What I did Next summer.

[Sprucegum]

This trip I cleaned up the rest of the collateral damage from the blow-down. It’s like playing pick-up-sticks with real big sticks. They are three to six inch DBH (diameter breast height) twenty to thirty feet long. The ground is finally frozen enough to hold the cat so one hitch does the trick to the road. I used my old home made sled for some of the shorter pieces. On the road I have my Suzuki Samurai, nicknamed “Sami”, and the log trailer to take the sticks to the mill yard where I cut and split them into firewood. I waited for snow on the road to skid the big logs and now I wish there was no snow so Sami could pull a bigger load up that hairpin curve. Another inch of snow and the trailer will be parked for the rest of the winter.

 

 

 

 

 

Things were going too smooth, I was getting too much done I guess; so this had to happen

 

 
Usually this sort of thing happens when you are stuck in the mud or on a steep sidehill or up against a big tree. I was in the middle of the road, in two inches of snow, not a problem in sight, made a jerky turn to the left – pop! I keep a fair bit of slack in the tracks during snow plowing season because the snow packs in around the idlers and can put a lot of stress on them. That’s more slack than I needed today. I have read stories about cat skinners who can put the track back on just by backing in to it so I always waste at least half an hour trying to do it before I go get the special wrench. The first time I popped a track I had to figure out what kind of special wrench was needed and go build it. You see, the big nut that loosens the big idler wheel is right behind the support for the hydraulic ram that lifts the dozer blade. Strange; I don’t have a picture of the wrench, the foot is cut out of ¾” plate steel to fit a 2 5/16 nut, next there is a 5” offset and a 3 foot pipe for a handle. Another three or six feet of steel bar can be stuck in the end of the pipe for more leverage when needed.
It only takes half an hour to loosen the big idler as far as it will go but then I waste another half an hour trying to back into the track again before I go get the rest of the tools I need; a bottle jack, a come along, and more chain. Its time to get this job done, the sun is looking pretty low already. The bottle jack lifts the back end of the cat and the down press of the dozer lifts the front end so the entire track is off the ground. The come-along, the chains, and a six for bar position the track over the idlers. The special wrench tightens it all up and we are back on the road, now where did the day go? Oh well, like they say, “A bad day in the woods is still better than a good day in the office.”

[Sprucegum]

Wow, its been over a month since I updated this thread even though I have been up to the woodlot almost every weekend. And what have I got to show for it? More pictures of trees and more pictures of logs    and more tinkering    First of course is the tree; I found this one right across the road from the mill. When I dropped it the top was less than 50 feet from the road. It had to come down because the trunk was split right through for six feet up and there was dry rot in the center. Those rotten centers sure make me nervous but I love it when they fall right.
 

 

 

 

After I got the spruce drug to the mill I went up to my North boundary line and brought back a whack of poplar to use for rafters and purlins.

 

 

I took a break from logging and made a high tech modification to the mill - I put an hydraulic drive on the carriage  The location of the control lever puts me right in line with all the high speed sappy sawdust and bark bullets so there will be no more sawing until I get a guard built. I would hate to ruin my good looks this late in the game.
 

 

We don't have any snow to speak of but I still don't care for mixing it with sawdust so I doubt I will do any sawing before spring. The Groundhog said we will have only 6 or 8 weeks more winter anyway. I have a log here that's a bit big for the mill so I will split it with the chainsaw - spend 4 hours now to saw 2 hours in the spring.

[customsawyer]

I have enjoyed the story. How long is the log that you have to rip in half? If it is less than 16' I wouldn't think it would take very long to cut it in half.

[Mooseherder]

The title of this thread makes me smile every time it comes up.

[bandmiller2]

Bison hide heap good for tee pee. Frank C.

[bandmiller2]

Sprucegum,thanks for the documentry,sometimes when I mill around snowstorms I discover it the next summer moving sawdust.A fireplace screen is a good guard for saw flack.Any plexi type material soon gets scratched and covered with pitch and dust. Frank C.

[Sprucegum]

Suddenly another couple months have slipped by! I have got to catch up before I forget what I have done; good thing I took a few pictures along the way 

I put up a screen, plexiglass because it was free, and started sawing as soon as the snow melted. What a gong show! The saw was diving into the log or out of the log on every pass. I never knew what was going to happen next. Run through the simple fixes first; sharpen the saw, reset the lead, straighten the track, and still a 6x6 was coming out 5x7 at the other end (well almost that bad).

 

 

 

 

I finally figured out I had two problems.
One - the hydraulic drive was bogging down the tractor motor and causing the saw to loose RPM's so I pushed the throttle wide open to get the revs back up. The when the oil warmed up, which took an hour on those cool mornings, I was revving too fast.
Two- those @#%$%&^$ Dang spruce I drug out of that blow-down were full of stress and twisted and turned every which way as soon as I cut into them.

But I got'er done. I have all the posts and beams and planks I need to get started. I even have half of the rafter material cut. I put this skid together to bring them all down to the camp at once.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Next weekend the "young and strong" will be coming out to help set the posts and raise the beams. I hope my new post hole auger works 

[Magicman]

It's good to see you still making good progress. 

[The Canuck]

A very enjoyable write-up. Please keep the updates coming.

[Sprucegum]

Five keen young men and their families came to play, its only work if you get paid to do it, and we got right to it. The old teepee and cooking tripod were removed so we could plot the post locations. We eventually had to move the fire pit out of the way as well.

 

 

Each post was notched for the inner and outer beam before it was raised. We used a water tube level to adjust the height of each post; adding or removing gravel from the hole as required. The water tube was a trick I had read about but never tried before. It was an interesting education for all of us and worked very well. Just don't step on the hose or the level bobs up and down for a minute or more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that it was aerial work lag bolting the beams to the posts.

 

 

I am short one 3 x 8 beam, a week after sawing it is warped so bad its unusable. Next weekend I will find a nice straight tree and cut out another beam along with some rafters.

[Raider Bill]

Not sure how I missed this Great read!
I'm jealous, sure do wish I was playing in my woods.

[54Dutchman]

Very good thread  keep it coming!!

[clww]

Very good thread  keep it coming!!

+1
Keep posting updates for us.

[Sprucegum]

My Son made a video;


And believe he has finally trained me how to copy and paste!     

This weekend there were a couple new faces to replace a couple that were missing so we still had a full enthusiastic crew. The wife and I went up Thursday night so we could get an early start. At the crack of dawn I headed out to fall a tree for that last 3x8 beam we need while she organized the displaced firepit/cooking facilities. When I returned with the beam she mentioned she had been yawning a lot and felt like taking a nap before lunch. Then we checked our clock and found it was still only 8:00 AM !! 

Most of the guys didn't get here until late Friday so I didn't start the chainsaw (my favorite wake-up call) until 6:00 AM. We made the center trusses first, and stacked them out of the way, then cut and placed the lean to rafters.
 

 

 

 

I scarfed a whack of 3x3 salvaged dunnage for the purlins. Having the purlins in a straight line will make it a lot easier to predrill the tin before raising it.

 

 

 

 

By Sunday evening I was amazed and delighted by the amount we had accomplished. When I plan a project of any size I go on the assumption I will be doing it all myself because I usually work alone and am not in the habit of asking for help. Then when half a dozen guys show up and get a month's work done in a day it just blows my mind! 

 

 

[Norm]

Looks awesome!