I want one!

[joesawer]

Hey, who told you I'm an old grouch, I'm actually an old b'tard!

Seriously, it's the price of progress...

Gov't has approved two plans that will decimate our woodlands. First is aeriel spraying to kill hardwoods off, which is supposedly tied to the second. NS Power will start burning biomass to produce power. Bad plan for such a small Province.

Lol Sorry I was directing the Old Grouch title at Gologit.
Our government has turned a lot of timber into biofuel also lol. Only they like to burn it on the stump.

 

[Gologit]

That best is seeing a buncher that can't handle the wood and no one knows what to do. Grab an f'n chainsaw!

Exactly. A couple of years ago we had a falling job lined up but the logger decided to go with a feller-buncher instead. I'd already cut out the landings and a couple of roads when he let me know. It happens that way sometimes. No problem, there was a lot of steep ground and small timber but he figured he could do the majority of it with the machine and hand fall anything left over. He brought out a nice new Timbco that he'd never operated and decided to run it himelf. I took a job for somebody else just up the hill from him, falling ROW stuff and clearing landings.

The small timber wasn't a problem but the steep ground ate his lunch. The timber was a little bigger and a whole lot heavier than it looked like and he tried for too big a bite. He turned it over the first day. The rest of the week was spent putting it back together. Two days later he turned it over again. This time it got munched pretty good and went to town on a lowbed. The equipment dealer refused to lease him another one and he didn't have the bucks to buy one. He came to see me about handfalling the sale but I told him I was busy with the job I was on and had to finish it before I committed to anything else. I told him there were other fallers available but most of them knew how he did business and probably wouldn't want to work for him. I was right, too. He finally subbed the whole thing out to another outfit and I wound up doing the falling for them. I took everything over 24" and all the steep ground, a feller buncher with somebody who could handle it did the rest. Fair enough.

There's a time and place for fancy cutting machinery in the woods, I understand and recognize that fact. But there's still a time and a place for a guy with a saw, too. And there always will be.

 

[paccity]

be good to haul an elk or two out.

 

[madhatte]

Oh, no! It's just as the Prophet Seuss predicted!

 

[dellwas]

Hey no prob, no need to appologize, sides, you were close with me anyways...

Lol Sorry I was directing the Old Grouch title at Gologit.
Our government has turned a lot of timber into biofuel also lol. Only they like to burn it on the stump.

 

[dellwas]

That guy was a dam fool, and amen to your last statement, I agree...

Exactly. A couple of years ago we had a falling job lined up but the logger decided to go with a feller-buncher instead. I'd already cut out the landings and a couple of roads when he let me know. It happens that way sometimes. No problem, there was a lot of steep ground and small timber but he figured he could do the majority of it with the machine and hand fall anything left over. He brought out a nice new Timbco that he'd never operated and decided to run it himelf. I took a job for somebody else just up the hill from him, falling ROW stuff and clearing landings.

The small timber wasn't a problem but the steep ground ate his lunch. The timber was a little bigger and a whole lot heavier than it looked like and he tried for too big a bite. He turned it over the first day. The rest of the week was spent putting it back together. Two days later he turned it over again. This time it got munched pretty good and went to town on a lowbed. The equipment dealer refused to lease him another one and he didn't have the bucks to buy one. He came to see me about handfalling the sale but I told him I was busy with the job I was on and had to finish it before I committed to anything else. I told him there were other fallers available but most of them knew how he did business and probably wouldn't want to work for him. I was right, too. He finally subbed the whole thing out to another outfit and I wound up doing the falling for them. I took everything over 24" and all the steep ground, a feller buncher with somebody who could handle it did the rest. Fair enough.

There's a time and place for fancy cutting machinery in the woods, I understand and recognize that fact. But there's still a time and a place for a guy with a saw, too. And there always will be.

 

[slowp]

Bunchers can get limblocked trees out easier in a thinning. If the ground is not too steep. The steeper it gets, the less they are able to REACH out and get and the more ground they'll track up. The experienced guys say that with the self leveling cabs, you don't realize how steep the ground is getting and you can get yourself in a lot of trouble--tip overs.

We have a lot of steep ground, and I like to hear chainsaws and then whistles in the woods.

Everybody out in the weather in equal misery.

 

[Gologit]

That guy was a dam fool, and amen to your last statement, I agree...

Thanks...

 

[Joe46]

Well I think that not only is it progress, But at least here in Wa.The L&I rates almost drive loggers into mechanized logging. I know that's a simplified statement, also given the lay of the land , timber size, ect.

 

[flushcut]

Hit. Sunk.

You sunk my battle ship!

 

[Gologit]

Well I think that not only is it progress, But at least here in Wa.The L&I rates almost drive loggers into mechanized logging. I know that's a simplified statement, also given the lay of the land , timber size, ect.

What you say is true. Down here Workman's Comp just absolutely kills us, especially for guys working on the ground. Mechanized harvesting , from both a production and an economic standpoint, is the way to go whenever possible. It isn't always cheaper, though. When you factor in the cost of the machinery, which is huge, the production had better be there to justify it. The mechanical harvesters can lay down the wood but when you buy one or lease one, and pay an operator, and pay to have it moved from job to job, and pay the usual operating expenses, and pay the insurance, and watch it sit idle when the inevitable downtime occurs...well, it had better lay down a lot of wood.

That being said...I still don't like it.

I'm beginning to understand how the old sailing ship guys felt when the first steamboats appeared on the horizon.

 

[dellwas]

No prob, and at ya!

Thanks...

 

[hammerlogging]

we have a timbco fellerbuncher sub working for us. Yes, he gets all our good ground, and it REALLY sucks when instead of a nice day falling you tramp around cleaning up his mess since he costs too much to fuss too much about him being just perfect.

I glanced up the hill where he is clearcutting a big cove, we're handfalling the steep mountain face flanks around the corner on each side, he was as steep as he can go and couldn't climb, I don't know if he knew there was a stump on his rear holding him on the hill but I saw it give way and watched him slide about 30 feet downhill.

 

[bitzer]

Exactly. A couple of years ago we had a falling job lined up but the logger decided to go with a feller-buncher instead. I'd already cut out the landings and a couple of roads when he let me know. It happens that way sometimes. No problem, there was a lot of steep ground and small timber but he figured he could do the majority of it with the machine and hand fall anything left over. He brought out a nice new Timbco that he'd never operated and decided to run it himelf. I took a job for somebody else just up the hill from him, falling ROW stuff and clearing landings.

The small timber wasn't a problem but the steep ground ate his lunch. The timber was a little bigger and a whole lot heavier than it looked like and he tried for too big a bite. He turned it over the first day. The rest of the week was spent putting it back together. Two days later he turned it over again. This time it got munched pretty good and went to town on a lowbed. The equipment dealer refused to lease him another one and he didn't have the bucks to buy one. He came to see me about handfalling the sale but I told him I was busy with the job I was on and had to finish it before I committed to anything else. I told him there were other fallers available but most of them knew how he did business and probably wouldn't want to work for him. I was right, too. He finally subbed the whole thing out to another outfit and I wound up doing the falling for them. I took everything over 24" and all the steep ground, a feller buncher with somebody who could handle it did the rest. Fair enough.

There's a time and place for fancy cutting machinery in the woods, I understand and recognize that fact. But there's still a time and a place for a guy with a saw, too. And there always will be.

Great example. That last statement is true for a lot of industries that try to replace most of the labor with machines. What the hell do you do when the machine fails and everyone has forgotten the old way? Just digging in and getting dirty and getting it right.