North East Tennessee MAC Report
Beautiful day this past Saturday in North East Tennessee. I haven't reported in a while due to the lack of MAC action. Last time we reported, Brian was in short sleeves. This Saturday was a long underwear day for me. We are still at the range doing more gathering than cutting.
Three Saturdays back, Brian wasn't feeling well so I loaded logs alone. I started early with big plans to get three loads to the lot. Blew a tire on the first load and limped to a convenience store to call for help. Thank GOD for run flats and a good turn out at the wood lot. Five guys with three trailers and a skid steer arrived. We off-loaded and halved each log in the parking lot.
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As I have posted before on AS, I only recall my father teaching me two things about cutting wood - #1 never stand in the line of a chainsaw bar and #2 never unnecessarily walk beside a loaded log truck. Heeding #1 probably saved my life 40 years ago when a kickback sent a 1-62 bow saw over my head. Not heeding #2 almost got me killed in the parking lot when the top large ash rolled off the truck as I unclipped the last strap.
After we loaded the trailers, we lifted the truck and chained the middle axle to the frame and limped it back to the wood lot where crippled it still sits. I returned to the range and bucked the log pile to trailer length. The guys returned with the trailers and by day's end I had met my goal.
Dead red oak cut to trailer length.
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The following Saturday the forecast was for 2" of rains so I made no plans with Brian to cut. I went to the range to pickup my 379# previous flat tire and wheel. While waiting for the rain I gathered a few logs. The rain turned out to be a drizzle so I was able to gather a few more logs and fell several trees including a nice size dead ash..
Some of the gathered logs.
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End of the day dead Ash.
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When checking out for the day, I was told that they would like me to cut a large live red Oak the next time I was out. Goodie, I have some fresh wood for the 800. In anticipation, I got up early this past Saturday to put a DSP in the 800. I never found the old one. I also didn't find any old ones in my boxes of parts saws so with great reluctance I took one from my stash of NOS valves. Following MS' example, I lathered it with red Locktite only to find that the block was stripped. So much for using the 800. I tossed the off-brand in the truck. Given the temperature, the 6.2 diesel didn't want to crank. One end of the connecting cable between the batteries melted in the process dripping molten lead on the battery. So everything had to be moved to my regular truck - all eating into good work time. I was able to fell two nice size live red Oaks and load out two trailers by 12:30.
The first red Oak.
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I thought I had parked my truck out of harm's way. It suffered only a few scratches on the bed.
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Too bad much of the top of this tree was rotten in the center.
Second red Oak.
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It produced a great firewood log 48' 8". Close to 30" on the stump end and 20" at the other end. It was dripping water at the cuts - really heavy at 9000# per the calculator. I was surprised when the little crawler didn't break a sweat dragging it out in 2nd gear. It made 5 nice logs.
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Before the day was out, Brian and I sent two more trailer loads to the wood lot. With the above pile left for another day.
As to MAC action, I felled a 32" dead red Oak snag with Brian's 800. Unfortunately it was worthless as firewood. Later Brian used his beloved 1010S to fell dead Ash while I loaded trailers. After a while I didn't hear the familiar crackle so I drove up to check on him. I found him sitting in the middle of the road with his 1010S partially disassembled on top of an Ash he had felled. Somehow that torquey little saw had broken the spider in the clutch.
Be safe,
Ron
