Tree Felling

[Arthur]

Where we live is just a pinhole on the maps but has the oldest history in northeast NSW for the Cedar getters.

I have been talking with some of the old loggers that are still around and looking at old pic and history articls and it appears that the choice was to fell the trees close to the new moon.  It would then take them the next 2 to 3 weeks to pull the logs out with ox teams before they did the next felling. 

The old blokes say that the trees weight less, tend to not split or crack when hitting the ground, etc,etc.  Im still getting the information together.  As they didnt have harvesting machines 180 years ago and there was no road, etc,etc it makes sense to log the best you can.

A lot of old time knowledge has been lost in the last 50 year which might be usefull for those who do their own logging and milling.  You cant log and mill at the same time if your a one man operation!!!

[aom]

Arthur,
I realize that many will propose you need medical help if you mention felling with the moon. I even asked a college lecturer this, needless to say he just smiled. But here in the UK, the season for felling quality sycamore[similar to US maple] runs once the leavesturn brown and start to fall, until just before sap rising in spring, unfortunately with milder winters the sap can start to run a bit early, which is difficult especially if you have a very valuable large diameter veneer quality ripple sycamore which you need to fell but the sap is starting to rise, hence you fell when you know when the sap will be at its least even though the sap is rising. If you fell when in full sap, sycamore will not remain white after milling rather it will turn a light brown colour, hence the importance of felling when the sap is down. So comming back to the moon phases, if it is just another old tale, why is it that the few companies that specialise in very high value sycamore in the UK, follow the principle of moon phases especially at certain times of the year. So in reality why would I want to believe some college proffessor that has never cut very high value hardwoods when compared to companies which export considerable volums of quality logs. Old motto dont laugh at anything you dont understand   AOM