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What I did Next summer.

Started by Sprucegum, December 12, 2011, 09:31:22 PM

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Sprucegum

Now that the dust has settled from all the neat upgrades to the Forum I am starting a thread to document some upgrades to my campsite at the woodlot. Since we bought the place six years ago we have had a summer project to work on; first the clearing itself, then an outhouse, then a group firepit, more trailer parking spots, and finally a small cabin last summer. Next summer we are going to redo the firepit/cook area and have it done in time to spit roast a pig August long weekend! It'll be the next best thing to going to Harrison.
   Our first firepit was a collection of rocks covered by a large teepee type tent.


 


 

The teepee works pretty good; I have the tarps on two poles that can be rolled up easily and quickly unrolled again when a shower hits us. The disadvantage comes from teepees not being designed to stay in one spot year after year. The poles are getting bowed and saggy and can no longer handle a snow load. The cheap tarps I use are only good for two or three seasons at best so its time for a post and beam structure with a tin roof.
   You won't see any plans because I can't draw worth a hoot and my plans always change anyway. The general idea is a central roof 12 feet wide by 26 feet long with an 8 foot wide lean to on each side. I will buy the tin roof and any necessary hardware but all the wood is coming out of my trees. I just have to find which trees it is hiding in.

Magicman

We always need a plan.  I have not completed my Cabin Addition and in my mind, I am already building a bunk log house.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Don_Papenburg

Mind plans are a lot easier to change than the ones on paper.
Frick saw mill  '58   820 John Deere power. Diamond T trucks

Magicman

Change and e x p a n d.   ;D   :D
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

isawlogs

 I do a lot of the same type plans . They are easy to work with  ;D :)

  Keep the pics coming. !!!
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Sprucegum

I have a nice little stand of spruce about 500 yards from the sawmill so I cleared a trail to it and sized them up. The lumber inventory I need consists of six 8x8 x 14, six 6x6 x 12, eight 3x8 x 12, a bunch of 2x6 rafters, and a whole whack of purlins. Some of them are hiding in these trees right here.


 

Well, thats the trail in. Let's see if we can find the trees:


 

This phase of the operation took place in mid-October. The days are getting short but the weather is perfect for playing working outside. The forks on the three point hitch work great for lifting the majority of the log off the ground. The part getting dirt ground into it is probably going to be firewood anyway



 



 

SPIKER

Quote from: Sprucegum




 
Boy that is one smooth AX cut there :D

looks like some great project work going on there...

Mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

Coon

Looks like you got a nice dry skid trail to use.  Looks a whole lot better than mine.   ;)  Mine are now frozen though with a bit of snow. Hopefully enough snow to keep the logs somewhat clean. Starting to get the wood out later this week.  ;D   

That axe sure makes some nice fine chips too...  :D
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

thecfarm

What kind of tractor is that,hp? My woods are wet. My tires are dirty all the time now. Been a kinda wet so called winter. Nothing dries up now,short days and not much warmth form the sun keeps the ground wet and weekly rain does not help either. Looks like your ground is good to work on. Mine is a challenge to do anything on in most places.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Sprucegum

 The tractor is a Mahindra 3525; 35 horsepower two wheel drive, made in India. Its a knock off of the Massey they used to make. A basic little utility tractor with a manual transmission - suits my needs just fine and the dealer threw in an old Ferguson plow. Learning how to use that is a whole other story.

The first job I had in the woods we had to supply our own ax. I bought this one in a Hudson Bay store in Peace River in 1969. I still like it for limbing but I have gotten modernized for felling and use my Husky 359.

I made an executive decision and changed the 8x8 x 14's to 7x7 x 14; easier to fit in the log, and they still look beefy enough to lean on if you can't find a chair.



 



 


Sprucegum

That last picture shows the first dusting of white powder. The county was hauling sand out of the pit my road goes through that weekend and made it slippery. The the good old West wind blew away all the loose stuff so now my road has two strips of glare ice down the center and bare gravel in the shoulders!

The last weekend in October I took a walk in the woods behind the camp and found this blow-down mess.



 



 

The ground is real soft in here; waterlogged sand that is slowly moving, glacier speed, down the bank of the valley. I can probably get within a couple hundred feet with my D4 cat though. I bet y'all know what's going to happen next...

thecfarm

Nice tractor. I keep looking at those tractors. I have 2, but I'm always looking. They look like a beefy tractor. Sand you have,that explains the lack of rocks,the rocks are all ground up.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

isawlogs

 Sand is a comodity I don't have here, I do though have rocks that you could hide a tractor behind  ::)

  Nice set up, I also have looked and keep eyeing those tractors, one will eventualy follow me home, I am really hopping that it will have a front diff on it though  :D
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Coon

Ahh, I see you do have some wetter land.   ;)  You have much the same mess to clean up as I have.  :(  We have over a hundred acres of timber with wood scattered about just the same with most of it being WET.... I guess it's just the nature of the beast.  ::)
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

Sprucegum

Another weekend in the woods. I drive up Friday nights after supper and get there in time for a hot toddy before bed. Up again at the crack of dawn, about 8:00 AM this time of year. Down in this little valley the winter sun doesn't hit me until 9:00 AM but I am up and out way before that. This is the first weekend in November and the ground is still not frozen enough to hold me up. I drove the cat as close as I dared and by the time I said to myself "Far enough" I was already one cat length too far.


 



 

I tried stuffing small trees and branches under the tracks with limited success. One side finally got a grip on some hard ground but the other side wasn't going anywhere so I got out my long chain. A wrap around a good solid tree and hook onto the track; it came out pretty slick then. So I am back on solid ground 20 feet behind where I quit and only half the day gone; I might get something done yet!

I spent some more time limbing and found the resident Ravens secret stash. He must be stealing from the coyotes that have been yipping around here.


 

The first tree that fell broke off the second tree about 16 feet up then wedged the tops in between two others. There is lots of stress in the trunk and will be an interesting bit of work with the saw. It jumped sideways about 5 feet when it cut loose, that's a lot of weight flying around. I bucked it into 2 fourteen footers and a twelve.


 

I will show the skidding pictures in the next post. The speed I type I may never catch up to present day  :)


thecfarm

You have the rest of your life.  ;D How are you getting the logs out? Hooking them onto the blade?
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Norm

Great project, thanks for taking us along.

isawlogs

 Theres a hitch on the back side of the dozer for a pin, he must be hooking the chain to it.

  I have hooked a small round in front of the tracks with chain and drove it under to get out of holes like that too. I remember the first time I had to do that with a wheeled tractor, I never thought it would take me out .  :) :)
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Sprucegum

We got a little skiff of snow since I was here last. It will help keep the logs clean as I skid them and its not deep enough to keep the ground from freezing. Still not frozen enough to gamble again so I will drag out the cables. I have 3 fifty foot cables from work; the customer decided he wanted sixty footers after these were built so they would have landed in the dumpster. A lot of these young fellas with their nice cars don't like to park beside the dumpster  ;) but I don't mind. The cat is sitting on the smart side of the divide between hard and soft ground.



 

I had to change direction a bit a the start of each pull and since I am using three separate pieces of cable rather than one long winch I had to pull 50 feet, back up re-hook, pull another 50 feet, etc, etc. By the time I got four logs out I had pretty well used up my allotment of footprints for the day.



 

Those four logs were just the right size for this trip; any more and I would not have made it up the hill. That white strip in the woods is the lower road and in the upper left-hand corner is the hairpin curve that is immediately followed by a very steep stretch of road. The chain has to be set the right length so the logs will come around the curve without dropping off the road but they must be far enough back so the cat can straighten out and pull with both tracks before the full weight of the logs hits the steep part. Working 3 levers and 2 pedals and watching the bank leaves no time for action photography. Made it to the mill.



 

Next weekend I will clean up the logged area and drag out a bit of firewood

thecfarm

I know what you mean about the walking part. I'm cutting a bog off that never freezes,I only have a tractor,no way for me to get onto it with,I would sink. It's just about all junk,half rotted wood just for the OWB. I have a couple 50-60 foot of cable too. That gets real old,real quick. Sometimes I am walking through a couple feet of snow. After a few times the wood leaves a nice path,but than it's time to move over a few feet for the next bunch of trees.Woods maybe froze up here now. But after making 2-3 trips the roads may start to break down too. Was down in the single digits a for 2 nights,but today suppose to be in the 40's.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

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  8) 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.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

Mooseherder

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

bandmiller2

Bison hide heap good for tee pee. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

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.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

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  8)

Magicman

It's good to see you still making good progress.  smiley_thumbsup
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Misfit

A very enjoyable write-up. Please keep the updates coming.
I am neither a Philopolemic Blatherskite nor a Bloviating, Sialoquent Blatteroon.

"Say nuthin and saw wood."

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.
The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

54Dutchman

Very good thread  8) keep it coming!!

clww

Quote from: 54Dutchman on May 15, 2012, 09:33:49 AM
Very good thread  8) keep it coming!!
+1
Keep posting updates for us. :)
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

Sprucegum

My Son made a video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l88iEtVR9xs&feature=plcp

And believe he has finally trained me how to copy and paste!  8)  ::) 

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 !!  :D

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!  8)



 

Norm


Sprucegum

Loretta and I took Friday off and raced to the site with our load of tin. It was an all-day job for the two of us; she was the ground crew and I was the squirrel.


 

Saturday morning we put the firepit in place and did a test burn.



 

The smoke behaved in a most pleasing manner  8) We also had a light shower in the afternoon and stayed perfectly dry  8)  I still have to put a few boards around the walls above head height to keep out the rains that come in at a slant. And there is still the firepit grill to work on.....

Sprucegum

ITS DONE!

Of course it's never really done, there are always little finishing touches to add, but its done to the point where we use it for our party even if nothing else gets done.


 

Here is a better picture of our sign. We call our woodlot the "Patch" because it has blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, saskatoons, and a few berries growing in little patches.


 

Finally we are starting to get around to food  ;) I have the firepit  centered and leveled and hung a new (huge) cooking grate over it. The grate is raised or lowered by a boat winch on a post with a series of pulleys and cables. It took a lot of fiddling with the cables to get the grate to stay level as it rises. There is some higher mathematics going on up there as the cables act as changing hypotenuses / hypoteni / hypotenotipusy  of some imaginary triangles that are not constant. And that's the truth as I see it  ::)  :P


 



 

When the grate is lifted up out of the way I have steel posts that fit in each end of the fire pit to support a spit for roasting. The pig has already been ordered for August Long Weekend; about a 40-pounder, to feed 30 or 40 people. What's the occasion? It's our 40th anniversary so we are gathering all the clansmen and their fair ladies to do homage to the pig  8)  I may move over to the food board to get some opinions on pig....

POSTON WIDEHEAD

Now I gotta say......Your shed is slicker that sap on a door knob!

Very NICE Sprucegum!  smiley_thumbsup
The older I get I wish my body could Re-Gen.

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