no receiver?  I have see those on a truck,they go into the receiver and they extend out so many feet and have a square C on them,that goes up and down, to hold boards,pipe into. Should be able to make something like that.
Good luck on the job.
I had a Boss that would come up with a great idea. I was the go to man to get it done. I use to say Yes,dear each time. Finally he asked me why do I always say Yes dear. I told him,well you are just like my wife. She comes up with some great idea and if I don't make it work the way she sees it, there is H E double hockey sticks to pay. Boy he got mad. ;D  ;D  ;D  BUT it was and is true.  ;D

You know as soon as I looked at that photo (not when I took it) I thought the same thing. This has an 1-1/4 receiver, I would have to fab something, but that is much easier than build a trailer. I gotta do some research.
I have worked for a lot of bosses, and a few true leaders. Some are really good, some not so much. The best I can say about this guys is that he is an idiot. He should take that as a compliment.

[Old Greenhorn]

You have a trailer ball on there,I suppose no receiver?  I have see those on a truck,they go into the receiver and they extend out so many feet and have a square C on them,that goes up and down, to hold boards,pipe into. Should be able to make something like that.

I did some quick looking around, Home Despot has one for a 2" receiver for about 65 bucks, that plus the receiver adapter puts me at around 90 bucks, which ain't too bad. I'll think about it for a week or so because I have some other more urgent purchases (like a tonneau cover for the new truck before the snow stays). It's a great idea though, don't know why it didn't hit me earlier. I will add it eventually. I need to sell some stuff. ;D :D

[Old Greenhorn]

well i am havin one with you, goose island octoberfest!  I like the sayin, "we have done so much for so long with so little, we can now do anything with nothing".  prob. what your boss has come to expect.  enjoy>  cheers!    maybe try pulling another something outa somewhere else! :D :D :D like a miracle

Thanks for joining me in a beer @doc henderson , I am drinking my usual (cheap) Busch regular. My job is defined as doing something specific and difficult with practically nothing, I have been doing this my entire career, it's why I am so good at what I do, I have had a lot of practice. But theses days, my boss doesn't even have the first clue what he is expecting and when I try to explain it, he just says 'well we have to make it happen' like that is going to make a difference. He's an idiot, but he is my idiot and I have to deal with it, for good or for bad, mostly bad. Just like some of the folks I used to run into on the ambulance, some folks are just too stupid to live.

[donbj]

 "some folks are just too stupid to live"

Now that's a good one! It really gets me thinking at times the broad range of slack humanity has to allow people to survive.

[Dakota]

My sawmill is about a 1/4 mile from the cabin I built, so I was always shuttling cut lumber from the mill to the cabin.  I had the same problems as you with the long boards.  I ended up stacking the boards sideways on my SxS, and then removing any trees, stumps or brush they could catch on.  This might be a better solution to your problem than fabricating something you don't have time to fabricate.  Cheaper  too.  Just a thought.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I have 2 issues to overcome. One is the steepness of the skid road and if I have too much weight on, the Mule wants to lift it's front wheels off the ground. The second is the trees I catch. I can only take out a few of them, not all and there is a gate to pass through which I cannot change and is supported by a 30" red oak. ;D
 I put what I can on at an angle to maximize the ability to get through, but I still catch something every once in a while. I do have a small trailer, but it is tied up right now. When I free that up, I will begin running more lumber up. Once I move the mill, this will become a non-issue. But, I do like that hitch extension idea. That could be very handy if I can make it work.

[doc henderson]

can you use the log arch?  could even support the front of the wood load on the hitch or bed, and put an axle behind at the back of the load, like a log arch, and toe it.  I agree this is just temporary and not worth spending time or money for now. second, can and will you wife ride on the front of the mule?...   ;)