couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[GRANITEstateMP]

Barge, those elk are beautiful! Your fences must be stout to keep them in.  I like your hunting shack/mobile parts room/crew quarters/dog house/snowmobile camp...it could come in handy!  You gonna leave it on wheels, that may be handy too!

[mike_belben]

The Repo hand is way strong.  :D

[ehp]

Barge those elk look great and so does that house 

[Old Greenhorn]

Barge, things are looking good for you. I have been meaning to run up for a visit all summer, but things got away from me and I have yet to get a handle on it. I am looking out that one window in the TF and thinking I have been around that area, but I don't know where that  might be. At any rate it should bring a very nice rental rate for the Windham skiers when it gets finished.
 I have seen a lot of those sheds gently used, go cheap because of the moving issues, but if you have the right gear its pretty simple and a nice deal can be had. That one looks like 12x24 and will be a good storage shed or any of a dozen other things. I love mine. It's high and dry.
 Gotta get up and see your progress soon on Matt's and the other property. Keep hammerin' man!

[teakwood]

Reason for the higher back cut is so tree will not spin off the stump or kick back on you off the stump

That's the "european" technique everybody learns in loggers school. I thought you guys in north america use a humbold face (undercut) and than a more or less flush backcut. 

[mike_belben]

if you put the step together with a bore cut on leaners, it will create a lock step that helps prevent a barberchair from swinging its ugly leg up. 

[Skeans1]

That sure does look good.
My Dad was real fussy on how his trees was cut. That stump had to look just right. My brother cut some trees for firewood. My father had a fit about his stumps. He did not want someone to think that he did not know how to cut trees down. I thought he was going to recut every stump.

I think I know how he felt. I like low stumps, a machine should be able to drive over them. I cut at ground level and if I can't because of the tree conditions or whatever, I recut to clear off the stump.
I get EHP's issues with the stump cops and don't doubt it is just as he says, bureaucrats are what they are. But that 2" backcut height just strikes me as stupid for most trees. A faller should be able to judge the tree and the fall and make his own decisions. I always put my backcut at the same level as the bottom of the notch unless their is a reason to do otherwise such as jump concerns or old wood. It leaves a clean stump on the first pass. Every tree is different though and every region is different. Government intervention, I am told, can vary also. :D ;D

If you look up OHSA we're all supposed to do the 2" step for the back cut especially on conventional faces.

[Skeans1]

Reason for the higher back cut is so tree will not spin off the stump or kick back on you off the stump

That's the "european" technique everybody learns in loggers school. I thought you guys in north america use a humbold face (undercut) and than a more or less flush backcut.

That's PNW cutting with the humboldt face and flush back cuts if done right all you have to do is trim the little fibers off the butt log and run.

[Iwawoodwork]

The Oregon, Washington, and BC logging safety codes require a step up on the back cut for better control and anti kick back. Most of those states, province logging safety rules were/are developed with lots of input from professional loggers, timber fallers, etc. Most are written because some ones blood was spilled. In Mike Bs case he is not an employee so he is ok to do as he pleases. 

[ehp]

ya no humble cuts here , first the stump has to be low and that is the way they want it done . Up where I'm from now they want you to cut for 2 solid weeks falling timber before they will pass you after you take the classes . It's for sure a part of the job that is die fast . It's very hard to find a good timber cutter . 

[mike_belben]

that little flashlight wont ever get another oak off the ground but somehow people think if you wait longer the trees will get big.  have i got news.  theyll still be runts when they fall over from rot.. cut em now and grow something else in the meanwhile.  this is what a tennessee forest looks like. been cut nearly every time theres a tree that makes 13" DIB at the buttlog



 


heres what im pushing ahead into





and heres what ive left behind me. 






understory is all getting axed. the only ugly tree that gets a pass in the midstory is maple, i will tap those to death.  the overstory is gonna get a few years of growth and ill remove it as im ready to saw lumber.  shade, sugar and grass is the plan.  well.. and deer. 

[Skeans1]

 

 Finally a good use of one of the slabs I did some time back, I'll split another one I have to build an upper shelf behind the monitor one day.

[teakwood]

Last weekend i turned 40 and i like to host partys especially when it's a round birthday. I had a ugly Ironwood trunk prepared about 3 years ago, did mad a Swedish torch out of it for a special occasion. that thing probably weighted nearly a ton. had to place it with the skidder.

3pm, first i lightened the side arm, then later the main chimney  
 


7pm

10pm

3am


My brother had a special beer made for the party, what a nice surprise 

[doc henderson]

I like the cross it makes at the base of the candle with the natural light.  I would take a case of your beer if you can ship.   :D :D :D  happy 40th!

[Magicman]

understory is all getting axed

Remember that the understory contains the future generations of trees, that is unless your targeted future is to ultimately have cleared property.  Understory also provides deer browse and bedding areas.  I like to have a mix.

[Skeans1]

@Magicman 
If you get rid of that understory you'll allow the dominant trees to take off even more for a faster cycle time vs waiting on the stunted understory to make the next round. What's the standard rotation on a lot of these trees?

[Magicman]

I don't know what Mike's ultimate goal is which is what I alluded to in my reply. ??  I was simply pointing out that the understory also contains and protects the future's trees.  A closed canopy will shade and naturally eliminate most of the briers and undesirable understory.  An open canopy will release smaller trees and allow them to grow.

Mike seems to be creating a very inviting and lovely "park" environment for his and his families enjoyment. 

[HemlockKing]

Happy 40th! I think the beer logo is great. Guy has chainsaw for eyebrows 

[nativewolf]

I don't know what Mike's ultimate goal is which is what I alluded to in my reply. ??  I was simply pointing out that the understory also contains and protects the future's trees.  A closed canopy will shade and naturally eliminate most of the briers and undesirable understory.  An open canopy will release smaller trees and allow them to grow.

Mike seems to be creating a very inviting and lovely "park" environment for his and his families enjoyment.

Actually not.  Mike is doing exactly the right thing.  I'd maybe take the maple out too but he has a use for them.  The midstory has no dominant crop tree species unless they are stunted and suppressed hickory and oak and beech. Maybe in 100 years you'd get a hickory tree worth sawing.  The reason the forest in TN and much of the south look like that is because they took the dominants and left the midstory which is all junk.   If you want a faster rotation and MUCH higher value Oak, Yellow Poplar, Hickory, Walnut forest than you have to get rid of the midstory and sayy 40% of the dominants to release the dominants and provide some sunlight to enable regeneration of target species.  No target species will ever germinate and grow above knee height in those highgraded piles of pulpwood that they call forests.  


We recently did a TSI in conjunction with a chestnut oak grove harvest.  There was not a single chestnut oak under 100 years old and the midstory had suffocated the sunlight needed for regeneration.  So the midstory (maple, blackgum, suppressed CO, etc) came down.  100% down.  Seedlings are loving it (seedlings, ankle high CO that are 10-30 years old -pull a seedling go right to ground level and slice with a razor and count the growth rings of the root collar with a magnifying glass).  Next year it will be so thick with blackberry vines and seedlings you won't be able to walk and some will make it past the deer.  Then in 10 years when we harvest it will be on straight high quality CO stems that have added 2-3 inches and have moved from sawlog to veneer and QS logs (double value lets say), that will be a shelterwood harvest and start thinning those saplings which should be 20' or so tall.  Landowner get 1500/acre in 3 consecutive harvest.  10 years later the shelterwood comes down and cut thin the saplings some more.

That's mikes goal, he just is starting from a bit further back from where we usually start due to the terrible high grading you have down there but he is doing exactly the right thing.  I worry that he doesn't have enough removal but he's savvy now and watching things.  He'll solve sunlight issues if he needs to.  First, get rid of the midstory.  Second make sure there is enough sunlight, third get blackberry vines and other undergrowth to protect target seedlings from deer, third thin again to keep sunlight coming.  Continuous intervention designed to allow target species to replace the picked over high grade and get new seedlings going.  You won't be able to walk in Mikes forest in 2 years without a machete, it will be that thick (unless maple is shading).  There are some tricks with WO to keep it from developing epicormic sprouts, there are tricks with walnut too.  Those are all manageable though.  As a forester, twice over, I'm really impressed with Mikes efforts.  Frankly more impressive than his mechanical contraptions :D.  He started from 0 knowledge base and got to the right tack.  So so many people dont.

[Bruno of NH]

Last weekend i turned 40 and i like to host partys especially when it's a round birthday. I had a ugly Ironwood trunk prepared about 3 years ago, did mad a Swedish torch out of it for a special occasion. that thing probably weighted nearly a ton. had to place it with the skidder.

3pm, first i lightened the side arm, then later the main chimney  



7pm

10pm

3am


My brother had a special beer made for the party, what a nice surprise

Happy birthday Sir 
I started to go down hill at 40  :D

[mike_belben]

happy bday ramon and thanks wyatt.  


what you see is just the first path to get from front to back.  these lots are all 5.x acres, about 200ft wide and 1/4 mile deep.  its my dads retirement place if he ever moves here. one of the neighbors has just made the sale of their home to a brooklyn house flipper and i am hard after it to define the property boundary with my buddy who is leaving before dealing with this yankee who may be difficult or may want to accuse me of timber theft or something, force me to pay for survey, who knows. clearing the mid and lower lets us actually see by line of sight and run stringlines from pins we have to find or agree on.


the future is eventually a nice place to live and keep cows in a silvopasture.  it will get there in stages but the management will be continual to minimize windthrow on what i keep. maples will get wrung dry and only the productive or prettiest will stay to maturity.  i will guess that in 5 years 90% of what is here will be gone, but first step is attack whats already dead or hopeless and im not making the mistake i did at my place.. having hope on garbage, waiting for years then cutting it anways.

it takes time to have an eye for what will and wont respond to light. ive cut thousands and thousands of stems here by hand.  a big patch of light will bring in more vegetation than can be counted in under 3 years.  but keeping 3 little junk 2" diameter sapplings in one patch will prevent anything good.  in your head youre saying jeez those are about 3 years old.  no.. those patient little black gums have been that small for 18 years. a patch of sun will replace them with straight racing single stem beauties in the next 3 years. so my only remorse has been clearing to sparsely.  You get a high value species mix with intense light and a low value mix in low light.  Ferns are what shade grows and they dont feed anything. 

 i am heavy handed at cutting now, a glance or two, no tears shed. you arent perfect?  youre dead. light is perfect. soil is perfect.  Scraggly stunted umbrella trees consuming both are only a supressor keeping the perfect trees from emerging.  if we would just get the suppressors out.  nearly every white oak in here is as brown hearted as the most chocolate walnut.  thats a dead tree standing with a few leaves.

most of the maturest timber will come out to be sawn for my house build but im not ready to have it so im storing that on the stump.  little by little this will go to grass which i am seeing from native seed heads i collect.


i am absolutely in agreement that if a place were managed right.. ive only seen one here.  jeffs farm.  if i were to go in wacking the mid story then i would stall out his prime sawlog flow for a few decades.   every time timber is up i see people cutting down yard trees. i hear saws every night from thieves just going and finding any old big tree to drag in. thieves dont know that theyre doing diameter limit cuts.  "lets get that big one."  when you run diameter limit style highgrades on the same ground for generations, there is no prime sawlog ever coming again.  youll get big ugly tie logs in 80 years if you can keep them from being stolen. will ties even be wood by then? i cant change what was done in the past so im intervening to alter the future.  if it cant make high quality timber it should make high quality food.   no one steals grass or peas.

these days im seeing land like a solar farm.  how many kilowatts per acre can i capture in a living thing that goes to market?  i dont care what the living thing is, only that it represents maximum kilowatts captured in the finest product i can create.

[mike_belben]

My woods once looked like my dads. Not anymore.  

This is whatll bring your wildlife racing back.  Diverse feed, but all of it lush, green, tender and fresh.  










Black gum shoots are a deer favorite. Maple and sourwood just behind it by my observation.  Every dead gum or SW i lob off send up 5 to 20 new little shoots that they prune off. Most people have problems with too many deer to grow oak seedlings.    I give my deer the problem of too much food to kill any oaks. And i bring them in on purpose with salt and mineral.  My dads site has over a dozen active beds that i left alone and even added shelter too.  Theyre gonna be in heaven when that grass fills in. 

[teakwood]

I started to go down hill at 40 

:D :D don't worry, i started at 35. every morning when i get up i already feel like an old men, lol. until i warm up a little

[Old Greenhorn]

My issues started when I was in my 20's and like you both I suffered badly from time to time. Those small traumatic accidents add up over the years and do not (as we like to tell ourselves) heal themselves. I suffered routinely and often felt like I was re-assembling my bones when I got out of bed in the morning. Some days I just rolled out of bed onto my knees and through the tears I would slowly use the bed to make myself erect. But then, in between I was mostly OK....until the next dumb move. Finally I did it bad, just pushing the sawmill, but I was down hard. It's documented somewhere here on the forum. I needed to find help badly. I could barely walk with 2 canes. I was 63 or so. Two friends recommended the same Chiropractor. I had no choice, I felt, so I took a shot. Holy cow, the guy changed my life! Over a year he first fixed my immediate issues but then started to find and fix all of the stupid injuries I had over the years, he found an issue in my left shoulder one time and asked if I had injured it in the past. "Nope, not that I know of", but then on the drive home I realized I had popped that shoulder clean out of the socket over 15 years ago and it took 3 years to 'heal' and I only got 85% range out of it after that. Well he worked on it for a few sessions and my occasional pain went away AND I got full range back in it. There were a half dozen other things he fixed over 3 years and now it is just monthly tweaks to keep me straight. He has changed my life. I'd suggest to everyone that if you have issues, go find 'the right guy' for you. It may take some work to find that guy or gal, but it sure can add a lot on your working life. I had given up hope for myself, but then I got lucky. I wish the same for all of you.

[BargeMonkey]

My meme fits this almost perfectly... 🤦‍♂️😆


 
 Both legs, femur and tib / fib, both ankles, 9.5 fingers, left shoulder and collar bone, 50+ staples and 200+ stitches, had my R- ear sowed back on... 🤷‍♂️ 

I started to go down hill at 40  

:D :D don't worry, i started at 35. every morning when i get up i already feel like an old men, lol. until i warm up a little

Like Toby Kieth said, I may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. Honestly Ramon we aren't at a bad age, go from the 25s to cougar territory 😆