A Two Pack Job

[Magicman]

At least for my dozer operator today it was two packs of "Blue Camels". 


 
We unloaded yesterday so that we could get going this morning.


 
First, he had to fill in the creek so that he could cross.


 
Yup, now I can also cross.


 
I had some serious erosion problems.


 
Starting to fill them in,


 
Starting to build one of several water bars to divert water runoff and prevent future erosion,


 
Ready to call it a day.  Good thing because my operator's two packs were gone and he was out of smokes.  No work Monday, so we should finish up Tuesday. 

[loggah]

Magicman,Theres something wrong with your soil down there!!!!! You dont have any rocks in it !! ;D  Don

[Magicman]

Funny you should notice.  (Those are leaves in the creek bottom.)

At noon I asked the dozer operator if he had noticed anything different about my soil.  He sorta hesitated, and then I told him....no rocks.  He laughed and admitted that he knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what.

You are right, no rocks.

[Dave Shepard]

That's the way it is 15 miles south of here in Sheffield. No rocks, and tons of top soil. About 15 years ago they tried to put 80 foot pilings in for a bridge on Route 7. Apparently a couple of taps with the pile driver, and they were gone. :D They had to stop and rethink that one. ;D

[loggah]

Up here where i live,if theres no rocks your standing in a lake !!!! every time i get on one of my dozers or excavators i can plan on a spine jarring experience. ;D in a job like that i would do it for free just to  be able to get a full blade of material and go .  ;D

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

What size pipe do Y'all put in a dry creek?  ;D

[Magicman]

What size pipe do Y'all put in a dry creek?

David, if you are asking me, the answer is none.  Yes the creek is dry, but it gets 2'-4' above the banks after a heavy rain.  That is why so many creek bank trees fall and my bridges are so hard to maintain.  That temporary ford will wash away.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

What size pipe do Y'all put in a dry creek?

David, if you are asking me, the answer is none.  Yes the creek is dry, but it gets 2'-4' above the banks after a heavy rain.  That is why so many creek bank trees fall and my bridges are so hard to maintain.  That temporary ford will wash away.

In the 3rd pic, it looked like a large pipe on the left but when I zoomed in, I believe it may just be a stick bent over. Thanks.

[Magicman]

Don'cha be ah zooming my pichers.   

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Don'cha be ah zooming my pichers.   

 

[pineywoods]

Magic, you get them trails all flat and level, you ain't gonna need any ballast on the golf carts  ;D

[Magicman]

I will have the trails all ready for the next Chickin Crispin.  We are planning to pull a Walnut tree out of the creek Tuesday....stump and all.  It will be our victim for a Chickin Crispin sawing demo.   ;D

I will be sawing Poplar tomorrow, bulldozing Tuesday, and back to sawing Wednesday.

I found three very nice Oaks yesterday that were down.


 
These two; a 40" Water Oak and a 30" Cherrybark Oak.


 
And this 24" Water Oak.  I imagine that this one will be totally firewood since the butt is shattered.

[drobertson]

Looks like a good time for a bridge build,, if you only knew someone with a mill to saw out some timbers ;D

[customsawyer]

I was planning on coming to the next chicken crispin  but now that you are talking about sawing too I might have something else come up that weekend. :D When is it? ;D

[Magicman]

No date yet, but we will bait the hook with Walnut.   ;D

I am presently doing a "Cabin Addition Modification".  Pictures ??  Yup.   ;D

[Larry]

I went to a logging school years ago.  They trained us to put in lots of little water bars close together.  We were only worried about skid trails.  I had the chance to try it out several times and it worked excellent but the best part is I could put them in with a tractor.

Looks like your building a super highway compared to what we were doing.

[Magicman]

This is on my leased land.  It was select cut logged last year and was not properly water barred due to the heavy rains that we got last Winter and Spring.

We placed some water bars, some diversion channels, as well as some re-routing.  Many of my trails also had to be cleared of tree tops and opened back up.  (last picture)  We should easily finish Tuesday.

[sandhills]

If you don't mind my asking, is that leased from the state, or a private owner?  We have "school ground" around here (state land), divided into to districts, I believe those leases come up for auction every 3 years? not sure on that but pretty sure.  Whatever it is you sure have some beautiful ground and you obviously take care of it very well!
PS I'd like an hour or two on that bulldozer, just for the fun of it, I'd make ya few new trails  :D (although probably by accident  :-\)

[hardtailjohn]

Nice ground, Lynn.....but I don't think I could work without rocks either! haha   Plum Creek got really carried away with water bars here years ago... it was like driving on a test track to get out of the woods!  One that we had to go through on one job was like 6' deep...luckily, they had to stretch it to get a grader through, so it didn't completely tear our trucks up. 
Those oaks make me drool!!!  You know how I'd love to have a pile of them at my door!! haha
Those little Cats with a 6 way blade can do a lot of work in a short time!!
JH

[LeeB]

They can with the right operator. I spend more time trying to fix my mistakes.

[Al_Smith]

From my own experiance on a straight blade  direct drive dozer a 6 way is real handy .It's not so much the power angle more so the power tilt .

[Magicman]

If you don't mind my asking, is that leased from the state, or a private owner?

I do not mind at all.  Private.  Our family has been leasing this land from that family for over 60 years and several generations.  The heirs live over 70 miles away, so I am the caretaker as well as the leaseholder.

[Magicman]

We finished the clearing and water bar work today, and also one other very important item.  ;D


 
Clearing tree tops from the roads.


 
And finished building the water bars.

Next it was on to a special project.


 
Chain around a Walnut tree and sawed from the stump.


 
And use the dozer to pull the Walnut tree out of the creek.


 
The rescued Walnut tree is now ready for skidding to the Cabin.


 
Here is what you do when you break the chain.


 
The stump.   

[Magicman]

I was walking the creek today just upstream from where we rescued the above Walnut tree and found another tree that has washed in.


 
This was a very nice ~30" DBH Red Oak.


 
Very nearby, here is one that slipped in a couple of years ago.


 
And here are two more Red Oaks that will go in a few years.   It is usually too difficult to even try to salvage the tops for firewood.   :-\ 

[Peter Drouin]

Why not cut all the trees along the bank before they fall in?