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winter is starting to get the best of me

Started by Woodboogah, February 26, 2014, 01:56:44 PM

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240b

glad to know I not alone in my misery...   guess Ill head out and see what I can break today..

Autocar

I whipped out about the middle of January,  Ive waded the snow a number of times trying to buy more timber only to have the landowners tell me I was the only bid they received and was going to rebid it after the snows gone, it got me upset a little but there the owners  :-\. Talking to log buyers production is way down this winter and spring there log yards won't be full for the up coming summer. Seems like getting firewood in every day keeps me busy the wind blows and sucks the wood right up the smoke stack  ::).
Bill

Woodboogah

Production for me is really slow. Today cutting24" dbh pine and can only skid one at a time better then getting nothing out though.  Real waste of fuel it seems.  Better then breaking something trying to get to much uphill. More snow at the beginning of the week it looks like. I did see a small bear track today which seems early
Keenan Logging & Tree Care, LLC

Dave Shepard

I have to make two trips for each tree. One for the butt, which is either 30' or 33', depending on what I'm making out of it, and then I go back for the top, usually another 40' or so. Tried to take one tree in two pieces yesterday, but it was just too much.

A smaller butt log:

Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

stoneeaglefarm

snow is like 3 feet of sand, Skidder having a tough time, and its cold, But, We still go out and get our wood, This kind of winter lets ya know how insane you are to keep going, Kinda makes ya realize how much you are different than the 9-5 worker, Load light and pack them trials when we lose some snow with some warm weather we will be skidding like we are bob sledding. Stay safe out there if your hand chopping, Not much room to run.

lumberjack48

Up here in the land of 10,000 swamps this is the kind of winter every logger prays for. In this kind of weather we were on the job and hour or two before day light getting the equipment running. I've seen it drop ten degree's when the sun started to peek over the trees. My S8 IH had a propane tank heater,it started with the push of the starter button. The C5-D TF had spit swappers, i usually didn't use then. I'd give the TF'er a pull with the S8, the main thing when pulling is the batteries have to have power. Third gear, low range, getter rolling, the same time you start to let the clutch out you have to push the starter button. Once it started turning over i'd give it a shot of starting fluid, sh'd pop right off. The 450 JD feller buncher started with a shot of starting fluid. We always tried to have a warming shack, to coffee up in and plan the days battle strategy.We were full time loggers, meaning this is our only income. So the longer it stayed cold, meant the longer we stayed in the swamp. We stayed until we stated falling though, push it right to the max. The main rode stays froze a long time, i remember yarding out with the Mack, it looked like  a lake, a wave in front of the truck. Where we came off the swamp on to high ground is where it got muddy. We hauled a load of sawdust everyday with the gravel truck and dumped it on this spot. When we got done here, we tried to have a block of selective cut pine to move in to. This was all planed 6 months to a year head of time so we wouldn't have any down time. Back in the 70's when the weather chased us out of the swamp it was time to start peeling pulp. I could make money peeling, but like anything there are tricks to get volume. The wife and me could peel 20 cds a day. With a saw and peeling iron and lots of sandwich's a guy could make real good money.peeling Aspen. I've peeled Jackpine, Birch, Balsam, Spruce and of coarse Aspen, Poplar, they also bought peeled Tamarack. All four of my children peeled pulp. The way it started out i fell the trees in the woods for them to peel. I seen right away how dangerous this was, try to keep track of five people, in imposable. So i got the skidder, i laid our four stringers about 15 feet apart.I fell and skidded the trees out to where i laid the stringers. This got the kids and trees out of the woods. And also got the trees off the ground making it a lot easier peeling. I paid them 40 cents a tree. I had to watch the one boy, he counted the tree when he started peeling it, then when he got done peeling it he counted it again. :D Peeling usually started about April, 20 and lasted to July,1, we peeled about 1200 cds.

I'd better stop, I'm not on the main topic anymore
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

Autocar

Dave thats some fine looking logs your pulling, you never get tired of cutting timber like that.
Bill

240b

I picked up a bag of rock salt of the way to work this am.  spread it in the wheel tracks on the hill were I could bearly scratch my way up yesterday by lunch time I was able to drive half way up with out droping the hitch. still had to winch up the rest uf the way but its better than it was.  50lbs did about 150' of trail. 

jwilly3879

Trucker came today for a load of pine. We put two set of chains on his truck and he went right up the hill. It took me three tries with the T100 in 4wd, sliding back down the hill was no fun, I finally got over into some snow and made it up. While he loaded I ran the skidder down the hill and widened the road a little so we could get off to the side. I barely made it back up with the machine, it was cold enough that the no-spin wouldn't lock up on the rear axle and the ice is so hard the rings on the front wouldn't dig in at all. Time for some new ice chains for the back.

Peter Drouin

A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

Maine logger88

Yeh I'm getting tired mentality and physically but its still good going other than the fore mentioned mealy snow so I'm hoping to push hard the next couple weeks and take a little breather then off too my mud season lot
79 TJ 225 81 JD 540B Husky and Jonsered saws

Peter Drouin

But I did get a load in to day hope to get more before the melt.


  

  

  

 
All 16' hemlock  8) 8) ;D and two 12s
And the time will come to send these, to boil maple syrup. ;D ;D


 
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

David-L

Trucker came for two loads today and two more tomorrow. That made my frozen bones warm up abit. cold and windy here and will be minus #'s tonight. woods work is done for this week, people calling for hay and thats cash on the barrel . stay warm all. Dave Shepard, nice looking timba!!!. Loving the new axe, i'll find old Betsy this spring, she's resting under the snow.

                                      David l



 



 



 



 
In two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday.

BargeMonkey

 We have been thru more "911" fuel conditioner and kerosene than I care to think about. Its to the point im either getting one of those machine pre-heaters or just saying the hell with it. We own a large gravel pit and for some reason every municipality cant figure out how to buy enough ahead, keeping the loaders and screeners going is a full time job. I dont think batteries are made as well anymore, or its just to cold, even my detroit powered forwarder doesnt like it and she loves the cold. A 276-T deere engine is about the best in the cold ive found, my 440D and landing loader will start easily to about -5.

Firewoodjoe

Took a extra two hours but we're slashin wood at -24F nice hey!

Woodboogah

Took the day today to fix my plow.  I hate having any equipment sitting not working properly.  Pet peeve  I guess.  Will use tomorrow and Sunday to pack in some skid roads with the temp being at 30 should be working in my t-shirt! Stay safe!
Keenan Logging & Tree Care, LLC

thecfarm

BargeMonkey,so many towns have down sized what they buy because of the last winters. Be it salt or sand. Than a winter like this comes along and they are buying.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

BargeMonkey

 We dont mind trying to screen to about 20 degrees, after that your just burning fuel and abusing a very expensive new track screener. They start panicking when we go.. nope.. sorry. Same thing with some of my firewood customers, they wait till they have a few days left and then call. One woman called, and we said we where running low on "super dry wood" meaning  over 1 year in the pile, she asked "when we would be getting a delivery of more". You cant make this stuff up... lol

Corley5

I too have issues with firewood customers calling when they're down to their last six pieces of wood and expecting a delivery immediately.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Woodboogah

That's funny.  People who don't  do it don't have a clue.  What we think should be common sense is far from it it appears sometimes
Keenan Logging & Tree Care, LLC

Autocar

 :D :D :D I personally don't sell firewood but the loggers that do sound just like you guys [ six peaces of wood left then they call ]
Bill

lumberjack48

I've been down to my six last pieces :o  Time to make a firewood run 8)
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

sawguy21

I doubt if our interior loggers are doing much either. Cold enough to keep the roads open but too much snow in the woods. Temperatures are supposed to return to close to normal by the end of the week so road bans are not far off.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

BargeMonkey

 When they call, unless they are a good customer, elderly or have children,  we either raise the price up, or tell them to start burning furniture. Poor planning on your part doesnt constitute an emergency on mine. :D

SwampDonkey

I had a crew on one job in 2000 where we were thinning small hardwood. It was around 6-8" wood being thinned out. Did I say thick? This was an 85 acre lot. We cut a lot of sticks from there. The snow was about 3 feet in the hardwoods and didn't seem too bad. There was a little patch of softwood on a gradual slope. That place had snow 6 feet deep down there. I stayed out of it for the most part because the ground wasn't froze at all and I had remembered the ground being soft when I had cruised it. We pulled a couple bunches of aspen from the edge of there, but it was a real chore. I think the crew had enough just pulling them two twitches. This was a winter only lot because the owner didn't want permanent roads. We used an old existing road and  dozed out the brush. We had some deer coming into the maple tops, but then one morning we found that the yotes took one, one night. I have follow up photos on here and it doesn't even look like we were in there. If I recall we cut 1200 cords including trail and yard wood. If I owned it, I'd thin it again in 15 years. It's owned by an absantee land owner.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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