Memphis Boys Do Mississippi

[MemphisLogger]

Y'all feel free to laugh at us but we just spent a little over 46 hours sawing up ONE tree  

The customers called us desperate to save all the wood they could from this big Southern Red Oak in Tupelo, MS--it had immense sentimental value  :'(



It was a LOT of work just breaking this tree down, complicated by the fact that the owners wanted us to saw every single limb that was bigger than 12" around and straight over 6'.

It was also COVERED in Poison Ivy  :(  



The butt log was 52" to 60" in diameter depending on which way you measured it.  



We ended up retrieving 16 logs from the limbs for a total of 1300 bdft. We flitch sawed all these at 8/4--the customers wanted the natural edges for artistic purposes.  



The butt log ended up being 10' 4" long and scaled 1200 bdft International.



Even after quartering it, the resulting pieces were still barely small enough to get on the mill.  



Each quarter yielded approximately 350 bdft for a total of 1400 bdft of 5/4.  



That little B&S 18 got quite a workout pulling the Monkey-Saver through 24 inches of oak.  :-/  



The 2 piles on the left are the flitchsawn 8/4. The stack on the right is just 2 of the quarters from the big log.



Not bad for 2 skinny hippies, a couple of Huskies, a 4-banger Toyota and an LT-30, eh?  ;D
  

[Kirk_Allen]

WOW 8) 8)  Awsome 8) 8)

There is no better feeling than to tackle a job like that and be able to do it for someone who truly appreciates the value of the tree!

Congrats.  Looks like you did a great job!

That tree looks like a lot of the oaks that got taken out in Arkansas about a year and a half ago.   All windblown and uprooted.  Lots of work but worth the prize!

Are you ready for hydraulics now?  I cant imagin tackling that job without it.  I guess I am getting to hold ;D

[Tom]

You did good!

That's what custome sawing is all about.  I'll bet you have one happy customer.

Stay in touch with him and let us know what he does with it.

[MemphisLogger]

Kirk,

We did use hydraulics--a 20 ton jack to split the last bit of pith holding the log together even after full depth rips with a 32" bar.  ;D

Seriously, we do alright with the winch/parbuckle method of loading. In fact, it might be better on these big quarters--we can send the winch line way out to fetch the logs to the mill. I haven't seen hydraulics that could do that.  ;)

My mill has the old hand-winch log turner on it which works great when you run it off an 8000lbs winch  

Tom,

Weve been adopted by the customers (I think they wanna hook their daughter up with my cousin) so I'm sure we'll stay in touch.

If we're equipped with a kiln and moulder by next spring, we'll run random width flooring for them outta the 5/4 anmd they're talking about having us install a woodburner for them to use all the firewood we've made.

One thing's for sure: I need some o' them big blue Logrite cant hooks--even my 5ft Peaveys were straining (and creaking) on this job.  :-[    

[etat]

Well dad gum , if I'd a knowed you was working  just next door and down the road I'd a come down and helped or watched or something.  

[MemphisLogger]

Shoot CK, we thought about ya but didn't have access to a 'puter to get 'hold a ya.

We'll be SURE to let you know next time we're in the neighborhood.

BTW, the tree was on Corley right across from the airport.

[DanG]

Wow! You guys did a terrific job for those folks.

That's about the same size as the Hickory I'm dealing with in my Brother's yard. It took out his 12x16 storage building and dead-centered his power pole where his meter and dist. panel were. It took us 14 hours of intense labor just to clear enough so they can put in a new pole and get the power back on. He had to go back to work, so we postponed the rest of the cleanup until we have time. Might wait till the weather cools a bit.  My Dad took some pics and I'm going over there tonight. His camera puts the pics on a floppy and my new 'puter doesn't have a floppy drive, so I'll have to email them to myself from his computer.

[GF]

DanG
    Your going to have to getcha a USB Memory key they hold alot more than a floppy and smaller.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Laugh, LAUGH ??? ???  You guys impressed the he** outta me, doing that with a manual mill. 8) 8) 8)  Glad I ain't gotta arm wrestle non of you "skinny hippies", was it ???  ;D :D :D

  Very nicely done, indeed. Didja sneak one wide board out fer yerself ???  ;D ;D

[Paschale]

Very, very cool, Urbanlogger!   8)

Thanks for all the pics.  I'm curious about one in there.  It looks like you've got your Toyota pulled up right close to the WM.  Do you have a winch on the truck that you use to haul the log up onto the deck?  You mentioned in your post that you used a hand winch log turner.  Was that an add on you bought from WM?  I'm already thinking down the road with my WM how I'm going to handle a job like that, and I've been scratching my head.  Sorry if you've already answered this one in past threads!

Dan

[Larry]

WOW!  I bet that was interesting when you sawed the butt log off the root ball and watched it settle back down.

Hope you got a bunch of high quality pictures to put up on your website.

[MemphisLogger]

DanG,

I didn't know you grew Hickories that big down yer way.

The trickiest part for us was getting the cut all the way though the big log. No matter how we came at it, the 32" bar would still leave a little 2 or 3 square inch bit in the middle holding it together.  >:(  :D

FDH,

We skinny hippies are no where near as mean as wrestlin' alligators or hurricanes for that matter.

We didn't take any boards for ourselves but we'll be making a harvest table for the customers when their wood gets dry.

Dan,

You're right on about the truck and winch--we send the cable out over the log and hook it to a chain that runs back under to the mill. I've heard it called "parbuckling" in the context of loading logs with mules/horses, etc.

It WAS a hand cranked winch turner, which did come as an accessory when our mill was made (1990). It's now a DC winch powered turner. For ordinary logs we use a 2500 Superwinch that's mounted to the mill. When we get a really big one, we route the cable from the truck's winch to the turner. We haven't met a log yet we couldn't handle (as long as the blade guides will pass and the mast is tall enough).  ;)

Larry,

I was driving a wedge to break loose the last little bit in the middle when it popped up--I jumped about 10' when it went.    

Not nearly as scary as the time I bucked the second log off a big Hackberry and the ball stood back up WITH the butt log.  :D

[Norm]

That's an awesome tree you guys sliced up, my back hurts just looking at the pictures. :D I did have to chuckle about your skinny hippies comment, growing up a long haired good for nothing hippy myself all the locals would pith and moan about how lazy and worthless we were. Most of us are now hard working productive citizens and the locals are lazy goobers sitting in nursing homes with oatmeal drool on their chins....oh yeah paybacks. ;D

[MemphisLogger]

Thanks Norm,

Hippies are regularly misconstrued  ;D

While we come in many flavors, most of the hippies I know are really either rednecks (outdoor workers), craftspeople or tech gurus. Get us all together and you can build some awesome stuff.

When I was in school and teching kids ecology out in the San Francisco Bay area, most of my "Deadhead" friends were either inventing computers and the internet or building homes for the ones that did.

One of the hippies I knew out there designed the heads-up combat displays for the newest fighter planes and helicopters. The job gave him home access to several supercomputers--man did we ever have some cool multimedia going at his parties  8)

For those of you unfamiliar with "Deadheads" here's one of my favorite "Dead" songs:

"Weather Report Suite: Part II (Let It Grow) "
Words by John Perry Barlow

Morning comes, she follows the path to the river shore
Lightly sung, her song is the latch on the morning's door
See the sun sparkle in the reeds; silver beads pass into the sea

She comes from a town where they call her the woodcutter's daughter
She's brown as the bank where she kneels down to gather her water
And she bears it away with a love that the river has taught her
Let it flow, greatly flow, wide and clear

Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field
Seasons round, the bushels of corn and the barley meal
Broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring; black dirt live again

The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing
As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing
That the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing
Let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield

Chorus
What shall we say, shall we call it by a name
As well to count the angels dancing on a pin
Water bright as the sky from which it came
And the name is on the earth that takes it in
We will not speak but stand inside the rain
And listen to the thunder shout
I am, I am, I am, I am

So it goes, we make what we made since the world began
Nothing more, the love of the women, work of men
Seasons round, creatures great and small, up and down, as we rise and fall

    

[DanG]

Nice poetry, Scott.  After looking at your pics more carefully, I guess your tree is a bit bigger than mine. It is "only" about 55 inches dbh. Still a pretty biggun and it fell in a really awkward place. Lots of work still to be done.

[woodbeard]

Ha! I had my suspicions about you, Scott. Now they are confirmed. I've got that LP, one of their best, musically. I followed them around for a bit, mid-late '80's. Got to see some nice parts of the country. Haven't listend to them much since then, though. Did Barlow write " Black throated wind "? That was one of my favorites.
Oh, nice tree, there ( gotta keep on topic ;D )

[Jeff]

I know what a hippie is, but whats "Skinny"? ;)

[Haytrader]

What most of us were in our younger years,,,,,,at least me.
Anybody wear Wrangler size 40x32?
I don't..........anymore.

 :-[

[Bruce_A]

If you can roll up the legs a couple inches, I may be in the market. :D

[MemphisLogger]

That's right, Woodbeard!

Barlow now leads the Electronic Frontier Foundation--the primary advocacy and legal fund working to keep the internet private, uncensored and free (in all senses of the word, including free of net-metering).

One of the best songs Barlow wrote is Throwing Stones--a resonant message in these times:

Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with eternity
Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me
A peaceful place, or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race
Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face
But afraid we may lay our home to waste

There's a fear down here we can't forget
Hasn't got a name just yet
Always awake, always around
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down

Now watch as the ball revolves and the night-time falls
And again the hunt begins and again the blood wind calls
By and by, again, the morning sun will rise
But the darkness never goes from some men's eyes
(Well I know)
It strolls the sidewalk and it rolls the streets
Staking turf, dividing up meat
Nightmare spook, piece of heat
It's you and me, you and me

Click flash blade in ghetto night
Rudy's looking for a fight
Rat cat alley, roll them bones
Need that cash to feed that Jones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down

Commissars and pinstripe bosses roll the dice
Anyway they fall, guess who gets to pay the price?
Money green, or proletarian gray
Selling guns instead of food today
So the kids they dance and shake their bones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down

Heartless powers try to tell us what to think
If the spirit's sleeping then the flesh is ink
History's page will be neatly carved in stone
The future's here, we are it, we are on our own
On our own, on our own, we are on our own

If the game is lost, then we're all the same
No one left to place or take the blame
We will leave this place an empty stone
Or that shining ball of blue we call our home

So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down

Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north
And the whole world full of petty wars
Singing I got mine and you got yours
While the current fashions set the pace
Lose your step, fall out of grace
The radical, he rant and rage
Singing someone got to turn the page
And the rich man in his summer home
Singing just leave well enough alone
But his pants are down, his cover's blown
And the politicians throwing stones
So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones
'Cause it's all too clear we're on our own
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down

Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
It's dizzying, the possibilities

Ashes, ashes, all fall down
Ashes, ashes, all fall down


    

[MemphisLogger]

JeffB,

Skinny is what you are before you get hydraulics ;)

I just got done eatin' 3 chicken breasts soaked in buttermilk all day and baked with a dressin' up with eggs and saltine crumbs, homemade mac and cheese, fresh stringbeans and a pile of biscuits . . .and this was a lite supper  ;D

No matter how much I eat, all this Peavey pushin', lumber stickin', buckin' and skiddin' just won't let me put on any weight.   :-[  and winter's on it's way  :'(

What I need is a cush job where all I had to do was sit 'round on a padded seat in an air conditioned cab and push levers and press buttons--know where I could get a job like that  ;D


      

[MemphisLogger]

Hey Haytrader,

Is that 32 long or wide?  

[Bruce_A]

Icecream????

[Jeff]

If'n yer interested I'll train ya, not only to be a head sawyer but how to put on weight too. ;D

[MemphisLogger]

Oh yeah, cake and ice cream too--it was my daughter's 5th birthday today  8)

[MemphisLogger]

No headsawering for me Jeff, I can barely keep my own above water ;D

Besides, a friend of mine who used to run the circle at Cox Lumber Company here when it was in its heydey of hickory handles says he's seen 2 doggers kill themselves falling on to the backside of the blade (one of 'em on purpose). I wouldn't want any part of that  :(

But maybe I'll come see if Roasted Pig will stick to my ribs . . . all we have down here is BBQ