Summer logging

[stig]

The local sawmill and log dearlership was 30 logs short of a shipload to China, so we got a call on tuesday afternoon asking if we could deliver on wednesday!
Had a race with the skidder, but made it on time.
I hate summer logging hardwoods. Everything is green, you can't tell lean, spot widowmakers and generally bucking in that mess is a hell of a chore.

Not trying to put a few more lashes to that deceased pony, but I'd really love to see a PNW faller dragging a 50 inch bar through this mess

As the loggers among you can probably tell, the last tree surprised me. I had bored it, which is really the only safe way to go in this kind of logging, since you have a hard time determining lean, and there was a gusty wind going on.
Wind hit it and broke the ( Too thin, I know, but I was being lazy and trying to stick the bar through, so I didn't have to bore in again.............I got punished for that!) backstrap.
If I didn't have the experience and cool to stay cutting as it went over, I would have had a nasty barberchair, and with all the second growth, running away is out of the question.
You can see how thick a hinge it broke on the left side. A bit thicker and it would have barberchaired on me.

 

[Jed]

Absolutely beautiful tree Stig. Nice fall, all things considered. Brand new 661?

 

[BlackSmith]

You guys and gals earn ya coin in the summer, trees are a winter sport for me.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Is that a beech tree?

Are you not allowed to cut a get away path?

Heck of an order to fill in a day, nice.

 

[chris_girard]

Absolutely beautiful tree Stig. Nice fall, all things considered. Brand new 661?

Totally agree and I too was wondering about the saw?

As a former logger, I agree, give me winter work over summer work for felling trees in the forest any day.

 

[Burnham]

Give me softwood logging in summer over hardwood logging any season .

Whipping the pony back into your pasture Stig...no one from the PNW would bother with 50 inches of bar in those piddly little trees.

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[chris_girard]

Burnham, I can get used to the cold of New England winter logging, but I'm not sure if I could get used to the heavy rainy season that the PNW loggers see, or do they shut down during that time?

Over here on the East Coast, up in the NH/ME neck of the woods, we have in the spring time, what we call "Mud Season" where we would just tear the woods and roads apart if we tried to log in them, so we shut down during those weeks. Plus, most of our local town roads are posted with a 6 ton load limit, which makes it pretty hard to haul the logs over those paved roads. This has more to do with the frost coming out of the ground vs. rain though.

 

[gf beranek]

summer / winter here makes no difference, but I know what you're saying, Stig.

 

[Burnham]

Burnham, I can get used to the cold of New England winter logging, but I'm not sure if I could get used to the heavy rainy season that the PNW loggers see, or do they shut down during that time?

Over here on the East Coast, up in the NH/ME neck of the woods, we have in the spring time, what we call "Mud Season" where we would just tear the woods and roads apart if we tried to log in them, so we shut down during those weeks. Plus, most of our local town roads are posted with a 6 ton load limit, which makes it pretty hard to haul the logs over those paved roads. This has more to do with the frost coming out of the ground vs. rain though.

We log in the wet...otherwise we don't get much logging done . Really, it's not heavy rain, it's more like constant drizzle, months of it. Never notice it, for the most part. It's just dampish air, ya know?

But we don't do mud, at least on USFS lands...any haul road used in wet weather is rock surfaced. If it isn't, then log haul is curtailed to keep road damage and sediment run off limited.

 

[squisher]

I know I know we've been down this path to many times before but really comparing what I see in these pics to what it's like to get around on a coastal PNW cutblock? sorry Stig but you brought it up.

 

[stig]

And you swallowed it, hook, line and sinker

I had something happen with one of the trees that was a first for me.
Just after it fell, my phone rang, so I stopped the saw and talked for a while.
Then I heard something scream and went out in the crown of the tyree to investigate.
I thought maybe I'd knocked a raptor nest down, since it was a real thin cry like a young falcon might make.
turned out it was a fawn, trapped under the tree.
Back end all smashed, so I put it out of it's misery with my wedge hammer.
I've never hit an animal with a tree before. Came close to whacking a hiker once, and hit the nest of a pheasant 20 odd years ago. The amazing thing about that was, the hen stayed on the nest that was right betweem a fork in the tree. She flew off when I was bucking the tree and scared the crap out of me.

But this was a new one, and one I could have done without.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That sucks.

 

[Peter]

Double sucks to happen to a vegetarian, at least if it happened to me there would be some fresh venison on the menu.

 

[Burnham]

And you swallowed it, hook, line and sinker

I had something happen with one of the trees that was a first for me.
Just after it fell, my phone rang, so I stopped the saw and talked for a while.
Then I heard something scream and went out in the crown of the tyree to investigate.
I thought maybe I'd knocked a raptor nest down, since it was a real thin cry like a young falcon might make.
turned out it was a fawn, trapped under the tree.
Back end all smashed, so I put it out of it's misery with my wedge hammer.
I've never hit an animal with a tree before. Came close to whacking a hiker once, and hit the nest of a pheasant 20 odd years ago. The amazing thing about that was, the hen stayed on the nest that was right betweem a fork in the tree. She flew off when I was bucking the tree and scared the crap out of me.

But this was a new one, and one I could have done without.

Maybe this old post will help balance things out, Stig.

https://www.masterblasterhome.com/s...-come-back&p=236370&highlight=fawn#post236370

 

[CurSedVoyce]

And you call yourself a lousy hunter. Ha!

 

[squisher]

Well, I'm sorry to hear of the fawn.

I did think of you today and how I swallowed the bait hook line and sinker.

You would make a good hunter.

 

[stig]

I remember that one, Burnham.
Wish I'd been so lucky.

Justin, the pictures show the good stuff. The second growth is so thick that we had to look for openings in order to take pictures.
I hate dragging saw, gas and all through that shit, but cutting it down takes too long.
Same with bucking. One onds up working in a mess of spring poles, covered with leaves, when bucking the top. But clearing the area before the fell takes too much time.
We tried it once, just to see if it was doable.
It was a spring pole like that which smashed my face bout 10 years ago. It was broken off under the log, when I cut a branch and the log rolled, it got released..........Bam!

Right now we are looking at having to fill a few summer orders, probably some 4-500 meters of mature beech and about the same amount in smaller oak , today I just found out that the forest have demanded a higher price for logging in summer, so now my goal is to make some of that trickle down to us.

 

[gf beranek]

In the High Climbers book 'Bestowed Tales' my friend Dave Deconti tells of killing a bear with a tree. What are the odds?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Lordy! I bet the bear was all like "WTF???"

 

[stig]

I remember that story, Jer.
I thought of it in the woods that day in fact.

 

[chris_girard]

In the High Climbers book 'Bestowed Tales' my friend Dave Deconti tells of killing a bear with a tree. What are the odds?

I remember that story too Jer. Dave himself kind of looks like a big Brown Bear too doesn't he?

 

[Jed]

I always think about the story about the guy who dragged his dog out that would bark like mad whenever the tree would finally go....

Then one day when he's just bucking, the dog starts barking like mad out of the blue and he looks up to run out of the way of a crumbling snag in the nick of time. Man, it's got to be awesome even if dangerous for you guys who get to earn your living that way. The stories I have when I get home are all: "Ohhh Honey... this lady was such a bitch to me today"...

 

[Mick!]

Does anyone else start singing "summer logging, happened so fast, summer logging had me a blast, met a boy cute as can be, met a girl........" everytime they see this thread?

 

[Steve Mack]

Until now, no.

Now I'm hopelessly devoted to it. Thanks.