Alder, Alder, Alder

[GASoline71]

I've got a weekend alder job coming up at a friend's place. Gonna wait til the leaves fall to take some weight off of 'em. Heavy hangers, driveway and fence, the usual. I'll get firewood, beer, and dinner out of the deal.

That sounds like a good deal to me! I got 3 more comin' out today... and then by the end of the weekend a few more. My woodshed will be full.

Gary

 

[slowp]

I've got a weekend alder job coming up at a friend's place. Gonna wait til the leaves fall to take some weight off of 'em. Heavy hangers, driveway and fence, the usual. I'll get firewood, beer, and dinner out of the deal.

I'll probably get the same pay next year for putting trees back (planting). Actually, I got some free beef (not from a tire company) for putting trees in the ground this year. And, the trees are still alive!

 

[slowp]

Here is a weed I transplanted last year. It is a year old. The Used Dog is good for scale.

View attachment 252727

If I can get a few cedars next Spring, I shall slam my hoedad in this rocky dirt and interplant.

 

[trees2]

More yet.

Coaching sucks at times.
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On his own with this one.
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Backing it up.
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And away it goes
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Bad crooked leaner, he wanted some more coaching on this one.
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Owl

High stumps again, and where's the hard hats?

 

[GASoline71]

Now you're an OSHA inspector?

I've also never understood the fetish eaterners have with "high stumps".

Gary

 

[trees2]

Now you're an OSHA inspector?

I've also never understood the fetish eaterners have with "high stumps".

Gary

C'mon Gary, they grow with skidders going over them and they look like crap. And actualy, I just finished my osha 30 renew.

 

[Metals406]

Now you're an OSHA inspector?

I've also never understood the fetish eaterners have with "high stumps".

Gary

A lot of the low stumping is for looks, and to make it easier on equipment tires and operator kidneys. :msp_thumbsup:

Depends on the ground too -- Hammer and Bitz cut "normal" on steeps like everyone else.

Some of them claim higher grade by adding an extra foot or two to the butt log, but the mill is gonna slab that off anyway. Logs are cut from the small end. :biggrinbounce2:

 

[slowp]

Foresters, skidder guys, and rigging rats can all have problems with high stumps. If too many are left, somebody has to come back and cut them so they meet the contract specs. And, to top that off, they may be scaled and charged for.

Putting in roads to get the second growth out can be harder because of the tall, old growth stumps. Sometimes they have to use those pointy hunks of iron to break the stumps up. Logs get hung up on them, hooktenders have to cut them lower, etc. etc.

High stumps are a pain, unless they are in a good location and sound enough to use for guylines or tailholds.

I seldom see a problem with high stumps now. I have had problems with too low of stumps where they cut below the butt mark on and ITM (individual tree mark) unit. That is common when feller bunchers are used.

 

[GASoline71]

I completely agree that high stumps are a pain in the rear. They have their place, and you don't see as many as you use to in the woods. It's just always funny to me it's the first thing a lot of cats point out, when to most of us... it's just normal to see them. Right or wrong...

Gary

 

[Gologit]

I completely agree that high stumps are a pain in the rear. They have their place, and you don't see as many as you use to in the woods. It's just always funny to me it's the first thing a lot of cats point out, when to most of us... it's just normal to see them. Right or wrong...

Gary

Exactly. We're logging, not landscaping. We cut our stumps as low as we can...it makes sense dollar wise.
But if, for whatever reason, there are a few high ones that's just the way it goes.

On steep ground, especially if it's above a waterway of any kind we'll often leave higher stumps. This is standard if we're laying them crossways on the hill or even if we're quartering the grade. When you're bucking, those high stumps will keep the runaways to a minimum by acting as a barrier. There can't be any logs in the waterway... big fines result from that
If you've ever seen a 40" dbh 42 foot long fir take off rolling down the hill it and watch it fetch up against a few high stumps instead of going clear to the bottom of the canyon and winding up in the river you'll be glad you left those stumps a little high.

 

[slowp]

Ooooh, the straight up and down unit. Even high stumps would not keep the logs in place. I guess when all the logs are down in the creek, yarding may be simpler???

And it is an eerie feeling to be walking/crawling along the unit boundary--not inside it, nobody else around, and a log shifts sending more off down the hill. Actually, because I was in a safe location, it was kind of fun to see the mayhem and hear the noise.

 

[Gologit]

Ooooh, the straight up and down unit. Even high stumps would not keep the logs in place. I guess when all the logs are down in the creek, yarding may be simpler???

And it is an eerie feeling to be walking/crawling along the unit boundary--not inside it, nobody else around, and a log shifts sending more off down the hill. Actually, because I was in a safe location, it was kind of fun to see the mayhem and hear the noise.

Sssssshhhhhhh! NO logs went into the water. NONE. This is all hypothetical. Completely.

The helicopter was just hovering over the water to check for trout and those turns it picked up all came off of the unit. Everybody knows there's a heavier stand right along the boundaries, right? And no, I don't know why the hooker is soaking wet clear to his waist.

Darn Foresters anyway...always looking for trouble where there isn't any.:msp_wink:


Thought I'd throw a few logger excuses in here in case you miss your job.

 

[slowp]

A friend and I had memories that were brought back by the smoke in the air here. She was like me, here we are having to put up with smoke and we're not getting paid for it. We meant slash burns. The fuels guy here was old school. We'd be lighting a unit with a creek in it...that was when you could cut the trees along some creeks and the world didn't end, and he'd yell to "Pour the fuel to it there cuz it is wet!" Or on normal actually very few were normal, burns he'd get on the radio about "Pour fuel to it and get that column built up!"

We'd sometimes have "a little slop over" which meant the fire had jumped the canyon into another unit that we didn't plan to burn that night but then had to go over and "keep 'er lit!" That also meant dragging hose over and everything else. We'd get in after midnight and have to get up and be in by 6 or 7AM to do our timber jobs, but we made lots of OT and could sleep a little bit in our own beds.

I said with all the smoke in the air now, he was probably thinking about it from whereever we go when we die, and yelling at the people to "Git that column built so it won't smoke us out." We liked to work for him.
Other places put the timber people in the smoke, but he didn't. He said he wanted us to want to help burn when he needed us.

He'd go around the office, after we'd come in for the day, and flick his Bic lighter, which meant we were going to do "an evening burn." Now, reread the slopover part.....

 

[Cedarkerf]

Heres a pic of a fairley good size Alder.

A really smokey day with the smoke blowin over from the east side fires

 

[slowp]

That's an impressive alder. I smell no smoke this morning. I hope it stays that way.

 

[floyd]

Little tinge of smoke this AM. None yesterday.

Still burning in s slope of Adams.


Long ago I burned for Boise Cascade in NE Oregon. This was back in the 50 x500' piles, right on the road. We just did drivebys. Tip the drip torch, walk the pile get in the truck & torch the next one.

I loved the way Boise Cascade built roads over there...D9, 6"-, & a 3ft crown. After 10 yrs or so the crown settled but by then they had wood they went after.

 

[GASoline71]

All hazy over here on Whidbey Island... from the smoke in Eastern WA.

Brian... make sure not to leave any high stumps. They bite...

Gary

 

[H 2 H]

Land owner pick out another stand of those weed's he want's out since next week weather will be the same as this last week's

These weed's are 40 footers (+/-) nothing huge but darn good firewood for next year

Best part is this land looks over Skagit Bay and looks right at Whidbey Island

 

[slowp]

I take it back. There is smoke here. I got off my hill and did my walk, and the views are obscured. Maybe I'm used to it and not smelling it?

 

[paccity]

the sisters fire is making some awful nice sunrise's.