Falling pics 11/25/09

[Westboastfaller]

Bitzer, too bad you couldn't have made the trip, I new it was a long shot. It was a personal invite to you as you spoke of coming this way with your family. I could have used a guy that's up for a challenge as I prefer not to see 'em bigger than 5', harder work! I'm not a natural big wood faller myself. I'm too impatient. probably cut the 7' cedar tomorrow and the 6' snag pictured below. I brought up a friend to work with me but not much for experience out here. He is doing fine on the bar size. I'm keeping him close. steep but clean ground.

'Fogust' morning ... sometimes it feels like you are on the inside of a ping-pong ball.

Start of a helli pad just in the event of an accident but we take a water taxi and have trucks barged over there
There will be two 6'" stringer's. one from the bottom stump(right) then to the tree that isn't felled yet. the next to the bottom left stump then with go to the ground. Then planked with 4" planks.

 

[rwoods]

Beautiful country. Ron

 

[Westboastfaller]

Springboarding a snag today. Got a little video of me tree bowling

 

[madhatte]

OK, so here's one I pulled yesterday on a fire. This is a 46" DF, burned about halfway through on one side, threatening the line. I got the instruction to get it down; the Gradall standing by didn't quite have the *** to break it so here's how I ended up cutting it. I did everything super-slowly -- I had no idea where the charred wood ended, the rotten wood was, or where the fire-hardened junk was. I was also about 2 ft short bar-wise (28" bar, 46" tree) so I walked it around from one side to the other and used the catface as my face, since the CG had already tipped forward into that not-quite-lean . Gutted the center from the back. Jacked and wedged until it went over. Jack, wedge, lather/rinse/repeat. The crew member I borrowed as second saw to work the wedges had never seen a jack used before so that was cool. The right side turned out to be more rotten than the left so when it broke, it tipped about 30 degrees off where I gunned it but no biggie. Got close to the red line, pulled away with the wedges, repeated until it went over. Probably 120 ft tall, maybe 5-10 tons total, right angle to the wind. Most of the force was used to break fibers since I didn't know how thick my hinge was. Worked really well, especially for how slow I kept things, lots of time for considering what needed nipped and where to place wedges. When I got it down, the Gradall simply picked up the mess and moved it out of the road. I freakin' love machinery.




(sooner or later RandyMac is gonna roll through here and call me a fiber puller!)

 

[Skeans]

OK, so here's one I pulled yesterday on a fire. This is a 46" DF, burned about halfway through on one side, threatening the line. I got the instruction to get it down; the Gradall standing by didn't quite have the *** to break it so here's how I ended up cutting it. I did everything super-slowly -- I had no idea where the charred wood ended, the rotten wood was, or where the fire-hardened junk was. I was also about 2 ft short bar-wise (28" bar, 46" tree) so I walked it around from one side to the other and used the catface as my face, since the CG had already tipped forward into that not-quite-lean . Gutted the center from the back. Jacked and wedged until it went over. Jack, wedge, lather/rinse/repeat. The crew member I borrowed as second saw to work the wedges had never seen a jack used before so that was cool. The right side turned out to be more rotten than the left so when it broke, it tipped about 30 degrees off where I gunned it but no biggie. Got close to the red line, pulled away with the wedges, repeated until it went over. Probably 120 ft tall, maybe 5-10 tons total, right angle to the wind. Most of the force was used to break fibers since I didn't know how thick my hinge was. Worked really well, especially for how slow I kept things, lots of time for considering what needed nipped and where to place wedges. When I got it down, the Gradall simply picked up the mess and moved it out of the road. I freakin' love machinery.


View attachment 521810

(sooner or later RandyMac is gonna roll through here and call me a fiber puller!)

Nothing like a small jack to get the job done.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[madhatte]

Nothing like a small jack to get the job done.

Handy little bastids, ain't they?

 

[bitzer]

Bitzer, too bad you couldn't have made the trip, I new it was a long shot. It was a personal invite to you as you spoke of coming this way with your family. I could have used a guy that's up for a challenge as I prefer not to see 'em bigger than 5', harder work! I'm not a natural big wood faller myself. I'm too impatient. probably cut the 7' cedar tomorrow and the 6' snag pictured below. I brought up a friend to work with me but not much for experience out here. He is doing fine on the bar size. I'm keeping him close. steep but clean ground.

'Fogust' morning ... sometimes it feels like you are on the inside of a ping-pong ball.

Start of a helli pad just in the event of an accident but we take a water taxi and have trucks barged over there
There will be two 6'" stringer's. one from the bottom stump(right) then to the tree that isn't felled yet. the next to the bottom left stump then with go to the ground. Then planked with 4" planks.View attachment 521637 View attachment 521639 View attachment 521640 View attachment 521641 View attachment 521642

I appreciate it man! I'd love to do it. Bunch of unexpected bills all at once and it keeps raining this year. Just scratching pennies together right now hoping for a nickel. I turned downed hammerlogging a few years ago to cut some heli wood out on the east coast. He was probably only a half days drive from me. just couldn't swing it then either. it was a long winter here and I had swamps to lay down. gotta do what you gotta do. Looks like some ugly wood there but I'd love to give it a shot. I'm always up for a challenge and I have no problem taking advice from experienced guys on the job. I like walking out of the woods at the end of the day. Thanks for putting up pics! I like seeing other guys out in the ****. I haven't cut anything worth noting for a while. Keep em coming. It's fun to see.

 

[bitzer]

OK, so here's one I pulled yesterday on a fire. This is a 46" DF, burned about halfway through on one side, threatening the line. I got the instruction to get it down; the Gradall standing by didn't quite have the *** to break it so here's how I ended up cutting it. I did everything super-slowly -- I had no idea where the charred wood ended, the rotten wood was, or where the fire-hardened junk was. I was also about 2 ft short bar-wise (28" bar, 46" tree) so I walked it around from one side to the other and used the catface as my face, since the CG had already tipped forward into that not-quite-lean . Gutted the center from the back. Jacked and wedged until it went over. Jack, wedge, lather/rinse/repeat. The crew member I borrowed as second saw to work the wedges had never seen a jack used before so that was cool. The right side turned out to be more rotten than the left so when it broke, it tipped about 30 degrees off where I gunned it but no biggie. Got close to the red line, pulled away with the wedges, repeated until it went over. Probably 120 ft tall, maybe 5-10 tons total, right angle to the wind. Most of the force was used to break fibers since I didn't know how thick my hinge was. Worked really well, especially for how slow I kept things, lots of time for considering what needed nipped and where to place wedges. When I got it down, the Gradall simply picked up the mess and moved it out of the road. I freakin' love machinery.


View attachment 521810

(sooner or later RandyMac is gonna roll through here and call me a fiber puller!)

Nice work man. Probably a little pucker factor on that one.

 

[madhatte]

Nice work man. Probably a little pucker factor on that one.

Yer dang right there was a bit of pucker factor! Thanks, yo!

 

[rwoods]

madhatte, I am curious as to why you didn't center the jack. I've never jacked one and probably won't given our easier / more accessible terrain. Thanks, Ron

 

[Trx250r180]

Look at the stump closer Ron,wedges in center,the jack does not do all the work.

 

[rwoods]

Being an igmo, I would have thought the protocol would be jack in middle with wedges on each side. Also wonder if the jack placement contributed to the less than intended results.

Ron

 

[Skeans]

Being an igmo, I would have thought the protocol would be jack in middle with wedges on each side. Ron

Depends on the situation lean, holding wood, branch weight, as well as wind.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[rwoods]

I see I was adding to my post as you were posting. Many variables other than centering the lift. Should apply to wedging as well. Never thought about that before now. Ron

 

[Trx250r180]

Being an igmo, I would have thought the protocol would be jack in middle with wedges on each side. Also wonder if the jack placement contributed to the less than intended results.

Ron

Jacking to me is just a helper if the wedges wont tip it,the wedges were most likely in the middle,and that side was a ftee spot to use for the jacl

 

[bitzer]

I typically put the jack in the low corner. In our hardwoods usually the tree has some side lean/weight as well as the back lean. How/where the back is lifted has some effect on how the tree gets to the tipping point. Once in motion you rely on the hold wood and face for the rest.

 

[madhatte]

Exactly right. Also, it's easier to hang a jack off of a side than the center; that would require a long enough jack seat that it might be difficult or impossible to leave room for wedges, or deep enough to threaten the hinge, depending on the tree. In this case, there wasn't really a "low" side -- I just chose the side with the best escape route. It's possible that the jack could have ripped the hinge off, but that's neither a problem nor important since ripping the hinge off was what I wanted in the first place here. Remember that it was both burned and rotten. In this case, had I chosen the other side for the seat, it would likely have held on better since there was more sapwood that wasn't badly damaged there. I flipped a coin on that one, really, so "escape route" was a good a criterion for choosing a side as anything else.

 

[Westboastfaller]

BC Bowling 101

 

[rwoods]

madhatte, thanks for the explanation. Ron

 

[bitzer]

BC Bowling 101

What kind of tree was the pusher? For a brief second almost looks like hardwood.