This weekend's pile

jwilly3879 · February 10, 2014, 07:26:32 AM

Here's a couple of pictures from this weekend. 5 hours Saturday and 5 hours Sunday. Plowed the woods road and landing for 3 hours Thursday, a lot of banging the plow off the small rocks in the road.

A mixed bag, pine logs and pulp, some firewood and a couple of aspen. About 9000bf pine and 8 cords of pulp. There is much less red rot in this section and the forester came and marked more wood before he heads to Florida for a month.

Waiting for the trucker to call.

SquareG · February 10, 2014, 07:31:47 AM

that doesnt look like 9000 ft + 8 cord. More like 3000 ft. Either way, you get more done per hour than I do.

jwilly3879 · February 10, 2014, 07:42:32 AM

There's 2+ loads of logs, mostly 16's and 12's, last load to the mill was 3960. Yesterday they brought out 4 trees that scaled over 1000bf each.

SquareG · February 10, 2014, 07:58:05 AM

sorry, they're bigger than the photos give them credit for. Sounds like a good place to work. I need to find better timber.

jwilly3879 · February 10, 2014, 09:08:07 AM

Well the trucker just called. He wrecked his sled yesterday and went to the hospital to get checked out. Bruised ribs and kidneys and sore all over. He is my age and I find it takes longer to bounce back from this kind of stuff than it did 20 years ago. After a few days rest he will see if he can get in and out of the truck, if he can drive I'll put the chains on and off and load and unload at the mill.

SquareG · February 10, 2014, 10:20:28 AM

sled?

Dave Shepard · February 10, 2014, 10:24:54 AM

Snowmobile. Expensive toy that turns to fiberglass and aluminum vapor when you hit a tree. :D

SquareG · February 10, 2014, 10:35:51 AM

I see. I wouldn't have known. Not as much snow here typically. I was thinking lay on your belly, go downhill. :D

thecfarm · February 10, 2014, 11:07:42 AM

I have no idea about the trials,snowmoible trails in NY,but in Maine a few weeks back had a lot of ice on the. Some guy in Mexico,ME wrecked his sled due to ice,broke his leg,than crawled 3 miles to a friends house.

lumberjack48 · February 10, 2014, 11:55:14 AM

Thats right on the money, 3 turns an-hour, 30 to 35 cds, most guys can't pull that in a week. It makes all the difference in the world when yo don't have to sort it. In that kind of timber i could pull 100 plus cds a week working alone. I liked it -10 to -20, no limbing, nice pole skidding temp.

I owned many selds, i liked to run a 100 mph. I recked a few, their fun to ride but can be very dangerous, somebody killed just a bout every weekend up in the tri-state area.

Offthebeatenpath · February 10, 2014, 12:53:10 PM

Well, I'm certainly not putting up those kinds of numbers, but I'm also working on family land where we are cutting selectively and spending a bit of time thinning beech saplings and limbing some trees aren't being cut. Here's a picture from this morning. Just about two loads of sawlogs and well over a load of pulp. The hardwood I twitched out for firewood isn't shown. A little under two days of work. I know I won't set the world on fire with that kind of productivity, but production isn't the only goal...

jwilly3879 · February 10, 2014, 07:50:44 PM

Pine adds up pretty quick, especially when they are nice size and the skid is downhill.

Saturday my son was cutting and skidding and on Sunday my grandson did the cutting and his dad was skidding. I could just about get them cut up and stacked when the next hitch came in.

The grandson is getting better ever weekend. He has a good teacher in his father, he has been doing it for 20 years. The boy gets a little frustrated when things don't go as planned but his dad shows him where he went wrong or tells him that sometimes it just doesn't go the way you want. If in doubt come back to the tree later and look at it again, maybe we will just have to take it by the top or cut it in half and take it from the middle to not mark up the leave trees. It's not a big deal.

Corley5 · February 11, 2014, 04:45:43 PM

Nice pile of wood for a weekend's work 8) 8) 8)

100 cords a week working alone? with a chainsaw and cable machine?

SwampDonkey · February 11, 2014, 05:30:24 PM

Nice little harvest. ;D

Dad and a guy would cut 10 cord of large mature aspen and load it onto the straight truck with a tractor and peavey, every day in Jan-February '84. And then hull the load that night to Houltan, Maine. Dad did all the hand felling and limbing. It was 100" bolts the skidder guy cut on the yard. They cut 300 cord from that area. But dad cut a lot of big hardwood too in different years for something other than pulp wood. This was ash and at times hard maple. They were big trees, as most hardwoods left around here is rarely bigger than 10" after most people have clearcut when they cut. Dad never clear cut and he never left the junk, the junk in the hardwood was for firewood. If there was junk aspen, it fell down for the worms to eat anyway. A scraggly old aspen don't last long and a rotten fir will snap off in the next wind. The worms have to eat and the salamanders need deadfalls to live in. We had to have a mountain of firewood for two houses and potato sheds. The sheds just needed heat mostly around the doors. Spuds make their own heat. Anyway, a long time to get 10" again in hard maple up in the north, darn long time. That aspen area is now just getting to reach 10" after 30 years. There's still old aspen stumps there because many were well over 25 inches, pretty mushy though. I won't be touching it until it's at east 20", and I may decide not to cut a stick due to the way prices are. Not worth the effort so some union dude keeps his job and I starve. There is better money elsewhere if your going to work. ;D We cut wood all the time, only the most memorable moments stick in your mind. In 1984 we did a lot of things with that wood money, that's why I say in 2014 terms cutting that same amount of wood don't get you much.

:-\

I'm waiting to hear about the new forestry plan for NB. Not expecting it to benefit many of us.

lumberjack48 · February 12, 2014, 03:38:24 PM

Quote from: Corley5 on February 11, 2014, 04:45:43 PM
Nice pile of wood for a weekend's work 8) 8) 8)

100 cords a week working alone? with a chainsaw and cable machine?

Corey5, its no big feat for one man to cut and skid a 100 cds a week. Thats a little over 16 cds a day, i've cut Aspen where i pulled 20 plus cords a day, day after day, week after week, its all in method. You have to have good timber, good ground and a sharp saw and be able to keep it sharp very turn. My goal was 20 turns a day, 5 turns and take a break, 4 times a day. If i hadn't pulled a 100 cds a week i sure wouldn't say i did. My father told me you aren't bragging if you can back it up, if you want ph numbers pm me.

Corley5 · February 12, 2014, 03:44:53 PM

Working alone with a chainsaw and a cable skidder cutting 100 cords a week is, well lets say I dispute your claim.

coxy · February 12, 2014, 04:07:47 PM

Quote from: lumberjack48 on February 12, 2014, 03:38:24 PM
Quote from: Corley5 on February 11, 2014, 04:45:43 PM
Nice pile of wood for a weekend's work 8) 8) 8)

100 cords a week working alone? with a chainsaw and cable machine?
Corey5, its no big feat for one man to cut and skid a 100 cds a week. Thats a little over 16 cds a day, i've cut Aspen where i pulled 20 plus cords a day, day after day, week after week, its all in method. You have to have good timber, good ground and a sharp saw and be able to keep it sharp very turn. My goal was 20 turns a day, 5 turns and take a break, 4 times a day. If i hadn't pulled a 100 cds a week i sure wouldn't say i did. My father told me you aren't bragging if you can back it up, if you want ph numbers pm me.

LJ what is ph numbers ;D never heard that term before

jwilly3879 · February 12, 2014, 04:38:50 PM

There's a local logger who is an absolute machine, he cuts and skids and bucks 3 trailer loads of 8' pulp every other day which is real close to LJ48's numbers. The outfit my son works with had a feller buncher, limbing by hand, grapple skidder and couldn't keep up with him. But like I said he is an animal, full speed all the time.

isawlogs · February 12, 2014, 05:00:22 PM

LJ, what did you have for à skidder, how many chockers did run with ??? How long of a skid, that is a lot of wood in a day, let alone a week!
I'll throw some numbers out for you to contemplate..... 20 turn a day at half hour each, makes for a ten hour day, y'a haven't dropped a tree yet. One needs to take some Time out to eat and drop trees.
Just saying, I want to understand what you did and how, many have missed something or may have been lost in translation. :Dj

mad murdock · February 12, 2014, 05:26:46 PM

In good wood in the great lakes region, I can see putting up good numbers like LJ48 is saying. I could do 30 cds aday in aspen, limbing and pulling my own chokers, picking up behind a JD450C with a Morbark shear on it. It wasnt a balls out pace, just a good steady working pace. I would pile up 4-6 cds tree lenght on the landing, then buck the pile, my brother would sort with the forwarder. Not quite the same as LJ48', but even with just a cable machine in good wood, and good ground, I can believe it.

lumberjack48 · February 12, 2014, 06:06:22 PM

Quote from: Corley5 on February 12, 2014, 03:44:53 PM
Working alone with a chainsaw and a cable skidder cutting 100 cords a week is, well lets say I dispute your claim.
[/quote

Corley5 i feel really sorry for you, that you have no more respect and have issues with me, sad day for us loggers.
Here i go again, in good timber i could fell a 80 to a 100 trees an-hour

A C4, C5-D, S8 IH, I could do the same with any one of them, never over 1/2 forty, 100 yds most of the time, i made rode as i logged it. I ran 6 chokers, anymore i found myself spending to much time untangling them and to much time unhooking. I timed myself all the time, every turn i made i checked how long, i wanted 3 turns an-hour. And if i'd fell ahead i'd make 4. This is backing up to limb and running over the pile most of the time, no decking, everything was done running, it was the way i worked. Lunch break was filing and gassing up.

I put up swamp spruce with two skidders, one landing man, one feller, we made 60 to 80 turns a day, depended on the skid, we limbed each others drag. The wife ran the S8, i ran the C5, now this is what i called hook-en an book-en.

Corley5 · February 12, 2014, 06:31:00 PM

You feel sorry for me? A phone call to listen to someone I don't know won't make any difference in my opinion. I've been in the forest products industry on and off for almost thirty years both full and part time for my self and working for others. My family has logged in N. Michigan since 1883 when they homesteaded here. I know something about logging too. One hundred cords a week working alone isn't sustainable. Eighty to 100 trees an hour? Do the math on that.

Maine logger88 · February 12, 2014, 06:40:19 PM

That's some good numbers LJ48! I see no reason why that couldn't be done especially in aspen ,with me running skidder and bucking up in the yard and the guy who works for me felling and limbing we have been averaging about 15 to 18 cord a day in hemlock and aspen with our best week being 95 cord for a 6 day week! I have never before this past month had these kinds of numbers before and I certainly don't expect to get them year round but it is definitely possible

Corley5 · February 12, 2014, 06:48:22 PM

That's with two guys Maine Logger. Not a one man show. Twenty cord days with two guys. Not a problem in good timber, terrain and weather.

duckslayingpro · February 12, 2014, 06:48:45 PM

It is very possible to cut 100 cords in a weeks time. Im sorry that you may not be able to do it. But i know many loggers that can and do every week and that is working a 5 day week. LJ48 your numbers are very accurate some guys just cant do it i guess.