How'd it go today?

Some good advise Adrian.... Careful with all that :)

HO never got back to me on the beetle kill we worked on yesterday and today. So we started taking tree four down. It was just too far gone to try and save. Turpentine beetle. I told her we would use my best judgement on the assessment. Thing was riddled with galleries and holes top to bottom. Very little green left... :P
So I limb-ed it up to fit through my narrow window of trees and brush and one side of the little pondo. 180* out of our desired LZ with heavy side weight. Set a line in it, wedge and pull, wedge and pull, she sat straight up 130 foot tall. She was just about ready to commit and I told Rob to get ready... Well.... I hear a little crackle and hollar at Rob. I see her commit.. just some fiber popped and she was going to go over... Then I hear POP! Hinge on one side broke before the face closed... DAMN... she rolled right smack into another 100 footer and 30* out of the lay... Could have been worse... It broke the top (50 foot of one :|: ) on a 100 footer that is dying that I wanted to get authorization for me to add to the quote to TD. Layed into the brush line but missed two fences and another property. And I mean landed on the edge of the brush... Nary had to pull any pondo out of much of it. Just made clean up a PITA. Whole top of the intended tree would have landed right beside the burn pile had she went to the face. Pissed me off. Oh well.... Meet with the HO tomorrow (just got off the phone setting it up) after I call her in the morning and set up to take down the next 3 after I TD another 100 footer on another property. One I need to talk to her about is 1/2 down already :lol:
Sorry I could not get a vid of the boo boo... We was too busy with pulling, wedging and taking cover :lol: Sometimes I really hate the brittle dead POSs.
Some high lights......
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qUfeHdy0NJo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Are you going with a German cut or whizzy or gap face on those crispy ones, Stephan?

We have been using a lot of side retainer/ guy lines on pull trees lately since we get pretty much only get dead, dying and/ or rotten trees to fell. Since we are already up hanging a line, hanging two is easy enough. Nick Bonner showed his way of setting an anchor point out in the middle of an area with no trees on speedlines that might be useful.

We all know, hind sight is 20/20.
 
About Andrew's bucket truck being dangerous...
Lordy! That thing looks dangerous! I don't think it would be allowed over here.

I think Butch is commenting on the leveling chains for the bucket, and no bucket harness. If the chain fails, the bucket will swing, dropping the operator. The hydraulic cylinders should have check valves, hopefully.

NeTree, a former Tree House member, just had a bucket failure a few months ago and rode it to the ground, getting severely injured.
 
Sorry I could not get a vid of the boo boo... We was too busy with pulling, wedging and taking cover :lol: Sometimes I really hate the brittle dead POSs.


Well here I have one. :D

The Good

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F2_F3hsq6xc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


The Ugly


<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/abFMPaFHwY8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Are you going with a German cut or whizzy or gap face on those crispy ones, Stephan?

We have been using a lot of side retainer/ guy lines on pull trees lately since we get pretty much only get dead, dying and/ or rotten trees to fell. Since we are already up hanging a line, hanging two is easy enough. Nick Bonner showed his way of setting an anchor point out in the middle of an area with no trees on speedlines that might be useful.

We all know, hind sight is 20/20.

Conventional face. Wanted to jump off the stump a tad to push it out of the grove some. I thought about a whizzy or an obtuse snipe to push the tree off to one side to swing it more off the pondo it hit, but all had been going well and this tree had more green on it than the last that hinged nicely. A guy line would have helped probably, maybe a german to make what fibers last a little longer... But seriously, hinge failed just as she committed (3" of wood on a 30" tree) She was alerady starting to turn off the butt at maybe 10 degrees off vertical.... No rot... just brittle in one spot. Friggen beetles ruined a perfectly good hinge :lol: So in hind sight.. no modification to the face would have mattered... it basically never closed in such a way that it would have played out different... Some speed would have straightened it out. Tractor pulling would have helped. We used the come-a-long....

Hey Red Dog.. That was awesome...! I would have had more words about it even with the camera on....
 
Hey Red Dog.. That was awesome...! I would have had more words about it even with the camera on....

Thanks, not too often I carry a camera.
Had split a double off the face towards the camera and went back to get fuel from all the vertical ripping. Figured I might as well grab the camera.

Trust me, the saw covered up the Logger language. :-#
 
I love it when in the first video, you look up to check for falling debris, then look up again to double check.
That double check is the mark of a live logger IMO.

You wouldn't by any chance be dreaming of a trip to Denmark, would you.
We just hired in a guy to help us get through the enormoud pressure that both mills, state and private forests are putting on us right now, and today Richard severely pulled a muscle in his leg.
According to the doctors it'll take at least 4 weeks before he can go back to the woods.

Aaaaaaarrrrrgghhh...................................................!
 
Easy with the logger language Stig.:lol:
That's a real ball buster having so much pressure and not necessarily enough hands. Good luck finding a replacement. If I weren't married with children, I'd be there next week.
 
I love it when in the first video, you look up to check for falling debris, then look up again to double check.
That double check is the mark of a live logger IMO.

You wouldn't by any chance be dreaming of a trip to Denmark, would you.

Thanks Stig.

Sorry to hear of Richards injury.

As to the trip, when my wife gets home tonight I will discuss this with her. :)
 
So today I learned not to sell firewood over an hour away. Fred was not happy but in my defense he told me to sell more wood lol. I had to hear about it the whole way there and back so that's how it went today.
 
Well here I have one. :D

The Good

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F2_F3hsq6xc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


The Ugly


<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/abFMPaFHwY8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Voice is chainsaw not a stable. It is necessary to make repairs ...
 
That Husky seemed to wind down very slowly. I wonder why or if its just my ears tricking me?

Nope your ears are good.
Newer 372 xtorq saw, after ripping the first set of trunks off it started to lean some on the low. After these vids I adjusted it and tached it out, has been running great.
 
How is the xtorq 372 against the original 372?

So far seems every bit as good as the old 372 with better fuel efficiency. Like the 441 it takes some playing to get the fuel mixtures right.
Now that it is getting broken in good I will switch bars and start bucking firewood to see how it compares to the 441 with a 16" bar.
 
Well with the early part of this week open I have begun to make my sawmill. Got my axle shortened to rail width. And my head rig cut in half so I can make the throat opening 36". I would like more for counter/bar tops but dont want to purchase special blades. Going electric motor to start but may put a old iron head sportster motor on I have sitting around. Lots of fab work but in the end boards will be made for my time and I love that part.
 
Do not use that Harley engine .You'll over heat that thing in no time .They have enough HP at around 53 but they are made to boogie down the road at 60 plus MPH being cooled by the passing wind .

To set that thing up with shrouding and a cooling fan would be more of a pain in the buttocks than what it's worth .Besides it would need a governer mechanism of some kind which would be just as big of a pain setting up .Then remember it's a Harley sportster not noted as the easiest engine to start in the first place .Iron engine would be at the latest 1972 I think and the 900 cc XLCH's were kickers .
 
Just an update to make you aware of just how fine this House is.
After I whined about Richard pulling a muscle and us not being able to meet our contract, two of the members offered to come over and help out!!!

That really touched me.
Of course, bureaucracy killed that idea in the crib, but it was still heart warming as hell.

And would have been a shitload of fun, could we have pulled it off:lol

Today Richard called an old buddy of ours, who quit running his own outfit some years ago, and went to work for a private forest.
He said they weren't overly busy right now, so he could probably talk his boss into hiring him out to us for a couple of weeks.

That sure brought my blood pressure down a notch.

But Wally and Pete, thanks a lot for offering! That meant a lot to me.
 
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