Developing a new sawmill site

[backwoods sawyer]

Been clearing some of this coastal mountain brush and punching a road into the old place. Last fall I took the old Oliver crawler past the point of no return when I stood it on its nose and dropped into the old place. Found a spring the hard way when the Oliver sunk over the track and hung up on a stump, that took three days to get back on the trail. The road winds down a ridge, cross a creek, then winds up a hill with a straight thru the field, and today I made it back to the far corner of the place. The ground was good and soft so pushing about 20 old stumps went real good today. All though you do have to watch running the same track to many times because the ground is good and soft. This six legged pack goat gets a lot a trail time as well.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

[backwoods sawyer]

Have had a track jump off several times along the way as well :


 

[mad murdock]

That is a nice looking crawler. Nice pics backwoods. Maybe it will start to dry up next week, supposed to warm up mon and tues before some more oregon sunshine starts up again

[redbeard]

Looking good. Good time of year to make more real estate.

[m wood]

nice looking country backwoods.  So thats what a six legged goat looks like? :D.  Aint it fun putting those tracks back on out in the wild

 
had to buy a 50ton jack for this fiasco

3 days digging for this one

 
almost made it thru

[bandmiller2]

Sandbox for big boys. I had an OC-6 for many years the narrow sidewalk model. Could go anywhere in the woods but tippy. Made a skidder on the back, and would wait for snow to keep the logs clean. Your wise mate to have the ROPS protection. Frank C.

[Magicman]

Gotta hand it to your BW,  you do not mind getting yourself into a mess, but like a cat, you land on your feet.   8)

[drobertson]

Looks great!  I can smell the fresh dirt from here,

[thecfarm]

Yes,it does look good. If I did that on my land,all you would see is rocks in all shapes and sizes.

[Red Good]

Good pics , here the rocks are the carpet you don't need to dig for them . What causes the tracks to come off so often ? Nice looking land you have there . Red

[backwoods sawyer]

The reason the tracks jump off is the track adjusters are maxed out and I need to shorten the tracks, I have gotten better about stopping before the track comes all the way off, and getting it to walk back on.

Getting to the back corner ment crossing another spring so laid a 20' 3" pipe down and firewood for the tracks to run on, then back filled once across.

The ground is good for working now so will work on more clean up and road lay out today, just have to avoid the three day springs


   

[Brucer]

Dropped a track on my old D7, once  :(. After I got it back on, I replaced the broken adjuster (which I should have done in the first place).

[Piston]

Nice Pics!  Looks like your having some fun out in the woods  ;D  I just love the smell of fresh dirt, I remember as a kid when my dad would take me to new construction sites, and seeing the fresh dirt "pads" in the dirt from the dozer, just picking up a big chunk of formed dirt and sniffing it  :D

Must be handy to have a dozer around, I've never driven one. 

[backwoods sawyer]

The coastal drizzle settled in yesterday and by this morning the ground was saturated again so I decided to play with Oliver another day.

While I was greasing the rollers, the phone rang. The guy I had got Oliver from had found the parts manual. He sold Oliver for scrap price and I fired it up and put it to work 8) he also found the Walnut slabs I had left for him ;)

This old fire killed Doug fir was too far gone for milling so I roughed out a couple bases for a bench. I have a few 2" cedar slabs that need a home I can use a few benches.
Note the two non log-rite lot turners  ;D


 


 
This was the morning line up for the first trip in to feed. I have been drawing Sunday feedings and now it is time to move them to another pasture 30 miles away, will start sorting pairs in the morning, 60 pair one place and 20 pair + the heifers to another pasture, and still have a couple to band.  Gona miss these Sunday morning feedings.


 


 

[Peter Drouin]

Nice bales of hay, That must be some baler.

[thecfarm]

I saw a big baler when I was in PA. But seem those bales was just about square. Yours look more rectangle.
Drawing Sunday feedings??

[backwoods sawyer]

I saw a big baler when I was in PA. But seem those bales was just about square. Yours look more rectangle.
Drawing Sunday feedings??

Family operation, no one wants Sunday so I draw short straw so to speak ;)
Bales are about half ton each, 3x4x8, feeding 2 grass and 2 alfalafa. He still puts up a barn full of small bales but the rest is all put into the big bales. Takes less time loading the truck every morning ;D 

[backwoods sawyer]

Our first 80* day of the year was a good day for a pair of old couples to spend dancing with the cows 8) 8) ;D

Brought them all in from the back pasture and ran them thru the sort pens. A good number of the calves have not yet received tags, so matching pairs was a challenge. Will band and tag in the morning and swap any miss matched pairs before we start hauling.
There were a couple cows that were quick to kick, and they went in the pen going to the sale, but over all they were well behaved. Hope all this spring activity whittles away at all the winter inactivity  :

[backwoods sawyer]

Today was more sorting of cows and calves.
The mud got one of the four wheelers.


 
One of the bulls decided to take a walk down the county road. He had it in his mind he was headed east towards the cows, even tried the left right snorting dance with me 
One cow let loose with a stream of green grass squirt, the gal behind her stepped back but when that big air bubble let loose it made for full facial contact smiley_daisy
Two loads of cows and one of calves rounded out the day.
The big truck will be there first thing in the morning to move the big batch. All this dancing around with the cows is eating into the time to work on the new site but should have good weather for the weekend.
Will start making sawdust again on Thursday got three over sized Doug fir in the mix that will need to be ripped down.

[thecfarm]

My 14 year old grandson LOVES mud on his 4 wheeler.

[backwoods sawyer]

 

 


 
Picked up a free Cedar tree and milled up a shed package, then the challenge began!!!
The road in was a bit on the muddy side and my efforts to get the trailer turned around to back in to unload about got me "Stuck but good" as it was I got temperarly hung up, so had to pull the trailer in and kick the truck around so I coulp pull the lumber off the front corner of the trailer. I set a block in a tree to aid in pulling the lumber across the river and up the other bank with the old Oliver. The first run was a real challenge as the bundle of boards had to clear the path thru the brush and the 100' haywire broke as it hung up on the bank. We used the first bundle of ten to build a ramp. The next two bundles flipped end for end as they went up the bank. After that it started going a little smoother as I found the stopping points which changed each time I shorten the cable by a foot. Took ten bundles to get them all across the river. Still have to Move it all one more time but will be able to take larger bundles and drag them off into where the shed will be built.

[beenthere]

That read like quite a challenge. Not sure I followed it well but sounds like you gotRdun.

[redbeard]

Your going to need to mill  a bridge package next. Your sure not afraid of putting a days work. Things are really shaping up.

[Magicman]

BW, your challenges and solutions continue to amaze and entertain me.   :D

[backwoods sawyer]

We started off this load.


 
And got it to here the first day


 
Second day went a lot smoother and the lumber made it in real good condition it is all stacked and sorted. I improved a couple corners in the cat trail as I made several trips in and out.


 
Hopeing to go over the mountain rather then across the river when we get the road in. River is to wide for a rail car and would need to be a covered bridge if all wood, it would also need to be raised as the last one washed out in 64. Will need a smaller bridge to cross the creek.   

[beenthere]

Last pic almost looks like you are skidding that lumber package with the crawler.  ;)

[Dave Shepard]

I'd be willing to bet that that (Tom) is an accurate interpretation of the scene.

[backwoods sawyer]

 

 

We got the shed 10x13 framed in today, used every last 2x6 to get it braced and build a ladder as the front is 10'.

[Dave_]

...the last one washed out in 64.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard that statement through the years :D  Every "bad" flood around here always get compared to '64 by those of us a little longer in the tooth.  My kids and grandkids would ask, "What's a 64?"  Seems they can't find an app on their Iphone to explain it ;D ;D

[drobertson]

Do I see an up coming title to a new show? " Backwoods Adventures"  getting it done the Backwoods way,

[backwoods sawyer]

We got the shed closed in and paper on the roof over the weekend.


 

My tools for this project was a chainsaw, hammer and tape measure so it is a bit rough, but got fairly tight jounts and a clean door frame. Have just enough 1" left to build the door so this is what a 36" cedar tree can be turned into ;D


 

[backwoods sawyer]

The big hold up on getting the road finished up is an envirmental impact study to cross a year round fish creek on BLM land twice.
We have to cross 2 miles of BLM land and all but the last 100 yards of the road has been opened up.



  

 

Some of it has been slow going.
Now I need to start looking into the specs for building a couple bridges.

[Dave Shepard]

This is somewhere you are going to set up permanently, or for a custom sawing job? Sounds like a long way too far from real roads. :D

[VTwoodworker]

Cool project.  I can't help you with the environmental impact study but the link below may give you some ideas for the bridge design.  Depending on the bridge span, I would recommend some engineering calcs by a qualified engineer to verify the capacity.  If this is going to be a permanent bridge, it looks like a good location for a covered bridge.

http://www.vtfpr.org/watershed/initiative.cfm

[5quarter]

Backwoods...nice shed. all it needs is a horseshoe over the door. ;)