The Logging Thread

Dave Shepard

Square peg, round world.
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
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Alford, MA
From the Official Work Pictures Thread:

"We don't have an Official logging thread, so I guess this goes here. Myrtle's first official log on my pine job. 30' x22" white pine. Going to be a ridge beam in a Cruck frame. I've been playing around all week getting my skid trail opened up and the snow packed down while the snow was "warm". Now that it's cold again, the going is pretty good. I pulled this guy all the way back without any troubles. I'll try two of them next time. I've got a couple of sticky wickets on the skid trail, I'm working on a pretty tired set of tire chains, I might have to put them on if the conditions get bad. My skid trail is about twice as long as I would like, but the shortcut to the mill yard that was used in '93 is blocked by a couple of uprooted trees. No way to move the stumps. At least there is no trucking this way, which is good, I don't think the Kubota will pick this one up. Mill is in front of Kubota."

20140224_153805.jpg
 
Seeing that reminds me of back home. Lots of Amish mills throughout the woods in Middlefield Ohio.

But I am thankful to live where I am now. Ohio for me is a nice place to visit, just not reside.
 
Great thread, bout time!

Nice looking log, and skidder. Are you happy with the grapple or would you prefer a winch? Just a guess on my part, but I would think there are many cable skidders in your area.
 
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  • #7
The cable skidders are usually the old 'Jacks and Deere 440/540s. The new stuff is grapple. 648GIIs usually. My neighbor is having some red oak cut, the logger is using a TimberJack 360D, which is really a JD 540. I don't have a winch, and I think it is going to be a problem sooner or later. This warmup settled the snow a bit, and I bashed in my skid trails when it was soft. Now, I can travel around pretty well, but I'm worried about having to get off trail to grab a log. The grapple is not factory, or at least not a standard option. This machine was one of several custom built for a utility to pull the big poles in for the high voltage lines. The hydraulic pump is the standard 208 pump for steering and blade, so it's pretty slow to run the grapple. And don't try to steer and move the blade, because you won't steer, you'll go straight into whatever you were pointed at.:lol: If I had to choose between just the grapple, or a cable, I think I'd go with cable. We found the proper winch for this machine last winter, but the guy wouldn't part with it. I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't back up to a log because there is no access, maybe put the Farmi winch on the Kubota and stage stuff near the trail. I do have a few logs much bigger than this one to pull, and I don't think the Farmi will budge them 1:1, might have to get some blocks and go for 3:1.
 
Damn, a winch on that thing and you would be all set. But nice machine, you will probably get a ton of work out if it.
 
So, from your perspective, Squish, would residential trees, or even one tree from such location, that gets sent to an auction yard to be sold for lumber, is that logging?
 
Here technically yes. I've "logged" residential lots and it requires a timber mark from the government to do legally.

So that's logging IMO. Small scale for certain but still logging.
 
Hard to believe that in all these years there never has been one, ain't it?
 
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  • #19
I've got a big winch off a dozer. I don't know what it would take to cobble it on there. The skidder doesn't belong to me, so I probably won't bother.

I carry some chain with me, but I don't have any cable slings. I could ask a friend that does rigging, but I don't want to drag inch and half wire through the woods.
 
I can't exactly remember, but I think Jerry mentioned in his book about using a dozer to pull up big cable to him in a tree. Guess he could manhandle it from that point well enough. An interesting thing to read and imagine.
 
Straw line is what's used to pull large cable into place. It's small cable that's manageable. I used to really enjoy the rigging part of yarding. Say on a downhill setting(so the yarders at the bottom of the hill). Getting the cable strung on a steep hillside is quite a process.

Uphill is a different story. The steeper the better as then the cables more likely to run you over than have to be pulled on much.
 
Cable is a pretty deep subject if you start reading about it. So many types with differing constructions and choice of materials.
 
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